The Shadow of Kyoshi (The Kyoshi Novels #2)

Eagerly awaited this for months and devoured it in a matter of hours. I would sell my soul for more of a continuation on Kyoshi. Absolutely brilliant.

This is a VERY high 4-star. Just like the first book, I love almost everything about this novel. But what pulled it down for me, surprisingly, was Yees writing. I kept getting lost in his overwritten purple prose, and some of his action was difficult to follow once he strayed away from general action to more specific stage direction. Funny enough, the reason I like this book so much is also because of Yees writing. When he hits, he really hits. His character work is great and his world-building is outstanding. Seriously, it baffles me that this isnt animated. Id even love a video game or something visual. The story is fantastic. We see and feel the full weight of being an Avatar from both Kyoshi and her predecessors (both Avatar and non-Avatar). And like the brilliant antagonists of Legend of Korra, the opposing forces here are brilliantly realized and entirely sympathetic. I want this book to do well, oh so well. I want Avatar to have a sweeping expanded universe in the same way Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and now Harry Potter is branching off to. But namely, I want more stories from Kyoshi. In whatever form or medium. This story only depicts her very early career as the Avatar, and I want to spend more time in her world.

This book did an excellent job of picking up right where Rise of Kyoshi picked up and furthering the story, adding well to the lore of the ATLA universe along the way. Whereas Rise showed us a Kyoshi who was mostly underpowered and therefore unfamiliar to us, Shadow demonstrates the early days of Kyoshis ruthlessness that later come to rule our image of her from the ATLA universe as she struggles with finding her way into her role as the Avatar and with the friendships she has made along the way. I highly recommend reading these books, and I earnestly hope Yee writes more about Kyoshi. Yee is a very talented author who has a truly deep understanding of the ATLA universe and has, in these two books, contributed as much or more to its lore as anything since the original series.

This book was SO good. It was an almost perfect continuation of the first (which was also amazing). So many plot twists! Sometimes certain books have too absurd of plot twists that aren\’t believable at all, but the insane twists in this series have hints before you get to them. Not enough that you know what\’s coming, but just the right amount to make you say \”Oh my God! How did I not realize that?!\” 10/10 would recommend the whole series to any fan of the Avatar universe. I really hope there\’s a third book, because although there\’s not too much of a cliffhanger, the ending was far from satisfying IF it was the end of the series.

F. C. Yee\’s The Shadow of Kyoshi is strikingly different from its predecessor. Whereas The Rise of Kyoshi\’s \”water arc\” focused on Kyoshi\’s origins and the happier moments in her relationship with Rangi and Yun, and its \”earth arc\” reveled in lush Earth Kingdom world-building and Kyoshi\’s travels with the Flying Opera Company, The Shadow of Kyoshi (the \”fire arc\”) is a much more grim tale. As Kyoshi has begun settling into her Avatarhood, the kinds of problems she has to deal with also become more complex (and more political), and their solutions aren\’t always clean and pretty. To showcase these complex problems, The Shadow of Kyoshi smartly takes place in the Fire Nation, a natural setting for tense political infighting. The first half of Shadow features a rare, rich dive into the lore of the Fire Nation, into its history, its culture, its rigidly Confucian social norms, and into its ever-present internal power struggles. I find Yee\’s writing for the Avatar series is at its best when he focuses on world-building, and the way he paints the lore of the Fire Nation is truly immersive and mesmerizing as the culture of the volcanic islands unfolds and comes to life before our eyes. The latter half of the book is more focused on the plot at hand and on Kyoshi\’s own development, but it builds up to a showstopping moment in the final act that is truly satisfying both for fans of the novel series and fans of the Avatar universe as a whole. I really hope there are more novels to come. Kyoshi lived 230 years, so I\’m pretty sure there\’s plenty of room beyond her first 17 years of age for more of Yee\’s wonderful prose and Kyoshi\’s difficult and raw journey through her Avatarhood. This novel series might be the best Avatar series since the original ATLA, and, as such, is a must-read for Avatar fans.

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