Perhaps she was stronger than he was. Perhaps it was impossible for him to overcome this woman who seemed to carry the force of an army inside her.
The Sword of Kaigen
by M. L. Wang
Genre: Adult Fantasy
About: A warrior's worst nightmare is to die slow, letting their blades' edge rust. For the mountain men of Kaigen, peace has been their bitter enemy. But no more. As war threatens their borders, it won't just be the men that pick up arms. Instead the blade of a mother and her son might be the only force strong enough to protect the people and save the Empire.
Thoughts
This was so complex and I loved it. Misaki is one of those flawed characters that fill you with awe as she continues to grow even after she considered her story to be over. Wang does such an excellent job balancing her past and present so that we really understand Misaki; the rebel in her, the fall back to tradition, the blame, the longing, the acceptance. She's a really layered character who feels very relatable. I loved seeing how all these sides came together to give us a mother in an epic fantasy who can play spy, warrior and housewife simultaneously.
What I loved most was how Wang delivers a traditional epic fantasy with elemental magic, chosen ones, battles between good and evil... and does so by constantly inverting our expectations of those tropes. It'd be complete spoiler territory to go over how those tropes were upturned but it made this such an astonishing read, full of emotion and subtle complexities.
The world-building of course was impressive, especially with how well thought out the politics was and the devastating effect of propaganda to really close off a nation to progress and hide the truth of its history.
However I'm not sure this was a top read for me. Despite loving the characters and being blown away by the relationships and the development these go through, there was just something about the pace and the writing that didn't work for me. I really didn't enjoy the literal history lessons we get at the beginning, I thought some sections were overly long and descriptive, and there was one character in particular that did a 180 in terms of their personality and did so way too fast.
As time passes I might change my mind and the things I had issues with might pale in comparison to the things that I loved. My experience overall though, was that this was a very impressive, memorable fantasy that was probably strongest in its middle section and didn't fully convince me with the beginning and end.
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