3.5 frustrated stars, rounded up

So that third act was a hot mess, forgive the pun.

I came into this with perhaps too high expectations, but I think Kuang's missteps in the last third really hurt this book, which is unfortunate. My broader overall praise and criticism centres around the pace: there's an economy to the storytelling as well as there being instances of rushing, especially in the back half of the book; so plot and character was just bottlenecked to get to a determined ending. Like fitting everything to get to keystone events rather than have a proper build up to them. It's hard to describe because any book's ending is ultimately predetermined but, I digress.

The book's plot draws on the 2nd Sino-Japanese war, with Nikara being China and Mugen being Japan.

I'll start with what I loved. The first two hundred pages we see Rin trying to get out of her arranged marriage that her terrible adopted family are trying to thrust her into. Instead of being the unwilling wife of someone, she sets her mind on escape, and she sees it in the form of the Keju, a test that everyone in the country of Nikara, based on China, takes in order to get into the Academy, the most prestigious military school, or Grimdark Hogwarts as I'll call it. She'll be able to go to the capital of Nikara, Sinegard, which is pretty much as far away as she can get.

Don't let similarity to Harry Potter fool you: this isn't a cosy read of someone leaving their oppressive home and finding a new family and magic and adventure. Rin not only has to earn her place at the Academy through study, but is consistently set upon by her peers and even her tutors because of their prejudices: she is dark-skinned which indicates her as poorer (because poor people are more likely to have outside in the sun as opposed to lighter-skinned nobility), is behind in terms of teaching and technique as her peers would have had years of tutoring in this regard. At every step of the way, Rin has to prove and continually enshrine her place at the Academy.

During this, we get a good portion of the political situation with the neighbouring and antagonistic Federation of Mugen, the history and philosophy of the world and some of the major players; this is partly owed to the Academy providing that structure. That part of the book was near perfect in its pace, execution, establishment of stakes, and really getting a deeper look into Rin's character who, over the course of the section and book, I equally empathised with and was frustrated by. Rin is a strong protagonist and her voice is very strong here.

Some readers might not like how quickly the book moves over her studies to prepare for the Keju but I liked that it skipped that and gave us the essentials. I'm interested in her goal and I think actually Kuang knew exactly when to speed up and when to slow down. Part 1 was well-modulated. It condensed 4 years of Rin's life into 220 pages and I didn't feel cheated at all. I'd like more of the Academy, but it didn't need it. A lot of fantasy takes too long (I'm guilty of this too) and it's like Kuang saw it and cut straight to the important parts.

Unfortunately, this mentality does come back and bite her because the following parts have too little detail where it really should matter and that sense of knowing when to pay attention to parts of the world and characters just sort of disappears.

Below we go into spoilers. Click at your own peril.

Spoiler

My issues are manifold. And I want to preface all of this by saying that don't want to seem like I'm complaining but I don't know what happened to all the things that I loved about Part 1.

Let's take Rin to begin with. Over her Academy years, she learns that getting even is possible, even easy to some extent, but getting smarter/wiser is more rewarding, a lesson she sort of half internalises (which isn't a criticism as her stubbornness is well-drawn and overall a strength, I would say). In the later parts, having had a taste of war, she sort of just starts ... complaining? Being insubordinate, obstinate, and just outright irritating. And having the initial shock of actually being in war (which honestly makes the Academy look cosy and safe) and finding she has Speerly blood and joining the Cike, an outcast elite group of shamans, the mages of the book.

During this time, she finds her connection to the Phoenix a god which will end up helping her cause atrocities. But she only is able to do it once when really cornered and when her commander, The Man Formerly Known as a Hearthrob Altan Trengsin, urges her to, she can't get it up she can't summon it. Enter a long arc of Rin just sort of bumming around being angry at everyone and being a real child about everything. It's exhausting. She can be a real hothead but she actively regresses. And don't get my wrong, Altan was a piece of shit about the situation and, well, everything, but the core of his message was true. They're an elite group: if Rin can't perform, she is an active hindrance to them all.

You could argue that that was the point and ultimately, no matter what she does or think, she is very young, but even the Rin of the later Academy bits would indeed be taken aback at the shock of everything. However, she ultimately will rise to the challenge. We do sort of have a pay off after the attack of Khurdalain when the chimei attacks, Rin is the one who says she will prove herself by taking it on with Nezha. Until then she is sort of a passenger along for the ride. It really became the Altan show, which is a bummer.

Going back to Rin and Nezha, what I really liked about this section was the evolving dynamic between these two. The former enemies in the Academy had to learn to know and trust each other because it's battlefield. You don't have to like each other, but you have to count on the other to have your back, because it's life or death. And hoo boy, there is a lot of death.

I sense a hint of romance coming their way and I don't think it's gonna go as well as either of the characters think (I don't think for a second he's dead, for starters).

