Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rise of Kyoshi (3/5)
This is the first of two (why two, and not three? Meh) Avatar novels that centre on Kyoshi. The fan favourite Avatar pre-Aang who became favourite for reasons that...actually, I kind of understand why. Odd, usually I'm on the "I don't get why this character is popular" camp. But enough about that, how does the novel itself hold up?
Well, for starters, I'm going to specify something - this is arguably a "darker and grittier" version of TLA, and no, I don't mean that as an insult, but not as praise either. Whether this is good or not is something that might vary for you, but something that became apparent very quickly is that while the setting is recognizably that of TLA (as in, Earth Kingdom, lots of name drops, but not to the point of fan service), life here has a 'harsher' edge than what we see in TLA, both in terms of context and in presentation. Basically, times are tough for the Earth Kingdom, as the rule of law has generally broken down. Banditry, poverty, corruption, slavery, these are all issues. The parallels to Chinese history are fairly apparent, with the recent defeat of the Yellow Necks (a reference to the historical Yellow Turbans). In terms of presentation, while TLA was very sly as to how it handled death, the book makes no qualms about the world - people die, and sometimes, die horribly. Enough that even towards the end, I stared at the page for a bit as a character described how he made prisoners dig their own graves, forced them to climb into them, then used earthbending to smother them. Oh, and there's a group of warrior fanatics who recruit those who've been traumatized by bending (as in, been powerless in the face of benders), who style themselves as a warrior order, fanatically believing that they're immune to bending. Also, while the setting is more or less on the same tech level as TLA, it does feel more primitive. Hard to quantify, but a lot of the tactics used are what we'd call conventional (e.g. spears, bows, etc.), whereas in TLA, armed conflict seemed to be entirely the purview of benders.
Again, whether this change in tone is good, bad, or neutral is up to you. This isn't being "dark and gritty" for the sake of it, but if you're expecting this book to be in the vein of TLA, you'd be mistaken. The TL, DR version is that in this world (or at least the Earth Kingdom), life sucks, and the further you are down the hierarchial ladder, the more it sucks, and if you can't bend, your life is more likely to suck even further.
Moving onto the characters and plot, I actually have less to say here, and this is where the book is at its weakest. The plot is somewhat meandering, and the characters are...okay. That's the best I can describe them. Focusing on Kyoshi, in terms of character, she's done pretty well. Like, nothing special in terms of character, but at least distinct from the other Avatars we've seen. In part because of her backstory, in part because she isn't a clone of any other Avatar there is. Also nice traits, as in, with her earthbending, she's adept at controlling large objects, but terrible at controlling small ones (whereas for most earthbenders, it's the other way round). The other characters around her are likewise...fine. Nothing really sticks out for good or ill. Really, apart from Kyoshi, the only characters who really do stick out are Rangi (a firebender, her closest friend, and eventual love interest), and Jianzhu - her former mentor turned antagonist. If anything, it's Jianzhu who sticks out more than Rangi, in that he starts out as seemingly a good person, but by the end, you're glad to see the bastard in the ground. And yes, Kyoshi does get her own 'team avatar, so to speak, but this isn't on the level of TLA. It isn't even on the level of LoK.
At the end of the day, book's okay. It's tie-in fiction, and like a lot of tie-in fiction, your appreciation of it will likely depend on how much you like the material it's based on. Really, the thing it does best is its worldbuilding, but other than that, things are pretty average.
