Synopsis
From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.
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…
Review
I used to devour young adult and middle grade books. As a junior high and high school teacher, it was fun to read the same things as my students. But as the years wore on, I tired of some of the same-ness. After The Hunger Games, the trends got out of control and I had to step away from reading most YA for a long time.
So I was delighted when I started Axie Oh’s The Floating World and practically devoured it, picking it up and putting it down less than 24 hours after starting. There’s just enough depth to the characters to propel the story along and Oh makes the story very readable and accessible to readers of all ages.
Our lead protagonists are Ren and Sunho, both 17 years-old. Ren has been traveling with a performing troupe, but right away we learn she has to restrain her magical powers or else she’d be found out, and killed just like her mother before her 10 years previously. Sunho has some dark power inside of himself, but can’t remember his life before two years ago. They are on a collision course with each other, for better or for worse.
Now, years ago I wrote a novel of my own where both the young love interests have special powers, but Axie Oh did so much better than I could, relying on Korean mythology and folk stories to serve as the backbone of this fun and satisfying book.
From what I can tell, this is the first book in a duology, with the sequel, titled The Demon and the Light releasing this October, which will be VERY good news for anyone who reads The Floating World. I really enjoyed the interplay between Ren and Sunho throughout and figured we’d be getting a sequel, but it seemed like there was going to be enough of a wrap that the book could stand on its own. THEN…Axie Oh yanks the comfortable rug out from under the reader and leaves the characters in a bit of limbo between the two books.
I was thrilled to be able to read The Floating World thanks to an ARC provided by NetGalley and am ready to bite into The Demon and the Light before the end of the year. All opinions are my own.
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