The Rise of Kyoshi

I've got nothing to say about this book that is negative. It is a great story. The characters are interesting, the battles and tactics well explained, and a ton of emotional moments that really feel like avatar.

I was expecting this book to be okay but more on the maturity of LoK which it is, but sometimes even more so. It has some darker moments and Kyoshi goes through waves of character growth.

I went into this book with optimism but I did not expect much. The Avatar comics have been mostly average to subpar and I assumed the trend would continue. It did not.

This book was extremely well written. F.C. Yee has a new fan in me and if the sequel to this book remains the same quality I will be purchasing their other books ASAP.

I love that they didn't write this for a kid friendly audience. The Avatar straight up kills people which is what I've been begging for. Aang and I have very different philosophies so it's always been hard for me to deal with him. Kyoshi like Korra is a badass who gets shit done. Evil person who is killing a bunch of people? They need to die. Makes sense.

Also big praise for the fight scenes which are so hard to make compelling typically. The bending was great.

Lastly it was cool to get a taste of the air nomads at the end. We only have the flashbacks of Aang prior to this book.

DNF - PG 181

Why?

Does anyone else remember the first live action Scooby-Doo movie? The one with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Buffy - I mean, Sarah Michelle Geller? I was super excited for that movie when it first came out, but never loved it the way I thought I would considering I love Scooby-Doo. It took until their next live action reboot of the Scooby Gang (the one with Robbie Amell) to realize why. Though the first one got the mechanics right, it didn't feel like Scooby-Doo. So many of the typical high jinks weren't there. Yeah, they got everything right, but it was stripped down until it didn't feel like Scooby-Doo. (Unlike the reboot that ignored accuracy in favor of telling a story that felt like it could have been a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Which, I loved.)

This book is the first live action Scooby-Doo movie: It's got accuracy and the mechanics right, but it doesn't have the soul of Avatar.

Now, before I get to ripping this book a new one, there's two things I need to address.

This is actually my second attempt at reading a Yee book. The first (The Epic Crush of Genie Lo) was also a DNF - very early on and due to the main guy (and who I believe was the love interest) being a creepy stalker type. Other than that, I had no issues with the book and approached this book with only a minor amount of trepidation.

Mostly - and mostly decided to read this book - because I like the Avatar world. I liked Avatar quite a bit and absolutely loved Legend of Korra. I've read some of the Korra comics and intend to read more. I definitely consider myself a fan.

Problem with tRoK #1
The writing. Oh my gosh, the writing. I don't like purple prose. I don't like florid writing. I don't like similes and metaphors to an extreme.

This is some examples of the writing style herein.

166
She thrashed in place, the waves of bad news buffeting her around, challenging her equilibrium.

167
The plan molded itself together in his head, like clay under the guidance of an invisible tool.

170
She leaned off Pengpeng's side, drawing in the layout of the ramshackle port town with the single-mindedness of a buzzard wasp, as if every trash-strewn alley and patchy roof were vitally important.

170
The yellow roof stood out among its green neighbors like a diseased leaf.

171
The ground here was rawhide, impenetrable.

173
The streets twisted and angled like they're been set over animal paths instead of following human needs.

173
His loud snores caused his wispy white beard to flutter like cobwebs in the breeze.

174
It sat on four sturdy legs, surrounded by ratty floor cushions, a jewel nestled in the petals of a wilted flower.

175
That pain was a bleeding trail leading back to Yokoya. It would never wash away.

175
The reply came out of his mouth like it needed to be dragged by komodo rhinos, but it was the reply she was looking for.

Some of these work, some of these don't, some are useful, some aren't, but there is way, way too many of them for me. (I actually find one very useful and one works well enough to not annoy me.)

Oh, here's another really fun one.

It felt like her mouth had become her stomach, unwieldy and sour.

Lol. What?

Oh, look, one more for the road:

The words poured out of her in a churning waterfall.

