by Joong-Ki Park, 191 pages
Horakaan confronts a familiar face, Genji reveals some secrets and keeps others, Nejo wises up and steps in, Yaki goes into shaman warrior overdrive, and Yatilla carries on in the name of the fallen.
I think. I'm so confused! I'm not 100% sure who's dead and who's alive at the end of this, the final volume of the series. There are some awkwardly placed (yet poignant) flashbacks that seem to be there because the author had the info in the back of his mind the whole time and only just now remembered he hadn't told the reader about it. And then there's a sudden forward jump of a few months and no real explanation of what happens to everyone in the interim. And that's followed by an unresolved semi-cliff hanger of a final scene. I wish Park had at least spread it out into one more book and given the reader just a little more confirmed resolution on the fates of the characters and society we've come to know--and a little more time to come to terms with it all. Maybe I'm just sad 'cause I don't want it to be over....
Confusion aside, I'm unquestionably a fan. Perhaps if I could read the full nine volumes again in succession it would all fall into a more cohesive narrative and I'd be less foggy on the details. I'm all for open-ended conclusions that ask more than they answer, and the longer I ponder this one the more satisfied I am with it; but I'd be happier if I didn't have to put so much effort into accepting what little conclusion there is. That said, if Park gets another title published in English, you can be sure I'll be all over it. The man understands action and emotion, place and character. He's sucked me in once, and I don't see why he couldn't do it again. Good stuff.
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