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aw21594377 's review for:
The Sword of Kaigen
by M.L. Wang
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm so glad I got the chance to read this! This is the last book to tackle on an arbitrary list I had to read some very popular books. Overall, I really enjoyed this, which feels weird because the events are pretty brutal. It was refreshing in its concept, which I appreciated. Takayumi is completely destroyed, a 14-year-old boy dies, Misaki endures an unhappy marriage for over a decade, partly due to the misogyny and sexism within the Kaiganese culture. At times, I felt like I could feel the cold. This could've probably gone through another round of editing to adjust the pacing of the character arcs, and flesh out the world/politics more thoroughly. That said, I still had a really positive reading experience while reading it. The audiobook was well produced, and it's unfortunate that the ebook and audiobook were so inaccessible. I believe the audiobook is only accessible on Audible 😢
The Matsuda male family members INFURIATED me. The grandfather who verbally and physically abused his sons and daughters-in-law was deplorable. I kind of wish Misaki had a showdown with him before he died (like she has with Takeru (though maybe not a duel)), but alas, that was never going to happen. His bitter resentment and cruelty affected the rest of the family deeply, especially, as we learn later, Takeru (though I would've been curious to get more insight into Takashi's mind/experience). Takashi was a more jovial character, but just as sexist as his father and grandfather. Their condescension irked me to no end! And what made it worse is that Takashi and Takeru were supremely skilled fighters! They could talk the talk and walk the walk! It can be a very dangerous combination. It doesn't excuse their behavior and treatment of women, but they weren't just arrogant blowhards with nothing to show for their pretentious outlook. Strangely enough, I could actually sympathize with both Takashi and Takeru because of the battle scene. I think their skills and devotion to protecting their village was incredibly admirable. Seeing that these men would literally die for their families, home, and culture affected my impression of them deeply. Takashi's death and the jiya leaving his body was such a vivid and powerful image. And the way he and Takeru create the dragon figure to defend the mountainside. I felt like I was picturing the scope of the battle scene from Mulan and the descriptions of destruction in R. F. Kuang's books. Before the battle scenes, I honestly thought of Takashi as passing the buck...he weirdly reminded me of Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender (but Iroh was not nearly as arrogant/sexist). I'm not sure if Takashi was supposed to leave that impression in order to have a larger emotional payout when we see how truly skilled he is, or if that was a character development flaw on Wang's part.
Takeru was an interesting character. While I ended up liking him by the end of the book, I think he could've been better written. His arc was a little clunky. He went from being incredibly cold, dismissive, and seemingly lacking any empathy for Misaki or his family to going through this huge transformation after the duel with his wife. I could 100% see how having that sort of confrontation could massively change a person, but the 180 was still a bit jarring and not that realistic in my opinion from an emotional standpoint. He hardly trips up in his communications and actions with Misaki (I think it's mentioned that he can still be condescending post-confrontation, but that's about it). (One example that was particularly clunky to me was going from blaming Misaki for not protecting their kids well enough that Hiroshi had to come out and kill the Ranganese warrior, then after their confrontation, he suddenly realizes that she was in a tough position and is able to empathize so easily...) I thought it was an incredibly cool concept that he was The Mountain. He retreated to the mountain when faced with difficult decisions and emotions as a way to cope with the trauma and abuse his father inflicted on him and his family :( But it explains the coldness really well; I honestly thought that was just a weird character quirk. I do kind of wish that we had seen hints at this big reveal throughout and it wasn't just one massive reveal since the "last ditch" reveal to Misaki endedup feeling rushed. While we see how awful the grandfather is to Misaki, I don't think we learned enough about the abuse he inflicts on his sons and wife. Misaki does acknowledge that she could've extended some empathy to Takeru instead of being wrapped up in her own issues. (Or the grandfather could've just not been an asshole...) But I guess it could've been effective to have flashbacks or something to support Takeru's choice to dissociate/extract himself from potentially tense situations. He explains some of his actions from over the years as trying to protect/help her in the only way he knew how... (his coldness after her miscarriage, not allowing her to talk about her home/past, etc). Anyways, this is all to say that I think Wang could've balanced out Takeru's development and growth over the span of the 630 pages instead of cramming it all into the last 20-25% of the book.
