The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

You learn over time that the world isn’t broken. It’s just… got more pieces to it than you thought. They all fit together, just maybe not the way you pictured when you were young.

I have really mixed feelings about this book. There was a lot that I liked; the magic system was cool and I loved that the protagonist was a middle-aged mother who'd been hiding her light under a bushel for fifteen years. The complicated family dynamics were incredibly well done, especially the marriage between the protagonist and her husband, and there were some really powerful moments in the story.

However, there was a lot I didn't like. I was never totally on board with the worldbuilding. Most of the time the story seemed to be taking place in a feudal-Japan-inspired world so I found the mentions of modern technology and superheroes jarring. The pacing and structure of the book were also weird. The Sword of Kaigen took SO LONG to get started. The first third of the book dragged because of the constant, and mostly irrelevant as it turned out, info-dumping and dull conversations. 

The climax of the book had me gripped and genuinely hit me in the feels but it was in the middle of the book. Which is... an odd choice. The story meandered after that, although there were again some fantastically emotional moments, and then the story just kinda ended. 

The Sword of Kaigen is a really hard book to judge. There was a great story in there, it just needed a really ruthless editor to cut away all the unnecessary exposition and characters to reveal it.  

Recommended For: Fans of Asian-inspired fantasy and anyone who likes their fantasy full of complicated characters.

Read On: Other fantasies with Japanese-inspired settings are Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn and The Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin is a fantastic SFF story with a middle-aged female protagonist.