REVIEW: Avatar Legends: City of Echoes
Avatar Legends: City of Echoes
By Judy L. Lin
320 pages/Amulet Books/$21.99
I know this much about The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, so I approached this first novel in what is being billed as the Avatar: Legends series. Is the title intended to be about stories set in and around the Avatar series, or is the legend in question the protagonist in this Young Adult novel? That’s open to interpretation.
Set in Ba Sing Se, the last major city in the Earth Kingdom, mainly in the Lower Ring, we come across refugees from the atrocities committed by the Fire Nation, as they seemingly rampage across the world. The Avatar is nowhere to be seen and is rumored to be dead (we know better, right?). We focus on Jun, a sixteen-year-old whose family has been lost, so she and her grandfather take refuge wherever they can. She enrolls in school, utilizing her skills as a calligrapher to do what she can to support herself.
Jin’s best friend, Susu, is from a family that owns the popular Wen Bakery. Things kick off when Susu signs a contract to serve the Upper Ring after her father gambles away the bakery. Jin promises to find a way to raise the funds to settle the debt and regain her friend. This results in allying herself with the somewhat aloof Xuan, a classmate whose family runs the apothecary where she gets her grandfather’s medicine.
From there, she takes on increasing risks to find money and Susu, becoming a messenger for the Black Market Silver Fangs before being initiated into their ranks. When she encounters Susu, she is a brainwashed member of the Joo Dee and does not recognize her bestie. As the Fire Kingdom’s soldiers invade the city, she also becomes part of the resistance.
Our focus rarely leaves Jin, who is constantly challenged about her assumptions regarding people, as well as her nascent skills as an Earthbender. Her growth drives the narrative as she befriends other refugees-turned-freedom fighters, including Smellerbee and Longshot.
Lin keeps the story moving along at a good pace, offering each character just enough of a personality to be interesting, but none are provided much in the way of depth. Conversations that would have allowed the characters to grow are truncated in favor of advancing the plot. The contrasting lives of the two rings are also given short shrift, so she imagines her readers can picture the locales based on the animated series. Speaking of which, we see Jet’s familiar attack on the Pao Family Tea House from Jin’s point of view, giving you an anchor as to where this fits into the overall continuity.
Events present obstacles and challenges, but few of the characters are truly endangered, blunting the edge this could have had.
Clearly, I am not the audience for this work, but it was an entertaining enough read and fans of the series should enjoy this self-contained story.
