They tell stories, nowadays, of a wandering fox. Most times it would appear as a humble peasant girl, but sometimes as a yokai with glowing golden eyes.
Immediately following Soul of the Sword, the 3rd and final book of the Shadow of the Fox series picks up with our crew heading to a port to catch a ride for the Moon Islands and stop the villains from using the Dragon Scroll.
This book, for the most part, was a very good mesh of the first and second book. We have some small, episodic like adventures like in book one. And then there is a good amount of character interaction and romance from book two.
It isnt all good, however, I actually have quite a few issues with the book.
Yumekos fox powers get far more powerful for some reason. Early on in the novel I was getting annoyed that her throwing out her blue fox fire would STILL startled her opponents (because they dont know its not real fire) We got alot of that in the first two books. Then all of a sudden her fox fire was real and burned people. I dont know if I missed something because she didnt really seem to question this or fill in any blanks.
There was a couple more issues that the author actually managed to correct later in the novel. So though through a good portion of the book I was getting annoyed, or irked at the development, she managed to come up with good reasoning, or even better, not fall into some bad tropes.
I will say one thing that always throws me off in books is when the thing you expect to be at the end, is SMACK dab in the middle. It really threw off the pacing and made most of the rest of the book feel drawn out. It didnt help either when the last half turns into a long "climax" of confusing, convoluted reveals and unnecessary battles.
For the most part I was planning on giving this a 3 stars, but I think the ending (mostly after the climax) really pulled it up from that lower score. I think this book evoked a lot of emotion in me. I appreciated the consequences of this war and the fights. By the end I really did come to enjoy the little gang we picked up along the way.
Overall, the climax was a bit over-reaching. This seemingly episodic YA fantasy trilogy had the ending of a 5 book long epic fantasy, which was incredibly jarring. But I liked how the author didnt always take the obvious or easy way out with some of the plot points and I say is a solid ending to her series.
I would very much enjoy a 4th novel, with lesser stakes, and some more
episodic adventures of the roaming Kitsune once more...
I wanted to go into a few spoiler discussions below with some specifics about the ending.
Spoilers:
I didnt like how early on they set up that this naive peasant girl was going to be the new leader of the moon clan. BUT as I mentioned above, the author corrected that toward the end by letting a lot of time pass before Yumeko took over.
Furthermore on that point, I felt like the first two books didnt focus enough on Yumeko being without a home, or that being an orphan bothered her. Its why alot of the mother/father/moon island clan stuff didnt fit really well for me. I didnt feel like she needed to be, essentially, a special chosen one. BUT AGAIN, I like how the author showed Yumeko knowing there was more to do in the world and she left to explore. The letter where she described the fox yokai being seen at the places we previously visited was really sweet and struck a cord within me. Like I said above, I would like a nice novel of her roaming adventures.
Some of the stuff I feel like the author avoided was obviously the resurrection trope. I was really nervous she was going to revive everyone that died which would have been...so bad. And I feel like I already explained how she avoided or corrected my annoyance with Yumeko being the leader, and wanting to find a home and stay there.
Most of the Seigetsu stuff went completely over my head. I dont understand about the bead, and his whole goal, it felt out of left field. Also with Yumekos mothers pain in that cave, and the mask...it was just alot all at once. I still didnt feel particularly attached to the mothers character or story since we got it all in the last half of the book. The ending fight with Seigetsu in general went on too long. But it was cool to see Yumeko try to outsmart him. There was just ALOT about the climax I didnt care for. But it had some good moments like Daisuke and Okames fight. Suki bringing back their spirits to help Yumeko in the end.
Speaking of which. In general I thought Sukis whole thing was pretty cool. She is the first chapter we get ALL the way back in book one, which honestly REALLY stuck with me. I felt so bad for her. But I like how she became their guide, and the fact that she led them when they were all alive, and then again when most of them were dead...that was some good stuff right there.
In conclusion, like I said, Climax was a bit much for me, but the ending was really really good.
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