lavendermarch's review against another edition
5.0
4.8 stars. SO GOOD! I feel extraordinarily proud of myself. I got this book for Christmas, read 66 pages, and put it on my bedside table. I hadn't picked up until today. I started from the very beginning, and though I was confused, all was revealed. And frankly, it was done really well. I liked Saya, and Chihaya was just...ahhh. A cool breath of air. Very nice. Wonderful plot line. I do wish Saya could've done a little more with her powers though, which is why I took off o.2 stars.
alibrareads's review against another edition
2.0
I wish that this spoke to me more, but I found this so boring! Some vaguely interesting/intriguing things happen at the very very end, but most of this had a whole lot of nothing happening. Or rather, things happened... But it was like I was viewing it from a distance and there was nothing connecting me emotionally to the things going on. Saya was utterly useless as a “heroine”. She was nothing but a plot device, even though she was apparently super important as the Water Maiden and the one who could still the wrath of gods. That wasn’t even really displayed clearly in the book! If I wasn’t repeatedly told that’s what she could do I never would have surmised that she was good for anything at all. She was just swept along by other people or events and was miserable all the time.
I did like the idea that there wasn’t exactly good or evil in either the Light or Darkness. The Light was all about being utterly devoted to something to a fault and tossing out things like compassion to achieve an ideal, and the Darkness was about mischief and enjoying life because of its impermanence. Both can be necessary and beautiful in their own way. But it isn’t a new or revolutionary idea to have “light” be viewed more as the enemy rather than “darkness”.
This was translated from Japanese, so I’m not sure if maybe some cultural differences between Japanese storytelling and European/American storytelling influenced my feelings on this. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it was a 100 page short story or something rather than almost 300 pages. As it is, I had to force myself to push through and finish this book.
The pacing was slow and I was just not interested in Saya’s constant pity-party and her weird relationships/fascinations with the two Princes of Light.
Won’t be looking into the other books in this series and probably wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unless they were specifically looking for translated Japanese fantasy/folklore, and even then... I don’t think it was very good for how long it was.
Check out my YouTube review: https://youtu.be/nsw7W7rtIGM
I did like the idea that there wasn’t exactly good or evil in either the Light or Darkness. The Light was all about being utterly devoted to something to a fault and tossing out things like compassion to achieve an ideal, and the Darkness was about mischief and enjoying life because of its impermanence. Both can be necessary and beautiful in their own way. But it isn’t a new or revolutionary idea to have “light” be viewed more as the enemy rather than “darkness”.
This was translated from Japanese, so I’m not sure if maybe some cultural differences between Japanese storytelling and European/American storytelling influenced my feelings on this. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it was a 100 page short story or something rather than almost 300 pages. As it is, I had to force myself to push through and finish this book.
The pacing was slow and I was just not interested in Saya’s constant pity-party and her weird relationships/fascinations with the two Princes of Light.
Won’t be looking into the other books in this series and probably wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unless they were specifically looking for translated Japanese fantasy/folklore, and even then... I don’t think it was very good for how long it was.
Check out my YouTube review: https://youtu.be/nsw7W7rtIGM
iffer's review against another edition
4.0
Dragon Sword and Wind Child is a hidden gem. Ogiwara weaves a lyrical, whimsical, complex tale about love, war, fate and religion. Although the English translation is beautiful, I can't even imagine how gorgeous and nuanced it would be in the original Japanese. As a warning to fantasy fans looking for their next escapism read, this isn't a romp of an adventure; rather it is a slow burn, character and idea driven myth.
matterofmichael's review against another edition
3.0
++Intriguing lore
+Unusual magic system
++Antagonists are thought out in their views of the world and their goals
-Main character... Cries a lot, basically all she does
-/+MCs battle of following light vs dark is a cool concept, but her emotions flip so quickly is hard to tell.
-Mood shifts are odd in this book
+Good atmosphere
++other MC, like their progression and view points and how they tackle the world in flux around them.
+Unusual magic system
++Antagonists are thought out in their views of the world and their goals
-Main character... Cries a lot, basically all she does
-/+MCs battle of following light vs dark is a cool concept, but her emotions flip so quickly is hard to tell.
-Mood shifts are odd in this book
+Good atmosphere
++other MC, like their progression and view points and how they tackle the world in flux around them.
ercamcll's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The translation made it hard for me to stay in the story but it was still a very good story
krayfish1's review against another edition
4.0
I read this as a child and loved it.
Reading it as an adult it feels a bit clunky, but it is unique and I still like the plot.
Reading it as an adult it feels a bit clunky, but it is unique and I still like the plot.
elodiethompson's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
laurenl5876's review against another edition
2.0
Crap, my librarian friend Amy will kill me for not liking this book. Don't kill me Amy!
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I can definitely understand why people love this book. The writing is gorgeous, the premise is unique, but I did not click at all with this book. I felt like the main character was a very stereotypical " manic pixie dream girl" type character. Ugh, she was bland but adored, and I just couldn't do it.
The mythology started strong, but the more I read the more this book and I were not friends.
I can definitely understand why people love this book. The writing is gorgeous, the premise is unique, but I did not click at all with this book. I felt like the main character was a very stereotypical " manic pixie dream girl" type character. Ugh, she was bland but adored, and I just couldn't do it.
