This gave me the freedom to have him go big, fall hard, and learn fast – a delightful experience I never had with any protagonist before him. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read. The kids in my high school Japanese class introduced me to anime, my Japanese teacher convinced me to study abroad in Japan, and my drumming group later had my family host several Japanese students. Equally deep in narrative and immersive in action, this book makes its way as one of my all-time favourites. The Sword of Kaigenis a military fantasy that takes place thirteen years before the events of Planet Adynand Orbitin the Shirojima region of the Kaigenese Empire.

Two books are coming out whose predecessors I have reviewed or which I have been planning to review when the series finishes. There are chaotic billows of guilt, repression, secret, self-hatred, and motherhood behind her façade of Kaigenese traditional model housewife. kono1) a Yammaninke verb meaning ‘to wait’ 2) a Yammaninke noun meaning ‘middle,’‘center,’‘core,’‘inside,’‘interior’ or ‘stomach. Mamoru has the restless energy of a typical Western fantasy protagonist, but it was interesting to explore how that would manifest in a confining culture steeped in misguided nationalism.

Disa a country on the continent of Namindugu, a former Yammanka colony populated by the primarily tajaka descendants of native Disankalu and Yammanka colonizers.

This predominantly was the case because of just how great the individual characterizations of Mamoru and Misaki were. With loads of potential and an intimate sense of storytelling, THE SWORD OF KAIGEN's simple failure is a lack of focus.This was due partly to a lack of experience and partly to the fact that I had finished versions of the series back when I was a teenager. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people. 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. My hands and mind could do things no one else’s could, but I was too young then to understand that some power—the kind that really matters—comes from other people. And when Misaki receives a letter from her past warning that the entire Kusanagi Peninsula is in danger, she may be pulled back into the warrior’s lifestyle that she was forced to give up.

For all their godlike powers, no individual in SoK leads a revolution, saves the world, or topples an empire. Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.

Sansumakalothe third month of the twelve-month Dunian calendar, named for Queen Sansuma Zankare, the first queen of Yamma (roughly coincides with Earth’s September). 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. It is told from the perspectives of Mamoru, the eldest son of the second son, and Misaki, Mamoru's mother with unbelievable secret past.

By far the most interesting element of the setting was the way in which the Japanese-inspired culture of our main characters interacted with an African-dominated world. Overall/tl;dr: I can see how this won't be for everyone, but even while I acknowledge its flaws I found this an original and engrossing narrative. Take a bow dear author, for you are a storyteller, and The Sword of Kaigen is a tale, beautifully told.Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. It quickly became apparent to me that this book didn’t know what it wanted to be, and that idea was reiterated to me over and over again as I progressed through the read. Kaigengua the primary language spoken in the country of Kaigen and the Kaigenese Empire (similar to Earth’s Korean). walla(pl: wallanu)a Yammanka unit of currency used throughout most of the world, fifty mekenu (roughly equivalent to two dollars). Although technology isn’t at the forefront of the story, it does exist, and plays an important but minor role in the story.