The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang – Review

Published: February 19, 2019

Publisher: M.L. Wang

Series: Standalone

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 649 (Paperback)

My Rating: Did Not Finish

Synopsis:

A mother struggling to repress her violent past,
A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?

High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire’s enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name ‘The Sword of Kaigen.’

Born into Kusanagi’s legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always known 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 realizes that he might not have much time to become the fighter he was bred to be. Worse, the empire he was bred to defend may stand on a foundation of lies.

Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her growing son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of an impending invasion looming across the sea, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.

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I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it was surprisingly unique in its setting/world building and then on the other, it was so strongly patriarchal that I really didn’t enjoy it much. Honestly, that doesn’t usually bother me too much but it was so overt that it kind of put me off the entire story. As you’ll have noted in my rating, I did DNF this book after much deliberation.

The story starts off from the POV of Mamoru, a teenage boy from a long line of famed warriors. He’s off to school, practicing his swordsmanship, and carrying on with his life as usual until a new boy from another city arrives. This new boy has seen much, much more of the world than Mamoru and scoffs at Mamoru’s blind belief in the propaganda he’s being fed at school and home. Mamoru’s personality and dialogue is quite convincing, being both heartfelt and terribly naïve. 

The other main POV is that of Misaki, Mamoru’s mother. She was by far my favorite character, probably because she had the most epic flashbacks EVER. These epic flashbacks to her crime fighting past make her present day life all the more saddening. She’s a mother to four boys and wife to a cold husband. During her flashbacks to her days of schooling overseas, you get to see her as the sword wielding combat babe that she totally was. She had a group of tight friends, a warm budding romance, and so much potential but then she decided to abide by her father’s wishes and marry a Matsuda instead. Her whole story arc (to the point I read) was a downward trajectory into despair.

The world this story is set in was pretty cool. At first I was convinced that it was set in a time period similar to that of feudal Japan. UNTIL SOMEBODY WHIPPED OUT A CELL PHONE. Of course it wasn’t called that, but same concept. They have tech, vehicles, etc. but where the Matsuda’s live is apparently a very traditional village and they mostly just train to be warriors in a day and age when a sword just isn’t up to par. How can a swordsman (even if he does have cool magic) stand up to someone in an airplane with machine guns on it? 

It’s basically the story of people in this backwoods village being forced to accept that their way of life is thoroughly out of date in the face of the world’s forward movement. Actually, the whole county seems to be a bit out of the loop and they keep pushing propaganda and people keep on buying into it. Anyway, that could be a lengthy social commentary and I’m not even going to get into that. 

This was an interesting book that just ultimately wasn’t for me. I read about 60% of it and the story was picking up the pace significantly, but I decided to move on to more appealing reading material. At some point I may go back and finish this up, but it won’t be for some time.