The mythology started strong, but the more I read the more this book and I were not friends.
familiar_diversions's review against another edition
4.0
Fifteen-year-old Saya is the only survivor of an attack by the army of the God of Light on her village when she was a child. Although she occasionally dreams about the attack, she now lives with her adoptive parents in the village of Hashiba, which has accepted the God of Light and his immortal children, Princess Teruhi and Prince Tsukishiro. Saya has no memories of her birth parents and loves the Light just as much as any other person in Hashiba, so it's a shock when several strangers arrive and tell her that she's a princess of the Children of the Dark. Unlike the immortal Children of the God of Light, the Children of the Goddess of Darkness can die and then be reincarnated, and Saya is the reincarnation of the Water Maiden. Before she has a chance to truly process this, Prince Tsukishiro arrives and takes a sudden interest in her.
Saya is faced with several choices: she can become one of the prince's handmaidens and eventually his bride, knowing that he doesn't really love her; she can kill herself like the Water Maidens before her; or she can somehow find a way to escape. She chooses the third option and discovers both the Dragon Sword, a weapon so powerful it can kill gods, and Chihaya, a Child of the God of Light who is seen as a failure by his siblings because he has always been drawn to the Darkness.
I honestly didn't know where Ogiwara was going to go with this book, most of the time. Saya figured out that her love for Prince Tsukishiro was foolish surprisingly quickly, although it took a bit longer for her heart to catch up. Chihaya was...unexpected. I had caught the mention of a third Child of the God of Light, but I hadn't thought that Saya would be meeting him so soon and taking him along with her.
The immortals, Chihaya in particular, came across as somewhat alien. Chihaya had the ability to switch bodies with various animals and didn't seem to be aware, or maybe didn't care, that the animals wouldn't necessarily be okay if they got injured while he was using them. He could experience pain and certainly disliked it, but any injuries would usually disappear in a day or less. He cared about his horse and Saya, in that order, and I'm not sure he truly realized, during a good chunk of the book, that Saya could die.
The book's pacing was a bit slow for my tastes, but I liked reading about Saya's efforts to understand Chihaya. She had to struggle to convince the Children of the Goddess of Darkness to keep him free as he kept doing things that indicated he was more dangerous to have around than they'd initially thought. Watching how Chihaya changed as the story progressed was fascinating.
I wish, though, that Saya hadn't come across as more a supporting character than a main character. I went into the book expecting her to be more active. There were moments when she had choices to make and things to do, but mostly she existed to support Chihaya while he gradually came into his powers and got a better look at the Darkness he'd been drawn towards all his life. Saya supposedly had the power to pacify gods but never got to the point of being able to use them, unless her ability to connect with Chihaya counted.
I kind of wish this had been a friendship-only book, since I felt Chihaya and Saya worked best as friends, but I suppose their eventual romance fit with the "God of Light and Goddess of Darkness" theme. The way I felt about the two of them reminded me a little of how I felt about the sudden romance in Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass. It felt forced.
All in all, despite its problems this was pretty good. I look forward to the next book, although I wonder how it'll be related to this one. I don't recognize the character names in the description and, honestly, the way Dragon Sword and Wind Child ended makes it work just fine as a standalone.
Extras:
The book includes two full-page, full-color illustrations. One is a larger version of the cover illustration.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
Saya is faced with several choices: she can become one of the prince's handmaidens and eventually his bride, knowing that he doesn't really love her; she can kill herself like the Water Maidens before her; or she can somehow find a way to escape. She chooses the third option and discovers both the Dragon Sword, a weapon so powerful it can kill gods, and Chihaya, a Child of the God of Light who is seen as a failure by his siblings because he has always been drawn to the Darkness.
I honestly didn't know where Ogiwara was going to go with this book, most of the time. Saya figured out that her love for Prince Tsukishiro was foolish surprisingly quickly, although it took a bit longer for her heart to catch up. Chihaya was...unexpected. I had caught the mention of a third Child of the God of Light, but I hadn't thought that Saya would be meeting him so soon and taking him along with her.
The immortals, Chihaya in particular, came across as somewhat alien. Chihaya had the ability to switch bodies with various animals and didn't seem to be aware, or maybe didn't care, that the animals wouldn't necessarily be okay if they got injured while he was using them. He could experience pain and certainly disliked it, but any injuries would usually disappear in a day or less. He cared about his horse and Saya, in that order, and I'm not sure he truly realized, during a good chunk of the book, that Saya could die.
The book's pacing was a bit slow for my tastes, but I liked reading about Saya's efforts to understand Chihaya. She had to struggle to convince the Children of the Goddess of Darkness to keep him free as he kept doing things that indicated he was more dangerous to have around than they'd initially thought. Watching how Chihaya changed as the story progressed was fascinating.
I wish, though, that Saya hadn't come across as more a supporting character than a main character. I went into the book expecting her to be more active. There were moments when she had choices to make and things to do, but mostly she existed to support Chihaya while he gradually came into his powers and got a better look at the Darkness he'd been drawn towards all his life. Saya supposedly had the power to pacify gods but never got to the point of being able to use them, unless her ability to connect with Chihaya counted.
I kind of wish this had been a friendship-only book, since I felt Chihaya and Saya worked best as friends, but I suppose their eventual romance fit with the "God of Light and Goddess of Darkness" theme. The way I felt about the two of them reminded me a little of how I felt about the sudden romance in Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass. It felt forced.
All in all, despite its problems this was pretty good. I look forward to the next book, although I wonder how it'll be related to this one. I don't recognize the character names in the description and, honestly, the way Dragon Sword and Wind Child ended makes it work just fine as a standalone.
Extras:
The book includes two full-page, full-color illustrations. One is a larger version of the cover illustration.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)