Michael Dante DiMartino

I never expected I'd ever be able to read this book. These books are insanely hard to find in my country, but I should feel glad I located a fancy smancy bookstore that caters to the English speaking expat community and nabbed the last copy.

And, well the verdict?

Even for people that aren't particularly well versed in the Avatar cartoon, this book is a delightful Coming of Age story starring a social outcast girl who barely survived starvation thanks to the kindness of a banished Air Nomad master named Kelsang alongside his old friend, an Earth bending master named Jianzhu.

Torn between Kelsang's duties with the Air Nomads and his promise to locate the Earth Avatar, this book offers us a glimpse to the Earth Kingdom method of locating the Earth Avatar. Much to everyone's chagrin, the classic method of performing obscure rituals excluding entire chunks of the world's most populous country until only a small village is left hasn't worked for the first time in living history.

Whether it is because Kyoshi has failed to awaken her earthbending or her unusual ethnic status as a mixed race earth/air citizen, the book focuses more on Kelsang's unorthodox attempt to use the Air Nomad method of letting children select 5 toys among thousands that belonged to previous avatars. Kyoshi surprises us all when she snatches one of the correct toys and runs off, too jaded by the endless abuse she has endured to welcome the kindness of two strangers.

Fast foward and a teenage Kyoshi is still mocked by other villagers as a mediocre bender, abandoned by her parents and undeserving of a prized life as a servant in Jianzhu's palace. Her job? Cleaning up the room after the recently discovered Avatar Yun (he is touted to be quite a slob). We get a few nice scenes decipting her friendship with the insanely charismatic young man, alongside the friendly banter she shares with Fire Nation army extraordinaire Rangi. I would have liked to see more depth to the friendship Kyoshi shared with Rangi and Yun, but it doesn't detract from the otherwise brilliance of the story.

Long story short, Kyoshi gets invited to an important diplomatic mission with a brigand army of Water Tribe pirates and when things turn south... Kyoshi does impossibly difficult earth bending out of nowhere.

Huh?

With the human world in disarray after Avatar Kuruk's failures, Kyoshi experiences the worst aspects of the Earth Kingdom's corruption, indifference, and plenty of brownnosing Avatar Yun in the hopes of garnering their favor.

With clever writing, the author gives us a fresh way to see how the feared and revered Earth Avatar was not always a terrifying woman donning makeup and slicing entire islands out of nowhere. Kyoshi starts out as the biggest (pun intended) weakling ever. An unwanted person everyone stomps on and ignores until she is completely unable to believe in herself. Untethered by her unique position of never having formal bending training, Kyoshi disregards social convention and starts to make her own path as the most unusual Avatar the world has ever heard of. Whether it is by agreeing to join a gang of common criminals to become her bending teachers... and her love for her female bodyguard.

Yes! Sapphic fiction! While haters always berate Avatar Korra for choosing Asami as some kind of gimmick, the truth of the matter is there has been plenty of queer avatars over the ages. And it feels quite natural for someone as rough on the edges like Kyoshi. While the sapphic scenes are brief, they are nicely spread out during the book and oh so much fun to read. That alone is reason enough to give this book a shot.

Action? Treachery? Cool new ways of bending? This book has it all! People that love political aspects in their stories with corrupt officials trying to leverage control over the Avatar for personal benefit are going to love this book.

If there was only one thing stopping me from the full 5 stars, it is that some sentences are a bit confusing. There are homophome word typos spreaded all over the book and I noticed some commas were missing. I would have also loved a map of the Earth Kingdom to give the reader a better idea where the major events of the city take place.

But this is well compensated by the great writing and how Kyoshi forms a unique friendship with a brigand of criminals who might not be law abidding people, but they are not (mostly) blood thirsty murderers either. If anyone can make them become better people and rethink their lives, I think Kyoshi ended up with them for an ulterior reason. It is like the Avatar is always reincarnated in the place where they are needed the most.

This is the first half of a duology, and now I have to find the way to nab a copy of the sequel to finish reading it. Great read, loved every minute of it.

4.5 stars!… (meer)

This book is a masterpiece! I was blown away by an author who can make spiritual truths relevant to younger people by making them small pieces of an adventurous fantasy tale. OK, maybe you'll say C.S. Lewis already did this, or Phillip Pullman (tho I don't really remember his themes). Yes, they are also good. Maybe I was just ready for a new version, one that also included a hero that learns to think selflessly, a calamity where it is necessary to put the greater good ahead of one's own needs. A story that isn't subliminally christian or dependent on a know-it-all savior.
DiMartino introduces us to Sacred Geometry, the esoteric meanings behind different shapes. He doesn't harangue us with this, but gives just enough to whet our appetite and, perhaps, make us wonder about reality beyond what we see with our eyes. He merges Jewish descriptions of golems with Buddhist mention of tulpas. He draws a world ruled by a despot, where people live in fear and those that are creative have their inspiration stolen from them and become Lost Souls.
Part of my enthusiasm for the book may be because my home-schooled grandkids have a strong interest in art and (the youngest) in fighting, and their parents have a strong social justice take on life.
Before I run out of time to write, let me jot down the quotes that show the most important truths. Note: quotes from an ARC copy, may not be them same as published. I do intend to buy a final copy to keep.
"Our bodies and minds were opposites...Our souls unified them and made us human....What if our souls went back to the Wellspring?" (about p.266)
"We're all built from the same blueprint, he realized. W're all connected...A feeling of peace overcame Giacomo as he realized the whole universe was contained within every single thing, and all those things were woven into the fabric of the universe. I'm not separate from the others after all." (about p.310-11)… (meer)