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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
3.5 rounding up again! Loved the epilogue. REALLY loved the interludes. So glad the Avatar creators have so many projects coming out this year, cuz I miss the Avatar universe now and I've heard the live-action show went in so many horrible directions that the og creators left
Good job, pachi-pachi! I think F.C. Yee did a great job with this duology. He really pegged Kyoshi's personality and built the world around her while staying true to canon and deepening the character of the world we know and love.
Not to always compare separate things, but I'm gonna do some comparing. The showrunners of Legend of Korra said they wanted their show to be grittier and more grown-up than The Last Airbender, and to that effect, they aged up the characters and tossed around political terms. But because of poor writing, the story was flatter, the "grittiness" was surface-level and never really landed the emotional beats it aimed for. The characters had no depth and felt like echoes of the original show's cast, and to get with the times, they made Korra bi or pan...but only just. This show queer baited us, turned an Asian-inspired setting into an Americanized metropolis (explain how it makes sense that Avatar Aang, an ordained monk, would accept a statue of himself looking like a conqueror? Aang is at least as cool as Dolly Parton, so make it make sense), and completely wrote over fundamental lore, like how air bending ability is connected to spirituality, or how the world is the domain of spirits connected to Nature, not a Great Good and a Great Evil. I also just think disconnecting Korra from her past lives but letting her keep the Great Good Avatar state and letting her overuse it to boot, is just, inane. tepid. annoying? all of the above. And all that punching the air is just not as cool as the different bending styles we saw in The Last Airbender. It's just not.
Enter F.C. Yee and The Kyoshi Novels. I'm just gonna say it, he did everything they tried with Korra, but better. I feel like the Avatar world is back! I don't even want an adaptation because they'd ruin all the good work my man Yee did. He brought back bending style, spirituality, the SCARY spirits, dynamic characters, the past life connection, an ACTUAL on-page female-female relationship, political intrigue, the moral depravity of human nature, and he deepened and developed all of these so that it wasn't just like reading a book version of the original show.
This book digs into the political structures and clan tensions in the Fire Nation and interrogates the shortcomings of said structures, casting the Avatar as the failsafe for flawed systems while exposing the vulnerability of the individuals who must fill the role. We see Kyoshi become jaded with humanity's chronic failures, and even with her own past lives. Can I see Korra take some notes and hire Yee to just rewrite the show? Because this duology is just, chef's kiss. It's a pitch-perfect, well-seasoned umami that just hits! that! spot!
This book is a bit slower than book 1, but shoutout to all my faves who came back for round 2 because it was worth the wait. and RIP to my fave who can't make it back :'( ok now i'm done byeeeeeeee
Not to always compare separate things, but I'm gonna do some comparing. The showrunners of Legend of Korra said they wanted their show to be grittier and more grown-up than The Last Airbender, and to that effect, they aged up the characters and tossed around political terms. But because of poor writing, the story was flatter, the "grittiness" was surface-level and never really landed the emotional beats it aimed for. The characters had no depth and felt like echoes of the original show's cast, and to get with the times, they made Korra bi or pan...but only just. This show queer baited us, turned an Asian-inspired setting into an Americanized metropolis (explain how it makes sense that Avatar Aang, an ordained monk, would accept a statue of himself looking like a conqueror? Aang is at least as cool as Dolly Parton, so make it make sense), and completely wrote over fundamental lore, like how air bending ability is connected to spirituality, or how the world is the domain of spirits connected to Nature, not a Great Good and a Great Evil. I also just think disconnecting Korra from her past lives but letting her keep the Great Good Avatar state and letting her overuse it to boot, is just, inane. tepid. annoying? all of the above. And all that punching the air is just not as cool as the different bending styles we saw in The Last Airbender. It's just not.
Enter F.C. Yee and The Kyoshi Novels. I'm just gonna say it, he did everything they tried with Korra, but better. I feel like the Avatar world is back! I don't even want an adaptation because they'd ruin all the good work my man Yee did. He brought back bending style, spirituality, the SCARY spirits, dynamic characters, the past life connection, an ACTUAL on-page female-female relationship, political intrigue, the moral depravity of human nature, and he deepened and developed all of these so that it wasn't just like reading a book version of the original show.
