The Floating World

The Floating World, Book 1

By: Axie Oh

Narrated by: Eden Jun

From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of gold for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the west, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat living in an idyllic mountain village with her adoptive family. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to save her foster father's life, or to save her adoptive uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save her uncle from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn't realize she's the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined…

©2025 Axie Oh (P)2025 Hodder and Stoughton, Limited

It was okay.

I really wanted to like it because I was such a big fan of tgwfbts, and the story overall was okay, the characters were lovely. Maybe a bit too lovely? I feel like for the main characters at least in an effort to make them look “good” they felt a little flat despite the struggles they held. They also fell for each other quite quickly which surprised me so it didn’t feel as satisfying when they were together. Dare I say my favorite characters were Jaeil and Little Uncle! Because despite their flaws, they still felt like they had more purpose and dimension. I hope for the next one ren and sunho can be a bit more developed as characters and their intentions. But I overall will keep an eye for the next one because I’m curious.

However, my biggest wish is for another narrator to take over for the story that can be a little more immersive. I think part of what threw me off was the performance that felt so flat. The inflections for the characters all sounded similar and if I wasn’t paying attention I sometimes got confused on who was who. But yeah, overall I think I’ll read it now.

Narrator had odd inflections

The narrator kept me from getting wholly invested, but the overall story was quite cute

Good

I just want to start off by saying I am a huge fan of 'the girl who fell beneath the sea'. so I had high hopes for this read, however it really fell short for me. The beginning was really slow and I felt like we never truly got to know the characters as the story evolved. I did like the romance part, but it kind felt pushed.

Beautiful take

Beautiful take on the woodcutter and the celestial maiden I love everything about this book!

Wanted to like it

I loved her other work, but this one has been a disappointment. So sad because she is such a creative and wonderful writer.