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This book does a very good job of creating an intriguing mythical world. The descriptions of the castle and the town are beautiful and they really allow the reader to picture what the country looks like. I also liked that the story took place in the modern day, which made it more relevant to the current state of our educational system.
Much as I appreciated the kingdom of Sooryan, I didn’t feel a connection to the characters because I couldn’t identify with their world. This book focused on very real educational debates (such as whether technology improves learning), but then distanced me from those issues by taking place in a country I couldn’t identify with. I think the overall message of the book would have been better served if it had taken place in the real world. I know that the book was a metaphor for the educational system, but the problems faced by the Sooryan system were exactly the same problems faced by the American public school system. It made me feel that the book wasn’t so much a metaphor as an explanation of the issues that teachers deal with every day. I could completely identify with the educational issues the book brought up, just not with the world in which they were being explored.
I was also taken out of the story by the fact that I couldn’t figure out which genre the book was supposed to be. For the majority of the story I was fairly certain that the country was fictional, but everything else was as it is in the real world. However, at one point the story crossed into more fantasy territory. For me, that genre change came out of left field. I thought that it didn’t really add much to the story and only served to make me feel less connected to this kingdom.
As for the characters, I felt that Helena was the only one I really had time to get to know. She was a strong protagonist, and I admired her desire to help her country. The supporting characters each had their own personality, but with such a short book, they weren’t explored very much. In my opinion, the most fleshed-out character besides Helena was Queen Delilah. Her desire to move Sooryan towards being a technological society was a good representation of how higher-ups in schools think they can throw technology at students and that will solve all educational problems. Again, even though I liked the characters and what they represented, their society didn’t resonate with any of my experiences, so I felt distanced from them.
I give Kingdom of the Sun 2 out of 4 stars. The characters were strong and the issues the book dealt with are very relevant. In the end, though, I wasn’t able to identify with the world of Sooryan enough to be fully invested in the book.
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