ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael McClung was born and raised in Texas, lived in Southeast Asia for twenty years, and currently resides in Poland. He has published nine novels, a novella and a short story collection. His first novel was published by Random House in 2003, and in 2016 he won Mark Lawrence's inaugural SPFBO contest with The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids. He goes by @mcclungmike on Twitter, but doesn’t do the Facebook anymore, because reasons. He occasionally talks about stuff on his blog at somethingstickythiswaycomes.blogspot.com if you're interested in, uh, stuff being talked about.
Published: November 28, 2012 by Michael McClung Length: 208 pages (Kindle) Formats: Literary awards: SPFBO Award for Best Fantasy Book (2015) Series Amra Thetys #1
LUKASZ
Boring and predictable.
Not the book, though, but my review. I join The Sword of Kaigen fan club and I plan to force anyone listening to try it. I won’t lie, I hoped I would identify its unforgivable flaws and enumerate them to show how insightful I am. I did find some, but they didn’t stop me from loving the book.
The Sword of Kaigen introduces memorable and relatable characters and throws them into disastrous conflict with a powerful enemy. Kusanagi Peninsula, renowned for its unstoppable warriors who bend elements to their will, stands between the Empire and invaders. Fourteen-year-old Mamoru represents the Matsuda clan proudly and with full conviction. A new student, Kwang Chul-hee, who transfers from outside of the province challenges his beliefs. What if everything their academy teaches is just propaganda? And what if the Empire treats legendary Kaiganese warriors as cannon fodder?
Mamoru’s mother, Misaki, doesn’t deny the accusations. Once an accomplished warrior, she’s sacrificed everything to marry into the Matsuda family and provide it with sons. Her past haunts her and when she receives a letter warning her that the entire Kusanagi Peninsula is in danger, she acts. But will her husband, cold, distanced and powerful warrior, approve of a woman fighting for her own?
The Sword of Kaigen focuses on a mother and son. Their histories and arcs are inseparable and strongly connected. Misaki gives Mamoru the strength to challenge his beliefs about the world and his place in it. Mamoru’s conflict with his father gives Misaki the strength to challenge social norms and rediscover her inner warrior. As we watch them grow closer to each other, it’s hard not to admire Wang’s knack for characterization and conveying strong and believable emotions. It works against the reader - when the enemy strikes and mayhem begins no one is safe. The story takes wild and dark turns.
At 651 pages, the book rarely feels too long (once you get past a somewhat tepid beginning). It contains so much. The complexity of the Kaiganese traditions and genealogy. Martial arts, elemental magic, and epic battles. Small graceful details and moments of silence and reflection between powerful climaxes. The protagonists of The Sword of Kaigen are masters of theonite power known as jiya, the ability to control water and ice. They’ve honed their skills and mastered complex techniques that allow senior Matsuda clan’s members (Takeshi and Takeru) to display godlike powers. The epic battle that happens halfway through the book contains so much pure awesomeness (but also tragedy) that the book is worth reading for it alone.
As I mentioned I found some flaws. The beginning is slow and filled with heavy info-dumping. It requires patience and trust from the reader. Heavy use of honorifics and fictitious therms can feel confusing. The redemption arc of the character you loathe (unless you’re a misogynistic boor) felt rushed and unconvincing. I liked the result but not the path that has led to a sudden change in his relationship dynamics with his partner and others. The last chapters weren’t necessary for this story to work but I understand they had to be included to tie TSoK to Wang’s Theonite series. I’m ok with it.
On the other hand, Wang plays with tropes and makes a middle-aged mother a compelling and memorable character you root for. The other character starts as a young prodigy and just when you think you know what will happen, Wang will crush your expectations. Important characters die. Some deaths are brutal and gruesome, some tragic. One of them will tear you apart and is, for me, one of the most beautiful death scenes in all fantasy.
So, while the pacing could be tighter, the characters and action-scenes are fantastic. Wang's writing conveys raw emotions well and some twists will crush you. And that is a sign of greatness.
Mihir
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Sword Of Kaigen is a tough book to review. What can you say about it that hasn’t been spoken about by your peers. It’s a very unique story that’s a standalone in the truest sense of the word. We get a complete story with a beginning, middle and an end. This story has set the SPFBO stage on storm and it deserves many if not all the accolades it has gotten so far. Even with scores below, you can see why it has been such a big hit with us.