I loved all the children in this book. Obviously there's a heavy focus on the Matsuda boys. My heart absolutely broke when Mamoru died. My general thought process was "this isn't really going to happen, is it? No she isn't going to kill him off...WHAAAT NOOOO". I feel like I was offered false hope a few times that he would overcome all odds and make it out of the battle with the elite Ranganese warrior on the other side. It also broke my heart that he finally achieves the Whispering Blade as his last act before dying, and no one witnesses it. But, I suppose there's something to be said about how Mamoru did it, and that's all that truly matters. Not the validation he wanted from his father/uncle. Watching Takeru "train" Mamoru was rough. Thank goodness Misaki stepped in and explained what Takeru meant by "sloppy" because it obviously wasn't registering with Mamoru and he couldn't fix the issue. I loved the relationship Mamoru had with Misaki; that one scene where they watch the sunrise and she trains him in secret was really special. It felt like there was a particularly special bond between Misaki and Mamoru because he was her and Takeru's only child for so long. Not to mention, he then serves as a mentor and pseudo "father figure" for his younger brothers because Takeru is basically an absent father (due to the rigid gender roles). The way he's so affectionate towards his younger brothers was lovely. I also really liked Chul-hee. He's intelligent in a way that's not highlighted much in the village. I also really liked Atsushi, the blacksmith's son. I'm glad he and his father survive.
I do wish we had seen more development with Hiroshi's character. We get hints that he already shows signs of being a great fighter, perhaps even better than Mamoru, but not much beyond that. Hiroshi is responsible for saving his mother during the battle. We also learn that he's believed to be the youngest person to ever conjure a Whispering Blade at 15 (since no one sees Mamoru do so before he dies on the mountain alone). I think there was potential for development with Hiroshi's character that wasn't fulfilled. And of course, I loved little Nagasa and Izumo. They were a source of warmth and love for Misaki in ways her husband never offers her.
The one character who does feel the most fleshed out was Misaki. She's a badass. Nuff said. Her perseverance and skills were unparalleled. When she says that Takeru is stronger than she is, I'm not entirely sure if that's true. Maybe by sheer force/strength, but I got the feeling that their skills were pretty evenly matched. She also possessed skills he didn't have, like the blood manipulation/healing. While I appreciate the flashbacks to her time abroad, they didn't feel like they fit well. I think perhaps because there were so few. I saw that as Wang's attempt to expand the world and give Misaki more of a backstory, but they also introduced too much that went unexplored. I liked Robin's character a lot, but he also felt very underdeveloped. Having him pop up at the end was a pleasant surprise but also...kind of random? I think he could've just been left behind as part of Misaki's past that was never fully resolved. I don't hate that Wang brought him back, I just kind of wish she'd done it differently. He just felt awkwardly slotted in. I liked that he had a son (Daniel was so funny! and I like that he brought Hiroshi out of his shell when the latter was determined to hate Daniel and Robin lol), whom he encouraged to speak his mother-tongue. I like that Takeru invited him so Misaki could get some closure. But then he hinted that there was even more going on within the government related to the suicidal litiggi Misaki and Takeru encounter after their duel. That was definitely unnecessary and random. Robin was on an investigative journey to gather information about the being Misaki and Takeru encountered, but we don't find out for whom he worked. Just that he was kidnapping kids to build an army.
This is supposed to be a standalone, but there are just so many loose ends lol There was also so much that Wang could've explored in the city Robin, Elleen, and Misaki fought to protect. I kind of wish we had gotten more bout Elleen's character/race. They seemed super cool.
Anyways, those are all my thoughts for now. I can see why people really like this book and my enjoyment was quite high while reading, but there are a lot of mechanics wrong with it, too. I actually do think the book went through more editing because the audiobook had slightly different words/vocabulary than the book I read. Some books' lack of editing can really affect my enjoyment (like with The Hands of the Emperor and Kiss of the Basilisk, and sometimes for whatever reasons, I can overlook them to some degree that it doesn't affect my rating as much 🤷♀️ this is a case where it didn't affect my enjoyment as much.
Takeru was an interesting character. While I ended up liking him by the end of the book, I think he could've been better written. His arc was a little clunky. He went from being incredibly cold, dismissive, and seemingly lacking any empathy for Misaki or his family to going through this huge transformation after the duel with his wife. I could 100% see how having that sort of confrontation could massively change a person, but the 180 was still a bit jarring and not that realistic in my opinion from an emotional standpoint. He hardly trips up in his communications and actions with Misaki (I think it's mentioned that he can still be condescending post-confrontation, but that's about it). (One example that was particularly clunky to me was going from blaming Misaki for not protecting their kids well enough that Hiroshi had to come out and kill the Ranganese warrior, then after their confrontation, he suddenly realizes that she was in a tough position and is able to empathize so easily...) I thought it was an incredibly cool concept that he was The Mountain. He retreated to the mountain when faced with difficult decisions and emotions as a way to cope with the trauma and abuse his father inflicted on him and his family :( But it explains the coldness really well; I honestly thought that was just a weird character quirk. I do kind of wish that we had seen hints at this big reveal throughout and it wasn't just one massive reveal since the "last ditch" reveal to Misaki endedup feeling rushed. While we see how awful the grandfather is to Misaki, I don't think we learned enough about the abuse he inflicts on his sons and wife. Misaki does acknowledge that she could've extended some empathy to Takeru instead of being wrapped up in her own issues. (Or the grandfather could've just not been an asshole...) But I guess it could've been effective to have flashbacks or something to support Takeru's choice to dissociate/extract himself from potentially tense situations. He explains some of his actions from over the years as trying to protect/help her in the only way he knew how... (his coldness after her miscarriage, not allowing her to talk about her home/past, etc). Anyways, this is all to say that I think Wang could've balanced out Takeru's development and growth over the span of the 630 pages instead of cramming it all into the last 20-25% of the book.
