Review: The Dawn of Yangchen, by F.C. Yee
by
Stuart Holland
This book was very different to what I expected!
I liked Yangchen herself a lot - also way more than I expected. It was probably intentional, but she was nothing like what I’d thought she’d be after her brief appearances in the previous books. And while she makes some tough choices and is even a bit ruthless at times, she’s a joyful perspective character to read.
Kavik also shows up well. He has a lot of flaws, so that’s well as in “high quality” not necessarily “morally upstanding”. I enjoyed a lot of the time spent with him and he has a very consistent voice.
The other characters don’t quite stand out as well. I get the impression that they do still make sense, but they don’t get enough time on the page for the reader to really understand. And particularly towards the end of the book, things feel a bit rushed.
Still, I very much enjoyed the peeling back of a few more layers of the Avatar universe. Yangchen having her own unique interactions with her past lives, and some fun bending variants are all very cool. And I’m beginning to see a pattern of what parts of Kyoshi, Aang, and Korra’s experiences were unique to them, instead of consistent avatar “mechanics”.
Good fun for fans of the series, I enjoyed it.
