THE ART OF DESTINY - Wesley Chu


Jian had been The One. The Prophecy had proclaimed that a 'chosen one' would rise up, powerful and skillful enough to defeat the Eternal Khan - the immortal god-king. All signs pointed to Jian, and despite a seeming ineptitude for combat, he was taken on and trained by Taishi - an old woman whose greatness on the battlefield is legendary. But Jian is proving to be more difficult than even Taishi can train and so she has recruited a band of elderly grandmasters to come out of retirement to whip him into shape.

Then there is Qisami - an assassin who was meant to to kill Jian but failed.  She's relegated to low-paying jobs since her disgrace but now has an opportunity to redeem herself. She must take on a new identity and finds that it gives her friendship and family - neither of which she's experienced before.

And there is also Sali who is suffering a soul-rot. If she can find a cure, then the Khan's soul would be returned and he could return.

I looked forward to this book. In my review of the first book in the series my complaint was that it didn't feel like a complete book - there was no end, and so more of the book was something to relish.  But this volume ... eh.

The energy and excitement surrounding Jian, his legacy, and his training was gone.  It was fun to discover who and what he was in the first book, but nothing really changes here.  This book seemed to spend more time on some of the other characters which, while somewhat fun and unique, were not of as much interest to me.  Is this series meant to feature a different figure from the book in each volume (this felt like a lot of Qisami's story)?  There's nothing wrong with the idea, but I just didn't really care.

At nearly 700 pages, this really was way too long for me.  I didn't get into the story and the characters felt much more bland. The shifting POV was distracting and halting rather than creating a lead-up to an intersection.

I've enjoyed Wesley Chu's work a lot up to this point, but putting in the time and effort to read a 600+ page book that turns out to be a slog ...?  I'm likely to check the reviews first before going in to the next volume in the series.

Looking for a good book? The Art of Destiny by Wesley Chu continues the War Arts series but this volume is slow to get off the ground and doesn't provide the excitement and energy found in the first volume.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

The Art of Destiny

author: Wesley Chu

series: War Arts #2

publisher: Del Rey

ISBN: 9780593237663

hardcover, 672 pages

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