Kinslayer: The Lotus War Book Two (The Lotus War, 2)

This was everything I think a middle book in a trilogy should be. It advanced the story, it added more characters in a natural way, it expanded the world. In short it was great.I often come to middle books in the series and find so many times that they wind up sort of stalling for time. Let's be honest, most trilogies should only be one to two books tops and the middle book winds up suffering so much for that. The author will spend too much time rehashing events that happened in the first book or, if we're talking about books that run in the romance genre, they spend time setting up the heroine with the guy we know she won't get with because she can't get with the hero until the third book.None of that happened here. I kept holding my breath and waiting for "does everyone remember what happened in the last book? Let's recap for the people who didn't notice 'Lotus War Book Two' on the cover!" but it never came! And I was ecstatic, it was great not to have to have to spend pages reading a recount of events I just read. Plus, the focus of this series is freeing the Shima Empire (and the world) from the lotus flower because it's so deadly, so there's not really a lot of time for romance. In the first book, Yukiko obsessed over Hiro and in the first few chapters of this book she wonders about her feelings for Kin, but she spends with the rest of the book being captured and trying to find out why her power has suddenly amplified.I really loved how there were many new characters introduced in an organic way and how everyone's stories intersected. Yukiko's the main character and she was present for the first part, but she spends much of part two captured and separated from Buruu, thus allowing other characters and members of the Kage to shine. We of course get to see the Iishi Mountain Kage sect, but we're also told of the Kage rebellion brewing in Kigen City, and we see Hana, who works at the Palace emptying chamber pots and who joined the rebellion after Yukiko returned to Kigen after Yoritomo's death and gave her speech about throwing off the shackles of the Lotus Guild.Speaking of Yoritomo, now that he's gone, Hiro takes his place as the resident bad guy, attempting to marry Aisha and sire an heir to that bloodline. Poor Aisha is all I'll say. I kept wanting a chapter from her POV but when the end came and Michi finally reunited with her, I understood why it wasn't possible. While I don't think Hiro is as much of a monster as Yoritomo, holy crap, he's so blinded by his hatred of Yukiko. (view spoiler)My heart broke for Kin this book. He didn't have an easy go of it last book when he crashed in the mountains with Yukiko and the Kage sect there hated him for his occupation. This book opened with him escaping the Guild and fleeing to the Iishi mountains to reunite with Yukiko, while the Guild attempted to kill him. While he and Yukiko are there, another member of the Guild seeks refuge, Ayane, a false-lifer. (And here we learn that all female members of the Guild are false-lifers and have no say in that, they also have a silver, orb-like apparatus attached to their backs that give them 8 extra razor-like arms. They cannot detach these arms.) The Kage hate Kin and, as you can imagine, are not wild about Ayane; they keep her locked up after rescuing her. And the Kage winners from the last book, Isao, Atsushi, and Takeshi, assault Kin every chance they get this book.So you can't really blame Kin for doing what he does at the end. He spends the book wondering what he's doing there since Yukiko's not there. Nobody in the rebellion is actually sticking up for him despite his efforts to help them all the time. And while they can be suspicious of him because of his former occupation, I mean look at what the Guild did to the world, look at what they're doing to the foreigners, Kin also recognizes that the Guild is wrong and Ayane said there is a secret faction of the Guild that has rebel sympathies. I can acknowledge that the second is only confirmed around the end by a note held by a gaijin, but, seriously, Kage guys, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, yeah?I said this in my review for the first, but I really appreciate the strong female characters and this round is no different: Aisha is still defiant, despite being confined to her room most of the book; Michi is the same, using her sexuality in an attempt to gain her freedom; Ayane was a lovely addition because I didn't know there were women in the Guild (though I'm kinda suspicious about her!); Hana wowed me, she possessed the Kenning, she came from an abusive domestic situation, she had to do what she did to survive in Kigen City, and yet she and her brother still rescued, took in, and raised a kitten. I know the blurb on the cover (by Patrick Rothfuss, whom I totally respect!) praises Yukiko as the strong heroine of the series, but this series is PACKED with strong women. You can't really turn your head without meeting one, AND I LOVE THAT.I can't think of many complaints I had for this book. It fixed the disjointed-ness I felt in the first book, yeah. I mean, it was a little long and some of the Michi chapters, especially since she was confined to her room for much of them, were a bit boring, BUT they were important chapters since they showed us what was going on in the Palace. Hana was there to initially show us how locked down the Palace was after Yoritomo's death and the rebels capture and Aisha was unavailable, but Michi was basically pumping (tee hee~) Hiro's cousin for information the entire novel and when she wasn't getting information out of him, she was at events on his arm.One of the other events I wasn't too big on was how Yukiko spent most of part two captured by gaijin lightning farmers. She was out of it some chapters and then spent others using her Kenning figuring out where she was and if she could get herself out, but there were large chunks where she was just out of the action and others were in it, which was really important when you have a story like this where you have to intricately weave a story of rebellion and you can't just have people the reader doesn't care about popping up and dying or aligning themselves with the rebellion.Overall, this was basically everything I could hope for in a middle book and that's a rare honor from me. I can count on one hand the trilogies where I've read a middle book and that book has actually advanced the story and answered questions while putting forth more for the final book to answer and that's all I ever want in a middle book in a trilogy.

