ARC Review: The War Arts Saga #2

The Art of Destiny by Wesley Chu

Publication Date: October 10, 2023

Summary from NetGalley:

Once there was a prophecy that a chosen one would rise to defeat the Eternal Khan, an immortal god-king.

But the prophecy was wrong.

Now Jian, the former chosen hero, is just an ordinary young man trying to find his own way. But he may yet have an extraordinary destiny, because he joins forces with Taishi, his grumpy grandmaster, who instructs him in the ways of her family’s powerful war art. Jian still has a long way to go before he can become her heir, so she recruits a band of elderly grandmasters who come out of retirement to whip him into shape and help with this one last job.

And there are others who are also seeking their own destiny, like Qisami, an assassin on a secret mission to protect a powerful noblewoman from her enemies. But as Qisami goes undercover to complete her mission, she takes on a new identity that gives her something she never had before: friendship, found family, and new purpose.

Sali also thought her fate was laid before her. She was supposed to be looking for the next Eternal Khan and now finds her clan exiled from everything she’s ever known. As she leads the survivors in search of a new home, Sali discovers that she’s something she never thought she could be: a leader and a revolutionary.

Because sometimes destiny is grander than any prophecy can foresee. And the greatest destiny of all is the one you choose for yourself.

ARC provided by Random House via Netgalley for an honest review.

Confession:

This is going to be a hard review to write, because while I liked the story, I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I did the first book, The Art of Prophecy. My biggest disappointment is that this story doesn’t really seem to go anywhere. It is definitely a set up for the third book, but it seemed to be stuck in the everyday mundane living of the characters with few action sequences and not a lot of movement in the overall plot.

All of my favorite characters from the first book are back, plus we meet a whole lot of new characters. It was fun and interesting to meet up with the main characters and to see how they change over the course of the book. Many of them had emotional journeys, especially Qisami and Sali, but their plot lines often felt disjointed and disconnected from each other and the overall storyline. The new characters were also fun to get to know, especially the group of old war masters that come to help Taishi train Jian. The masters were often the source of the humor that is threaded throughout the story, especially as they bicker about whose war art is better.

My main issue with the story was the pacing. It was very slow throughout most of the book, even the fight scenes felt slow. And even though I enjoyed the descriptions and details in everything they really bogged down the narrative. There just didn’t seem to be much new added to the story. There was some very interesting lore that Sali uncovers, about the eternal Khan, but that seemed to be about it. Some of the politics involved with the Dukes was not very clear and I had a really hard time understanding their motives, besides world domination that is.

Of course this is just my opinion. I have seen many reviews that found this to be a wonderful and exciting read. While I don’t necessarily agree with them, I can see their points. If you enjoyed the first book, then I think you will probably at least like this one. It is very long, maybe too long, but it is worth reading as I think it really is a solid set up for what happens in the next book.