Hey! What's up, you guys? It's Connor, and
today we're gonna be doing an individual
review for The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee.
This is also with avatar co-creator
Michael Dante DiMartino. If you guys
don't know, this is set in the same world
as the Avatar: The Last Airbender series
which aired on Nickelodeon and just
recently got put back up on Netflix, at
least in the United States. So if you
have not watched the cartoon, I highly
suggest that you go and do that because
it's available and it's one of the best
cartoon series of all time. It's one of
those cartoons that people of all ages
will enjoy it. Younger people will enjoy
it because it's really fun. It's really
adventurous, but older people will pick
up on a lot of things that maybe younger
people won't. So it's one of those cool
things that at various ages you'll start
picking up on different things. So good.
If you guys don't know, there are four
main groups of people in this world.
There are the Northern and Southern
Water Tribes. There are the Air Nomads.
There is the Earth Kingdom, and then
there is the Fire Nation. Each group of
people is known for the type of benders
that they produce. Waterbenders are able
to control water. That includes some
amounts of healing magic. Airbenders are
able to control the air. Firebenders
control fire. Earthbenders control the
earth. People have various degrees of
abilities with these different elements.
There are stronger benders or weaker
benders. There's one person in the world
that can control all four elements, and
that's the Avatar. The Avatar gets reborn
over and over and over again in
different tribes in order. It goes earth,
fire, air, water, and each time an Avatar
dies they're reborn into the next group
of people. This book follows Avatar
Kyoshi which was two before Avatar Aang,
so she is born into the Earth Kingdom
group. But she doesn't know that she's
the Avatar for a very long time. At the
beginning of the book you find out that
she's an orphan in Yokoya Port which is a small town that's pretty
distant from any of the major cities in
the Earth Kingdom. The villagers in this
town have not been taking the greatest
care of her. She very early on in the
novel gets hired as a servant / maid to
this very wealthy earthbender sage. Jianzhu
was a friend of the previous Avatar,
and his life mission is to find the next
Avatar and make sure that he does a
better job of helping
the new Avatar than he did helping his
friend that was the previous Avatar who
died very young. So he thinks that he
found the next Avatar which is a very
powerful earthbender named Yun, and Yun
and Kyoshi are friends at the beginning
of the novel. They're also friends with a
firebender named Rangi. I don't know if
i'm saying these names correctly, so
kindly correct me in the comments if I'm
saying them incorrectly. Rangi is the
daughter of another one of the previous
Avatar's friends who's called Hei-Ran.
Don't know how to pronounce her name at
all. And the other guy who was friends
with the previous Avatar who's now
trying to help train Yun as the new
Avatar is an airbender named Kelsang.
When Avatar Yun, who's not really the
Avatar, asks Kyoshi to come with him to
make this deal with the 5th Nation which
is a group of pirates, something goes
wrong in the deal, and it's revealed that
Kyoshi is a lot more powerful than
people thought that she was. And then it
just follows her as she has to flee the
situation with Rangi, and then her own
Avatar journey begins. As usual my book
reviews I'm gonna go through my pros, go
through my cons, give you my rating, and
be done. My first pro for this book is
Kyoshi herself. I really liked following
Kyoshi. She's such a different Avatar
than the Avatars that we've followed in the
past. When I was watching the original
cartoon show, Kyoshi was always one of
the Avatars that is talked about that I
found the most interesting because she's
had such a lasting impact on the world
after her death. The Avatar: The Last
Airbender series takes place hundreds of
years after Kyoshi died because Aang
disappears for a hundred years before
the start of that show. A lot of time has
passed and even in that TV show, there is
a group of people who devoutly follow
the teachings of Kyoshi, and upkeep where
she lived, and everything like that. She
has an entire island that's called
Kyoshi Island in the Avatar: The Last
Airbender TV show, so she's had such a
big impact. And she's just really
interesting, so I was really curious and
excited when this book came out. She has
a very different approach than the other
Avatars that we've followed. She's a lot
more open to extreme violence, and she's
not opposed to killing people which is
different than Aang was. She's also
different than a lot of the Avatars
because she doesn't realize that she's
the Avatar until she's about sixteen, and so her journey starts a lot
later than most Avatars' journeys do. Most
Avatars are found out when they're very
young children or babies, but she somehow
escapes the notice of all of these
powerful people. And because Kyoshi is
such an iconic person in the Avatar
universe, I really liked seeing her
origins and seeing where things came
from. I think that this book does a
really good job of starting to explain
how she is the way that she is, how she
became the person that she became; how
she became the Avatar that she was. Like,
she has these fans, and the headdress, and
the makeup, and her wardrobe. Those are
all things that are explained even in
this first book how they came to be, and
how important they are to her, and why. So
I was really loving all of this
background information with Kyoshi and
finding out who she is. All of that.
