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A review by seshat59
Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger
3.0
This book was a long walk to somewhere...
It was such a long walk that I'm undecided as how I'd like to review it. Allow me to elaborate:
Steel Crow Saga has a complex fantasy world, built and based on post-World War II Eastern Asia. Tomoda is based on imperialistic Japan, but with citizens who meld their souls with metal; Shang is based on China, Sanbu - the Phillipines, Jeongsen - Korea, and Dahali, India. While this book is compared openly to Avatar: Last of the Airbenders, its only real connection is that it's based on fantasy Asian cultures and World War II. The rest, I suppose, is related to Pokemon, to which it's also compared, but because literally the only thing I know about Pokemon is Pikachu (spelling?), the allusions went over my head. Tomoda, which is animistic and vegetarian, excused their imperialism on liberating "slaves" (while also conveniently stealing more metal for themselves) while the people of Sanbu and Shang split their souls pacting with animals to create shades. The shades become stronger, faster, and more aggressive counterparts that then reside in and share a body with their human hosts, until called on; the Tomodoese look down upon these shades. And honestly, the cultural prejudices -- obvious and subtle -- were very well written, and even better was how through interaction and common purpose, characters were able to overcome their long-held cultural biases.
The world is diverse. Not only are the characters entirely Asian-inspired, but most of the characters are sexually ambiguous. I'm not sure if there's a purely heterosexual character in this book, but I suppose that could be a cultural choice as defined sexuality is actually quite frequently tied to culture. The women are kickbutt, and the cultures have long histories of powerful women equally as powerful as their men. There's even a secondary trans character.
More specifically, the character arcs are very well plotted. Each of the four main characters grow exponentially throughout this long, character-driven novel: from Jimuro, Iron Prince of Tomoda, being secreted back to his war-torn country that has lost the war ignominiously but must have its sovereign reinstated to help balance the delicate political scales between all the nations. He is escorted by Sergeant Tala, a Sanbu soldier, with a terrible secret. The parallel storyline follows Xiulan, a Shang princess, disguised as an Asian inspired Sherlock Holmes, and a thief, Lee, who has been saved from gallows to help Xiulan find and kidnap Jimuro. Xiulan is the the twenty-eighth favorite princess of her Emperor father, and she believes her sister, the current candidate for the throne, will be nationalistic and cruel. Minor spoiler here, but if Xiulan is an Asian, female Sherlock Holmes-wannabe, her older sister is Bancroft all the way, and I loved that.
So why didn't I love this novel?
A. Timing.
B. Its length.
C. Its pacing.
D. Unknown.
I don't know. A little of all of the above? The end tied together sweetly, and for that, I'm going to give it 3.5 stars. I should round up because this was so well plotted, but my heart just wasn't in this book so... I'll round down. Whomp, whomp.
It was such a long walk that I'm undecided as how I'd like to review it. Allow me to elaborate:
Steel Crow Saga has a complex fantasy world, built and based on post-World War II Eastern Asia. Tomoda is based on imperialistic Japan, but with citizens who meld their souls with metal; Shang is based on China, Sanbu - the Phillipines, Jeongsen - Korea, and Dahali, India. While this book is compared openly to Avatar: Last of the Airbenders, its only real connection is that it's based on fantasy Asian cultures and World War II. The rest, I suppose, is related to Pokemon, to which it's also compared, but because literally the only thing I know about Pokemon is Pikachu (spelling?), the allusions went over my head. Tomoda, which is animistic and vegetarian, excused their imperialism on liberating "slaves" (while also conveniently stealing more metal for themselves) while the people of Sanbu and Shang split their souls pacting with animals to create shades. The shades become stronger, faster, and more aggressive counterparts that then reside in and share a body with their human hosts, until called on; the Tomodoese look down upon these shades. And honestly, the cultural prejudices -- obvious and subtle -- were very well written, and even better was how through interaction and common purpose, characters were able to overcome their long-held cultural biases.
The world is diverse. Not only are the characters entirely Asian-inspired, but most of the characters are sexually ambiguous. I'm not sure if there's a purely heterosexual character in this book, but I suppose that could be a cultural choice as defined sexuality is actually quite frequently tied to culture. The women are kickbutt, and the cultures have long histories of powerful women equally as powerful as their men. There's even a secondary trans character.
More specifically, the character arcs are very well plotted. Each of the four main characters grow exponentially throughout this long, character-driven novel: from Jimuro, Iron Prince of Tomoda, being secreted back to his war-torn country that has lost the war ignominiously but must have its sovereign reinstated to help balance the delicate political scales between all the nations. He is escorted by Sergeant Tala, a Sanbu soldier, with a terrible secret. The parallel storyline follows Xiulan, a Shang princess, disguised as an Asian inspired Sherlock Holmes, and a thief, Lee, who has been saved from gallows to help Xiulan find and kidnap Jimuro. Xiulan is the the twenty-eighth favorite princess of her Emperor father, and she believes her sister, the current candidate for the throne, will be nationalistic and cruel. Minor spoiler here, but if Xiulan is an Asian, female Sherlock Holmes-wannabe, her older sister is Bancroft all the way, and I loved that.
So why didn't I love this novel?
A. Timing.
B. Its length.
C. Its pacing.
D. Unknown.
I don't know. A little of all of the above? The end tied together sweetly, and for that, I'm going to give it 3.5 stars. I should round up because this was so well plotted, but my heart just wasn't in this book so... I'll round down. Whomp, whomp.