Yangchen Book 2 Review – The Legacy of Yangchen

It’s out and I’ve finally read it! Truth be told, our local bookseller was slow to ship out on the release date and we ended up getting our copy late, and then I had to fight my husband for who could read it first!

The Legacy of Yangchen may or may not be the last book in what would be the Yangchen duology. In an interview with The Nerds of Colour, author F.C. Yee talks about a desire to maybe tackle avatar Szeto in what would become The Chronicles of the Avatar Book 5. To me, this suggests an end to Yangchen.

An end that I am not especially happy about.

Is ‘The Legacy of Yangchen’ better than ‘The Dawn of Yangchen’?

Short answer: Yes.

It has a slow start but that’s the fault of how The Dawn of Yangchen ended, which tears our protagonists apart a little too ruthlessly. This then leads to book two opening on finagling Kavik and Yangchen back onto speaking terms.

Yee has discussed that trust between allies was a core theme of Yangchen’s story, and there’s certainly no denying that. I do wonder if perhaps the fallout of book one hadn’t been quite so intense, then perhaps the story could have rolled along a bit quicker.

Team Yangchen

It’s as if Kavik and Yangchen’s misgivings for one another suck up all the space in the book. They’re like a big black hole for character development, swallowing the light of the stars that could have been Tayagum, Akuudan, and Jujinta.

I’ve said before in my Yangchen book 1 review that Team Yangchen don’t shine as brightly as Team Kyoshi, and that stayed true in The Legacy of Yangchen. There was certainly more personality shown by each of the Yangchen’s companions in the last third, but not enough to balance the scales with Kyoshi’s team.

‘The Legacy of Yangchen’ and Character Development– MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Much like Thappa’s final attempt to defeat the avatar, I found the current ending of Yangchen’s arc to be a big build up that went nowhere. Time and again, Yee builds up Yangchen’s self-endangering behaviour to leave the reader waiting for an explosion that never happens.

Yee repeatedly warns the reader that without good sleep and meditation, Yangchen’s personality might drift uncontrollably. Obviously, this could be disastrous for a powerful, political figure. It’s one of the more unique aspects of this avatar, and a brilliantly interesting source for conflict and drama.

So when Yangchen refuses to sleep, fails to meditate, and forgets to stabilise herself in reality upon waking, I was more and more thrilled by the fear of Yangchen losing control—but not once in the series did her negligence actually cause a problem. At best, it’s a minor inconvenience in Yangchen’s life, and a secret she would like to keep—but she’s not even that bothered when she realises Kavik and the white lotus already know.

As an individual who struggles with depression, I know first-hand the slippery slope of ignoring self-care. I was sure there was going to be a moral ending to Yangchen’s failure to keep up with her own needs. Something along the lines of learning when to ask for help, realising that you should set limits for your own mental health… Something like that.

When Kavik discovered that she was dosing herself with an Avatar-universe equivalent to Adderall, I thought we were finally going to reach a conclusion to this arc, one that’s fitting with Yee’s focus on trust between allies, but then Kavik said nothing—and I was shocked.

I still can’t quite believe that the result of Yangchen’s self-destructive actions had no repercussions. It’s a bad message, and it’s why I sincerely hope that this isn’t really the end of Yangchen’s narrative. Surely, Yee didn’t intend to leave that story there. Surely?

Problems and Successes of ‘The Legacy of Yangchen’ – MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

It’s a far more enjoyable book than its immediate predecessor, but the story telling feels overwrought in some areas. For example, the pacing of Iwashi’s gambling arc is seriously confusing. I kept having to check that I hadn’t accidentally skipped a chapter, or that the pages weren’t stuck together.

Eventually, the arc resolves itself very satisfyingly, but I wasted a good five minutes or more feeling extremely confused—which is not what a writer wants their readers to feel.

While Iwashi’s gambling arc was by the far the worst of the plot’s pacing shenanigans, there were other, less frustrating occasions too. My husband and I struggled to comprehend Jujinta’s movements in the final battle of the book, as the narrative switches between Yangchen’s politics and Kavik and co.’s information heist on Kalyaan. The scenes individually are all fantastic, the language used is also beautiful, but the overall timing felt a bit off.

I’ve recently been editing books myself, and so The Legacy of Yangchen unfortunately caught me in an especially critical mindset. I can’t tell if this book was exceptionally lax compared to its predecessors, but there’s a frustrating overuse of ‘suddenly’ in this one. Generally, I felt that perhaps the editing could have been just a little tighter.