I’ve just finished the trilogy and I have a lot of thoughts.
I really liked the idea of an East Asian fantasy that explores themes such as racism, colonialism, drug addiction et cetera but there were so many issues such as dropped plotlines, character inconsistencies and more.
Spoilers for the trilogy. If you haven’t read the entire trilogy, don’t comtinue.
First book
For started why are some of the names so close to their historical and mythological inspirations? Sun Tzu is now Sunzi. Sun Wukong is Suni. Dr Shiro Ishii was copied and pasted in the book. The second book does get better about it (Moag being based on Madam Ching) but it still sticks out.
Also the first book would have been better off as split into 2 books. The first one would have been the YA Academia kind of story and the second one would have been the NA military fantasy focused on the Cike. Both sides of the book needed more time to develop.
Why on earth was Rin able to pass the Keju when she lost sleep studying. I get that it was supposed to show how she was determined to go to Sinegard but realistically she wouldn’t have been able to concentrate during the exam. Academic pressure would have been a nice theme to develop but it was dropped.
Another thing is that some character relationships felt rushed. For example, Rin was too quick to see Nezha as a friend in the second half of the book. I understand them stop seeing each other as enemies, but quickly becoming friends?
Same with the Cike. Rin was too quick to defend them when she was only close with Ramsa really.
Altan was okay. I get his character but I don’t know, it feels we were missing something about him.
The Muganese were poorly developed antagonists. I know they were based on Imperial Japan but still. Also, it reduces the impact of Rin’s genocide when we barely got to know them outside of vessels of evil. Still, AOT managed to develop their antagonists better.
The Golyn Nis chapter was horrifying to read about. I knew prior to reading the book there would be an event similar to the Rape of Nanking.
Second book.
The beginning of the second book was rushed. Rin was like ‘oh I respect Moag’ but Moag then betrays her. Would have been more impactful if we knew more about her.
Also the scene where Rin sees Su Daji could have slowed down a bit as things went a bit too quickly.
What happened to Unegen? The books said he left the Cike but we never find out what happened to him. Rin never thinks of him again.
Kitay was a bit annoying. You’d think someone like him would have been clever enough to realise that the Empire is decline but it is only when his Dad is dead he joins up with the Republic.
Also why does Rin not care when her people are insulted but does try to be politically correct with the Ketreyids?
And we meet Mugen again. Well not really. We see a bit of them as they worked with one of the warlords but we don’t get much from them. Would have been nice for an interaction between them and Rin. Maybe we’ll see that in the third books?
The middle of the book had such slow pacing with many writing inconsistencies. For starters Nezha said to Kitay ‘you basically joined yesterday’ when he didn’t. You’d think Kitay would retort at that but he didn’t.
Also we meet Niang again. Then she dies. Turns out there were Nikara prisoners on Mugan? This detail is barely developed. It just gets mentioned and Rin doesn’t seem to take it in much.
Okay why were so many female characters killed off? Men were killed off too but when there’s so many men compared to women apart from the FMC it sticks out. Niang, Qara, the Sorquan Sira, the officer who was kissed by the Wolf Meat General before she died (what was that about?).
Rin was initially interested in the Rooster warlord but then stopped caring. Seriously, why do so many plotlines in the series get dropped?
And I’ll continue the rest in a part 2.
by InfernalClockwork3