ARC Review--Soul of the Sword by Julie Kagawa

One thousand years ago, a wish was made to the Harbinger of Change and a sword of rage and lightning was forged. Kamigoroshi. The Godslayer. It had one task: to seal away the powerful demon Hakaimono.

Now he has broken free.

Kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko has one task: to take her piece of the ancient and powerful scroll to the Steel Feather temple in order to prevent the summoning of the Harbinger of Change, the great Kami Dragon who will grant one wish to whomever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers. But she has a new enemy now. The demon Hakaimono, who for centuries was trapped in a cursed sword, has escaped and possessed the boy she thought would protect her, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan.

Hakaimono has done the unthinkable and joined forces with the Master of Demons in order to break the curse of the sword and set himself free. To overthrow the empire and cover the land in darkness, they need one thing: the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers. As the paths of Yumeko and the possessed Tatsumi cross once again, the entire empire will be thrown into chaos.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

Julie Kagawa returns to the Shadow of the Fox trilogy with Soul of the Sword as Yumeko’s journey to deliver the final piece of the Dragon’s Prayer to the temple where it can be kept safe from demons and other evil entities that are wanting to call forth the dragon for the wish. Except now Yumeko has a new mission, one that will take her slightly off course and that is to save Tatsumi from the demon that once possessed his sword, Hakaimono, who is now possessing him.

Wow. Firstly, it’s been a very long time since I read Shadow of the Fox and even with my notes, it was hard to really remember everything that happened. But the general gist of the story remained clear to me. I feel like what’s so challenging about this series are all the names and vocabulary. I am not familiar with Japanese culture so a lot of the names and the words that came after names confused me. Of course after I finished reading I discovered there was a glossary in the back, so note to self, next time read the real book instead of the ebook!

We do still get the multiple points of view in this one and what was really interesting was getting Hakaimono’s point of view since he’s technically our villain. We get glimpses of poor Tatsumi, but those chapters were fleeting.

There was still a decent amount of action in this book as the demons are all over the place and all are gunning to find the pieces of the prayer meant to call forth the Dragon. Time is of the essence since the time to recite the prayers is drawing closer and closer.

Again, I will admit, that despite adoring Julie’s books, this one was tough for me. A lot had to do with the vocabulary that was unfamiliar to me and not knowing there was a glossary in back—cursed be the ebook—I think if I had known it was there and how to easily access that with the kindle, I  might have done a lot better in reading comprehension with this one. But alas, you live and learn…then get the real book! Lol.

I still enjoyed this one despite the struggles I had. I really enjoyed the characters. Julie is phenomenal when it comes to characters. I feel like there’s a little bit of Puck in Okame and maybe even a little bit of Ash in Tatsumi. That’s just my impression of course; it’s int eh little things that they do and their mannerisms. Okame is a riot! I love that dude! These characters continued to grow and develop along their journey and I was taken by surprise more than once with them. I’ll be eager to see what challenges they will face in the final stage of this series.

All in all, despite my own struggles with Soul of the Sword, it was still a pretty enjoyable one. I think next time I will be sure to wait for the final copy to come out so that way, I can easily refer to the glossary in back and ease the confusing parts that occasionally pop up. I am also eager to see what will happen after that earth-shattering conclusion! Let it be said that Julie knows how to delight and agonize her readers!


Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars


Soul of the Sword releases June 18, 2019