Brief Synopsis
“Legacy of Yangchen” is the second novel in the Yangchen duology by F.C. Yee, and the fourth novel taking place in the universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender. After barely averting catastrophe in the previous book, young Avatar Yangchen must make difficult decisions as the world teeters towards war…
Content Warnings: Death (lots), Torture, Violence (PG-13)
What Do I Think?
My review of Legacy’s predecessor, “The Dawn of Yangchen”, was a little hard. After all, writing about a character who has been built up to be this almost perfect figure is no easy task, and the first book to focus on this particular Avatar had more than a few stumbles. Funnily enough, the sequel certainly has its fair share of stumbles of its own, but they feel different.
So first, let’s focus on the positives. The worldbuilding remains as fantastic as ever – that has been a steady success in all of Yee’s takes on the Avatar world. From the descriptions of Air Temples to the busy streets of Taku, the writing immerses one in the story and paints a gorgeous picture of the surroundings.
Additionally, one of the new strengths, I found, was the writing of the titular Yangchen herself. In the previous book, her writing was a mess, inconsistently trying to have her be both an established Avatar and a self-doubting novice. Legacy manages to bridge the gap between the two much more effectively, showing an Avatar who is established while also heavily reflecting on her pasts. Kavik, who is for all purposes Yangchen’s partner in crime, takes her place as the less confident character, but his lack of understanding and constant ill-at-ease makes sense given the world of trouble he’s found himself placed in.
My major gripe, unfortunately, is with the way many ‘secrets’ are revealed. Legacy contains many twists and turns, most of which involve the protagonists managing to stay one step ahead of their enemies. In order to keep the story suspenseful, however, the novel feels the need to hide relevant information until after the twist. Doing this once could be forgiven. But twice? Thrice? Four times? It gets old, fast, and by the end of it I was less worried about the events as they unfolded and worried more about what convoluted way Yee was going to get them out of trouble. What hurt this most was how one of these revelations reveals that the death of a very important character could have actually been avoided, and the fact that this character’s death was barely given any real gravity.
With that being said, I wouldn’t be writing this review if I didn’t actually enjoy the book. “Legacy of Yangchen” had some big shoes to fill, and while it managed to fix many of the mistakes of its predecessor, it made some new ones along the way.
If you’re already invested in the Avatar world, you won’t be disappointed. And even if you aren’t someone overly familiar with Avatar: The Last Airbender…well, first, do yourself a favor and watch the show! Then read the other books and come back to this one, because I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.
Jacob Ryckman 