A review by racheln23
The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan

4.0

I'm 20% I'm to this novel and so far it is an extreme bore. I'm only persisting to finish out the series faithfully. Flanagan has the understandable idea to gather all the characters ever presented in his novels to band together for a grand adventure to end the series with a bang. However, not only does this gathering take a fifth of the entire novel to set up, it seems very unnatural and forced. Lastly, the comments and behaviors of the characters seem out of line with their behaviors in previous novels to the point I feel I almost can't recognize them. These changes, I believe, are to create drama and friction.

Upon finishing the book, I noticed that the last half flew by and suddenly I was almost finished. The second half of the book redeemed the first half to four stars, and my biggest complaint is the forced drama. This wasn't my favorite in the series, but I am pleased I continued reading the novel.