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A review by sokkaspoon
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
I went into this book really expecting this to be a 5 star read for me. It's basically ATLA in feudal Japan so I should have loved it However, it really missed the mark for me. It has some impressive world building and some very moving emotional scenes and great action scenes, but it has some massive pacing and info dumping problems.
There were so many moments where I was just so bored, either because there was a section of info dumping or the characters are doing the most boring stuff like talking about cleaning (and not in an engaging way tbh). Along the lines of pacing, there would be some great/moving/exciting scenes and then the next scene is the characters moving on and talking about boring stuff. Not only is that a pacing problem, but it made me feel like the characters actually don't react to these tramutic things that are happening.For example, after Marmoru dies, they basically just move onto another scene. His death obviously effects the other characters when they find out, but I feel as a reader that I didnt get to sit woth that death really at all before the autor moved on. Also I felt like I was being told how Misaki felt all the time, i.e. being told that she's sad about Marmoru, but I'm not being shown how she feels. I know she lives in a more reserved society, but her lack of response made me feel like she didn't actually care a ton about her son's death, even though that's what Wang is telling me.
Everything after Misaki and Takeru's duel was sooo slow and boring. (Speaking of the duel, it was cool as hell, but felt like it came out of nowhere. I had to go back to the previous chapter to see if I missed something. Also felt like Wang was trying ro get me to like Takeru with this dual, but there was no way in hell that was gonna happen). Why is Robin there? Hello?? Also Misaki should have absolutely taken her kids and left Takeru and Kaigen behind.
Going back to the world building: it's rather impressive, especially all the elemental magic(Hell yeah, ice dragon!) , but this book really gets bogged down in the details. Hense the info dumping. Wang clearly did a lot of work on the world, but we didn't need all of it on the page. It also is part of why the pacing is so off. If she wanted to include this info, I think she could have added an appendix for readers who were interested in the history, etc. However, the info dumpy world building as it is honestly often gets in the way of the plot moving forward. Also, again, this is Samurai ATLA, which I think on a baseline the audience for this book would already be familiar with those two things, so it feels like some of the details could have really been left out.
This is also a very nitpicky thing, but I hated how Wang used diffent terms for time. Like I get it, they're on a different planet. Time isn't the same. But it felt so arbitrary and made it unessarily confusing when reading. Just use seconds, minutes, hours, etc.
I started out reading the physical book and about 100 pages in i ended up switching to the audio book because I was quite bored and having a hard time engaging with the book. I think I probably would have DNFd the book had i not switched over to audio. And even then, there were a few times that I thought about not finishing, but the emotional and action scenes kept me going and interested. So if you want to read this book, I will would just recommend the audio.
I think this book could have really been about 300-400 pages long and told the same story more efficiently and effectively.
Another thing. Despite what the other has said, this absolutely not a standalone. The story is not remotely complete in this book.
Overall, I think this book has some really good parts, but is overall a mess. If this every moves into trad publishing, I hope it gets a major editing pass.
I feel like I'm being gaslit by all the 5 star reviews lol
There were so many moments where I was just so bored, either because there was a section of info dumping or the characters are doing the most boring stuff like talking about cleaning (and not in an engaging way tbh). Along the lines of pacing, there would be some great/moving/exciting scenes and then the next scene is the characters moving on and talking about boring stuff. Not only is that a pacing problem, but it made me feel like the characters actually don't react to these tramutic things that are happening.
Everything after Misaki and Takeru's duel was sooo slow and boring. (Speaking of the duel, it was cool as hell, but felt like it came out of nowhere. I had to go back to the previous chapter to see if I missed something. Also felt like Wang was trying ro get me to like Takeru with this dual, but there was no way in hell that was gonna happen). Why is Robin there? Hello?? Also Misaki should have absolutely taken her kids and left Takeru and Kaigen behind.
Going back to the world building: it's rather impressive, especially all the elemental magic
This is also a very nitpicky thing, but I hated how Wang used diffent terms for time. Like I get it, they're on a different planet. Time isn't the same. But it felt so arbitrary and made it unessarily confusing when reading. Just use seconds, minutes, hours, etc.
I started out reading the physical book and about 100 pages in i ended up switching to the audio book because I was quite bored and having a hard time engaging with the book. I think I probably would have DNFd the book had i not switched over to audio. And even then, there were a few times that I thought about not finishing, but the emotional and action scenes kept me going and interested. So if you want to read this book, I will would just recommend the audio.
I think this book could have really been about 300-400 pages long and told the same story more efficiently and effectively.
Another thing. Despite what the other has said, this absolutely not a standalone. The story is not remotely complete in this book.
Overall, I think this book has some really good parts, but is overall a mess. If this every moves into trad publishing, I hope it gets a major editing pass.
I feel like I'm being gaslit by all the 5 star reviews lol
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, War, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexism, Suicide, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Rape, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy