Book Review: Five Broken Blades

While the books physical design and cover exudes quality, it’s a shame I couldn’t say the same for the actual contents of Mai Corland’s debut fantasy novel; Five Broken Blades. I heard that this book was quite popular among the Booktok crowd and while I don’t consider that a recognizable accolade, it was enough to pique my interest somewhat.  One of the more interesting elements behind the book is the authors determination to embed it with Korean mythology and culture.  By the authors own words, it’s not a story based in historical fiction or any kind of real setting, it’s an original world and story which reflects a culture she comes from. That in itself made the book feel somewhat worth giving a go and experiencing. The end result of my time reading Five Broken Blades is one of mixed emotions, on one hand the world and set up behind this book shows great promise, but it’s let down on the other by a whole host of issues.

The narrative of Five Broken Blades takes place in a fictional land called Yusan. The continent is split into four varying regions of power, but all are beholden to the will of the God King Joon who bears a crown that bestows him the gift of immortality.  Across the four regions, plans are set in motion to enact an assassination against the God King by enlisting five of the most skilled liars in a joint-operation to steal the immortal crown and make the God King vulnerable for an assassination attempt.  Euryn, an exiled prince with a desire to reclaim his stolen succession.  Sora, a poison maidan with a literal kiss of death who is out to protect her sister.  Aeri, a mysterious thief who hides a darker past through her small stature and bright personality.  Royo, a rough mercenary for hire struggling to live with the guilt left over him and Mikail, the assassin with a sword of fire and right hand of the God King himself.  Together these five individuals come together all for the risk and rewards that this mission promises and journey across the regions to the God King’s domain in to enact this risky endeavor. 

The setup of Five Broken Blades is probably the strongest element behind it. The world is smartly constructed with a heavy reliance of political and cultural infrastructure.  There’s a fair bit of fantasy elements woven into the narrative but for the most part the realistic elements take precedent.  When the story focuses on the world and the concepts at play, it was considerably intriguing. The way the regions operated, the different factions and class systems, all the different towns the characters visited; these were the elements which drew me in. Corland’s ability to construct a smart and layered world cannot be praised enough.  

It’s just a shame that besides the setup and world building, the remainder of the writing fails to come off nearly as strongly.  My first issue comes from the 1st person writing perspective, I am not a big fan of this writing style personally as it often requires you to rely on the characters interpretation of events, even when you know their interpretations are incorrect.  The way Corland constructs the dialogue also comes off as a bit too dramatic as well.  These characters often talk or monologue in ways that no normal person would.  These sequences are always filled with overbearing quips or simplified statements, as if the reader isn’t going to be able read between the lines if the writing is just a little bit vague. I mean I get a clear impression of each character and their relationships, but it comes at the expense of nuance and actual engaging development.  The most glaring issue in the writing though comes in Corland’s approach to sex.  Obviously, this is a book geared towards Teens and Young Adults, so Corland clearly couldn’t write these scenes in too much detail, but dear lord the way she tries to teeter around the promiscuous nature in the writing is just laughably poor.  I would rather she either not include these scenes or again be vaguer about it, because the subtly of these scenes is like being hit by a brick.

In terms of tone, the book also struggles to figure out how it wants to be. The opening chapter of this story nearly put me off from reading it all together, just because it felt so immature in the way it was set up.  Modern swear words don’t mix into a fantasy world in my opinion, and when you build a character to be a modern day, swearing “badass” but expect me to place him in a fantastical world, you are giving me a major clash of tones.  That issue is prevalent all throughout the book, it tries constantly to be serious and grounded but then introduces dialogue and scenes that feel so out of time for this world.  The pacing at least can be praised for keeping the story going on a consistent level.  I like how the story takes place across multiple perspectives as well, giving the reader a more dynamic means of viewing events of the story.

On the whole, Five Broken Blades lets itself down considerably with the poor writing.  The world in itself offers intrigue and promise and I think Corland as a writer has a clear quality to how she can layer her setting in cultural and political structure.  It’s just a shame that she cannot inhabit her world with a story or characters who don’t come off as shallow or poorly developed. If Corland was to take any feedback going forward, it would be to trust her readers to be able to read between the lines and develop the writing to be more inviting for reader interpretation as apposed to laying it all out for them.