The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
Some thoughts on this self published internet sensation featuring magic, martial arts, and a strong character connection full of emotion.
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After taking the world by storm by winning the 5th Annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off(SPFBO) competition for self published/indie authors hosted by Mark Lawrence, The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang has continued to be a much loved title across the fantasy online spaces. Be it TikTok(BookTok) or Instagram(Bookstagram) or countless blogs and YouTube Channels, this book is one in the category of “Internet Sensation” or “Internet Darling”. Simply put - it’s one of the “super hyped” books that always make me nervous.
The short version of the story - it almost didn’t let me down.
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While I’m going to keep things mostly spoiler free here I do want to warn you that if you have not yet read this book and you don’t want any thoughts to ruin your outlook on this book going into it - you may want to skip this one - or at least read on at your own risk.
From Goodreads, here is the premise for this book.
A mother struggling to repress her violent past,
A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.
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?
High 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, fourteen-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.
My first impression with this book over the initial handful of chapters was one of feeling a bit overwhelmed. There are a TON if names being thrown at you, histories of fictional societies being dumped in your lap, terminology for all sorts of stuff slapped across our face - but just give it a dinma, take a breath, then stop trying to keep track of it all. Instead just let it slide on by and let yourself get immersed in the ride.
Within the first couple chapters I found myself getting real invested in our main characters and the well used “warrior school/society” trope coupled with the “mother with a mysterious and secret past” storyline.
Sure there are some strange questions of pace throughout this book, but the story doesn’t take long to really ramp up as we see Mamoru wrestle with his family heritage that he’s realizing might all be a lie. Couple that with his mother, Misaki, dealing with elements of her hidden past when she herself was a warrior and his father and his father’s family being extremely cold and punishing, the action ramps up to an amazing battle sequence that hits about halfway through the book.
There are fist pumping moments of “hell yeah” action and heart breaking moments where you feel like you’ve been kicked in the stomach while your heart was ripped out of your chest. It’s good - real good. And would have been even better had this 500-600 page book been pared down to a nice lean story in the 400 page range.
But that’s where things take a turn for me and this self-published internet sensation that had been living up to the hype turned into a head scratching disappointment. Maybe that’s a bit harsh, it wasn’t a full on, I can’t stand this, ugh the book is ruined disappointment. Just that it frankly felt like, well… being teased by your crush in high school only to go home feeling “blue” if you get my drift.
Not that the last half of the book was bad by any means. There are some terrific themes tackled as the book completely switches focus and goes from what felt like a large scale epic fantasy being built up down to a small scale character study.
I’m really torn over how to feel about the last half of this book.
On one hand it felt like the usual “final chapter/epilogue” that would normally tie up any loose ends and possibly show us the actual “happily ever after” conclusion to the story. Except that that final chapter/epilogue lasted hundreds of pages.
This leaves me feeling like the last half of this book was far too drawn out, almost like it was a completely separate book from the first half.
Yet there were some fantastic and emotional character moments that happen towards the end so it isn’t all bad - just felt unnecessarily drawn out. Or maybe it felt like much of the last half should have been blended with the main story earlier in the book (though I have no idea how to do that based on some of the important plot points needed for the emotional character stuff in the last half).
Ultimately it felt like this story was building and leading us to something that was just at the verge of exploding into epic, shifting of entire cultures, small community rising up against a lying government, crazy battles with a dazzling mix of magic and martial arts - only to have all of the reach an insanely powerful climax around halfway through this book and then never actually lead anywhere after that.
The conflicts are mentioned. Characters grow and learn the truth of where they stand with this empire. But none of it leads anywhere by the end of the book. At least it doesn’t lead anywhere past exploring personal growth and relationships as our characters learn to make peace within themselves about their pasts, their shortcomings, and find a way to finally see the strengths within themselves and each other.
But the main thrust of the story that the entire first half or so of this book spends time building towards just ends and goes nowhere after THE event at around the midway point of the book.
And that just left me feeling like I was being teased with this story getting set to really ramp up to some sort of epic conclusion only to find there was never any actual payoff to all that teasing.
The TL:DR version:
Excellent action via a mix of fairly tried and true martial arts and element based magic.
Strong characters and some terrific emotional moments that make you FEEL the struggle of Kaigen.
The book suffers a little from some pacing issues but overall the writing is very enjoyable to read.
A premature climax followed by total shift in tonal structure with the plot made it feel like the ending was extremely drawn out and lead nowhere.
If you’ve read The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang, what did you think of it? Did it live up to the hype for you? Did you like the major shift of focus in the story at around the halfway point? What is your FAVORITE part of the story?
Let me know in the comments!
All the best,
Dave
