Book: Sundered Sun by Ann Glimmer
Reviewed by Rallie X
Rating: 2.5/5
This was described as being for Zutara shippers (I'm for canon Kataang but I can appreciate Zutara when done well) but I didn't realize it was going to be a nearly beat-for-beat rehash of the first season of AtLA. There's nothing new happening here, and by 38% through I decided to just put it away.
In my opinion, you need to bring more to the table than a slightly modified setting and revised characters for something to be truly its Own Thing. But we literally start with "strange guy falls out of a rift and is found by a w̶a̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ moon wielder"/"p̶r̶i̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶F̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶N̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ Sun prince is a disappointment to his mean dad" and from there hit every beat from the show - change Four Elements to two magic types (moon/water and sun/fire), shuffle the families of the two main characters (not-Katara has a sister and a dad who are healers, not-Zuko has a brother and a sister but still has a mean dad), and change the problem to closing a rift to the monster dimension instead of stopping the Fire Nation's genocide, and it's exactly the same. When not-Aang regains his memories after going into not-the avatar state and confesses to not-Katara he was born 9 decades ago and was the start of the sun/moon enmity I was kind of done. But it really is beat-for-beat the same. And I don't think that counts as a new story; this isn't a fairytale or myth retelling where there are hundreds of versions and you're just adding one more.
So if you are in the mood to read straight-up fan fiction, you'll probably enjoy this, because it is very well written and imaginative! That's just not what I thought I was getting into.
When sun and moon combine their might
A rift shall tear and free the blight.
A Dual Wielder seeks his fate
To scattered artifacts locate
If joined anew in full eclipse
The truth shall spill from bearer’s lips