Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rise of Kyoshi

The Kyoshi Novels, Book 1

By: F. C. Yee, Michael Dante DiMartino - contributor

Narrated by: Nancy Wu

Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender comes a YA novel starring Avatar Kyoshi.

After years of searching for the next Avatar, the four nations have found peace with Avatar Yun - until Kyoshi, Yun’s friend and servant, demonstrates remarkable bending abilities herself. With the identity of the true Avatar at stake, Kyoshi and her fiery friend Rangi flee the Avatar mansion and find supporters in the daofei - outlaws living in the shadows of the Earth Kingdom. But while Kyoshi, Rangi, and their daofei friends face off against underworld rivals, those who seek to control the Avatar draw close.

This thrilling first installment maps Kyoshi’s journey from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice destined to become a legend in the world of Avatar.

©2019 Viacom International, Inc. (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Disappointed.... Not the Kyoshi I knew.

I don’t understand why this book was such a craze. The characters were boring and uninteresting. I couldn’t finish this book for fear that I would die of boredom. Kyoshi was such a boring character as well. The only interesting part was her being a lesbian but even that was done poorly. While I am on this subject, that’s all this book is. It feels like a lesbian soft porn flick and it is this book’s main focus. There were no memorable moments, watered down action sequences and cringy dialogue. I found my mind wandering off often times and had to go back ten minutes only to find out nothing happened. Yee goes into almost pornographic detail on the littlest things which I found annoying and unnecessary. I really wanted to like this book, but it feels dry and bland. As an ATLA fan, I am deeply saddened by the direction the story went. I was waiting for that memorable moment that never came. Yee did the best he could but it wasn’t good enough. He tried to something different with Kyoshi and Rangi’s relationship but that was dry and not very interesting.

Tedious

Boring slog of unnecessary exposition and over-blown langusge with a shrill robotic narrator. Story tires to be edgy and grown up and ends up without any of the beauty, fun or heart of the Last Air Bender.

Exactly What The Character's Felt

I heard what they felt. This is the kind of audiobook you've got to listen to during a quiet drink in the morning.

A lot going on, and a lot to process. If you aren't okay with death, and your own mortality, if you've yet to have your first (or second) existential crisis, this is a book worth picking up.

It's worth picking up for any person who wants to be a positive influence on The World, especially if the reader hasn't realized that means doing personal work.

caveat: I did grow up watching Avatar, own a pair sho board, and started meditating and writing because of it.

There is a chance you'll want to look up how to spell the characters names, along the way, if you aren't accustomed to English spellings of foreign words.

The narrator is great at voices, and differentiating who is talking is easy if you listen to the tone and inflection.

Excited for you to read it!

Judge Kyoshi is now in session

I'm perpously being as vague as possible because I don't want to spoil anything of this amazing book.

If you're a fan of the Avatar universe this is a must have. It's faithful to the shows. It expands the universe and lore in a meaningful way. It's also a little darker which makes the world feel more real. I'm so glad there's more happening with the Avatar series.

Nancy Wu did an amazing job narrating.

Uncle Iroh once said

IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO LOOK INWARD AND START ASKING YOURSELF THE BIG QUESTION: WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Who are you? Most likely a fan of Avatar: TLA and (or) Avatar: LoK. You love the world and characters that you grew up watching. With Aang and the Gaang you stopped Fire Lord Ozai, with Korra and Team Avatar you witnessed harmonic convergence and stopped the Red Lotus. You might even be a fan of the comics.
If im remotely close to the "Who are you?" then the "What do you want" part is gonna be easy.
You want to listen to Rise of Kyoshi, asap. I'm alot older now then I was when I got to watch A:TLA for the first time, and Rise of Kyoshi compensates by being mature enough to catch my peak interest, with descriptive bending, chatacters that fit the universe, and lore throwbacks that made me grin. One of the best audiobooks I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.

a little more grown up then I realized

spoiler alert- Kyoshi is bisexual i guess because she loved a boy then a girl. there was a kissing part with the girl that was a little much for my 10 yo. even with a boy we would have fast forwarded. we still liked it but the love stories seemed a bit much

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!!!!!

For Avatar fans looking for material that expands the world, this book is an absolute must! it introduces us to our most Savage Avatar, Kyoshi! Her journey is a unique one, and full of surprises and adventure! And, that cliffhanger makes me very glad I already have book 2! I look forward to starting it!

the prequel we all needed

Since I finished the original series I've always wanted to live through another avatar. korra let me down, but this book is everything I wanted. good main character, impressive villains, mixed morals, love it all. I do wish it was a bit longer to flesh out some things, but all in all I loved it. I'm so excited for the next book!

Avatar Fans Beware

The Rise of Kyoshi is a boiler plate Hero's Journey that fails to capture any of the charm, wit, or excitement of it's television counterparts. While the book has several issues (a love story devoid of tension or suspense, lackluster action scenes, and shallow characters, to name a few), the most glaring to me is how the whole story is almost completely devoid of any of the key facets of Avatar stories: the bending, the training, and the world-building. Aside from the hybrid-animals and references to the television show (like the inclusion of the Beifong family), the entire story could have been set in pre-modern China and nothing would have to change. I think Yee did a great job of incorporating elements of Chinese history into the story like female pirate queens, bandit brotherhoods, and a corrupt bureaucracy, however it never had a satisfying Avatar twist to it. The training scenes are very lackluster and don't really focus on the training, but rather they mostly serve as a backdrop for the romantic plot. Kyoshi never deals with the philosophy of bending the different elements or how she personally approaches those philosophies, we're just told that she's training and then she whips out whatever element is suitable to the plot whenever it's convenient. The entire time I was listening to the book, I found myself only listening for the few scraps of information about the wider world that had that "Avatar" flair to it, otherwise I was just trudging through the boring and flat story to get to those parts. It's not a bad book, it's just not a good addition to the Avatar story, and I would say it's far from essential reading for any Avatar fan, which is unfortunate.

Perfect addition to Avatar

Love the story. I could absolutely see the power of Kyoshi. Can’t wait to read the next book!!!!