The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang || Book Review

If there's one book that has slowly risen the ladder of popularity and received consistently amazing reviews, it is The Sword of Kaigen.

It was released in 2019 but, for some reason, it received a lot of love in 2024. It's popularity was big enough for me to notice it despite only sparingly being on social media. I don't think I've heard or read even one bad review of it. And it's average rating on Goodreads is a whopping 4.47 stars from almost 50k ratings.

Two readers that I trust—Cath & Linh—called it one of their favourite books of 2024. So finally, at the end of 2024, I picked up the book to see why so many people love it.

about The Sword of Kaigen

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.

Trigger warnings: violence, war, blood, gore, miscarriage, rape, death.

my review

I knew almost nothing about The Sword of Kaigen before picking it up. I only knew that it's a war story, has themes of motherhood, and is amazing. I did not even read the blurb before I started reading the book. Hence, I was a bit confused initially, but it took almost no time for me to get used to the plot and characters.

Misaki had long since let go of the idea that she could raise her children the way she wanted—or that they were even her children at all. Her sons were Matsudas first and foremost. Their sole purpose was to grow to be powerful warriors, like their father before them, and his father before him. They belonged to the Matsuda house, as she did.

The story is told through two POVs of Misaki and her son Mamoru. Misaki is married to the second son of the Matsuda family, the #1 warrior family in their town. They're known for fighting really well and their impeccable control over their power which is based on water and ice.

We see the dynamics from two very different angles because Misaki and Mamoru's lives are poles apart. Mamoru is the eldest Matsuda of the current generation and is hailed to be the best Matsuda fighter so far. His skills are practically unmatched. He is looking forward to a bright future and has the responsibilities of the Matsuda legacy on his shoulders.

On the other hand, Misaki is a housewife and she mainly cares about raising her children. We find out that she studied overseas and used to be a great fighter of almost equal skill as the Matsudas, but she left that life behind when she got married to Takeru. She does not have a good marriage and often thinks about her old life.

Takeru—Misaki's husband and Mamoru's father—is like the human embodiment of ice. He is known to be stable but emotionless and indifferent. He works in the mayor's office because he likes coming up with plans and crunching numbers and he largely stays away from the house. He doesn't have a good relationship with his wife or children and is lowkey hated by his family.

Their lives change when their country's old enemies, the Ranganese, storm in to start a war.

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 younger.

The story is set in a coastal village in the fictional country Kaigen. The village is quite traditional in it's ways and is not closely connected to the rest of the country. They have a patriarchial society, focus on honour and legacy, and aren't aware of what's happening outside their community.

Mamoru has only ever known the Kusanagi peninsula which is the first entry point if their enemies come to fight. As his community is the one to fight the enemies first and protect the country, they're known as The Sword of Kaigen. Mamoru believes what he is taught and dreams of protecting his people.

Misaki has been outside Kaigen and knows a lot more than anyone else in the village, Her family doesn't know who she truly is because she decided to bury her old self when she married into the Matsuda family. She focuses on her family while constantly burying old desires and ambitions.

The setting is like an old Japanese village but with supernatural beings. The Matsudas are the most powerful ones and there's a hierarchy determined through power. Over years of peacetime, the importance of warriors has reduced a bit but it's present enough to determine status.

He was a Matsuda. His sword wasn't made of ice or metal. It was his soul.

The book is quite slow for the first half because there's a lot of setup. The rest of the story wouldn't hit hard if we're not aware of the characters' history. Hence, the first half of the book is spent reading about what characters do daily, understanding their pasts and their personalities, and finding out their ambitions and weaknesses.

We learn a lot about the characters and their powers. There isn't a full explanation given about their powers but whatever is given is enough to understand and move on. Some terms are never translated (like "jiya") but it's fairly easy to understand what they denote.

I struggled to keep reading because of how slow the story was going. I kept waiting for the awesomeness that was promised in all the reviews. Considering that it's a fairly big book, half of it being slow setup was a bit too much.

We get many flashbacks to see the past as well. We see younger Misaki many times and learn about the struggles that she went through. We see how Misaki changed over the years and what made her change. Younger Misaki and current Misaki are like two entirely different people.