I'm going to be honest with you, this was my biggest reason for stopping, because pretty sure I was rolling my eyes - or screaming in frustration - at least once a page. I mean, that's what we're average: one simile or metaphor a page. (I don't know if Yee's other book did this. I don't remember/didn't get far enough.)

Problem with tRoK #2
The Scooby-Doo effect. The author obviously knew what he was writing about, he did his research and was accurate as far as I can tell. To me, though, this book literally does not feel like Avatar. I can't place it except to say:

Problem with tRoK #3
Depressing depression. Avatar was a kids show but a lot of teens and adults watched it and liked it, which, from what I've heard, is why Korra was older than Aang. Korra dealt with a lot of serious issues, but it was still a kids show that was created in a way to appeal to multiple demographics. Both shows were fun, regardless of anything else that was going on. This book is not fun. At all. I got far enough for the Avatar reveal because I thought - foolishly, it turns out - that that would straighten this out. Literally, all this book is to this point is something bad happens. Something bad happens to Kyoshi. Something else bad happens to Kyoshi. Oh, let's change things up a bit. Something bad happens to Kyoshi's friends - but it's also bad for Kyoshi. I don't like it. (For more on this, see problem five.) There is no sense of wonder. There is, however, a sense of drudgery.

Problem with tRoK #4
Kyoshi. So...I liked Kyoshi well enough in the show when she was there - but she wasn't the Avatar I wanted more information on. (That was always Roku. Always.) I didn't have strong feelings for Kyoshi before I started this book - but now I seriously cannot stand her. I don't know what it is about her personality that grates so badly, because I've been having a problem with her from the start. (More recently, her obsession with revenge is a major issue for me and I can only imagine that will get worse before it gets better.)

Nitpicky problems:

Problem with tRoK #5
Where's our gaang? Team Avatar? I've almost made it halfway through the book and Kyoshi has one traveling companion. I thought we were going to have more but...see problem three.

Problem with tRoK #6
...This might be partially on me, but a lot of times I cannot tell when someone is bending - or what element they are bending. At the beginning of the story, a villager is keeping a jar above Kyoshi's head. For awhile, I thought she was literally holding it above Kyoshi's head. Then I thought she was airbending it above her head. It took a long time for me to realize that the jar was probably earthen (which might have been mentioned, I don't remember) and that she was earthbending it, somehow, to float in the air. Later on, someone makes wisps of grey flame around his fist - my first thought was ‘okay, how are you firebending?' when they were actually earthbending dust - or something - to look like a firefist. I...Some of it is my fault, I think, but I also don't think the bending aspect was explained very well what with the similes and the metaphors and the ‘Kyoshi screamed fire' leaving me going ‘did she actually or is this another metaphor?'

Side Note: The Avatar world changed a lot between Aang and Korra. Just look at the huge differences in the shows world building. And Korra was the Avatar right after Aang. Kyoshi's world - that I dealt with - seems to be just like Aang's. And she was two Avatar's before Aang. (Kyoshi, Roku and then Aang. Not to mention the fact that a lot of time passed (understatement!) between the death of Roku and Avatar: the Last Airbender.) And yet the world building is...the same? If the timeline I read was accurate, The Legend of Korra takes place seventy years after Avatar: the Last Airbender. Kyoshi was Avatar three hundred years before the events of Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Now, to break that down. The Legend of Korra felt, to me, like WWII era or just pre WWII. So, let's say 1930. Seventy years prior to that would be 1860 for Avatar: the Last Airbender. I can kind of see that, both for the era and how much the world changed in those seventy years. (Also consider that Korra's story was more city and Aang's was more provincial.) However, Kyoshi's era would then have been equivalent to 1560. I'm from the US. This country changed a lot in those three hundred years. Why does it seem like this world didn't? (Is there better world building after page 181? I'd love to know if there's anything that feels like it's actually three hundred years before Avatar: the Last Airbender. Because, where I stopped, it feels like an Avatar: the Last Airbender contemporary.)

In closing:
This is not an author for me. I will not be reading anymore of his books. I will also approach with caution media tie-in novels because this is two this month that failed me.