Book Review: Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland
Five Broken Blades is fantasy romance set in the fictional world of Yusan. It's characters: A poison maid, a thief, a strongman, an exiled Prince, a spymaster and finally a Count's son are brought together to try their hand at the killing the current ruler of Yusan, God King Joon. Each one of them has their own reasons for being there, but true intentions and hidden agendas threaten to destroy their plans. As the book says, let the best liar win.
The characters come in pairs, so we'll tackle them as they come. First of, we have Royo and Aeri. Royo is a strong man with a past he is desperately trying to right. He comes off as cold and indignant at the beginning, but it doesn't take long around a pretty girl for it to become obvious he's just a massive teddy bear. As for his companion, Aeri, she's a bubbly, happy go luck woman who seems to be a bit of an airhead, but with an astonishing good sleight of hand.
“I hate that I don’t have eyes on her - that I had to leave her.”
Royo is the most flip flop 'hard man' I have ever bared witness too. I refuse to believe that he made a living hurting people. He should have been a poet, or a scholar. Royo does almost nothing throughout the book, other then instantly falling for Aeri, fawn over Aeri, trust Aeri for apparently no good reason and then eventually feel betrayed by her. Almost all his chapters are dedicated to either mourning his past or pretending he doesn't like Aeri. He is so one dimensional it's almost painful and given his tragic past, I think he deserved a lot more then what he got,
“He’s so casually strong. And the way he took on the pirates, the way he killed to protect me, was…something.”
As for Aeri, she is almost just as bad, and would have been if not for the rather predictable ending. She's naive, tedious, and aggravating, and though I'm sure she was written this way to hide the truth, it takes no more then a few chapters to piece together who she really is. Her relationship with Royo is laughable, forced and quite honestly, confusing. Aeri thinks he's handsome and 'different,' but her reasons for this are vague and childish. She just instantly falls for him and given her circumstances, it makes little sense. Aeri could have been a great character, but it just falls flat because similar to Royo, her chapters are dedicated almost entirely to her sudden obsession with her travelling companion.
Next we have Sora and Tiyung. Sora is by far the best written character in Five Broken Blades and though Tiyung doesn't get much screen time, he's fairly well written too. He is the Seok's son, the Count that bought Sora as a child and subjected her to the torture of an illegal poison school. After which, she became a Poison Maiden, using her beauty and immunity to almost every known poison to rid the Count of his enemies, with her sister being held as leverage.
“Yes, upon King Joon’s death, I will have my freedom and my sister’s - and all I have to do is kill a god.”
It's fairly clear that Sora is the golden child of the author. Though most of the characters have troubled backstories, hers is the most harrowing, but despite everything, she carries on all for the sake of her sister. She's strong, selfless and has managed to retain her humanity and empathy, making her the most genuine character out of the group. She didn't sign up to kill the King, she was forced to go, with her and her sisters freedom on the line. She doesn't even think she will survive, but as long as her sister goes free, she is willing to make that sacrifice. Sora is probably one of the better examples of a strong willed female character I've read lately. She feels realistic, doing the best she can despite the circumstances, and her personality reflects the harsh life she is lived. I would go as far as to say Sora is the saving grace of this particular novel, and I'm confused as to why the other characters aren't written as diligently as she is.
“At times, she looks at me and my heart fills, but then it’s clear she’s plotting my death in those violet eyes, so it’s less than desirable.”
Sora and Tiyungs relationship is non existent at first. She seems him as nothing more then his fathers son, the man who whipped her younger sister and someone else on her not entirely secret hit list. However, she soon comes to understand him and to an extent, grow feelings for him. Why? Because predictably, Tiyung is nothing like his cruel Father. He has been playing a role to survive and has secretly been in love with Sora since he was a child. Tiyung is a walking cliché, but his genuine care and kindness towards Sora makes him fairly likeable. I would have liked to know more about him, perhaps how his time in the King's Guard was? How he dealt with his Father's expectations but his mother's warning. Yet, his past is hardly mentioned and he takes a backseat in this crew, so unfortunately, he's left pretty unexplored and can be boiled down to the object of Sora's affection, a stepping stone for her growth, not his.
