The Sword of Kaigen

A Theonite War Story

Paperback, 613 pages

English language

Published Feb. 19, 2019 by Independently published.

ISBN:
978-1-7201-9386-9
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Goodreads:
55298272

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4 stars (20 reviews)

On a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful fighters in the world, warriors capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For centuries, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire's enemies at bay, earning their treacherous spit of land the name 'The Sword of Kaigen.'

Born into Kusanagi's legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always know 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 ralizes that he might not have much time before he has to become the fighter he was bred to be. Even worse, the empire he was born to defend might stand on a foundation of lies.

Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda …

1 edition

reviewed The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang (Theonite)

An Asian fantasy that centers defiance of power structures and should be on your reading list!

5 stars

The Sword of Kaigen is about war, family, community, and magical powers—but it’s also so much more than that. At the very heart of this story is hope, growth, self-realization, the will to keep moving forward … but above all, defiance. Defiance of the character’s own expectations, defiance of societal and gender norms, defiance of the government.

This masterpiece of a story is set in a small part of the Kaiganese Empire, high up on the ice-covered Mount Takayubi, which, for all intents and purposes, is cut off from the rest of the world. Various families live on this mountain in a class hierarchy—at the very top, almost reaching the clouds, is the village that the Matsudas and Yukinos, houses that have ruled over the mountain for many centuries, inhabit. The Matsudas are at the center of this book, with the multi-voiced narrative alternating between Mamoru, the eldest son …

Review of 'The Sword of Kaigen' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

DNF @ 50%

Honestly I did not enjoy this at all. There were just far too many issues that I could not get past and I am putting this down.

Starting with the prose. There were just so many gibberish sentences that required a dictionary and the glossary to make any sense of. There were so many Japanese and made up words thrown in constantly that absolutely killed my reading pace. Why are there new words used for simple things like second, minute and hour? Why are there just so many random terms thrown in with no context at all? I’m no stranger to dense fantasy but this was just incredibly frustrating and really killed my enjoyment when I couldn’t understand what the author was even trying to say half the time. And the info dumps were just unbearable. We spent so many pages sifting through the whole history of …

Review of 'The Sword of Kaigen' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was excellent! 4 stars, maybe 4.5? I was torn on whether to land on a 4 or 5 for goodreads. I’m shocked this is self-published. The pacing was really good, the plot was great, and most importantly for me, the characters were believable and interesting. This is a high quality genre read.

My nitpicks are that it was still a bit wordy for me. There were parts that could have been shorter. But as a whole the book didn’t drag. There was good tension throughout as one thing got resolved and a new thing came up. Some of the best handling of that I’ve read.

I wasn’t totally sold on Takeru and Misaki’s arc given where they started. As the person with less power, I don’t think Misaki should have given herself equal blame for the state of her marriage. And the closure with Robin felt a little too …

Review of 'The Sword of Kaigen' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

It's never fair to judge a book in the first chapter but that's when a seed of doubt appeared for me. The reviews for this book are strong. Daniel Greene spoke highly about this book in his 2020 year in review so I had expectations that it would improve. I pushed down my doubt and kept going.

The characters, location and magic system expanded and I was started to get hooked to the story. The use of ice and blood magic felt unique and offered some interesting fighting methods. The POV's were fine but Misaki's story was my favorite and would have preferred one told of her past entirely.

One item that bothered me was that I couldn't figure out what time the story was set in. The main mountain village was quaint and traditional but they had TV's. Then the city slickers came in with their fancy communication devices …

Review of 'The Sword of Kaigen' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Sorry to be cliché, but it gave me strong Naruto vibes, and, something i should have looked into, "The Poppy War " vibes... All in all, this was an immersive epic japanese inspired fantasy read and I recommend it to anyone even remotely interested^^

Review of 'The Sword of Kaigen' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The Sword of Kaigen is a mix of brilliant feudal drama in a strange fantasy world that takes place in a very modern time period. In some ways, it reads like an amazing piece of fan-fiction for Avatar: The Last Airbender, although I worry that comparison diminishes what the author has actually accomplished here. Conversely, it leans much harder into in-world immersion than I prefer, and tinkers with language and culture in ways that feel, at times, a little awkward for a stand alone story.

It starts off by announcing what planet the story takes place on, but there is only one planet ever discussed in the book -- I later learned that The Sword of Kaigen is actually a prequel to another series that is a portal fantasy involving Earth. It may be that the various issues that, for me, pulled this down from a 5-star read, all …

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Subjects

  • Fantasy
  • Fiction

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