u/Ole_Hen476

Mind Transferal for me. Not really sure why, but it just really hammers home that album, which is not even my favorite album of theirs. Would be interested to see what other people think.

Recently got this on vinyl and hadn’t realized beforehand that it says “The Electric Wizard” instead of just Electric Wizard like my other albums do. Any info on why they did that?

Looking for a good summer horror read. I read Summer of Night by Dan Simmons last summer and loved it. Open to a variety of options from cosmic horror to a classic, anything that gives off that good summer vibe or is set during summer would be great. Thanks in advance

I will preface this post by saying that I read Blood Over Bright Haven in the last year after reading several notes of praise, and I to this day I strongly dislike that book and many of the ways the author wrote it. I chose to read The Sword of Kaigen because of the praise it received , but also because if you start reading reviews there are some pretty big critics and I wanted to see if I'd like this one since it is a little more up my alley that BOBH.

I bought this book on Sunday, and I absolutely devoured it in 48 hours. M. L. Wang's writing style in this is far superior to that in Blood Over Bright Haven, imo. The prose flows significantly better, the character development is significantly stronger, as is the world-building. I found the magic system to be interesting and frankly liked that it was never openly explained to the reader (although maybe it was in her previous writing in the Theonite Series?) Considering my favorite all time series is Malazan, you may have different feelings on the lack of explanation on the magic system.

The story is set in a fantasy equivalent of Asia and it was easy to conjure up imagery for the various settings described in the book. I felt the author did a great job developing Misaki and Mamoru, as well as Takeru. The action in the book is written really well. I've read many fantasy series and while I enjoy the occasional naming of sword stances (such as in WoT) it can get old fast, and I'm glad that the author doesn't do that here and really takes you step by step in the movements during action sequences.

Spoilers ahead:
&gt;!In the various negative reviews I've seen of this book, many people criticize the author's choice to have it "climax" in the middle of the book and then have the second half focus on grief and more character development. I can see how if someone has not experienced grieving for a loved one in their own lives they might not like this, but I have and it really hit home for me!<

Overall, if you've been on the fence about this book for whatever reason, I'd strongly recommend giving it a try.