Jay Kristoff: looks a lot like Dave Grohl has a lot of imagination a tendency to pull no punches the ability to craft a viable, complex, interesting world breaks my brain with every book he has writtenLast year, Jay burst onto the scene with his steampunkian fantasy of an almost-Japan (here called the Shima Imperium) with his debut novel, Stormdancer. The hype began early, built over months of anticipation, and swelled to immense proportions before the book dropped. And when it did, Jay delivered -- Stormdancer was a tour de force of fantasy, steampunk, kickass characters, and rebellion. Immense in scope, in creativity, and filled with unforgettable writing, and complex, realistic characters, it exceeded my expectations in every way -- and they were HIGH.I am here to tell you that Kinslayer, book two in this Lotus War series, is even better. You want more death, destruction, struggle? You got it, in spades. The scale is bigger, the stakes are higher, and this is an author that can, and does, improve on his already-impressive first book. If you liked what Kristoff had to offer in Stormdancer - chainsaw katanas, a fresh and inventive take on steampunk technology, an incredibly well-drawn world, betrayals, secrets, conspiracies, rebellion, action aplenty - then you'll love what he serves up for round two. The Lotus War is a story told on a grand scale and one that doesn't shy away from making readers flinch.While in book one we were told, "the lotus must bloom", now the rebels have modified it to the more ominous, "the lotus must burn." This is a darker book. The lines have clearly been drawn and a civil war is on the brink. Yukiko wrestles with her role, with what she has done, and with what she will do. People die. People you like will die. People you like will surprise you -- and not always in a good way. The risks that Jay Kristoff takes with his plotting and characters more than pay off. He creates suspense with ease as well a genuine fear that no one -- and nothing -- is truly safe with Shima on the brink. He writes with a clear eye for the visual and a lot of the action scenes read cinematically. The detail is dense, the worldbuilding intricate and complete, and it all serves to create an Empire that feels dangerously real and frighteningly familiar.Kinslayer is epic. It's an epic story with several major plotlines across an empire; there's Yukiko and Buruu going about doing what they do (no spoilers!), there's the Kagé stronghold in the mountains, and there are the subversives hiding in Kigen city, waiting for a chance to hit back at the authorities. Widening the focus of the story allows for more prominent characters than just Yukiko and the antagonist of the soon-to-be-Emperor/Yukiko's former lover, Tora Hiro. Both Yukiko and Hiro play important parts, but they are mostly removed from the main action - Hiro through the dense administration system surrounding a clan Daimyo, and Yukiko through her own struggles to rectify what has happened to her life in the previous novel. Buruu remains a key participant in Yukiko's storyline, and remains one of the best animal characters to ever grace a page. However, even he is full of surprises as the hundreds of pages race by.We've met Michi before as a minor character, but here in Kinslayer, she gets the time and pages to shine. Her storyline is taut, full of deception and suspense. While Yukiko has spearheaded the fight against the Guild and the Emperor, Michi is in the trenches (credit for that line goes to the lovely Christina at Reader of Fictions!) fighting however and whoever it takes to win. She emerges as a major player and easily surpassed Yukiko in my affections, due to her pragmatic and bad ass approach. Hana, another newcomer with more to her than meets the eye, also more than proves her worth. Between her characterization and Michi's, it's obvious there is more than one strong, dangerous woman in Shima. Yukiko may be the Arashi-no-odoriko, but these two women are capable, smart, cunning, and each play pivotal parts in all that plays out in the pages. While most of my appreciation, character-wise, is for these two newish characters, older and more familiar faces continue to operate in various functions. Akihito, Kin, Kaori, etc. all are prominent and important, but do lack the liveliness of Michi and Hana's storylines.Though there are clearly the good guys and the bad guys, Kristoff creates a cast that is not black and white. Yukiko is the heroine, but not everything she does is heroic, or even right. The Kagé are the good side, compared the power-hungry Guild and the omnivorous Empire, but not all of its members are truly good people. Similarly, the people that surround Hiro, the book's clear antagonist and foil for Yukiko, are not all evil power despots. The shades of grey that the author imbues into his characters make them all more realistic, more complex, and thus, interesting. Clearly the most sympathy will lie with the Kagé and their struggle to topple a corrupt government, but I appreciated how deftly Kristoff handled the creation the characters on all sides of the conflict. I always say I want a complex antagonist over a one-dimensional psychopath, and that a conflicted heroine is better than a perfect paragon, and I am proved right by the layers each of these two key characters possess. I may not like either of them too much, but I can understand where both are coming from and what they hope to gain.The worldbuilding is truly some of the best I have ever read in the fantasy genre. It's on par with series that have taken twice as many volumes to create their version of Earth. In just two books, Jay Kristoff has created a viable, deadly, believable world. He has shown how a once-prosperous country can find itself on the verge of failure. From the mythology to the government, there is more than enough detail to flesh out the culture of the Shima Imperium to a reader's satisfaction. No stone has gone unturned, no idea unexplored. New cultures are shown, and new ideas are explored. Above all, Kinslayer never stagnates or dawdles. While the steampunk technology is less featured here (exception: Earthcrusher, clockwork arm!), it retains its originality, usefulness, and flair. Jay proves that less is more and doesn't oversaturate his plotline with nifty gadgets and chainsaw katanas. This isn't a version of steampunk featured on dirigibles and tea -- this is steampunk focused on war, domination, and destruction. And it. is. AWESOME.Kinslayer is a book with everything you could hope for in steampunk fantasy with arashitora and sea dragons. It's packed to the brim with action, drama, and suspense. It takes characters we know and changes them, makes them evolve and hopefully grow. It proves that in war, no one is safe and anyone can betray you. It shows all sides of a conflict and doesn't flinch from murdering off favorite, beloved characters. It's a brash, loud, completely fun read. It's dense, and detailed, and still the pages fly by. If you want originality, or an inventive fantasy, or a book that combines dire straits with a dash of humor, or all of the above, this is the book you want to read. This is one of my favorite books of EVER, and I will be rereading it for years to come.My only worry is how Jay Kristoff will manage to top this.--And when I can get a copy of the third book.

