I heard good things about Sword of Kaigen so I excitedly bought it. After the 6 hour mark I realized the entire first act is just exposition. The worldbuilding was so overthought that a warrior village with ice swords seems insane when there’s literal weaponized tornadoes, guns, and jet fighter aircraft in the world.
My biggest issue though, is that the author makes this book nearly sadistic with how much suffering the main protagonist goes through. It’s not even characterization at this point… it’s just stacking literal abuse on a character ad nauseum. Do not read this book.
HEAVY SPOILERS BELOW
I cannot believe I invested 12 hours into this book for it’s only charismatic character to die. Why spend that much time characterizing him.