Unfortunately, this became a hate read about a quarter into the book.

Each new entry of the "Chronicles of the Avatar" series is lower in quality than it's predecessor, which wasn't much of a problem when we were at book 2 or 3. However, book 5 has little redeemable qualities.

Unlike Yee, Ribay was tasked with filling the gaps of the live of an avatar that we already know well: we know how his story begins and ends. I confess I was never particularly interested in knowing more about Roku, but I was still excited over this book. Yet, somehow, Ribay managed to turn Roku into an incredibly naive Avatar, who is unable to see how his *obviously evil friend* is evil. 

Randy Ribay's writing style is too repetitive and shallow, and it really breaks the immersion. I also don't understand what's the point of jumping chapters/POV every 2 pages or so, it's distracting.

He insists on explaining things that no one asked explanations for: "Why does the fire nation say 'flamey-o' in Aang's timeline?": 

Gyatso made that up

. "Where does exceptional bending, like the blue flames, come from?": 

we still don't know, but here's a cool cave where you can do all that and more with no effort.

. He also went back to retcon what was perhaps Sozin's only good deed: 

making it so that he actually didn't have good intentions behind gifting his head peace to Roku

. Because evil people can only do evil things!

The only good things to come out of this are Gyatso and Malaya. However, the latter

had to die by Sozin's hand for some reason

.

In short: Ribay's writing is shallow, and so are his characters. The pacing is terrible, and the story is nonsensical. 

3.75 ⭐️ A perfectly fine addition to the Avatarverse, but couldn’t compare to my love of the Kyoshi novels. There were quite a few references to the animated series and to the previous books, which I always enjoyed. Rangi Jet Stepping reference ftw.  Standout stars were Gyatso, Malaya, and Sozin’s section bc honestly the Roku focused chapters were just a little meh. If another Roku book is written I’d like to see it after he’s become a fully realized Avatar and really intertwine the story with Sozin more and his decisions that lead the Fire Nation into the 100-year war. 💦🪨🔥💨

Heck just give me a Gyatso-focused Avatar companion book and a Kyoshi movie and I’ll be just peachy. 👍

What F.C. Yee did to expand and enrich the Avatar canon in the previous two duologies were my favorite Avatar related things since the ending of the original series. It's a hard act to follow, and I don't fault Ribay for not being able to match the expectations set.

That said, while this novel is good in many respects, it suffers from the worst kind of prequel-itis you can have. Where the author is more preoccupied with laying out foreshadowing for the better-known property than developing their own story. Roku is the Avatar we knew the most about from Aang's journey, and his tragic mistake of allowing a friend's ruthless ambition to continue unchecked is the shadow that haunts Aang's journey in Avatar: the Last Airbender. But this story is about a young Roku, just starting out, so he shouldn't be making that error so obviously and repeatedly from the start.

Having Roku and Sozin continue to interact during Roku's training already contradicts the canon in the episode of "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" but it also shows Ribay's biggest mistake in my opinion. He refuses to let the narrative make the choice of morally grey characters. Gyatso clocks Sozin as evil with first glance, newcomer Malaya tips us off with her mistrust of the clan leader Ulo in a way that makes everyone in their island seem dumber in comparison for not noticing it. And of course Malaya also makes the same assumption of Sozin to the point where she's determined to try and assassinate him withing five minutes of meeting him while they're both trying to rescue Roku.

Ulo was a perfect setup for a Jet like character who had extreme views but rooted in sound motives to protect. Instead he's characterized by the narrative repeatedly as untrustworthy and bad, which can be fine but makes the story feel more didactic than impactful. Sozin's big moment of choosing Roku over power momentarily feels weak since he could always just...go back to the library. The whole "it could sink by the time he gets back" has no urgency, especially since we know Zhao manages it a good 80 or so years later.

Overall, this is an okay fantasy story but not something I would give to someone to introduce them to Avatar the way I would with the Kyoshi stories. At the end of the plot, Roku's meddling made everything worse, and his spiritual growth feels stop-and-start with how oblivious he is to circumstances. I don't feel like I appreciate his character, Gyatso's, or Sozin's better for reading it. Instead, it's the opposite.