There are not enough descriptive words for how brilliant this writer is ... I can but highly recommend and this series and hope you feel the power and magic of his writing!!

I read the first of The Lotus War trilogy, Stormdancer earlier this year and was immediately hooked by the world that Jay Kristoff had created. I'm not a huge reader but the premise behind the series and the writing of the first book was enough for me to pre-order Kinslayer.I was expecting another book concentrating on Stormdancer's main protagonist Yukiko for this novel but the more I read, the more I came to the belief that the second instalment is aimed at continuing the story of The Lotus War as a whole. Although the trials and tribulations of Yukiko play a key role throughout Kinslayer, Kristoff spends time fleshing out other characters from the previous book, and introducing new faces who will undoubtedly have key responsibilities later in the saga.The world that originally hooked me to the series has been meticulously crafted. From the beautifully serene but Oni haunted Iishi mountains and the raw industrialism of Kigen City to the storm drenched Gaijin sky farm and the burnt wastelands of The Stain, each locale is detailed and vibrant, each with its own contrasting cultures and inhabitants, highlighting the prevalent class system found throughout The Shima Isles.The story itself is solid and flows well, I did find that the pace slows somewhat during the central sections of the book but not enough to stop me reading. Due to the novel concentrating on moving The Lotus War story forward it has the need for several sub plots and character sets, each are cleanly separated, easily distinguishable and culminate well towards the conclusion of the book. My only issue in regard to this is that Yukiko's actions in the final stages of the story don't seem quite in keeping with the rest of the book. I would like to elaborate on this statement but have refrained in order to avoid story spoilers.Overall I found Kinslayer to be an enjoyable read, one of the few books that I feel actually transport me to another world whilst reading. I enjoyed how the book doesn't put Yukiko at the forefront of the story despite my expectations. Kinslayer is a well written, balanced piece of literature that adds to its predecessor well and leaves just the right questions unanswered for future stories, I am very much looking forward to the third instalment.

The second in Lotus War trilogy. Following on directly from the end of Stormdancer the story takes in Yukiko trying to come to terms with her gift and continue the rebellion she started while dealing with difficulty of being a teenage girl. While Shima struggles to come to grip with the death of the Shogun the powers behind the throne fight to take power. Unbelievably creative and terrifying in equal measure this series deserves to be better known

An excellent follow up to book 1. Good characterisation and a exciting story line makes this book, as the first one, a real page turner.

Not as strong as Stormdancer, but still one of my favourites this year! I was gripping my seat from the first page to the last. So much agony and dying! :D I really liked the new characters and the overall character development. I was a bit upset of how little we got to spend with Buruu and of all the plot twists unexplained!! I need the last book!But thank you again Kristoff for another wonderful book :)