Publisher: Amulet Books
Received: purchased
Read from August 29, 2022 to January 10, 2023
Synopsis from Goodreads:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Avatar, the Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi and Avatar, the Last Airbender: The Shadow of Kyoshi comes a thrilling new chapter in the Chronicles of the Avatar series
Yangchen’s inexperience may prove to be her greatest asset . . .
Plagued by the voices of Avatars before her for as long as she can remember, Yangchen has not yet earned the respect felt for Avatar Szeto, her predecessor. In an era where loyalty is bought rather than earned, she has little reason to trust her counsel. When Yangchen travels to Bin-Er in the Earth Kingdom on political business, a chance encounter with an informant named Kavik leads to a wary partnership. Bin-Er is a city ruled by corrupt shang merchants who have become resentful of the mercurial Earth King and his whims. To extract themselves from his influence, the shangs have one solution in mind: a mysterious weapon of mass destruction that would place power squarely in their hands. As Yangchen and Kavik seek to thwart the shangs’ plan, their unlikely friendship deepens. But for Yangchen to chart her course as a singularly powerful Avatar, she must learn to rely on her own wisdom above all else.
This propulsive third installment in the Chronicles of the Avatar series illuminates Avatar Yangchen’s journey from uncertain young woman to revered leader.
Review:
The Dawn of Yangchen is the third Avatar Chronicles book but the first to follow Yangchen instead of Kyoshi. I was curious how this one would be different and how similar it would feel to the other books.
Like the Kyoshi novels, The Dawn of Yangchen had an eclectic cast of characters. I was expecting the book to be mostly in Yangchen's point of view, just like the Kyoshi novels were mostly in Kyoshi's. Instead, quite a bit of the book is in Kavik's. Having finished the book, I feel like I learned more about Kavik than Yangchen, which isn't to say that I didn't learn anything about Yangchen at all, but Kavik felt more like the main character in many ways.
That might be part of the reason why I don't feel as drawn to Yangchen as I did Kyoshi. I do like her, but I'm not invested in her story quite as much. That could also have to do with other aspects of her characterization. At the beginning, you learn that Yangchen has memories from past Avatars even as a young child, while most Avatars don't develop the ability to communicate with their past lives until they're older. The fact that Yangchen had all of this knowledge at her disposal from the beginning of the story made her feel larger than life in a way that Kyoshi or even Aang or Korra didn't, and that also might be part of the reason I didn't connect with her in the same way. She felt more like a fully realized Avatar than the other young Avatars we've followed.
Having Kavik be a point of view character does help counteract that in some ways, since he has had a very different life from Yangchen, but his choices at various points in the book left me so frustrated that I'm honestly not sure how I feel about him at this point.
In the Kyoshi novels, Yangchen was built up as a great figure, so it was nice to have that image complicated a bit in this book. Despite everything I said about finding it hard to connect with her, Yangchen does have flaws, and I appreciated getting to see them.
Avatar Szeto does continue to be built up as an impressive Avatar in this book though, just like he was in the Kyoshi novels. I'm wondering if we'll be getting books about him after Yangchen, so then we can then see him become more humanized as well.
One thing I appreciate about the Avatar Chronicles books (and the Avatar franchise in general) is that each Avatar's story feels like it's taking place in a world that really is changing over time. Yangchen's world is extremely different from Kyoshi's to an extent that a lot of it is unrecognizable. It gives a sense of realism as you feel like you really are going back in time from Kyoshi's story, from Aangi's story, etc. It was like I was learning a whole new set of rules about how the world worked. It was similar to how it feels when reading historical fiction about our world. Some thing may be the same, but so many things are different.
With the way things left off in this book, I am curious about how things will go next. I don't think I'm quite as invested as I was in Kyoshi's story yet, but I could see myself getting more into the story in a second book. We'll see.
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