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)

Fascinating!

This is a new author for me.. Gripping from Start to finish. I will probably re-read soon! loved it!

Started off slow, then blew me away.

For the first half of the book, I thought it was a typical teen novel. Then I realized why the author set it up the way they did. It gets real, I haven't teared up from a book in quite some time. I think some of the dialog could have been better written (especially in the flashbacks), but overall the experience was well worth it.

great

was very surprised. my son recommended this book to me. I wish her other books in this series were on audible books. oh well, kindle here I come.

Excellent story!

I’m surprised by how much I liked this book. As other reviewers have stated, it does start a bit slow but I found it worth the wait. I got a lot of “feels” and found it hard to put down at time.

Peak

kent me on the edge of my seat chapter after chapter. cannot recommend this book enough

A must read!!

Was recommended to me by a friend. Was absolutely memorizing and heartfelt. a must read

Perfect female/mother character.

So many emotions going through looking at the dance of Misakis life in the sword of Kaigen.

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.