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Rin is probably one of the most well-written female fantasy characters I know. She's been perfectly crafted from page one. I felt deeply intertwined with her story, her origin; her every feeling, frustration and wishes from beginning to end. Kuang always made me be able to relate to her or at least understand why Rin is acting the way she does. You can literally follow the evolution of her character and personality and while it hardly was surprising, it is very understandable indeed.
Rin curled her fingers into fists at her sides, suddenly pissed off. True suffering? She had seen her friends stabbed with halberds, shot full of arrows, cut down with swords, burned to death in poisonous fog. She had seen Sinegard go up in flames. She had seen Khurdalain occupied by Federation invaders almost overnight.
"That boy is beyond redemption," said the Woman. "That boy is broken like the rest. But you, you are still pure. You can still be saved."
"I don't want to be saved!" Rin shrieked. "I want power! I want Altan's power! I want to be the most powerful shaman there ever was, so that there is no one i can't save!"
"I taught you better than this." Jiang put a hand on her shoulder. He sounded as if he were pleading. "Didn't I, Rin?"
He could have have helped them. He could have stopped the massacre at Golyn Niis. He could have saved Nezha. But Jiang had hidden. His country had needed him, and he had fled to ensconce himself there, without any regard for those he left behind.
He had abandoned her. He hadn't even said goodbye.
But Altan... Altan had not given up on her. Altan had verbally abused her and hit her, but he had faith in her power. Altan had only ever wanted to make her stronger.
"I'm sorry, sir." she said. "But I have my orders."
Rin grew up a peasant, terrorized and physically abused by terrible, terrible "adoptive parents" who only used her as a free worker. She physically tortured herself to get into the Academy and left behind the little things she knew. She arrived there only to be mentally and physically tortured more, treated like less than human by 99% of the academy. She only has one true friend there. She learns under Jiang, her closest thing to a Mentor and father figure but he abandons her multiple times and is quite unreliable, even if he had good reasons for it. War breaks out and she sees more than half of her class and teachers die, she's forced to continue and when everyone finds out she's Speerly, she's forced to fight under the Cike. Now she's part of one of the most feared and hated races, one of the last two Speerly alive and part of an 8 member crew, hated by everyone else as well. The only other person she now knows there is Nezha, her ex-arch enemy. Nezha dies a tragic death and she has to watch him die, her only remnant of a friend. Altan becomes something close to her tutor as a commander and he's the only person she feels somewhat normal around until Altan breaks under the pressure even more so than before and he physically hurts and torments her too. She has truly no one, until she has to witness an entire genocide happening right in front of her eyes, is abandoned and needs to witness Altan being tortured until they fight for their freedom, just for Altan to sacrifice himself and her almost dying multiple times to end up in the hands of the Phoenix God, where Rin essentially gives up her soul so she can pledge her allegiance to him to end Mugen. If I understand someone turning into a bloodthirsty, mentally unstable and deeply bitter warcriminal, it's Rin.
What makes the story so tragic besides the obvious paragraph above is that the book cleverly highlights that it's her decisions that led to all this. She could have chosen many a times to not follow this path, but she did. It makes sense, it's understandable, but it leaves me asking for all the possibilities, all the alternative futures she could have had. Could she have been happy in any of them, with Nezha, Venka, Altan and the others?
My only critique of the plot:
We got such a well written deep-dive of Rin and Altan's characters and so much geopolitical worldbuilding and warfare, that the relationships between Rin and Altan, Rin and Nezha and Rin and Kitay were a little underdeveloped at times. I wished for a scene where Rin would have been able to *really* talk to Altan about all the trauma that made him up. One scene where she is able to calm him and distract him of all his burdens for some hours. I wished for some scenes where Nezha and Rin get the chance to actually become friends, because like pointed out multiple times; if the circumstances were different, they would have made great friends and fighting partners. I would have wished for scenes where Rin gets to enjoy Sinegard without any prejudice and hate, surrounded by Kitay and more girls. I would have wished for Rin to get some more chances to live without fear and worries and enjoy girlhood, before so much was taken from her and everyone else.
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Abandonment
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War
Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, War
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War
This should become a classic fantasy series - I hope the following books hold to this standard
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Genocide, Rape, Violence, Blood, Abortion, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Genocide, Blood, Abortion, Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Colonisation
Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Genocide, Mental illness, Colonisation
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Colonisation, War