The Sword of Kaigen is set in the small village on Mt. Takayubi in the Kaigenese Empire, on the Planet Duna in 5369. The setting reflects elements of historical Japan, as well as fantastical and modern elements. The main characters are the Matsuda family, and the story is told primarily from the perspectives of Mamoru, a 15 year old boy being raised to be a powerful warrior, and Misaki, his mother, who is a housewife with a history of which she does not speak. Matsuki’s husband, Takeru, a powerful warrior both with the sword, and as a Theonite with the ability to manipulate water and ice.
Mamoru is a powerful Theonite in his own right, as are all the male’s of their family line to greater or lesser degree. Mammoru’s singular aim is to master his power, and in so doing to develop the use of his family’s bloodline technique, a closely held power available only to men of his line capable of mastering it. The whispering blade requires a theonite to use their powers to form a deadly blade capable of slicing through anything from individual molecules of ice. Mastery of the technique requires a kind of self mastery that is interrupted by doubts, and doubt is brought into Mammoru’s life in the form of a new student at his school, Chul-hee, who causes him to question his government, his people, and everything he once thought he knew.
Matsuki, a powerful Theonite in her own right, must reconcile the life she had loved fighting crime on the streets of Lewiston while she was away studying at Daybreak Academy with the life she has now 15 years later, a diminutive housewife whose husband is cold and seemingly emotionless. Matsuki has not seen her close friends from her old life in all that time, and is engulfed by the magnitude of the choice that she made all those years ago to marry into the Matsuda family and conceal the warrior she once was.
When a crisis arises, all of the tension in the Matsuda household is brought past its breaking point, and the secrets of years begin to be revealed.
This story is gripping and manages to describe a broad culture, society, and magic system while focusing almost exclusively on the actions and lives of one family and village. The narrative ensconces brutal and intricate battle scenes right alongside displays of the range of human emotion. From grief, to love, friendship, and parenthood, this book will have you questioning the “why” behind a character’s actions.
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