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A review by crybabybea
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
3.5
I love this book for what it is and the things it tries to accomplish, but my actual reading experience wasn't particularly enjoyable.
The shining star is obviously the characters. I'm a fan of character-driven narratives so I found this bit to be extremely enjoyable. We spend a lot of time in the characters' heads, and M.L. Wang balances the different perspectives well, so by the climax of the book you feel entirely connected to the characters and their inner workings. I enjoyed the character arcs of the main cast and the critiques that they represented. Having a badass female main character bogged down by traditional gender roles and filial expectations finding her way back to herself was a fresh concept and her story was beautifully told. I especially appreciated that she was both a mother and a warrior, and that she appreciated the women around her despite them having different strengths than her own.
Besides the characters though, I think this book suffers from some issues being self-published. Of course I can't fault the author for that, but I would be lying if I said my reading experience wasn't affected.
The prose needed a lot of editing, there were multiple instances of repeated words within paragraphs, run-on sentences, and paragraphs with repeat sentences explaining the same thing with different verbiage.
On top of the prose, the overall plot just needed a lot of tightening. The pacing is incredibly slow (even slower than most character-driven narratives), and sometimes bogged down by over-explanation and a lot of telling of emotions. The pacing really falls apart after the main climax of the story, which happens around 60%. The final parts of the story are showing the quiet aftermath of the climax, which is perfectly fine and an interesting approach, but Wang also shoehorns in some chapters that really had no business being there. I also foundthe repair between Misaki and Takeru to be pretty unbelievable and a little too quick, especially when compared to the relative slowness of the rest of the book.
The world-building wasn't my favorite. The magic system is pretty standard, and I kind of felt like M.L. Wang couldn't decide on a time period. Like she wanted the drama of having a samurai, feudal Japan style story but she also wanted the convenience of having phones, vehicles, planes, and bombs. It really affected my enjoyment of the main climax and also my overall immersion as a whole. Felt a little clumsy and not quite fully fleshed out. There were some other little annoyances like completely inventing words for simple terms but then also using real-life Japanese terms in other places? Like new words for everything that has to do with time... why? Writing 80% of the dialogue in italics to show dialect... why???? It was pretty awkward and really made it feel like a fanfiction.
For the record I DID sob my eyes out at the main climax. I somehow unintentionally timed reading this and The Rape of Nanking at the same time which I think elevated the experience.
I will say the foundation is extremely strong, M.L. Wang's talent shines even through the issues I had with the actual line craft. And her character work is definitely superb. Now that she's kind of blown up I would love to see her rewrite this with a publishing team as like a trilogy or something.
The shining star is obviously the characters. I'm a fan of character-driven narratives so I found this bit to be extremely enjoyable. We spend a lot of time in the characters' heads, and M.L. Wang balances the different perspectives well, so by the climax of the book you feel entirely connected to the characters and their inner workings. I enjoyed the character arcs of the main cast and the critiques that they represented. Having a badass female main character bogged down by traditional gender roles and filial expectations finding her way back to herself was a fresh concept and her story was beautifully told. I especially appreciated that she was both a mother and a warrior, and that she appreciated the women around her despite them having different strengths than her own.
Besides the characters though, I think this book suffers from some issues being self-published. Of course I can't fault the author for that, but I would be lying if I said my reading experience wasn't affected.
The prose needed a lot of editing, there were multiple instances of repeated words within paragraphs, run-on sentences, and paragraphs with repeat sentences explaining the same thing with different verbiage.
On top of the prose, the overall plot just needed a lot of tightening. The pacing is incredibly slow (even slower than most character-driven narratives), and sometimes bogged down by over-explanation and a lot of telling of emotions. The pacing really falls apart after the main climax of the story, which happens around 60%. The final parts of the story are showing the quiet aftermath of the climax, which is perfectly fine and an interesting approach, but Wang also shoehorns in some chapters that really had no business being there. I also found
The world-building wasn't my favorite. The magic system is pretty standard, and I kind of felt like M.L. Wang couldn't decide on a time period. Like she wanted the drama of having a samurai, feudal Japan style story but she also wanted the convenience of having phones, vehicles, planes, and bombs. It really affected my enjoyment of the main climax and also my overall immersion as a whole. Felt a little clumsy and not quite fully fleshed out. There were some other little annoyances like completely inventing words for simple terms but then also using real-life Japanese terms in other places? Like new words for everything that has to do with time... why? Writing 80% of the dialogue in italics to show dialect... why???? It was pretty awkward and really made it feel like a fanfiction.
For the record I DID sob my eyes out at the main climax. I somehow unintentionally timed reading this and The Rape of Nanking at the same time which I think elevated the experience.
I will say the foundation is extremely strong, M.L. Wang's talent shines even through the issues I had with the actual line craft. And her character work is definitely superb. Now that she's kind of blown up I would love to see her rewrite this with a publishing team as like a trilogy or something.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Injury/Injury detail