I loved all the children in this book. Obviously there's a heavy focus on the Matsuda boys. My heart absolutely broke when Mamoru died. My general thought process was "this isn't really going to happen, is it? No she isn't going to kill him off...WHAAAT NOOOO". I feel like I was offered false hope a few times that he would overcome all odds and make it out of the battle with the elite Ranganese warrior on the other side. It also broke my heart that he finally achieves the Whispering Blade as his last act before dying, and no one witnesses it. But, I suppose there's something to be said about how Mamoru did it, and that's all that truly matters. Not the validation he wanted from his father/uncle. Watching Takeru "train" Mamoru was rough. Thank goodness Misaki stepped in and explained what Takeru meant by "sloppy" because it obviously wasn't registering with Mamoru and he couldn't fix the issue. I loved the relationship Mamoru had with Misaki; that one scene where they watch the sunrise and she trains him in secret was really special. It felt like there was a particularly special bond between Misaki and Mamoru because he was her and Takeru's only child for so long. Not to mention, he then serves as a mentor and pseudo "father figure" for his younger brothers because Takeru is basically an absent father (due to the rigid gender roles). The way he's so affectionate towards his younger brothers was lovely. I also really liked Chul-hee. He's intelligent in a way that's not highlighted much in the village. I also really liked Atsushi, the blacksmith's son. I'm glad he and his father survive.
I do wish we had seen more development with Hiroshi's character. We get hints that he already shows signs of being a great fighter, perhaps even better than Mamoru, but not much beyond that. Hiroshi is responsible for saving his mother during the battle. We also learn that he's believed to be the youngest person to ever conjure a Whispering Blade at 15 (since no one sees Mamoru do so before he dies on the mountain alone). I think there was potential for development with Hiroshi's character that wasn't fulfilled. And of course, I loved little Nagasa and Izumo. They were a source of warmth and love for Misaki in ways her husband never offers her.
The one character who does feel the most fleshed out was Misaki. She's a badass. Nuff said. Her perseverance and skills were unparalleled. When she says that Takeru is stronger than she is, I'm not entirely sure if that's true. Maybe by sheer force/strength, but I got the feeling that their skills were pretty evenly matched. She also possessed skills he didn't have, like the blood manipulation/healing. While I appreciate the flashbacks to her time abroad, they didn't feel like they fit well. I think perhaps because there were so few. I saw that as Wang's attempt to expand the world and give Misaki more of a backstory, but they also introduced too much that went unexplored. I liked Robin's character a lot, but he also felt very underdeveloped. Having him pop up at the end was a pleasant surprise but also...kind of random? I think he could've just been left behind as part of Misaki's past that was never fully resolved. I don't hate that Wang brought him back, I just kind of wish she'd done it differently. He just felt awkwardly slotted in. I liked that he had a son (Daniel was so funny! and I like that he brought Hiroshi out of his shell when the latter was determined to hate Daniel and Robin lol), whom he encouraged to speak his mother-tongue. I like that Takeru invited him so Misaki could get some closure. But then he hinted that there was even more going on within the government related to the suicidal litiggi Misaki and Takeru encounter after their duel. That was definitely unnecessary and random. Robin was on an investigative journey to gather information about the being Misaki and Takeru encountered, but we don't find out for whom he worked. Just that he was kidnapping kids to build an army.
This is supposed to be a standalone, but there are just so many loose ends lol There was also so much that Wang could've explored in the city Robin, Elleen, and Misaki fought to protect. I kind of wish we had gotten more bout Elleen's character/race. They seemed super cool.
Anyways, those are all my thoughts for now. I can see why people really like this book and my enjoyment was quite high while reading, but there are a lot of mechanics wrong with it, too. I actually do think the book went through more editing because the audiobook had slightly different words/vocabulary than the book I read. Some books' lack of editing can really affect my enjoyment (like with The Hands of the Emperor and Kiss of the Basilisk, and sometimes for whatever reasons, I can overlook them to some degree that it doesn't affect my rating as much 🤷♀️ this is a case where it didn't affect my enjoyment as much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail