pandacosm's review against another edition

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

3.75

It's a relief to finally get an Avatar novel by F. C. Yee that has a
real happy ending and where friends actually stay loyal and play important parts in the final climactic battle
. I have to admit, reading the prior books partly ruined the mood for me all the way through because
I kept on expecting betrayals or a tainted, Pyrrhic victory, so the highs of the book couldn't be enjoyed
. And this book still has points that I consider unnecessarily dark for the Avatarverse, like
literally having a tortured child kill a sky bison and then die himself. Yeah, that happened
. It was an interesting book. I'm relieved this is the end of the series.

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sfstefanie's review against another edition

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

4.25

Backdrop of Plutocratic rise, discussions of morality

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luciferlibrarian_93's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.25

4.25 ⭐️ this was so much better than the first Yangchen book!! She’s out here playing 3D Chess while everyone else is playing checkers.

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cozyscones's review against another edition

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adventurous tense 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

4.5


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alyanna_dm's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0


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kappafrog's review against another edition

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3.75

Like the first book, Yangchen was great in this. I love what Yee has done with her character. This book felt more balanced between Kavik and Yangchen - I wasn't as annoyed when the POV switched to him. I also enjoyed the greater variety in settings in this book. Bin-Er never gave me a lot of rich visuals, but Taku and the other settings in this book did. I do think this book struggled a bit more with the plot than the previous one though. There were more plot holes and contrivances. People were constantly sharing only partial truths, and the timeline kept jumping around, so between those two I ended up having a hard time keeping up with the reality of the situation. By the end of the book, I felt there were a few parts where I'd never quite understood who knew what and when. Yee tried to pack a LOT into this book, and some things felt pretty rushed. For example,
Kavik discovering Yangchen's abuse of the the Spirit Oasis drug was never brought up again, and not a lot of time was spent on Nujian's death.
Overall though, this was a rich episode in the Avatar world that I'm glad I spent some time in.

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haleybre's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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

5.0


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wooblatoober's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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

WOW! i was already convinced halfway through the book that this would be one of my favorite books i’ve read. i enjoyed its themes, issues, and characters immensely. yangchen and kavik (and the other characters, as well) all grapple with understandings of family and family dynamics, loyalty, humanity, hope, grips on reality, politics, abuse, manipulation, power, identity, morals, balance, and more. 

i loved kavik, and the intricacies and changes surrounding his relationship with yangchen and everybody else. i LOVED the angst. i wanted more, actually.
as much as it furthered, the story & important relationships for kavik to choose to be stabbed to fool kalyaan, i was supremely disappointed when i found out he was in on it.


unfortunately, i felt the ending left a little to be desired compared to the rest of the book, which was perfect in my opinion. i can’t put my finger on what’s missing, though.
i don’t think it’s the fact that yangchen and kavik didn’t end up canon by the end. i think i actually really enjoyed that aspect.


i deeply enjoyed the politics, sleight of hand, and espionage in comparison to straight bending. yangchen is just too powerful for that to have worked. the mind games made for an incredibly engaging read. on top of that, yee included an interesting new bending technique that’s SUPER HYPE, so i was disappointed to see other reviews ignoring that when discussing how they didn’t like the politics game in comparison to cool new bending ideas.
i’m referencing the airbending vacuum that yangchen made into a violent implosion in order to combat combustion bending. that scene against thapa had me FREAKING OUT it was SO COOL.
additionally, yee’s introduction to the background of combustion bending is haunting and interesting. 

i liked yangchen’s struggle with being haunted by her past lives, especially since i could relate to a struggle with sanity and it was well-done. i think it would have been cool if that had an even more prominent place in the story, especially in her struggles, though it was already pretty prominent anyway i think. i also enjoyed reading about yangchen’s struggle with faith in humanity (because of her relationship with her past lives), and her struggle with morals as an airbender. this book did a great job of showing how many shades of gray everything can be in, especially when you have a strong set of morals you want to be able to stick to and your hands are tied. this is in comparison to kyoshi’s duology, since kyoshi already came thru in ATLA as a character who’s willing to be ruthless, so it wouldn’t affect her moral identity like how it would yangchen. kyoshi’s problem is more if she’s going to win in a battle against others. yangchen’s seems like a problem of if she’s going to win in a battle against herself, and both of those have merit as stories. 

lastly, and this is just as a fan, not as an objective reviewer, but i LOVED kavik’s personality, his guilt, how he balanced that with his loyalties, his intelligence, his bending abilities (underrated!!), his humor, and a million other things about him. even as much as i’ve enjoyed everything i’ve mentioned so far, i enjoyed reading kavik more. quite possibly one of my favorite characters of all time.

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crml's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

wow, i was absolutely blown away by this book! rhe first book left me really intrigued and curious, and this book did not disappoint!
the way that towards the end of the book, we kept being flung back and forth in time and location, each chapter answering one question and rising a new one, slowly unfolding the events and it all coming together so satisfyingly! i loved reading that. 
i really enjoyed how every time i thought something was a bit of a stretch, or didn’t fit quite right- it was later revealed that it wasnt how it seemed- everything was always accounted for. 
i need to dedicate a section of this to nujians death. that absolutely destroyed me, this is worse than kelsang or lek, killing off the ANIMAL COMPANION is ILLEGAL. fc yee is a sadist. i think i actually wanted to throw up when i read that (kavik core). 
i will say the way they left us off with jetsun, i felt  really incomplete with it- but i understand it and how it works for yangchens character so i dont hate it.

overall, i really really loved this book.

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doodeedoda's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

3.5


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