The Sword of Kaigen

Brilliant. Heartbreaking. Perfection. And I surprisingly really liked the battle scenes too. I liked the marrying of modernity with old school, I'm not sure I've seen it so well done in any fantasy I've encountered. The book did not end at all like how I thought it would, and maybe if it were any other book I'd have a critique of the plot structure, specifically the placement of the climax, but man-o-man ML Wang created a work of art that absolutely worked. It was just superb, it checked all the boxes for me on character depth, character relationships, complex topics like grief and forgiveness, plot, world building, action, tears upon tears - chef's kiss. This is a gut wrenching book, so I don't think this will be for everyone. It also took me a bit to get into it, but it turned into quite the ride.