I first got this book when the author approached us last year when it released. I however didn’t read it then and that was my mistake (mea culpa). Going to the story plot, this book is about the people of Kaigen and the warrior families who help defend it. One such family is the Matsudas who have their secret power called the Whispering Blade. The Matsudas are a clan drenched in honour and have high expectations from its children, women and men. Shouldering such expectations is Mamoru, son of Misaki and Takeru Matsuda. A teenager who’s burdened with the Matsuda legacy of the Whispering Blade as well as the ice elemental powers. Misaki is his mother and a quiet woman who’s given her husband four sons and left her exciting life behind.
The plot begins with a very tight narrow focus on Mamoru and Misaki and Kaiganese culture in its entirety. Then slowly the author pulls back the lid on Misaki’s life, the actual geo-political strife within the world and the back-history as well as details about the magic system. Chiefly the author has to be lauded for her characterization, prose and worldbuilding. Beginning with her characters, it’s incredible to read about Misaki and Mamoru and see the similarities within them and what they are made of. Mamoru in particular in the start is given more of a lead status while Misaki is more akin to an onion as the reader waits for her to shed her reticence and her mental walls. We might be lead to believe that Mamoru's is the more traditional hero in the making narrative that’s being show over here. You would be wrong and quite brutally so.
Misaki in her role as the mother is trying to balance the Matsuda family honour and her own expectations about who she is and what she’s supposed to be. The author gives us these two complex and heroic characters to root for and they both flower magnificently. Plus it’s not just these two, the author is able to give even side characters the requisite gravitas and depth so that we as readers get a deeper read. Even the characters who are supposed to be villains aren't just caricatures. They have their own reasoning and while we understand it to be flawed. For them, it’s their only way to live. What I’m trying to get at is, Miracle Wang truly captures the human mind and behavior with all its flaws and complexities.
The prose aids in this effort as we see a world that’s lushly described and even though the action is focused on a tiny island, it’s not hard to see and understand the grandeur of the remaining landscape. This rich prose is admirably utilized in the action sequences which are few and far but when they occur, they take on epic levels. This line about power is an admirable example of brevity & completeness:
“Power was born into a person and lived in the wordless depths of their soul.”
The action sequences occur from the middle and then majorly towards the end. There’s action on a grand scale as well as a personal level and it’s thrilling in both theaters. The author has a way of describing the action whether its swordplay or elemental magic or both. The book flourishes with it and we the readers get a story that punches on an emotional and physical level.
Going to the world, we get a very Japanese influenced world, this is evident from the tiniest bit of details such as the clothes (haori, hakama), Katanas, clan titles (koro, sama, san) and names, etc. This can be a bit of a dual-edged sword as it takes a while to get used to it and then keep track of what means what. Thankfully there’s a glossary to help but in such a big book, it can tricky to flip back and forth. This isn’t a knock on the author as most of us fantasy fans are used to western/European nomenclature and this is an Eastern one. It deserves the attention that any reader can give as it richly rewards us with a world that’s complex, unique and deadly as our own.
After all these superlatives, you might think why my score isn’t a perfect ten. Well here’s the rub of it. This book has a few tiny faults, namely the pace is pedestrian in the first third of the book and this can be very tough to get through. Also in the first third of the story, we get a lot of infodumps about the world (history, mythology, religion, geo-politics, etc.) and while I understand why it was done. It does cause a disconnect with the reader as we are given ginormous dollops of information and not in a smooth way. It’s for these two reasons my score is a tiny bit lower than my fellow bloggers.
CONCLUSION: The Sword Of Kaigen is an epic standalone story that needs to be savoured. It’s rich in all the right ways and perhaps has a few tiny flaws but isn’t that what makes a masterpiece? The beauty of it all is enough to wow us readers and it has bowled over many a critical reader. With this score, we come to an end to the fifth edition of SPFBO and The Sword Of Kaigen etches its final mark on this competition as finely as Misaki has etched herself in the mind of us Kaiganites.
