You get a real sense that the story we’re following is only a small part of the world, and fairly minor in the grand schemes of things. It never feels out of place or left me wandering what was going on. Some of it is Japanese (I think…) and some of it is made up terms for the world. This is a dense book, full of lore and world building, but it never sticks out even when you’re being bombarded by words you don’t know. Talking about the world… it’s large and well-realised. For those of you who like a bit of anime, you can likely already see a few similarities to a certain ninja story. As an example, the Matsuda family are water theonites and their bloodline ability is the power to create a whispering blade a blade of ice that can cut through anything. Delving a bit deeper, certain families within each nation have specific and powerful bloodline powers. The world ML Wang has created is a place where there are nations around the world each with their own affinity for an element, and their own powers to control those elements. Sounds a bit strange on the surface, but it really does fit. The Sword of Kaigen is Avatar the Last Airbender meets Robin Hobb. We’ll start this review proper with a little comparison. The Sword of Kaigen will win this year’s SPFBO. I say this next bit despite my own horse in the race. Last month I decided it was finally time to pick it up and give it a read… Then it was entered into the SPFBO (Self Published Fantasy Blog Off) and I immediately thought “This one is a contender for the finals for sure”.

Anyways, a few other trusted bloggers reviewed it and gave their glowing opinions. For a long time it was nestled between Poppy War and Sins of Empire… neither of which I’ve gotten around to reading yet because I read so damned slow. This was high praise indeed so I snapped up a paperback and stuck it on my TBR shelf along with many other books. I heard about this book earlier this year when a blogger I follow (that’s you, Petrik) claimed it was not only the best self published book he’d ever read, but also the best stand alone he’d ever read.

The sword of kaigen review