The Reckoning of Roku – Book Review

Spoiler sections identified under subtitles

If you follow my TikTok account, you’ll know that I was a little worried about the change in authors between the Yangchen duology and this latest instalment in the Avatar The Last Airbender novel series.

Should I have been worried? The short answer is ‘no’, but there were notable differences that left me hungering for the writing of F. C. Yee. Unfortunately, The Reckoning of Roku wasn’t quite everything I wanted.

Reckoning of Roku’s Best Moments

Minor spoilers for the novel in this section.

First of all, Gyatso ❤

Gyatso

Gyatso is quirky, witty, talented, and loyal. He regularly tests Roku, which facilitates tension, plot, and character development. He’s a perfect companion.

Additionally, this is the first book in the Avatar novel series to feature a male avatar, which not-so-coincidentally means that it’s the first in the novel series to feature meaningful male-male friendships at the heart of the story.

The friendship between Roku and Gyatso is a delicate one, but it’s real. Often, they suggest to one another that they have a personal story to share, make some joke to dispel the serious attitude, then come back to the original topic and deepen their bond. Sounds fairly realistic to me!

The principle location of the book was the island (we also spend a lot of time in an air nation temple, I know, but that’s somehow less exciting).

The island features a community of mixed benders and non-benders, living in secret with the aid of some supernatural bending strength. Of course, every Avatar team experiences this to some small degree via ‘Team Avatar’, which is essentially a nomadic entourage of mixed benders empowered by plot armour.

Similar to the island, a static, large community of mixed benders is explored in the animated series, The Legend of Korra, which features Capital City—however, The Reckoning of Roku is the first plot to explore a hidden community of mixed benders pre-technology.

Curiously, Ribay delivers the mixed benders narrative mostly through the lens of a non-bender—Malaya.

Malaya

Malaya was another of the book’s best moments. Her perspective was unique, and non-benders have been lacking from the novel series so far, despite always having had a place in the animation.

She was a determined yet refreshing gust of wind to blow through this novel!

Sozin

Lastly, while Sozin’s shift towards villainy is very flawed—I’ll talk about that later in the review—he is a memorable villain and an exciting antagonist for Roku.

My Criticisms of Reckoning of Roku

Major spoilers for the ending of the book, and the Kyoshi duology.

I imagine exceedingly few readers of this novel are unaware of Sozin’s destiny to be one of the worst villain’s in Avatar history, and this prequel novel carries that baggage.

Sozin’s perspective chapters are generally a lot of fun, but the novel overall tries and fails to present Sozin as a sympathetic character who descends into villainy. One moment, he’s a prince, then the next we see him, he’s a monster. There’s no descent, only a snap change.

Now, as a fan of the animated series, I knew Sozin would transform into a genocidal sociopath, but I wish more time had been spent showing how Sozin reached his peculiar way of thinking. I had the same critique for Yun in my Kyoshi duology reviews.

And on that note, I’m plain pissed off that Malaya died. I said earlier that finally getting an active, meaningful non-bender in the plot was one of the best moments of this book, especially as the series at large has failed to elevate non-benders until this book. Malaya’s story was just beginning, and her personality complemented Sozin and Gyatso beautifully. I was very excited for their future arguments, jokes, and battles, so I can’t help but feel that if an alternative non-bender is brought into the next book, I’m only going to be wishing that it were Malaya instead.

And lastly, it’s a personal complaint, but I didn’t buy into the central classist rhetoric. As much as my husband enjoyed those debates between Gyatso and Roku, my feelings failed to catch fire.

Ribay and Yee—Thoughts

It’s time to discuss the differences between Ribay and F. C. Yee’s writing styles.

Both authors capture the heart and spirit of the Avatar franchise, and that’s clear from the opening pages. Both Ribay and Yee love to write about characters and relationships, which is what I want most from these books… BUT…

I did miss Yee’s touch on the line-by-line detail. Yee has a special skill to craft lines that sing from the pages. His descriptions stayed with me long after closing the book and returning it to the shelf.

That said, it still stunned me how similar the narrative voice was from Yangchen to Roku—that’s a skill in itself.

It could also be that a change in editor has facilitated this alteration in the sentence craft quality.

To Conclude

I will continue to miss F. C. Yee, but I’ll definitely buy future books in the Chronicles of the Avatar book series written by Randy Ribay. I’m already looking forward to The Awakening of Roku, to be released in December, 2025!

In the meantime, I’ve been reading Stephanie Garber and Brandon Sanderson… check out my other reviews, or subscribe today for email notifications: