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ferlefur's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
In this fourth book of 'The Avatar Chronicles', FC Yee repeats many of his mistakes from the previous installment.
It feels like he intended to write a heist or political story of comparable magnitude and complexity to that of the first book, The Rise of Kyoshi, but ends up going little into each of the critical points.. While we end up with a good exploration of Yangchen's character, it also leaves us with minor characters (including a couple of antagonists) that aren't explored beyond their superficial input to the plot. The book, in fact, is the shortest of the entire saga so far, as if he had sacrificed the quality of his writing (which he has already demonstrated in The Rise and The Shadow of Kyoshi) in order to meet the deadline.
The subplot in which Yangchen is "lost" in his past lives and these are manifested through them, no longer remains an "explanation" for how he lost his sister, Jetsun. Other than that it has no impact on the main plot.
Also, Yee ran out of ideas to integrate the cities of the shangs into the Avatar universe, without explaining to us how they disappeared or what happened after Yangchen took control over them.
Kavik, the other main character, whose point of view is followed in most of both books, does not have a substantial development in this installment.
The good: the philosophy of Yangchen and Jetsun, whom he meets at the end of the book, the expansion of the Avatar universe, and the daring to bring a different story to it.
It feels like he intended to write a heist or political story of comparable magnitude and complexity to that of the first book, The Rise of Kyoshi, but ends up going little into each of the critical points.. While we end up with a good exploration of Yangchen's character, it also leaves us with minor characters (including a couple of antagonists) that aren't explored beyond their superficial input to the plot. The book, in fact, is the shortest of the entire saga so far, as if he had sacrificed the quality of his writing (which he has already demonstrated in The Rise and The Shadow of Kyoshi) in order to meet the deadline.
The subplot in which Yangchen is "lost" in his past lives and these are manifested through them, no longer remains an "explanation" for how he lost his sister, Jetsun. Other than that it has no impact on the main plot.
Also, Yee ran out of ideas to integrate the cities of the shangs into the Avatar universe, without explaining to us how they disappeared or what happened after
Kavik, the other main character, whose point of view is followed in most of both books, does not have a substantial development in this installment.
The good:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Excrement
theuncannydani's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship
Minor: Confinement, Slavery, and Vomit