This is a such difficult book to rate and review!
Especially since almost everyone else seems to adore it.
While I absolutely loved some parts, I also disliked quite a few aspects.
I’ll note down the pros and cons:
Pros:
It is unputdownable: Seriously, this book is over 600 pages and I had to force myself to close my kindle and do other things like eat, sleep or work. The narrative is quick. The dialogue and character interaction is excellent.
Martial arts and elemental magic: I’m a sucker for good action and anything even remotely related to air/fire/water bending. The writer does fight scenes incredibly well, I had goosebumps while reading them.
Cons:
There’s angst: oh good grief, there is So. Much Angst. Sure, there is patriarchy, sexism, unreasonable social norms, arranged marriages but more than anything else, the characters revel in their misery, especially Misaki, the central protagonist. Inspite of being a super badass fighter, she does not stop whining. The self recrimination starts to grate after a while.
The character arcs are predictable and honestly boring. Even though I really felt for the characters, cheered them on and even teared up a couple of times, I wanted to slap some sense in their heads for being so emotionally stunted.
The book doesn’t seem to know what genre it wants to be: Action/tragedy/YA/Romance/coming of age/fantasy/drama?
The pacing is uneven: The last 30% felt like an overlong epilogue that only serves to set up the main Theonite series.
There’s no satisfying conclusion and the claims about it being a standalone seem misleading.
This last point is infuriating because now that I really want to read about what happens in this world, it turns out that the author has put the series on hiatus (for now at-least).
I think this was a very well written book, I just feel it could have been much better.
I sincerely hope Ms Wang finishes the series someday.
Till then I’ll keep an eye for anything else she writes. I’ll make sure that it is a completed work before I pick it up though.
The Sword of Kaigen
This is a such difficult book to rate and review! Especially since almost everyone else seems to adore it. While I absolutely loved some parts, I also disliked quite a few aspects. I'll ...
