Yes! It's finally here! As a huge fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, I only recently got into the novel series. But now that I've started, I'm hooked! Naturally, that meant I was counting down the days to the release of The Dawn of Yangchen, written by F.C. Yee.
Yangchen is an Avatar, a fact she has known since she was a little girl. The Airbender elders couldn't have kept this secret from her if they had tried. The memories of her past selves have always haunted Yangchen.
Over the years, Yangchen has learned to cope with the overbearing presence of those who came before her. Yet she's still struggling to find a path right for her as the latest incarnation of the Avatar. In truth, she will need all the help she can get to maintain peace, find her place in the world, and stop another tragedy from occurring.
“Ah, the faint grain of sand, the merciless hound at our heels, the spoke of the season's wheel”
Guys, words cannot express how much I love the Avatar novels. If you haven't read Kyoshi's stories, please take the time to sit down and read them (seriously, they're worth it!). And when you're done, come back here and read The Dawn of Yangchen.
At first, I was surprised that the next Avatar to get their own novel would be another Airbender. After all, we've learned so much through Aang. That being said, I have no complaints about diving into Yangchen's story.
I think I was merely expecting Kuruk to be next in line – I probably just assumed that they would continue going backward in that order. But they skipped Kuruk and went right to Yangchen. Perhaps this is because we learned so much about Kuruk during Kyoshi's novel.
“Human desires were responsible for the situation they were in.”
The Dawn of Yangchen is an amazing and intense read, though perhaps not for the reasons you may expect. Yangchen isn't like any Avatars we've seen or read about. She's deeply connected to the lives of her past – whether she wants to be or not—this added layer of complications to an already complicated life.
In many ways, Yangchen's story is deeply political. By that, I mean she's trying to find a way to bring peace worldwide – the spirit realm included. As such, she's constantly dealing with different humans of power and making bargains with spirits.
It's fascinating to see this side of the world, and I cannot wait to see more. Seeing Yangchen's struggle to find her own method of dealing with these problems makes it all the more interesting. As an Avatar plagued by the memories of her past, she is dealing with the most intense identity crisis anyone has ever seen.
If you are a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender or want to learn more about previous Avatars, please make a point of reading The Dawn of Yangchen. You won't regret it. As for me, I'm already counting down the days to the release of the next book in this series.
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Reviewed by Quirky Cat on
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 4 October, 2022: Finished reading
- 4 October, 2022: Reviewed