I liked the idea of the Cike, rather than the principle. We really understood Altan and Chaghan and some of Qara and Ramsa. But the others, I sometimes forgot they were there. I kept mixing up Baji and Suni and they're very different. Considering we spent more time with them than the Academy kids, I was disappointed with how little we knew them in comparison to them. I had a better sense of Venka and Niang and they're both in it way less. I hope the next book addresses this.

It's a shame, really: one of the Cike is fucking water who the group carry in a barrel. I'm not saying he has to be a main character but I want to know more about him and all of them.

Worldbuilding: Just sorta stops after about halfway and then never develops. We get most of it in the beginning and nothing deepens a great deal after. They sort of just move from place to place and there was no sense of history or setting. The locations felt like sets. I never felt immersed.

Plot & character: is another bit that sort of just stalls altogether. Things sort of happen and the characters are there. I get that an intentional theme for Mugen is to be the Unknowable Enemy, but not having a central Mugenese antagonist hurt the book and didn't ground the threat for me. They were a faceless horde.

The sections in Golyin Niis are a brutal and well-written and I know it has real-world analogues in the Rape of Nanjing but on the other hand, it felt like a lot of events in the book happened because that's what's supposed to happen as opposed to them being a consequent of prior actions. All of the politics dissolved, which I suppose is a major drawback to having the action unfold from the battlefield. This again leads me back to Mugen: they're black boxes of motivation. We don't anything about why they bother. I guess that doesn't matter anymore.

This is also a thing in Khurdalain with the explosion. Upon reflection the error of not checking the salt was mindboggling in its short-sightedness and the Nikara forces are partly to blame for that. While they couldn't have expected it, they should have checked for it. It was a TV moment: very good in the moment but ultimately kinda dumb.

There was no proper sense of the guardedness the two sides should feel for each other, especially when offering gifts on the battlefield. It's actually hard to believe that no-one checked the salt until Ramsa did. Also, does saltpetre taste like cooking salt? Maybe it does, I dunno. But I feel like there wasn't enough of "This is off" in the air for the scene.

Next, the Empress' betrayal didn't have the intended impact. We know Rin has a feverish adulation for her but the Empress is such a non-character that the betrayal really does not hit hard at all. She doesn't oversee the Cike, she just orders them. It's sort like "yeah that makes sense" moment and that's it. The subsequent bits just raced ahead and they both got in and out of trouble so quickly I got whiplash. Also, I'm not convinced Altan is actually dead. He might be but I don't think so. I'm hoping for like demon-zombie Altan.

Also, where did chi go? Never really mentioned or used again after Part 1, really. The training sections were awesome. It never got applied. All that mental fortitude and philosophy just goes.

The prose was hit and miss. Again this the duality of what works in places, hurts it in others. The prose is overall lovely for its simplicity, to the point where I see why it was pegged as YA, especially for the early sections. There are some lovely turns of phrase as well. But there are also bits where the prose could have set the scene a bit more and there are definite cases of word repetition almost in succession: grotesque was the common offender in successive paragraphs. Once is fine, but after that I really want details! In what way was x grotesque? That can mean so many things.

Also, I didn't believe for a second that Altan would really make Rin the commander of the Cike as his dying wish? Really?! She showed nothing but insubordination, something that usually costs people's lives and I'm surprised didn't have any immediate repercussions. Like, if we came off the back of Rin's prowess in Strategy in the Academy, I think that makes sense but Rin during war showed none of what she learnt. Like at all. Chaghan is the logical successor, with maybe, at a push, Rin as lieutenant, who would ultimately be moulded to lead when she's ready. She is not ready yet. That bit especially really felt like it came outta nowhere.

Whew, it turns out I had a lot of Feelings. The reason being is that I loved Part 1 so much that it outweighs almost all of what I didn't like about Parts 2 &3. But I've talked so much about what I didn't like and I need to say what I did like to reinforce my continued interest in the series and my hope of its improvement.

First, Rin, though uneven in places, is a great protagonist. Her voice is really strong and I mostly enjoyed following her. Her development will be interesting, to say the least.

The worldbuilding is intriguing and I want more. Lots more. From a quick glance at Book 2's responses, we do get a fair bit more. The idea of the magic system having consequences and ultimately really messing up any who use it is cool. I like when authors do that. I hope that gets fleshed out a bit more too.

Jiang is universally great. He's complex in all the good ways. Best boy. Arguably best character. Love every scene he's in.

Other character dynamics are great. Rin/Nezha, Rin/Kitay, Rin/Jiang, Rin/Chaghan/Altan. Changhan acting as foil was well-done and I really liked getting to know him. I sort of like prickly characters and he didn't disappoint.

When the pacing is done right, it really has a sense of momentum and I loved how it just moved along in those bits. Not only that, but ideas of racism, sexism, meritocracy are explored to really good effect. I like how unflinching it is in the brutality. Some scenes are very affecting, especially when characters we know are involved.

Don't be discouraged by my review. I would say if you're curious, read it and make your own mind up.