The Sword of Kaigen

I wanted so badly to love this one. I can look past the zillion made-up terms, because they do add to the worldbuilding which btw brings a new take on the whole sword & sorcery concept, at least to me. I mean, being such a skilled and powerful “ice wielder” that you can form a blade of ice that can cut through anything? ...yeah, I really wanted to love this one.

But the author has made a couple of decisions that really disappointed me. To keep this spoiler-free I'll just say that the first half of the book was beautifully crafted, but after a climax that happens much too soon and an aftermath that stretches over too many unnecessary events, the plot and the character arcs sort of fell apart for me.

I want to make a point that this book did shine brilliantly in places. It just wasn't carried through all the way to the end.