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A review by mav_ka
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
4.5 / 5
At this point, this review has been sitting so long in my drafts that I don't think I'm going to finish it. Maybe one day. But so far, here are some of my incomplete thoughts so I can be done with this book and move on :)
I believe that the enjoyment of a book is highly dependent on reading it at the right time and place, and for me, The Sword of Kaigen was one such book.
It starts off really slowly -- a transfer student joins an old, traditional school in a village where they teach young boys to be sword masters. Many of the boys come from respectable families with years of tradition and secret blood techniques behind their belts. The transfer student brings chaos into the life of one such student -- Mamoru, the descendant of a powerful family who lives to master the secret Whispering Blase technique, a blade made of ice that can cut through steel.
And you'd think this was a classic, coming-of-age, I-am-an-anime-protagonist-who-will-defeat-everything-with-the-power-of-friendship kind of story. BUT IT IS NOT. We get to find out about Mamoru's family, specifically his mother, Misaki. Raised in a village with traditional gender roles where noble women are expected to only make babies and take care of their husbands, she has an unexpectedly violent past. With a husband who refuses to acknowledge her capabilities, she has had to put all of that away in favor of raising her husband's children.
It is a complicated story about a broken family. It is a story about how (and if) they will mend themselves together, and whether the adversities they face will make or break them.
It was a journey. As a self-published book, it gets away with having story structures that would not be allowed in regularly published books. It (mild spoiler for the theme, but not the events)has the main climax happen somewhere in the middle, and then it is used to really bring forward a character arc in a wonderful culmination of events. Even though it's an unusual structure, it didn't feel weird. But I'm a little weird as a reader where I tend to ignore similar flaws when I'm really immersed in the story (usually because I care about the characters so much). And in this story, I cared a lot.
THE WRITING FLOWS SO WELL. Some of the quotes are absolute bangers. While different people had different feelings about it, I could take apart chapter 27 and write an entire review just about that; that's how much it impacted me.
There are detailed descriptions of combat vaguely inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don't enjoy those as much, but having it happen to characters that I was actively rooting for definitely helped.
Characters! The character arcs were so well-written. I feel like this book focused more on the emotional sides of the characters than any other adult fantasy book tbh. Not sure if that is something that usually gets "fixed" in traditional publishing since there seems to be a trend of toning down the emotional parts for adult fantasy books, but I enjoyed it immensely and am glad it stayed. I was trying to figure out how this book stood out from other exceptional character-driven fantasy I've read, and I think those other books focused more on the consequences of the character having feelings and more on pondering about feelings, while this book focused on the feelings themselves. It's the difference between describing a punch to the gut and actually feeling it happen to you. This book makes you feel it.
And worldbuilding, weeeeell, don't count on it too much? It serves as a decent setting, but there is not much that stands out, and a more critical reader will notice certain plot holes and inconsistencies in the world. It's done well enough for this standalone book, but from what I've heard, the author has abandoned this setting, and good for her.
Overall, I enjoyed this immensely.
At this point, this review has been sitting so long in my drafts that I don't think I'm going to finish it. Maybe one day. But so far, here are some of my incomplete thoughts so I can be done with this book and move on :)
I believe that the enjoyment of a book is highly dependent on reading it at the right time and place, and for me, The Sword of Kaigen was one such book.
It starts off really slowly -- a transfer student joins an old, traditional school in a village where they teach young boys to be sword masters. Many of the boys come from respectable families with years of tradition and secret blood techniques behind their belts. The transfer student brings chaos into the life of one such student -- Mamoru, the descendant of a powerful family who lives to master the secret Whispering Blase technique, a blade made of ice that can cut through steel.
And you'd think this was a classic, coming-of-age, I-am-an-anime-protagonist-who-will-defeat-everything-with-the-power-of-friendship kind of story. BUT IT IS NOT. We get to find out about Mamoru's family, specifically his mother, Misaki. Raised in a village with traditional gender roles where noble women are expected to only make babies and take care of their husbands, she has an unexpectedly violent past. With a husband who refuses to acknowledge her capabilities, she has had to put all of that away in favor of raising her husband's children.
It is a complicated story about a broken family. It is a story about how (and if) they will mend themselves together, and whether the adversities they face will make or break them.
It was a journey. As a self-published book, it gets away with having story structures that would not be allowed in regularly published books. It (mild spoiler for the theme, but not the events)
THE WRITING FLOWS SO WELL. Some of the quotes are absolute bangers. While different people had different feelings about it, I could take apart chapter 27 and write an entire review just about that; that's how much it impacted me.
There are detailed descriptions of combat vaguely inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don't enjoy those as much, but having it happen to characters that I was actively rooting for definitely helped.
Characters! The character arcs were so well-written. I feel like this book focused more on the emotional sides of the characters than any other adult fantasy book tbh. Not sure if that is something that usually gets "fixed" in traditional publishing since there seems to be a trend of toning down the emotional parts for adult fantasy books, but I enjoyed it immensely and am glad it stayed. I was trying to figure out how this book stood out from other exceptional character-driven fantasy I've read, and I think those other books focused more on the consequences of the character having feelings and more on pondering about feelings, while this book focused on the feelings themselves. It's the difference between describing a punch to the gut and actually feeling it happen to you. This book makes you feel it.
And worldbuilding, weeeeell, don't count on it too much? It serves as a decent setting, but there is not much that stands out, and a more critical reader will notice certain plot holes and inconsistencies in the world. It's done well enough for this standalone book, but from what I've heard, the author has abandoned this setting, and good for her.
Overall, I enjoyed this immensely.