Review: The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story by M.L. Wang
A mother struggling to repress her violent past,
A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?
High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire’s enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name ‘The Sword of Kaigen.’
Born into Kusanagi’s legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: to master his family’s fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen’s alleged age of peace, Mamoru realizes that he might not have much time to become the fighter he was bred to be. Worse, the empire he was bred to defend may stand on a foundation of lies.
Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her growing son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of an impending invasion looming across the sea, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.
TW: rape, one of the main character deaths and just character deaths.
Dear M.L.Wang:
In many ways I found this story exceptional. The world is complex and interesting, the characters fascinated me and I could not take my eyes away from the book. The only nit picks are that I wished so badly that the author would put the glossary in the beginning simply because I do not always use the glossary even if the world is unknown to me, often I can figure it out within the context of the story.
This society though tries to imitate feudal Japan (somehow with modern technology) and I had no idea whatsoever what a lot of the unknown made up words meant without looking them up. Another nitpick was that I could do without the occasional info dumps. There were not many of those though, mostly the world was revealing itself through the story and I liked it that way. But you could see that a lot of world building was left off the pages even if author knew all of it obviously.
The blurb gives you the bare bones of the set up, but honestly I think even a little more can spoil it.
This is a story about the village of warriors and several old families of warriors who live amongst the villagers and whose knowledge of martial arts and manipulation of the elements (yes, you can see some Avatar homage there, but this is not an Avatar retelling, I thought this is what paying homage to the story should look like) makes them capable of defending their empire should the war break out again. These warriors believe it to be true anyway.
Misaki is married to Takeru. She married into the Matsuda family and sort of left a lot of herself behind. I think one of my favorite storylines in the book was her and her husband actually finding their way towards one another even if so much pain was the driving factor in them realizing after fifteen years together that their marriage may actually work.
They both make mistakes, but it was so refreshing to see the characters who act their age and who do act as adults at the end even if what caused them to see their situation clearly would be better to have never happened.
The war obviously breaks and a lot of characters realize that the Empire may not be as protective of them as they hope it would be and they can only rely on themselves and friends and families in trying to survive the war.
I loved several characters so much and this book made me cry but I really appreciated the growth and change the main characters go through.
B+
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This has popped up several times in several of my feeds. Is it a stand alone or the first in a series?
I’ve been wanting to try it, but admit that I usually wait till there’s at least a few books out before starting if it’s a series.
@elizabeth: It is a stand alone which does not happen too often these days, but it was written I think in 2019? ( not sure, maybe couple years earlier) and author since did not continue it and I believe ( once again not 100 percent sure) that she has no plans to do so.