This book digs into the political structures and clan tensions in the Fire Nation and interrogates the shortcomings of said structures, casting the Avatar as the failsafe for flawed systems while exposing the vulnerability of the individuals who must fill the role. We see Kyoshi become jaded with humanity's chronic failures, and even with her own past lives. Can I see Korra take some notes and hire Yee to just rewrite the show? Because this duology is just, chef's kiss. It's a pitch-perfect, well-seasoned umami that just hits! that! spot!
This book is a bit slower than book 1, but shoutout to all my faves who came back for round 2 because it was worth the wait. and RIP to my fave who can't make it back :'( ok now i'm done byeeeeeeee
Not as strong as the first novel, but still a good read. I felt that several scenes were overly dramatized and hard to believe, and wished there was more depth into Kyoshi’s spiritual connection to past Avatars and the spirit world.
5/5 I never wanted this book to end but it did and now I’m sad.
I love the romance. Usually I don’t care about the romance in books. I’m not really interested and I feel like it slows down what I actually came for, which is the action/ political intrigue/plot. But I cared so much about rangi and kyoshi. My heart is melting, and I keep looking at their fan art. They are perfect and I love them. I don’t know how the writer bamboozled me into caring about the romantic subplot, but that’s a first this year.
The writing was so wonderful.
I love the political intrigue and that we got to travel to the fire nation.
I wish we would get more Kyoshi books. One with the air Nomads and one with the water tribe :(
The first “ dagger to throat scene “ I’ve read. People rave about this “trope “and I kinda get it, but not really. But it’s cool that it’s a "metal fan to throat" scene.
She keeps forgetting she’s a water bender. Lol
I love the romance. Usually I don’t care about the romance in books. I’m not really interested and I feel like it slows down what I actually came for, which is the action/ political intrigue/plot. But I cared so much about rangi and kyoshi. My heart is melting, and I keep looking at their fan art. They are perfect and I love them. I don’t know how the writer bamboozled me into caring about the romantic subplot, but that’s a first this year.
The writing was so wonderful.
I love the political intrigue and that we got to travel to the fire nation.
I wish we would get more Kyoshi books. One with the air Nomads and one with the water tribe :(
The first “ dagger to throat scene “ I’ve read. People rave about this “trope “and I kinda get it, but not really. But it’s cool that it’s a "metal fan to throat" scene.
She keeps forgetting she’s a water bender. Lol
Really solid continuation, although I would have loved to see the creation of the Dai Li, or the Kyoshi warriors, and perhaps give us more insight into Kyoshi's almost immortality.
Fantastic story! I am in love with this series. I hope they make more. Kyoshi is now my favorite avatar. She messes up so much, but it's only because she tries SO hard to do what's right. The book is just filled with so many great characters and lessons.
I liked this better than the rise of Kyoshi. I've always been super interested in Avatar Kyoshi. Reading her story was a completely different experience than watching Aang's and even Kora's story. I've always wonderd what it would be for an Avatar to take lives aswell as protecting the innocent. Potential spoiler: I also really, really loved Avatar Karuk's redemption arc.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I liked this, but not as much as the first one. Worldbuilding wise, great look at the clan politics and the Fire Nation before it was united, I've always wondered what that would look like. However, I quickly got tired of the formula of Kyoshi screws up / hates herself / does it again, and it didn't make for as engaging a plot as Rise had.
I wish they hadn't banished the Daofei characters to the very last chapters; the book didn't feel as lively without their humor and family, and Shadow's side characters couldn't measure up. Also not wild about Kyoshi/Rangi; I'm not one for romance centric books but it feels like they interact in only a handful of scenes, and their fight never feels fully resolved.
However one thing I loved was having Yun back!! Seeing him shattered by the cruelty of the world, that quest for vengeance, that he still and Kyoshi still care for each other despite it all - absolutely stellar plot. Absolutely crazy about when the hero of a story and the villain love each other.
I wish they hadn't banished the Daofei characters to the very last chapters; the book didn't feel as lively without their humor and family, and Shadow's side characters couldn't measure up. Also not wild about Kyoshi/Rangi; I'm not one for romance centric books but it feels like they interact in only a handful of scenes, and their fight never feels fully resolved.
However one thing I loved was having Yun back!! Seeing him shattered by the cruelty of the world, that quest for vengeance, that he still and Kyoshi still care for each other despite it all - absolutely stellar plot. Absolutely crazy about when the hero of a story and the villain love each other.