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The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story

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The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story

By: M. L. Wang
Narrated by: Andrew Tell
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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
Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Magic Military Science Fiction Warrior
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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)

All stars
Most relevant
Incredible story, excellent narrator.

Could not recommended this book more.

S tier fantasy for me (up there with Sanderson, GOT, Robert Jordan, Jade War, the name of the wind)

Top tier fantasy!

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This story is such a good listen and I highly recommend but as someone who speaks Japanese, the narrator is just wrong for this book. A lot of the pronunciation was off and a bit painful to listen to at times. Other than some pronunciation issues, he is a good narrator and I did thoroughly enjoy the book. As long as you don't mind the badly pronounced Japanese words and names then this is a very enjoyable listen.

great listen but not the right narrator choice

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This story is beautiful and I loved it. Only complaint is that I wanted a whole trilogy! Highly recommend.

Love this original book

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A well merged mixture of old and modern day setting, Asian fantasy. The author is good at manipulation of emotions and includes playing with many of your throughout the book. Some aspects of book's story, is realistically complex. Finally, the reader is clear, dynamic and is a good story teller; but this opinion can vary, greatly, between individual listeners'.

Brilliant as a whole

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I feel like this was a 3 in one deal. The first part sets up the story, Builds up the characters, the world and magic system. The second part is the "war.'' It was almost cinematic the way it was written. My goodness, Wang knows how to write a fight scene. Plot armor? Forget it, these characters go through hell and you feel it. The 3rd part is the aftermath, grief and rebuilding. It is a rollercoaster ride with these characters start to end. I loved that we got narration from 2 people. Just when I thought this was going to be a typical child prodigy protagonist who can seemingly do anything... He's not. The other narration is one of the adults who is deeply flawed and fascinating to follow. The fight scenes were so vividly written. It's not like 2 pages and the fight is over. It is the whole middle section of the book. If you like epic fight scenes that last then this is the book for you!
Issues I had with the story are minor. The pacing was a bit off in places. I think the second chapter was a long flashback thrown in just when we were getting to know Mamoru. It was a weird place for it because the flashback establishes the setting for the outside world while we are still getting to know the small secluded town Mamoru lives in. It's an important flashback but it's long. It just felt in the wrong place. The final few chapters had some jumps in it where it could have been fleshed out a bit more.

The narration. Ahh~~ Well, Andrew Tell did a great job reading this. I would definitely listen to his narration again. Amazing voice and easy to listen to. However, whoever produced this audiobook didn’t properly prepare Tell for the language issues. It’s clear Tell does not speak any of the languages in the book. It seems like he gave it his best shot but they really should have given him a coach. As someone who is familiar with Asian languages I can say it didn’t really take away from the story since the way Tell reads it is like a completely new and unrecognisable language. (I don’t know, I just had a good laugh trying to figure out what he was saying) What was said gets explained in English, so It didn’t bother me that much. Things that are repeated throughout the book though, things like Tou-sama and Nee-sama should have been properly explained to him and checked. I found myself detaching and joking that Takeru’s son calls him Two because he’s the second born and doesn't deserve the respect, and Misaki’s Brother calls her Ni-sama because she acts more like a brother than a sister.

I just read this series was discontinued... for now. Hopefully, once they have grown more as an author, Theonite will be back.

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