Super quick review on this one, because I read this and the first one back to back, so they’re a bit blurred in my memory. I do remember I liked the first one just a bit more.
Yee continues Avatar Kyoshi’s story as she claims her Avatarhood. She doesn’t have advisors or mentors like most Avatars, and she has to figure it out all on her own. Like we saw of Kyoshi in A:TLA, she is hyper-focused on the concept of justice. But what is justice? What does that mean in terms of ideals? And what does it mean practically for Kyoshi?
The two things that really stood out for me in this one were the insight we got into Avatars Kuruk and Yangchen, who both got some cool background that re-contextualized what we knew of them, and what Kyoshi is dealing with now as a result of their actions. We also spend quite a bit of time in the Fire Nation, which is always fun. It’s a pretty different place than what we see in the show, as it’s mostly segregated into tribes that war and plot against each other a lot of the time, and the Fire Lord doesn’t have as much power as Sozin does by the time Aang is born.
I didn’t mention Rangi in my first review, but she’s a key part of Kyoshi’s story. I loved seeing a relationship between two young women where they are so loving and supportive of one another. Even if Kyoshi doesn’t SPOILER get a happy ending with her other childhood crush, Yun, she and Rangi presumably go on to have a healthy relationship, though Rangi presumably dies pretty early on in Kyoshi’s lifespan, and we know she took other lovers both male and female END SPOILERS.
I know this is the final book in the duology, but I hope more of these books are made. I really would like to jump forward into Kyoshi’s timeline and see some of her adventures and conflicts as an adult. She’s the Avatar responsible for creating the Dai Li, after all, and the Kyoshi Warriors, not to mention Kyoshi island during her defeat of Chin the Conqueror. Who knows what else she was up to in 230 years.