Another interesting thing is that Kyoshi
is bisexual, and she's pretty, like, in the
middle bisexual. So she finds both men
and women attractive, and in this book
there's a bit of a female/female
relationship that starts to unfold. And
she just constantly goes against
tradition. In the blurb it tells you this,
so it's not really a spoiler. She after
fleeing from the situation, she ends up
falling in with a group of thieves.
She's like a thief Avatar which is
different, and I enjoyed that. And it was
funny and fun to see Rangi try to keep
Kyoshi following traditions and making
sure that she does things the correct,
"the correct" way. But Kyoshi constantly
rejects that which I liked, and the last
thing that was kind of surrounding
Kyoshi that I was really enjoying
besides just her as a character, and
seeing how she grows throughout this
novel, and seeing her backstory, and
seeing how she got all the things that
she gets, is that I really liked how this
book focuses on how important the people
surrounding the Avatar are. Like, Katara
and Sokka and Toph and Zuko from the
original Avatar series had such an
influence on Aang. In this book it really
explores that because the friends of the
old avatar are still around and are
still young-ish. It was interesting to
see how all of these friends of the
Avatar felt like they had failed the
previous avatar and wanted to make it up
to the next Avatar, but Kyoshi gets her
own group of people that are the people
that are going to be influencing her and
how the older people that had influenced
the previous Avatar would
feel about that. Like, it's such an
important job in this world, to advise
the Avatar, and I just thought it was
really interesting to see how Kyoshi
is different than the other Avatars
based off the people that she surrounds
herself with. Like, if she had gone this
path, she would have ended up a
completely different Avatar, a completely
different type of person than she is
because she has fallen in with this
thief group and all of that. And so
basically I just really enjoyed
following Kyoshi, and learning about her,
and seeing the beginning of her origin
story. My next and probably biggest pro for
this book is how it interrelates with
the world and also the nods that it has
to the original cartoon show and all of
the other things that have happened. I
forgot to say that there are also comics
that happen in between Avatar: The Last Airbender
and The Legend of Korra that
explained things as well, and I think
that this does a similarly good job of
interweaving elements from the original
source material that I was really
enjoying picking up on.
For instance, you find out where Kyoshi
Island came from and how Kyoshi Island
was like before it became Kyoshi Island. I
already mentioned this, but you learn
about her fans and you learn about her
headdress and how she had gotten them
from her parents. I think it says that in
the blurb as well. Yes, it says it in the
blurb, but you learn more about those
things.
You get to see her start to train with
them and learn how to use them which was
so fun. Her makeup; her fighting style; all
those things are covered even in this
first book, so I'm just excited to learn
even more in the sequels. Sequel? I don't
know how many there's gonna be. You even
start to learn about why she is the
longest-lived Avatar that there has been,
and you start to learn why which was so
cool. Those are pretty big things about
Kyoshi, but I also loved the small little
throwbacks to the show. I just started
rewatching the show, so I probably didn't
pick up on everything that was included
in here. But there were some pretty
significant things from the show that
were dribbled in. There's a shirshu --
I can't remember if I'm saying that
correctly -- which is that mole-like
creature. I really loved seeing those. I
also really love this one-liner that
happens way later on in the book about
the Gan Ji [text: Gan Jin*] and the Zhang and how those
two groups of people really don't like
each other. That's like an entire episode
in the first season where the two groups
of people have to travel through the
canyon together. It
was so well-woven into this that, I mean,
if you didn't remember that episode of
the canyon, and the two groups of people,
and how one stolen orb and the other one
was in prison for 20 years, you wouldn't
pick up on it. But because I did, I loved
that. [laughs] And like the most iconic thing,
at least in my mind right now as I'm
talking about it, is the cabbage vendor
that pops up all the time in the Avatar
show and in the comics. There's a cabbage
vendor in here as well. I just loved
that. I'm sure if I had finished my
rewatch of the show, I would have picked
up on more like I said, but I was happy
with what I got just jumping into this.
Another pro for me is that this is a bit
darker than the TV show and the other
things that I've experienced so far.
There's a lot more death. There's a lot
more violence. In particular there's
one death that I was like, whoa! So it is
a bit darker, and it is more YA than
it is a children's book. So just know
that going in, but I really enjoyed it
being a bit darker because Kiyoshi is a
bit older and there's a lot more people
and figures in this world that are evil
than just the Fire Nation which is how
it is in the TV show. There are multiple
antagonists in here, and she has to start
going and dealing with them one at a
time. And my last pro that I'm going to
talk about is that I just really like
the side characters. I really liked Kelsang.
I really liked Jianzhu's character.
Didn't like him, but his character was
well done. Hei-Ron, the firebender.
