I’ve seen a lot of hype for this book with it even winning the same award the Senlin Ascends had won from Mark Lawrence which was a phenomenal book and series. So with that I finally decided to pick up this book and while Sword of Kaigen didn’t meet the insane hyped I’d seen it was still a very enjoyable book. The action scenes were enthralling and all the characters felt real. Misaka’s story throughout the events of the book was a joy and I think she was an interesting character to see grow and change. It felt like almost all the characters had some depth and solid motivations throughout. I’d say my only issues with the book was that there were one too many info dumps, at times the internal monologues went on a bit too long, and the second half of the book felt almost like a prolonged epilogue after the events of the second half. It felt like there was potential for a really interesting storyline for the later half of the book with the Empire but the author kind of just moved past it without any real resolution and towards the end throws in hooks for a totally different plot that felt disconnected. Overall I’d say the book is pretty solid but peaks halfway through and while there were still good moments in the second half they pale in comparison to the earlier parts.