Sundered Sun by Ann Glimmer – Book Review

Book Rating: ⭐⭐.5

Series: The Sun & Moon Saga (Book 1)

Genre: Adult Fantasy Romance

Spice: Hot

Summary:

Lora, a monster hunter with the power to control water and shadows, saves a man that emerges from a rift that usually expels the monsters she fights. He is unfamiliar with the state of the world, but he’s able to wield both moon and sun-based powers, making him the dual wielder of legend that will save their world. But he has no training and no idea how to save the world. Lora and the Dual Wielder, Erion, set off on a dangerous adventure so he can learn how to control his powers and figure out how his unique ability to wield both Sun and Moon can stop the monsters from endangering their world, for good.

Zai, the second prince of the Sun Kingdom, has always been viewed as a failure, unable to control his Sun powers to the satisfaction of his teachers. When he interferes in a military matter his older brother is planning, his brother challenges him to a fight, which results in his banishment from the Kingdom when he loses. His only option to redeem himself and get back home is to find the Dual Wielder and bring him to his father, the King. After his banishment, Zai teams up with a group of sky pirates to chase down the Dual Wielder, triggering a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Lora and Erion.

Will Lora help Erion close the rifts once and for all, or will Zai capture Erion to redeem himself in the eyes of his father? And what happens when Lora and Zai develop an attraction that they can’t deny?

Reaction:

Sundered Sun was described as a cross between Avatar the Last Airbender (I’ll refer to it as ATLA for the rest of this post) and The Witcher where Zuko and Katara get together. While I would agree with that description, I thought the plot, settings, and characters were all too similar to ATLA. The book didn’t separate itself enough from the source material in my opinion to become a distinct story. While I did consider DNF’ing the book a couple of times, the ending was actually really exciting and redeemed the story a little bit for me.

I felt like the plot of this story was too similar to ATLA without the fun or growth along the journey. Instead, this story is very dark, especially considering all the violence, death, and hatred. The action sequences are exciting, but because the book was also billed as being similar to the Witcher, I saw too many similarities there too. This is really the crux of my issue with this book. In my opinion, it borrows way too much from other stories that it explicitly claims to be similar to. Another problem I had was the pacing and focus. The action sequences were fast and exciting, but I felt like there was almost too much focus on the action, and not enough on aspects like the world building or character growth. I did think the ending was the best part of the book; it was exciting and finally departed from ATLA in a major way.

I thought some aspects of the setting were okay, but there’s a lot of reliance on the reader having watched ALTA or The Witcher. I just kept picturing different settings from those two shows instead of a unique, interesting setting because there wasn’t a major departure from those shows. If I were to compare this to other works that are widely acknowledged as derivatives from another work, such as Fifty Shades of Gray (Twilight) or Alchemized (Harry Potter), which both started as fanfics, they don’t have this issue because the settings are so dramatically different from that original work. For example, in Sundered Sun there is a prison in the Sun Kingdom to house their greatest criminals. It’s not really described in great detail, so my mind kept substituting the Boiler from ALTA since the settings and scenarios were so similar.

I have a lot of problems with the main characters in this novel. For one, Lora, Zai, and Erion all still have the characteristics and problems of teenagers even though they are adults. It seems like the author wanted to have the characters stay true to the exact problems they were going through in ATLA, but people in their twenties should have a more formed sense of self and respond differently to those same problems compared to a teenager. This made me feel like the ages were increased to allow the characters to be more sexual without coming up with more mature characteristics and motivations. Lora and Zai both underwent some character growth in the novel, but Erion was a relatively anonymous character. He didn’t provide a romantic option, he didn’t have much character growth, and he was a terrible bender. From my perspective, he only served to illustrate how close-minded Lora is when it comes to people and love. And just like the other aspects of this book, the characters are too close to ATLA. Even if they had different physical characteristics, their personalities and situations were so similar I was just picturing ATLA characters. I did enjoy the addition of the sky pirates. I thought they were an entertaining bunch, and their support of Zai was an important departure from ATLA. Along with Kestrel the bard, who really grew on me through the course of the novel, they were the one piece of this story that gave me the same feelings, the same sense of family, that I loved in both ATLA & the Witcher.

I have to be honest, the romance in this book was not for me at all. It was not a slow burn; rather it was an instant attraction to a person considered an enemy. And it portrays Lora as being more interested in the dangerous boy than someone who really cares about her. I’m not usually a fan of love triangles, but it would have been so much more interesting if Lora ever gave Erion a real chance. Another problem I had with it was that this was billed as a Zutara love story, but in ATLA the reason that idea ever had legs was because Zuko opens up to Katara about his past and even though they were enemies, they find common ground. That emotional sharing doesn’t happen in this book. Instead, they are immediately attracted to each other, so I didn’t get what I believe a realistic Zutara love story would have been.

In every major aspect of this book, the similarities to ATLA got in the way of me enjoying this story. I also had major problems with the main characters and how they were aged up for an adult audience. I did enjoy the action sequences, and the ending was exciting. Because the ending departed from ATLA, maybe the next book would have a more interesting, unique plot, but I didn’t really enjoy the romantic sub-plot enough to keep reading. This book may be great if you have never watched ATLA or The Witcher, but it was impossible for me to try to read this book without making the comparisons since I really enjoy both those TV shows. And obviously some people who have seen ATLA really enjoyed it for that Zutara love story. Unfortunately, that just isn’t the case for me.

Thanks to the author for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

What I enjoyed:

·       The sky pirates and Kestrel were fun, and added a much-needed sense of camaraderie, which is one of the things I love about ATLA and The Witcher.

·       Zai’s character arc at the end of the book, finally showing some more mature thoughts and choices.

What I didn't enjoy:

·       Lora as a character. She is stubborn and selfish, and I can’t get over her choices at the climax of the book.

·       The pacing was really slow when there wasn’t a battle or action scene.