The Sword of Kaigen

I've been super excited to read this book as it's been repeatedly recommended to me since I fell in love with [a:Fonda Lee 7705004 Fonda Lee https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1428795279p2/7705004.jpg]'s Green Bone Saga and [a:R.F. Kuang 16820001 R.F. Kuang https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1563395354p2/16820001.jpg]'s Poppy War Trilogy and I'm happy to report that I was not disappointed.The world building seemed a bit clumsy and some of the terminology confused me as most of the in-world concepts didn't come with in-text explanations, but maybe that's because I haven't read any of the other Theonite Books. I also found it best, while reading, to detach any parallels it has culturally to our world. So, yes it's a fantasy world with obvious references to our world but it is not our world and that's important to remember.That being said, I am a sucker for character driven books and can overlook most any issue with a book so long as it has strong solid characters, and believe me this book is full of them. They all grow and they all change, it was beautiful to watch each of them (more than just the main cast, even!) thaw and come into their own. I also have to say that no death in any book I've read has effected me the way Mamoru Matsuda's death did. It was devastating. His story didn't feel finished, he still had so much growing to do and so many more places to go. But thats's just the nature of death, isn't it? It's painful and wrong and rarely ever neat. So, overall, loved it. It was fun, it was painful, it made me angry and sad and all that good stuff.