The Rise of Kyoshi

Since the original television wrapped up over a decade ago, I have been hungrily searching for more Avatar content to fill the void left by such an imaginative, fantastical world. I indulged myself in the sequel series, The Legend of Korra, and spent entire paychecks purchasing collections of the graphic novels all in hopes to find something new the recaptures the same magic that Avatar the Last Airbender did to a ten year old me years ago. Sadly, none of the spin-off materials held a candle to the my lofty view of the original show. None came close to repeating its masterful exploration of friendship, adventure, responsibility, imagination, loss, and love. Until The Rise of Kyoshi. Kyoshi, offers the fresh perspective of a servant, an outcast, and a novice, which plays stark contrast to her enlightened, yet childish and prodigal, yet naïve reincarnations. It is far more limited in scale in terms of stakes than its predecessors, but certainly thick with emotion and characterization. Tonally, it is perhaps the darkest tale so far, thick with bending violence and tragic backstories, without much comic relief. This is to say, its more grounded...On its own merits, the story presents its own themes about what makes a family, honor vs duty, and if evil deserves mercy. The writing is superb, with brilliantly creative descriptions and pacing that never seems to let up. I applaud the ability to explain all of action going on in such a clear way when such complex bending is occuring. The characters are well drawn in their relations to each other, though some lack depth in their own stories. If I have any complaints, I did find a struggle to capture a female voice in Kyoshi which so many fantasy series attempt to explore in relationship to a male dominated society. Kyoshi also seemed to lack some personality as a person which I wish had been more painted in. I couldn't tell you what how she would be spending her time outside of being a servant or being in battle.All in all, an excellent start to this book series.

I liked it. Kyoshi origin story was fun to read. Kept me entertained and guessing. Going to read the next book. BRB.

I really liked how the book explained a lot about the fire nation origins, the past avatars achievements and mistakes, as well as the great main conflict and final battle!. What I love is how the story goes so natural and adds a great begining for the great Kyoshi! If you love ATLA and LOK you will love this! I really hope they make a movie or an animated series from the 2 books! both are awesome!!

This book is an amazing show of taking a already written character and the basics of their backstory and expanding it, every word feels like a Avatar story, easily comparable to Aang and Korras own stories were they to be written like this.

I love "The Last Airbender" and "The Legend of Korra" for it's likeable characters who have to grow and overcome their challenges to be who they're supposed to be. And this book is just more of the same!One minor issue is that the action scenes are very visual and sometimes hard to "see" with text, but the author does a pretty spectacular job. The pacing seems to be somewhat slow in the beginning and it's almost halfway before the main story kicks off.Looking forward to the next book, and I hope it does more universe and character building.