The Floating World by Axie Oh

TL;DR: A good YA fantasy, especially for a younger audience.
Source: Netgalley, thank you to the publisher!

Plot: Kids had goals, kids met, liked each other and kind of continued goals (not really, but enough I suppose).
Characters: I think perhaps the characters felt a bit distant, but they were okay.
Setting: It was okay, I don’t know that it was particularly strong, but steady enough.
Fantasy: The setting and magic was very neat.

Summary:

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn’t realize she’s the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined…

Thoughts:

I’ll admit, this was a cover read. The cover on this is absolutely stunning, no notes. The insides, well… they’re okay! Not quite to the standard of the cover art, but not super rough either. This one is a quest story. Ren is searching for a cure for an adopted family member’s illness while Sunho is an amnesiac mercenary sent to capture her. The two end up crossing paths and falling into a sort of insta-love.

Again, this one is just okay for me. I didn’t find it overly interesting, the characters felt very distant and removed for me. It was fun at times and had some cute scenes. It also had some very shallow and surface level scenes and plot devices that don’t hold up to a lot of scrutiny. Everything is structured where it needs to be, with just enough paint (story) over it to pass a cursory inspection. The villain of the piece too was so badly executed, the man’s priorities made no sense. Okay, let’s go after this random girl instead of worrying about the demon invasions, makes sense.

A younger reader is probably going to have a lot of fun with this. Older readers may end up a bit bored or be left with more questions, especially those who pay very close attention to plot. If you don’t or your readers don’t, this is a fantasy I’d say give a go!