I liked her as well. She's not as present,
but I still enjoyed her. Rangi, I
obviously really enjoyed because she and
Kiyoshi are so close. Rangi is so
dedicated to Kyoshi that I loved it. I
forgot to mention that there's a flying
bison in here called Pengpeng. Pingping?
I don't know, but I really enjoyed the
flying bison inclusion and how "yip yip"
is still the flying Bison's command.
And then I also really like this second
group of characters that we're introduced
to when she joins this thief group. The
specific group that she joins is the
Flying Opera Company.
I really enjoyed Lek who's a young
earthbender. I enjoyed Karima who is a
waterbender,
Lao Ge which is another earthbender, and
Wong who's also an earthbender. I really
enjoyed them and again how I was talking
about the people that surround the
Avatar have a lot of influence. It was
interesting to see how these people
influenced Kyoshi and
her journey. I could just keep gushing
about this book and talking about how it
interacts with the other Avatar stories
that we've experienced so far, but I
think I'm just gonna cut off there
because I've been talking for a very
long time and talking quickly. I only
found a couple of cons. The first is that
this has some dumping of character names,
and it does it twice. There are a lot of
characters at the very beginning that
you have to get a grasp on. There's Jianzhu,
Yun, Kyoshi, Rangi. There's a
cook that I can't remember her name, but
she pops in and out of the story. Hei-Ran. Hey ron? I don't know. He Ron?
And then there's the whole group of the
Flying Opera Company that come in, and so
there's just a lot of characters that
are all introduced all at once. Like
twice, so it would have been easier to
get into the story and just hit the
ground running if the characters were
introduced maybe a little bit more
slowly. But it wasn't that big of a deal,
and it didn't really affect my reading
experience all that much. The only other
con that I had was that I felt like this
book went on maybe a little bit too long
or was dragged out a little bit. Most of
the story is told in third-person close
with Kyoshi, but there is some
perspective that's told third-person close person
close with Jianzhu, and I felt like
Jianzhu's chapters would have been more
interesting if they were told in the
perspective of Hei-Ran. I looked
up that name and people have been
pronouncing it both ways, so I'm just
gonna say "Hey Ron," and then if it's wrong,
I'll correct it for when I read the
sequel. She is a lot more conflicted
about what's going on and what Jianzhu is doing, so it would have been nice to
see her perspective. And she could have
also told it in a lot more concise of a
manner. Jianzhu's chapters are a little
bit more slow going and a little bit
more political. Like, he is really
involved with the politics of the Earth Kingdom
He is very influential in that
world. I didn't really care about that as
much. I would have much rather see a more
conflicted character than one that is so
having a one-track mind. Like Jianzhu is
so determined for this one thing to
happen. And I think that there was quite
a bit of traveling in here, but I don't
know. But a lot of that is like training
montages which is something that I enjoy
seeing. I enjoy seeing the Avatar
train in the different elements and try
to get better in them, so I think that
what it was was Jianzhu's chapters
slowed down the plot. And I think that we
could have gotten that information from
a character who would tell it a lot
quicker. Hei-Ran is a lot more to-the-point
than a lot of the other characters,
and I think a lot of the conversations
between Jianzhu and Hei-Ran would be a
lot quicker if she were the one that
were telling them. Again that is a very
minor con and didn't really affect my
reading experience all that much. I
really enjoyed this read. I really
enjoyed Kiyoshi, and I'm sure she'll
continue to grow throughout the books
and throughout her story. So I am pumped
for it, and I really enjoyed this first
book. I gave it 4.5 stars.
That rating could be biased because I
love this world so much because I
watched the show when I was a lot
younger. I don't know when it first
started coming out, but that's when I
started. I had the original, like, DVDs as
they came out, but I thought this was
really well written. I really enjoyed
the characters, and the story, and
everything. 4.5 stars. Definitely
recommend it if you're a fan of Avatar. I
do think that you benefit from watching
the show first, but I don't think that it
spoils anything for the show if you read
this first. So you could hypothetically
pick this up without having ever seen
the show and follow the story completely,
but all those small elements that are in
here that I talked about before won't be
picked up unless you've seen the show. Up
to you. Definitely, definitely recommend
though. So that's gonna be my review on
The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee. If you liked
this video, please give it a big thumbs
up and comment down below if you've read
this novel yet. Have you watched the
Avatar show and thus are excited to jump
into this now that you know that it is
so good? I've seen a couple people not
enjoy this as much as I did. But I really
enjoyed it, so I hope that you guys will
really enjoy this well. Anything else you
want me to know, leave it down below, and
I will talk to you guys next time. Bye.
Nookie, you want say bye? Say bye. That was
weak.
Oh.
He's not gonna do it. Bye
 
