A review by ashyoung
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

Did not finish book. Stopped at 3%.

I have heard so many raving reviews about this, but it is a long book, like a 10 hour time investment, and the first chapter just did not grab me. We met both main characters and it just dragged for me. There was too much exposition to start. 

I am a disciple of start in some action to grab attention, then build the world out from there, but these first 22 pages were just 100% exposition and nothing really happened. It started with one boy telling another boy everything about how the world worked, but nothing had happened yet to make me curious about the world enough to be drawn into the exposition. 

I continued into the second chapter and just found myself struggling to care. The world seems really intriguing, and I can absolutely see why people love it, but it is just not for me. Mostly because I am being cut-throat now, if a book isn't grabbing me I am not continuing because I will never have enough time in my life to read all the books I want, so I can't spend my time on books that I am having to force myself to push through. 

I may revisit this in the future though, because it may just be that I am not in the correct mood for a book like this rn.