I first got this book when the author approached us last year when it released. I however didn’t read it then and that was my mistake (mea culpa). Going to the story plot, this book is about the people of Kaigen and the warrior families who help defend it. One such family is the Matsudas who have their secret power called the Whispering Blade. The Matsudas are a clan drenched in honour and have high expectations from its children, women and men. Shouldering such expectations is Mamoru, son of Misaki and Takeru Matsuda. A teenager who’s burdened with the Matsuda legacy of the Whispering Blade as well as the ice elemental powers. Misaki is his mother and a quiet woman who’s given her husband four sons and left her exciting life behind.
The plot begins with a very tight narrow focus on Mamoru and Misaki and Kaiganese culture in its entirety. Then slowly the author pulls back the lid on Misaki’s life, the actual geo-political strife within the world and the back-history as well as details about the magic system. Chiefly the author has to be lauded for her characterization, prose and worldbuilding. Beginning with her characters, it’s incredible to read about Misaki and Mamoru and see the similarities within them and what they are made of. Mamoru in particular in the start is given more of a lead status while Misaki is more akin to an onion as the reader waits for her to shed her reticence and her mental walls. We might be lead to believe that Mamoru's is the more traditional hero in the making narrative that’s being show over here. You would be wrong and quite brutally so.
Misaki in her role as the mother is trying to balance the Matsuda family honour and her own expectations about who she is and what she’s supposed to be. The author gives us these two complex and heroic characters to root for and they both flower magnificently. Plus it’s not just these two, the author is able to give even side characters the requisite gravitas and depth so that we as readers get a deeper read. Even the characters who are supposed to be villains aren't just caricatures. They have their own reasoning and while we understand it to be flawed. For them, it’s their only way to live. What I’m trying to get at is, Miracle Wang truly captures the human mind and behavior with all its flaws and complexities.
The prose aids in this effort as we see a world that’s lushly described and even though the action is focused on a tiny island, it’s not hard to see and understand the grandeur of the remaining landscape. This rich prose is admirably utilized in the action sequences which are few and far but when they occur, they take on epic levels. This line about power is an admirable example of brevity & completeness:
“Power was born into a person and lived in the wordless depths of their soul.”
The action sequences occur from the middle and then majorly towards the end. There’s action on a grand scale as well as a personal level and it’s thrilling in both theaters. The author has a way of describing the action whether its swordplay or elemental magic or both. The book flourishes with it and we the readers get a story that punches on an emotional and physical level.
Going to the world, we get a very Japanese influenced world, this is evident from the tiniest bit of details such as the clothes (haori, hakama), Katanas, clan titles (koro, sama, san) and names, etc. This can be a bit of a dual-edged sword as it takes a while to get used to it and then keep track of what means what. Thankfully there’s a glossary to help but in such a big book, it can tricky to flip back and forth. This isn’t a knock on the author as most of us fantasy fans are used to western/European nomenclature and this is an Eastern one. It deserves the attention that any reader can give as it richly rewards us with a world that’s complex, unique and deadly as our own.
After all these superlatives, you might think why my score isn’t a perfect ten. Well here’s the rub of it. This book has a few tiny faults, namely the pace is pedestrian in the first third of the book and this can be very tough to get through. Also in the first third of the story, we get a lot of infodumps about the world (history, mythology, religion, geo-politics, etc.) and while I understand why it was done. It does cause a disconnect with the reader as we are given ginormous dollops of information and not in a smooth way. It’s for these two reasons my score is a tiny bit lower than my fellow bloggers.
CONCLUSION: The Sword Of Kaigen is an epic standalone story that needs to be savoured. It’s rich in all the right ways and perhaps has a few tiny flaws but isn’t that what makes a masterpiece? The beauty of it all is enough to wow us readers and it has bowled over many a critical reader. With this score, we come to an end to the fifth edition of SPFBO and The Sword Of Kaigen etches its final mark on this competition as finely as Misaki has etched herself in the mind of us Kaiganites.
SPFBO CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE RATING FOR NOW
- The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
- Orconomics by J. Zachary pike
- Where Loyalties Lie by Rob J. Hayes
- The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids by Michael McClung
- By Blood, By Salt by J.L. Odom
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