While I think that the setup was a bit too much, I understand why it was needed. Once the story gets going, there's no time for explanations or backstories.

Listening never made any man dumber, but it's made a lot of people smarter.

Around halfway, the story suddenly changes tone and becomes fast-paced. The Ranganese come storming in and the entire village has to rally and fight.

This goes on for a while with many revelations, fights, and twists. This event causes a lot of change and growth as well.

I liked the detail of the fights. It was interesting to see them fight physically and use their jiya to do extraordinary things. The two sides fight differently with different kinds of jiya which was interesting.

We closely see Mamoru, Misaki, and Takeru's powers and how each of them uses jiya. I was particularly impressed by Takeru because it seemed like he was as powerful as the mountain.

Misaki finally had to let go of her subservient housewife role and fight when the enemies reached her doorstep. It felt like a relief to see her fight and enjoy it after decades of burying that part of her.

Wholeness, she learned, was not the absence of pain but the ability to hold it.

The first and second halves of the book are different in pace and tone. Because of this, the people who liked the first half may not like the second half and vice versa.

The first half is quite slow-paced and focuses on the past and setting up the scene. The second half is quick and doesn't bother to wait and explain things, assuming you'd know everything from earlier. There's so much happening in the second half that I couldn't wait for the POVs to change again to know what's happening elsewhere.

The way things progress and change towards the end of the book might not be liked by everyone as well. After I read the book, I looked at some negative reviews and a few of them picked on how things ended with some of the characters.

I didn't have a problem with the ending but I can see why some might. The ending is not a "great" ending but I think it's a smart ending that any of us would do if we were in place of those characters. We also need to realize the how the characters have changed over time and that they're not the same people they were in the flashbacks—their priorities are different.

I liked the second halfway more than the first. I like fast-paced writing and character growth. If you're like me and wonder "when does it get good?", it gets good in the second half.

I know you might feel broken, but we’re jijakalu. We’re water, and water can shift to fit any mold. No matter how we’re broken and reshaped, we can always freeze ourselves strong again. It’s not going to happen all at once. You have to wait for the turn of the season to see what shape the ice will take, but it will form up, clear and strong. It always does.

There is a small romance arc in the story which I actually smelled from a mile away. It was quite evident despite the author trying to convince us otherwise. I initially did not like the plotline for it but the way it changed 180 degrees and ended was amazing. I loved it at the end.

The story has themes of feminism. The current setting does not give the same rights and honours to women. Misaki clearly outranks many men in her skills, but she lives as a regular housewife after her marriage, so we see most of the feminist themes through her story. However, feminism is not one of the main points of the story and hence, it's not fully delved into or fixed. I didn't mind this, though. It was realistic that the problems did not get fixed in a short span of time and instead, there were small steps towards fixing them.

Most strong things are rigid. If you are water, you can shift to fit any mold and freeze yourself strong. You can be strong in any shape. You can be anything.

I find the sudden popularity of The Sword of Kaigen interesting. It's a standalone fantasy book because it's a spin-off of a series, not because it's a main story on its own. The author wrote two books of the main series Theonite and wrote this as a spin-off that takes place years before the main story. This book has cameos from the main characters of Theonite too.

The book reads like a pet project too. It's written well but the pacing, excessive backstory featuring characters that we don't necessarily care about, and references to what might happen in the future gave it away that this is a "side" project. This book was released in 2019 too, not recently.

The fact that the main series is barely read by 1000 people and not rated well while The Sword of Kaigen has an average rating of 4.7 over 50k ratings is wild.

I believe that it did well because it's super easy to read, has great worldbuilding, and features interesting characters.

overall

The Sword of Kaigen is best read without any expectations. It's hard to read it without expectations considering the hype but I don't think it's very enjoyable if you're expecting great things from the start. There's a lot of setup and backstory required before it can get going.

I really liked the book and couldn't stop thinking about it the day I finished it. I kept talking about it and that one scene that made me tear up out of nowhere with my friends. I'm not sure if it'll be one of my best books of the year, but it's a contender for the list.

I highly recommend the book!

let's chat!

Have you read The Sword of Kaigen? What's a standalone fantasy novel that took you by surprise? Do you go for more standalones or series nowadays? Chat with me in the comments!