Reviews

The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

megareads42's review against another edition

4.0

This reading experience reminded me that it really is important to be in the right mood for a book. I got to about 15% in this one and set it aside because it just was not holding my interest. Too many characters, nationalities, types of magic, and I just wasn't following. Revisited a few days ago when I was craving some fantasy and I was riveted. Flew through the rest of the book and loved it. Was really disappointed to read that this is a standalone because I really enjoyed the world and thought she walked a great line between resolving this story and setting up some new mysteries. I really enjoyed the middle-aged mother protagonist. The change of heart of her husband was super important to me as the author did such a good job of painting him as a jerk that when he wouldn't listen to her I would be tempted to throw the book across the room. I thought the resolution of their story was really well done and not too saccharine. Loved this, and so glad I picked it back up.

datb0o0i's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

samfitz01's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

joshua_weir's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

eddie_v714's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

thatprickleypear's review against another edition

Normally I love things inspired by Japanese history and everyone said the magic system is incredible, but I just couldn't sink into it. Not particularly fond of any of the characters and there are SO many world-only terms that I can't keep up with, even with the glossary

vincederr's review against another edition

4.0

This Japanese inspire fantasy centers us on the Matsuda family, one of the most powerful in the Empire of Kaigen. Mamoru is the teenage son who’s struggling with the reality of the empire vs the propaganda of the empire. Misaki is the mother whose violent past threatens to ruin her image as housewife. Takeru is the father whose ice-cold certainty in the validity of honor is challenged by the empire he serves. This book took me a little to get into, especially with a flashback chapter. This book shows us the struggle of honor shame culture. We see the unraveling of naive young mind wrestling against the propaganda he’s been fed. The battle scenes are vivid, gripping, and emotional. No book that I’ve read has ever dealt with the aftermath of battle with more tragic beauty than The Sword of Kaigen. I discovered that I developed many misty eyes in the second half of the book. Misaki is certainly a new favorite female character. I felt every emotion Misaki felt and then some. This is my first introduction to self-published books, and I’m thoroughly impressed. I just wish Wang had an editor that would have made her end the book after “The Duel” chapter or simply cut out every flashback chapter. The last chapter is the longest in the book and it completely throws off the narrative. This book was phenomenal. Let me get my small complaint out of the way. The flashback chapters just distract from the story I really want to know about. We’re amid heavy emotions and some of the most impactful chapters but they get bifurcated by an unnecessary flashback.

4.5 out of 5

tchinoise's review against another edition

emotional sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

This book recked me! I cried of anger, sadness and happiness

kaylaswhitmore's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

At the behest of my husband (who easily would give this book a 5/5) I read The Sword of Kaigen on the plane to and from our trip overseas. I didn’t honestly know what to expect coming into the story—only that my husband strongly believes  men should read this story to better understand the cost of motherhood and pregnancy on women—and it thoroughly surprised me.

 Right from the get go, Wang’s rich and vibrant Theonite universe pulled me in with no hesitation. I’ll admit that at first—not having been familiar with her previous writing for the universe—the lore and jargon was a bit overwhelming. However, I think anyone who is familiar with fantasy fiction or power scales will be able to grasp it quickly. 

Wang created a very intriguing plot full of conspiracy and adventure from the beginning, and her writing rarely left us wishing for more. I felt that her use of different narrative POVs added to the depth of the story, and I genuinely wasn’t expecting the main MC to be Mamoru’s mother as opposed to him. And the third POV that we eventually get later in the book? That was beautiful done and illuminated both the events and characters of the story in a unique light that I hadn’t thought we would get. Wang managed to take several  tropes commonly seen in fantasy and give them a new spin that felt grounded in Asian culture as well as real, raw human emotion. 

By way of critiques, I don’t have many. If I were to list one or two, it would perhaps be that I personally felt that while the slow-burn relationship in the story was well thought out, it may not have quite lived up to the expectation or hopes that I had come to hold for it. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it or find their endgame satisfactory—it’s more that I thought we spent so much time setting up the hardships of the relationship that I had wanted a longer, more hard-won partnership in the second half of their journey together. And I personally felt that while the work up to their union was hard-won, the actual fruition of their conflicts were a bit too clean for my tastes. Secondly, my other critique is less of a critique and more of a petty complaint, haha. There’s almost nothing more disappointing to me as an audience member than falling in love with a world, seeing the potential for its continuation, then coming to find out that the creator has no intention of adding more to it. This isn’t truly a “fault” of Wang, per se, but I did find it underwhelming that we had so many avenues left to explore by the end of the story, and yet a few pages later had her announcement that she would no longer be exploring the Theonite universe. Alas, I suppose it’s much worse to be left wanting less from an author than to be left wanting more, so even this is still a praise to Wang’s ingenuity!

Altogether, I hope to return to this book in another year or so to reread Misaki’s adventure—and this time I most likely won’t be on a public plabe where I have to conceal my tears and will be able to sob freely as I wanted to the first time lol.  Congrats to Wang for writing such a fabulous story! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Colonisation

If you are sensitive to rape:

About halfway through the book, a character is actively being raped. Though the description is clear about the assault, it does NOT go into detail or explicitly describe anything about the assault.

If you are sensitive to miscarriages or post-partum:

Pregnancy and miscarrying are very, very present themes in this story and pertain to Misaki’s POV. She often goes into detail about how post-partum depression and her miscarriages affected her, though it’s almost always from an emotional standpoint. She does not describe the physical symptoms of her miscarriages in detail. This also is brought up fairly quickly in the story and repeatedly comes up throughout it.

If you are sensitive to suicide or suicidal thoughts:

Halfway through the book, a character verbally contemplates ending their own life in the midst of grief, and then later does in fact commit suicide. While their suicidal thoughts are not described in depth and the audience is not present at the time of the suicide, the aftermath of the suicide itself is certainly shown in detail and is very heartbreaking.

majopanda's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0