Quick-take: Ice Warriors. Great Loss. And Patriarchy.

Dan's Review

Misaki is married to Takeru, a great warrior from a proud family. He has godlike powers over the surrounding moisture. He can it it into ice and command it to do as he pleases. He is also a ultra-conservative tyrant husband. I take his ice to be a loud metaphor.

Misaki has 4 sons with Takeru, the oldest, Mamoru, is about 10 years older than the others. Mamoru is becoming a promising fighter in his own right studying at the martial arts school and with his mean father.

The book follows Misaki's life through her young adulthood, being married to Takeru, raising her children, and acceptance of her frustrating situation. There are some chapters with Mamoru as the lead character.

Before I get into the criticism, I want to clearly say I enjoyed this book. I can feel Misaki's anguish and struggles to find small joys throughout the book. I can tell though she is not really enjoying herself, she is making the best of it. She is trying her best to do what the backwards society wants of her and trusting it will be all for the best in the end.

My criticism concerns some of the plot mechanics. There is a reason we don't carry around swords anymore. We have an exceptionally more powerful and easier weapon now: guns. They have guns in the Kaigenese empire too! Instead of practicing swinging the blade for 10 years, wouldn't target practice be better? Why not use guns? This is why I rarely see modern tech inside fantasy novels. I don't think it works in this book either.

Even more: Apparently, they have cell towers, televisions, and airplanes. The book talks a lot about how old-fashioned the people on the Kusanagi Peninsula are, but I think it goes a bit too far. I can accept that Takeru is basically an Ice God and likely would not bother, but couldn't the normies around him pack heat for support?

Also, why is Takeru wasting his time in this village? He should be working at some type of controlled environment manufacturing. He could be making billions with his ice powers. I'm sure there are many pharmaceutical and semiconductor companies that would be VERY INTERESTED in hiring him for his ability to manipulate the tempature of molecules by pure will.

The book also had a constant running thread of Misaki being subdued by the patriarchy. I was curious if there is a reason that M.L. Wang has that as an important theme in both of her standalone books. She studied history in college, so I can accept her writing about it so deeply in her books.

The ending needed to be chopped in half. Then replace it with a proper epilogue.

Score: 5/5. Blood Over Bright Haven is better, but I still enjoyed this one. I have no interest in her YA series. If she writes another adult standalone, I will pick it up.