The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story cover art

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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About this listen

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 Heartfelt

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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)

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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.

It's going to continue... right?

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A beautiful story set in an intriguing universe. The emotional rollercoaster and character developments are superb. Unfortunately I found Andrew Tell's narration to be a bit annoying at times - overly inflected and hence in the end distracting from the emotion that it so hard tried to convey

beautiful story, not my favourite narrator

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Heartbreaking realism of a war story in a fun and interesting fantasy world. Dealing with the beautiful subverted expectations and the readers heartbreak really gives food for thought whilst going through this story. A simple premise executed flawlessly.

A simple premise executed flawlessly

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I want to read her next book. Can we have the sequel to sword of kaigan, please?

a wonderful journey about self discover

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I thought overall the story was incredible the first quarter I’d say was probably the hardest to get through but once I could empathise with the characters the more pain I felt …. It was beautiful, painful and extremely introspective I would recommend to basically anyone who likes more interpersonal storytelling but I will also say has some incredible action:)

Very unique honestly super interesting world and characters

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One of my all time favourites. Short-ish but with so much depth of character. Must read.

One of the best in fantasy

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Great overall story, good character building, map building although personally took a while to get into the list of the story but apart from that really enjoyed and would recommend
p.s needs a follow up

A+

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Great book, great writing, amazing story. However if you can speak Japanese then it can get dounting hearing every noun, verb, adjective be mispronounced, butchered to bits, seriously ruined my immersion waaay to many times, imagine hearing toosama and wondering what the heck is he saying only to realize it's tousama,

Great book not for Japanese speakers

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The story is simply excellent with very good pacing and very unpredictable events - rare to find when you're a veteran of the genre!
The narrator is absolutely amazing also.

This one is "move it to the top of your list immediately" kinda of (audio)book.

Shocking brilliant on so many levels!

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Well read, fantastically portrayed viewpoints from the different characters and amazing character development. Took a bit to get into but definitely worth the listen

Thoroughly enjoyed

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