Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Sword of Kaigen

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The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

259 reviews

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Honestly this is a fantastic book. The characters, the discussion it creates with the reader about the nature of propaganda, politics and warfare. The characters are full of complex motivations, doubts, traumas, triumphs and tragedies. Mamoru is such a good kid, all of Misaki’s kids are. Misaki is so multidimensional. Takeru really puts you through a hate/love dynamic and you even come to sympathize with him at points. The supporting characters are even immensely layered through how they handle the highs and lows of their lives before and amidst the narrative of this novel. “Sword of Kaigen” is quite the appropriate title for this.

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lesliehirgelt's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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hibsdontlie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

successful marriage counseling is when your wife nearly cuts your head off and you say thank you.

+ overall, it was a good book to lose yourself into.
+ i really liked our main cast of characters. tears were definitely shed because of them and it was so easy to hurt with them. they were well-written and they felt whole, even as they continued to develop throughout the book.
+ i could not put it down between around 35-60%
- i was not a huge fan of the world building.

if kwang chul-hee plays video games in his freetime... technology must be available and accessible? so why is the superior ranganese army fighting with cheap swords and not guns? or did i miss something? 😭

- i haaaaaaaated the use of real-life languages in this book. took me all the way out of the fantasy. at worst, it made me cringe. you want me to believe they're kaigenese why are they speaking real life japanese??? or

the soldier with the braid talking about you cut my hair in mandarin(?)

. i came here to escape i want my money back >:(
+ the author herself acknowledges that the world building has its problems. it's such a shame otherwise this definitely would have made a great first book in a series, hence the rating because it's not a 4 but it's not a 3 either ☹
- the writing for the most part was smooth but there were definitely moments where i remember reading something and feeling like okay that was kind of redundant. the last third especially was tedious to read. there were parts where i felt like i kept reading and reading but wasn't getting anywhere 🗿

i'm not proofreading this. send.

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jennagrant's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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crisabel's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Beautiful storytelling focusing on a family through strife both within their world and within their family itself. I loved the character development that the main characters experience throughout the story

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chrisb913's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After hearing so many reviews raving about this book, I was hesitant to pick it up. I had heard so many times that this book was very traumatic and emotionally heartbreaking. Everything I had heard about this book did not do it justice. I don't think it's possible to review this book and capture the emotional turmoil the reader goes through. But for all the emotional devastation, M.L. Wang seems to found a way to piece you back together through the trauma and sadness for these characters. My only complaint about this book is there is no sequel as of yet because I need more of this world, of these characters, of this story. I just need more. This has probably been the worst case of emotional damage I have received from a book, and I am incredibly grateful I was able to read it.

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blue_guitar's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I read this as part of the 2024 r/fantasy Bingo – Self published or indy

Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang was a book I was really looking forward to, especially given the high regards that I’d seen for it in the last few years.

After reading it, I can say there’s a lot of greatness to it.

I really liked the world, the magic, the potential for a grand epic story and the action scenes were incredibly well written.

But there’s also some pretty significant elements that disappointed me. The book revolves around the two central characters, Misaki and her son, Mamoru, dealing with a domineering and abusive husband and father, and some sort of government conspiracy (that unfortunately is never really explained) and the ramifications of past and future wars. It’s a character driven plot, with most of the ‘action’ of the book happening internally to the two POV characters.

However, the pacing just seems off. Multiple points throughout reading the book, I was asking myself – when is something interesting going to happen? So much of Kaigen is just slice of life description. There’s a lot of conversations that don't advance the plot or show anything new about the characters, they just have small talk. Alternatively, you get page after page of exposition, lots of telling and not showing.

Which brings me to the next issue that came up, you’d assume that this was a novel set in a period like the Edo Shogunate in Japan. It’s not, you soon realize that this world has satellites and jet fighters and computers.

I’m not sure this was the right call for the book. It creates a strange dissonance between the magic and world building – especially when the characters seem to exist in this pseudo medieval lifestyle. The characters bounce between very traditional mentalities to near modern conversations. It kept pulling me out of the story when it happened. At one point, character says "touché” after being presented with a good point.

Towards the end of the book, I was getting a little frustrated by a few repeating motifs, many scenes of someone telling someone to go and hide, but they refuse, very "I won't leave you" type scenes. In fight scenes, Misaki keeps having her age and limits brought up as negative factors, this never happens for the male fighters. There’s also this uncomfortable theme of purity of bloodlines being equated with more powerful individuals. There’s a race of people who are described as “white” with “impure bloodlines” who are physically weaker and lack magical powers. Those beliefs are never really challenged by any of the characters.

Finally, I found the ending is really clumsy. There is a new plot point introduced, apparently for a sequel that was canceled, but it really makes it more long-winded than it needed to be. The central conflict between the main characters gets wrapped in a way that I’m not sure the story earned, particularly giving a very cruel character a happy ending.

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