Sunday, September 12, 2021

“The Shadow of Kyoshi” by F.C. Yee

This is the sequel to The Rise of Kyoshi by the same author. I wrote about it previously here. The sequel is very similar, in some ways it falls short of the original, but as far as sequels go this one was marvelously done.

It starts with Kyoshi doing her Avatarly duties and working against the criminals in the Earth Kingdom. She is then summoned by the Fire Lord to help him with a problem. She goes, and there in the Fire Nation is reunited with Rangi. They encounter Yun, the boy who was presumed to be the Avatar before Kyoshi, who threatens Rangi’s mother. From there they travel to try and commune with the spirits better, to see if Yun is possessed. It turns out that no he’s not, but Kyoshi had to talk to her predecessor, Kuruk, in order to be sure. She then has a showdown against Yun with the help of her friends where she kills him and ends this.

So what I really liked about this book is that there’s definitely more of a sense of humor to it. The original seemed very stiff, not exactly humorless, but also I didn’t laugh while reading it. This one definitely had some jokes thrown in, which made it feel like it was more a part of the Avatar universe.

But for a lot of this book, Kyoshi doesn’t really have a Team Avatar. It’s her, Rangi, Rangi’s mom, Rangi’s mom’s doctor, and Kyoshi’s Air Nomad secretary. They don’t really work as a team since it’s mostly Kyoshi doing things to connect to the Spirit World. As a result it feels as though the book has lost a bit of its core.

However, this book wraps up Kyoshi’s story incredibly well. I was three chapters from the end and was wondering how the author was going to tie up the loose ends! But Yun is defeated, Kyoshi’s friends from the first book return, and all ends up well once more. It nicely forms Kyoshi into the Avatar that we know and love, while wrapping up any remaining questions from the first book.

Definitely read The Rise of Kyoshi first, but this is an excellent follow up if you need more Kyoshi! (And I think we all do.)

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