“I’d worry about their connection, but in the end she’s just a girl.”
The final pairing is Mikail and Euyn. Euyn was exiled by his brother King Joon, left to succumb to exposure, whilst Mikail serves as the current Spymaster. They are lovers, so you do get some LGBT representation, but unfortunately, you also get the most boring pairing of the bunch. Euyn's defining characteristics are his extreme paranoid and heavy sexism, which often times comes across largely misplaced. Even Mikail doesn't understand his utter disrespect and disregard for women, given that Euyn's own sister is a notoriously cruel but commanding Queen in a neighbouring country. It is explained away by Yusan having laws that disallow women to inherit anything, including money, titles or land. However, given that he grew up surrounded by what appears to be capable women and is currently travelling with two that excel in their area of expertise, his constant needs to say things like 'she's just a girl,' becomes extraordinarily tiring, especially when paired with his extremely naive and bratty behaviour.
“Do you want me to kill Ty?”
Mikail on the other hand, serves largely as the comedy relief. He's smart, funny and sarcastic, equipped with more one liners then I have patience for this book. However, his heavily guarded and secretive nature means he's usually in some sort of conflict with Euyn, which severely hampers his character. Though Mikail's secrets are told to you through his chapters, the rest of the cast doesn't know, including Euyn, which makes their relationship rocky at best. And whilst it is stated their relationship isn't built on trust, you are left wondering why Mikail even bothers? They just don't come across as lovers, more like jilted acquaintances that use each other to sate their needs – which again would be fine, if the story wasn't hell bent on trying to tell me they are deeply in love.
The setting strikes me as being based on the time of the Joseon Dynasty in Korea, however don't quote me on that, because the entire story is littered with vague descriptions of the world. Want to know what the towns, transport or even clothing looks like? Want to understand more about the political climate, the ruling bodies of world, why Yusan's laws are the way they are? Well, that's too bad. “She's in a rose-coloured dress.” Or “I'm in a swank room.” Or, one of my favourites: “The Count of Umbria and the Count of Rahway can't decide whose job it is to protect the Sol, so with the two of them doing fuck all, a gang took over.” - You mean to say, that the only confirmed water way in and out of the city, is patrolled by Pirates that will attack anything that moves and, nothing is done about this? What about imports, exports, tourists? Is there no policing system? Are these pirates anywhere else? Who knows! It's never explained and you hear no more of it.
“It’s a strange grouping of people in this carriage.”
It's moments like this that really break your immersion and have you debating how things work in this world instead of enjoying a good story and, unfortunately, that continues throughout. The pairs travel by horse, carriage and boat towards the Capital, coming together for the final leg of journey, and I can't really describe to you the landscape of Yusan, the type of people in each area, or how they differ from one another because you are barely told anything. This problem only intensifies when the characters are doing anything but travelling, as description and world building take a backseat to the tension and drama, half of which feels unnecessary and irrelevant. There's a disappearance, a kidnapping and an assassination attempt all squeezed in after the characters meet but before they've even gotten to Tamneki, their final destination. All this in around a hundred pages towards the end of the book. Things just happen, often so inconsequential to the plot, that you wonder why its even there. Then, nothing happens at all. The pacing is a mess, the language goes back and forth between traditional and modern wording, shattering the ‘era’ illusion, and the lack of world building is incredibly jarring.
Five Broken Blades is advertised as a fantasy with romance. However, it's a bad romance with a splash of fantasy. There is a solid idea here, but it's unexplored and has almost no depth. It's not exciting, the plot is basic and the characters are dull and one dimensional. It's a shame, as I really wanted to like this book, but given the plethora of solid fantasy books with brilliant romances on the market, I can not recommend this particular story.
Overall Rating: 1/5.
