Official Review: Kingdom of the Sun by Ariffa Bevin

[Sherlock_1]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Kingdom of the Sun" by Ariffa Bevin.]

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Kingdom of the Sun by Ariffa Bevin follows Helena, a brave and passionate young woman who lives in the kingdom of Sooryan. In Sooryan education is extremely important, and being a scholar is one of the highest positions. Helena is a scholar’s apprentice. But the country’s educational standard is threatened when a series of uninformed rulers take the throne and try to enact their own policies without listening to the people or the scholars. With many students leaving the country, Helena must find a way to restore Sooryan to its former glory.

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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[ALRyder]

It is unfortunate when you just can't connect with the characters in a book, especially when the idea is there. I may look this one up to see other peoples reviews, because it does seem like an interesting idea. Do you think that if the author had been more genre specific, and known their audience better, you would have enjoyed it more as well?

[Sherlock_1]

Hello ALRyder,
I think that being more genre specific would definitely have made the book more relevant, especially given the extremely important subject matter the author is dealing with. I also really like your comment about knowing the audience - throughout the story I couldn't pinpoint the demographic the story was hoping to reach. Most of the time it seemed like it would appeal to adults or students who have had to deal with these educational problems. However, with the genre shift, it seemed to be trying to appeal more to people who were interested in fantasy novels. While those two demographics are by no means mutually exclusive, I felt the fantasy aspect should either have been explored throughout or scrapped altogether depending on who the audience was supposed to be.

That being said, I think the book has excellent potential. If you are interested in the education system, definitely check the book out if you get a chance. I'd love to know what you think!

[ALRyder]

I don't know that something like this would be for me. I may suggest it to my mom though. She's a teacher, and struggled to get a job for a long time. She finally decided to get a second Masters in teaching online, even though it wasn't something she wanted to do, she figured it was the way the world was going. She ended up lucking out and getting the job of her dreams teaching music though. She may enjoy reading something like this.