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A review by fe_lea
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
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
4.75
12/16/21 edit: the more i think about this, the more i actually love it. bumping it up to 4.75 stars.
9/26/21:
I loved this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience it gave me. I made some assumptions before I read the book and found out all them were wrong, lol. When people said this is a Japanese military-inspired adult high fantasy, the first thing that came to mind was The Poppy War by RF Kuang (which is an awesome book that you need to check out if you haven't read it yet). I thought the war would be the main driver in the story but it's not. The war merely serves as a background for the internal war happening within and between the characters, and I liked this. Based on the cover and the first chapter, I honestly thought the book would focus mainly on Mamoru, the 14-yr old protagonist who's training to be a fighter to defend his homeland and had a world-shattering revelation that the Kaigenese Empire isn't what he was made to believe. Instead, the book mainly focused on Misaki, the 34-yr old mother of Mamoru who was a fighter and a vigilante in her youth but got trapped in a cold and loveless marriage for 15 years. This is my first time encountering a housewife as the main protagonist of a high fantasy book and I say ML Wang did it well. It was fresh to me and I really loved Misaki's arc. Honestly, the book felt like a giant character study of Misaki and I loved that.
The writing in this book is simple but beautiful and it gets poetic sometimes. It just knows how to get the right emotions from me. The Matsuda family are very powerful jijakulus (basically waterbenders) and I loved the way ML Wang wrote their powers. They took waterbending to a whole new level. It's magnificent and magical but it's backed by science which I really liked.
However, I struggled at the beginning of the book. There were a lot of made up words that my dumb brain couldn't keep up. There's a glossary at the back but having to flip through back and forth after every paragraph disrupted my concentration. The beginning was also slow, and while I found the world it's set in beautiful and interesting, it was sometimes difficult to digest. Another thing I didn't like was a major character's redemption arc. I feel like it happened too fast and felt too convenient. Perhaps if we were given his POV in the previous chapters it would make it more believable. The ending also brought in more questions instead of answers so it left me a little dissatisfied.
Overall, the book was really good. If you loved The Poppy War and/or if you're a fan of the elemental magic in Avatar: The Last Airbender, then I highly recommend this. Like The Poppy War, this book could get dark and heavy. It's definitely not a light read. Some of the themes and issues that were discussed frustrated me, but in a good way. I think they were handled well and delicately.
9/26/21:
I loved this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience it gave me. I made some assumptions before I read the book and found out all them were wrong, lol. When people said this is a Japanese military-inspired adult high fantasy, the first thing that came to mind was The Poppy War by RF Kuang (which is an awesome book that you need to check out if you haven't read it yet). I thought the war would be the main driver in the story but it's not. The war merely serves as a background for the internal war happening within and between the characters, and I liked this. Based on the cover and the first chapter, I honestly thought the book would focus mainly on Mamoru, the 14-yr old protagonist who's training to be a fighter to defend his homeland and had a world-shattering revelation that the Kaigenese Empire isn't what he was made to believe. Instead, the book mainly focused on Misaki, the 34-yr old mother of Mamoru who was a fighter and a vigilante in her youth but got trapped in a cold and loveless marriage for 15 years. This is my first time encountering a housewife as the main protagonist of a high fantasy book and I say ML Wang did it well. It was fresh to me and I really loved Misaki's arc. Honestly, the book felt like a giant character study of Misaki and I loved that.
The writing in this book is simple but beautiful and it gets poetic sometimes. It just knows how to get the right emotions from me. The Matsuda family are very powerful jijakulus (basically waterbenders) and I loved the way ML Wang wrote their powers. They took waterbending to a whole new level. It's magnificent and magical but it's backed by science which I really liked.
However, I struggled at the beginning of the book. There were a lot of made up words that my dumb brain couldn't keep up. There's a glossary at the back but having to flip through back and forth after every paragraph disrupted my concentration. The beginning was also slow, and while I found the world it's set in beautiful and interesting, it was sometimes difficult to digest. Another thing I didn't like was a major character's redemption arc. I feel like it happened too fast and felt too convenient. Perhaps if we were given his POV in the previous chapters it would make it more believable. The ending also brought in more questions instead of answers so it left me a little dissatisfied.
Overall, the book was really good. If you loved The Poppy War and/or if you're a fan of the elemental magic in Avatar: The Last Airbender, then I highly recommend this. Like The Poppy War, this book could get dark and heavy. It's definitely not a light read. Some of the themes and issues that were discussed frustrated me, but in a good way. I think they were handled well and delicately.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, and War
Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, and Suicide