The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story

By: M. L. Wang

Narrated by: Andrew Tell

Length: 24 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

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, f14-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.

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?

©2019 Miracle Wang (P)2020 Miracle Wang

Critic reviews

"The Poppy War's darkness meets The Last Airbender's Elemental Magic...I haven't been so emotionally moved by a book in a long while." (JC Kang, USA Today best-selling author of The Dragon Songs Saga)

Performance okay, except for the japanese

Story is great, narrator does a good job with characters and tone, but clearly wasn't given much help with the non-english words. Jarring at times if you're familiar with the pronunciation.

Messy, but Heartfelt

This story is a bit confused on what it wants to be and who it wants for reader/listener.
The viewpoint characters' narratives run at different speeds, sometimes creating abrupt tonal changes or breaks in the narrative. The genre is fuzzy as well. Clear cultural inspiration is derived from WWII Japan, but it seems determined to be historical fiction, epic fantasy, and pure drama all at the same time.
Aside from that, the story structure is strange. It feels like more 2-3 seasons of a TV drama than one self-contained story. Even into the final chapter, this book continues to present the reader with new world elements and foreign and/or original terms. Even as someone familiar with Japanese and language theory, I found the manner and frequency of foreign/fictional terms to be the least reader-friendly part of this book.
If none of those are deal-breakers for you, you should enjoy the deep heart of this story. There IS a conclusion and it IS worth waiting for. I will hope to see this author grow in skill and focus in later works.

loved it, wish there was a sequel.

Loved it, would definitely recommend. Would be great if there was a second book about the orphan girl.

Very good up until about 80%

This book covers a broad range of topics including: propaganda, the grievances of war, and even romance. It blends these elements in a way that mesmerizes and grabs you in tight, making the listening experience that much better.

With that being said, the book is not without flaw. It felt like a book mashed with the start of another one. The story could have wrapped up much sooner than it did, and it left a dragging feeling that it is setting up a sequel. In a way, it does diminish the execution of the first part of the story, but not by much.

In conclusion, the story itself wasn't a problem. The addition of set up into another story after the main climax of the book happens rebutes a lot of the dazzle that was captured in the first part. Overall though, this book has one of the best-realized character arcs I have ever read. And I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves stories driven by strong characters!

Slower, character based story. Very satisfying!

Would recommend to those trying to cross into fantasy from contemporary dramas. The development/growth of the characters are the focus here so the pacing is slower. The violence, while gruesome at times, tends to focus more on the characters' response and associated emotions than gory descriptions.
Well worth the Listen!

dope

I'm gonna read everything by this author. cant wait for more stories like this one

Extremely well written

Got this book on a whim without knowing anything about it. It starts of slow but once it get's going, it gripped me like only a few series have. Definitely going to follow M.L Wang's future works from now on.

Starts slow, peeks early, ends with a whimper.

I was expecting more givien the hype around this book. The author built a built an incredible world with compelling characters, but then didn't do much with them. This book climaxes in the first half and then spends the second half mopping up. That would be fine if there were going to be a sequel, but the author has explicitly said that there won't be. It's a fine book in its own right, but it's unfulfilled potential left me disappointed.

Interesting and different

Good story, GREAT character arcs. I don’t know how I missed who the story would actually be about, but seeing how their relationships with those around them evolved over time was fun.

Good action, good dialogue and evoked emotion which I don’t get from a lot of books.

The only thing I couldn’t get used to was some of the terminology used like how they change the names of time(seconds minutes hours etc). I never got any tie in or relation for it so it left me wondering.

Also, I know this is a stand alone for a larger series, but it feels like a cliff hanger to get you to buy into the rest of her work (though the book itself wraps up neatly). Smart, and I get it, but big reveals in the last chapter or two of a stand-alone without explanation just left me wanting another three or four chapters.

If you want a tearjerker, look no further

This book is going to make you cry a lot. Ugly tears. You have been warned.