Our in person wrap up for The Sword of Kaigen will be this Sunday, June 7 at 8PM EST on Discord!

For May, we read the Sword of Kaigen for our book club selection. The Sword of Kaigen is a bit of a messy masterpiece that shows a ton of promise from the author, but also has some issues that I think are often glazed over in our modern desire for "emotional devastation." I realize this may not be a popular take, but stick with me.

The Sword of Kaigen is highly lauded in the online fantasy community, with most reviews pointing to the emotional depths of the book, and most reviewers leaning heavily into the action, and resulting deaths, of the book. Between this, the cover, and the subtitle of a Theonite War Story, I think this leads a lot of us to believe that this is going to be an action packed battle epic. What you get is very different, however, and the book's backstory helps.

The Sword of Kaigen is ML Wang's first adult fantasy novel, and it originally started as serialized entries sent out in a monthly newsletter that gave backstory to her Theonite series. She later self published it as a prequel to the other Theonite books, and it was highly acclaimed, winning the SPFBO (Self Published Fantasy Blog Off). Wang has since taken down the other Theonite stories given concerns about their world building, and has left this as a standalone self published book.

This backstory shows up in structure. The first third of the book feels disjointed, with each chapter having different vibes and characters and focuses. As a result, the world building is kind of messy, and often reverts to big info dumps (including a chapter where you read a history lesson that has the teacher literally spitting out dates and facts). Wang also makes other interesting choices, including using italics to indicate which dialect a character is speaking in, which for me was really distracting, made it hard to read, and didn't really add much to the world building for me. Additionally, given the cover and descriptions, you would expect a more "feudal Japan" feel to this, however we find out that the island the story takes place on is isolated and traditional in a world where the empire has video games and info com devices. This was definitely jarring and unexpected for me.

Now all that said, Wang really hits her stride in the middle third of this book, and weaves a masterful tale of an incredibly patriarchal society where men want women in their place and the government is not to be trusted. Wang doesn't do subtle (if you've read Blood Over Bright Haven, the themes are even more explicit in this one), but I loved that aspect of the story. We really see a mother's struggle to exist in this society while struggling with her own wants, desires, and history, and the effect all that has on her relationship with her kids and her husband. We also (and I don't see this often discussed) get a wonderful examination of the male trauma response in a patriarchal society, and how a patriarchal society breeds men who feel they should have two emotions: stoic or angry. The fighting and magic were excellent - the magic system is very Last Airbender elemental magic, but it is weaved into the story really well. And while some of the deaths that occur were not really emotional for me, the other characters' reactions to those deaths, and the exploration of everyone working through their past and their trauma absolute was emotional and beautiful. This is where you see the seeds of the masterpiece that was Blood Over Bright Haven. There is one chapter in particular that was one of the more impactful chapters of a book I have read that was an impressive balance of action, emotion, and real life humanity that foreshadows Wang's opening salvo of Blood Over Bright Haven.

The book is often criticized for a bit of an early climax, and I think a lot of readers will note that the last quarter is a big slow down, but I think understanding this was originally a prequel, you can see why it was done the way it is. I was satisfied with the ending, and I love that it portrays how real life is complex and messy.

So, is SoK a perfect masterpiece that transcends time and changes your DNA? Maybe for some, but for me it wasn't. And that's ok. Is it a really impressive and promising self published book by an author who was finding their way that shows the author's potential for brilliance? Absolutely. For all of its messiness, it explores some important themes, and shows great promise while giving you some real life, messy human emotions. It is absolutely worth the read, and Wang is an author I will always want to read.

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