Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Sword of Kaigen

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of reading this book. I'll go into more specifics of what I did and didn't like below, but that will have spoilers. If you like the fantasy genre in general, I do think you should give the book a read.

What I liked: The book is well written. The world building is fantastic. The genre is not one I am super familiar with, but I did not feel confused while reading it. I liked the diversity and complexity of the characters, even the ones I didn't really "like".

[This book is from the POV of a woman living in a very traditional society...one where she isn't allowed to question her husband or men, isn't allowed to do some of the things she greatly enjoyed doing, is in an unloving arranged marriage, is only valued for the male children she gives birth to, etc. Wang writes about it in a complex, respectful way that I believe is meant to help readers understand it in some ways. It was challenging to read it, but again, still something I appreciated.

]

What I didn't like: The pacing of this novel struggled quite a bit, especially at the beginning. I stuck with it because I knew this going in.

[Plot wise, I really, really didn't like the way the author killed off a main character. We open the book with Momoru and his POV. We spend a good part of the first half of the book with him. Then he just dies and we're expected to spend the rest of the book with his mom and one chapter with his dad. It didn't work for me. Child death and main character death is always going to be a hard sell for me and Wang 100% didn't sell me on the necessity of it. I almost DNFd the book because of this choice. And I would never pick up a book knowing the author made this sort of choice...killing off the voice of a main POV character mid-book. It was incredibly jarring as a reader. If he needed to die, then the book should not have been written from his brain. Likewise, it felt like Wang was trying to sell to people who are not from the tradition, the idea that the extreme patriarchal ideals of the society of our main character, are not actually oppressive to women. But I don't think she achieved it. I felt oppressed for half the book, on behalf of the main character, as she watched tragedy after tragedy befall her without having a voice. Yes, she got one in the end, but I still just had trouble with it. And then the whole plot with Robin at the end felt forced and weird.

]

Overall, I think this is a very worthwhile and at times, challenging read despite some of my issues with it.

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aplpaca's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.25

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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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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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anguawolf's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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gracecrandall's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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gingerbready's review against another edition

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emotional 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

4.75

Only giving slightly less than 5 stars after reading loose ends in the book and learning that the author has discontinued it. It’s understandable but it’s heart wrenching that I’ll never get a conclusion from the little girl being kidnapped, some godlike blood manipulator, and the threat of the strongest army in the world filled with theonites and sub-theonites.

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avidreadr's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I was so surprised by this book. Even just reading the title, I had expectations that the main character was going to be named Kaigen. Suffice it to say my expectations were flipped upside down in the most satisfying way. This is not your typical fantasy, it’s not your typical war story. It’s a story about family, strength, warriors, about love, about community. I honestly was really impressed with how unique this story was. So glad I read this.

Knocked off .5 stars because some loose ends were left at the end of the book.

Knowing this is the last of the universe, will we ever find out who manipulated Robin’s blood?! That was a huge thing to call out in the end without any hint to the mystery!! I need to know!! Also, the terms of the world were sometimes a bit too much and took me out of my immersion.

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