Couldn’t really start with the horse thing

I remember liking SOO much about this story I couldn’t understand why I stopped listening, then that bs with the horse started again. Completely removes any immersion when the super serious, mature, twice lived MC is taking every precaution, talking about caring and loving his friend/family, but then chooses to risk his most loyal and only family member to a weirdly smart animal that wants to kill him. Talks about it but is dismissive. Same with that useless fiancée of his who dismisses any attempt on his life because she likes the horse. It’s a weird and very annoying gag. I’m going to return this book, it’s that ridiculous to me.

5 people found this helpful

Tone down the murder

So, at this point in a series most reviews are going to be outrageously positive and flaws blatantly ignored. On the off chance someone is deciding whether to continue or not, this review is for you.

I enjoyed cultivation novels and overall I find this series....decent. It's not without problems though.

1. Repetitive. The MC's abilities are getting extremely stale at this point. Everything is chi-threads this, chi-threads that. That's his main attack, cool, that's fine, but he's shown little to no other abilities from what he displayed in book one and that makes combat a bit boring since you basically already know what's going to happen.

2. Holy Moly, Batman, tone down the freaking murder. This is a quality I found refreshing in book one. Finally, a main character who wasn't afraid to kill his enemies rather than stupidly leaving them alive to become problems in the future. Wow, I did not expect that to get old as fast as it did. The second book really started to make this a problem and I'd hoped this book would tone it down, but no such luck. The MC's solution to essentially every problem now is to murder it with prejudice. Worst still is now all his friends are basically becoming little murder clones of him who kill at the first opportunity. EVEN WORSE STILL, is that whereas before the MC didn't seem to take any pleasure in his kills, it was just a grim necessity, now both he and his friends seem to be actively seeking it out and taking pleasure in the process.

Seriously, Michael, buddy, if you read this, please chill on the wholesale slaughter. Homicidal is not a personality trait people find compelling, especially not in all five of your main characters. Lindon from Cradle kills when he has to, but he doesn't glory in it or relish it and Cradle is probably the best cultivation series out there.

3. Unexplained jumps in power. Wooooooo-boy, we're getting into Naruto and Bleach levels of jumps in power with little to no explanation behind it. "Our training while traveling has paid off" is a pretty weak explanation as to how your characters are exploding in power when you already established that normally it takes years to advance, not months, and yet all four totally normal companions to the MC are advancing at absurd speeds with little to no explanation.

I'll probably give book four a chance once it's out, but if things continue on the path down murder-hobo lane then it'll be the last in the series that I read. It just doesn't make for an interesting book, especially not when your MC is growing more arrogant and eager to smite those that cross him with each new book.

2 people found this helpful

Great as Usual, But Jim Seemed Less Awesome

I really enjoyed the story, and the growth of the other characters in Jim's party was good, but I felt like Jim was a bit off. For large portions of the story, Jim seemed either like he wasn't trying, or wasn't as awesome as he was in the first books. Don't get me wrong, whenever a big bad guy showed up he would become awesome again, but then after that he would go back to before. Also, I think its good to make the other characters in the party become stronger and self-sufficient, but they shouldn't be able to catch up to Jim given his talent and experience. I kept expecting to hear Jim doing some crazy complicated cultivation technique that the others just weren't able to do (nothing against them, but a master should be capable of more) which would significantly increase his growth, but that didn't happen much. Its always a challenge in books trying to make the secondary characters strong characters in their right without "nerfing" the main character. I think it's definitely possible to write strong and talented secondary characters while still keeping Jim way ahead (because frankly that is part of the fun of the books). Anyway, it was a really fun book, but I hope the author lets Jim be more awesome again in the next book.

1 person found this helpful

Great book, great series!

One of the best cultivation series out there. This book continues a great series and doesn’t let down in any way. Just as good as the first two books in the series, I can’t wait for the next book.

1 person found this helpful

Better than book 2

Light reading where everything that can go wrong inevitable does go wrong but still manages to work out with the MC overpowered.

Gets Repetetive

Overall, I have definitely been enjoying the series; however, it has its downfalls, in my opinion. He focuses on creating scenarios eliciting emotions of anger while mixing in humor (which is always appreciated) and seldom strays from that theme. Cultivation is a journey through life and all of the experiences are what we came here for, the good, the bad, the happy and sad. Everything here is in morals of black and white without gray areas giving credence to his gung-ho killing sprees. Nothing wrong with that it just gets repetetive when there's a new situation like it every hour.

great new series to listen to

found this series because the 1st book was on special. I have listened to all 3 and can not wait until more books are out. if you like the cradle series by Will Wright you most likely will like this series.

Repetitive and poorly planned.

So I wrote my review of book 1 after I finished book 2 and began book 3. I did that because book 1 should have really encompassed book 1 and 2. 10 hours is the bare minimum I'm willing to spend money on for a book and it ALMOST got there so I said what the heck and bought it. Go read my book 1 and 2 review then come back here if you're thinking about continuing and you give a rats rear about my opinion!

Problem with the series

• The murder hobo is on overdrive. The formula is simple and repeats – FOREVER in these novels.
o Jim arrives in a place.
o A comically evil bastard tough guy shows up and says some blatantly evil or aggressive things.
o Jim pretends he isn’t going to slaughter everyone in the room for about half a second – then slaughters everyone in the room. REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT.
• The side characters he travels with just morphed into duplicates of himself. They just slaughter everyone and don’t bother asking questions.
• In book 1 Jim gained access to the Light and Dark Chi because of how he died and shattering the gates (supposedly) but now he can just teach people to access light and dark chi? What? Listen – you are making the rules of your own novel. I just need you to be consistent with those rules.
• Book 3 is Book 1 and Book 2 – just with different backdrop and new people who will appear for 2 seconds and then be murdered. I don’t know what else to say about the book if you’ve made it this far. If that’s good enough for you then continue to buy the novels. I think I’m not gonna bother with book 4 because I’ve seen enough to know where this goes. The author isn’t putting in the effort to expand Jim into anything more than a homicidal insane person with zero care for wanton destruction and mass murder – and the thread this and thread that combat system is kinda boring to me … so .. I’m out!

Still worth a credit and continuing but has issues

Still a great cultivation story but there have been increasing instances of inconsistency with Jim. Weather that be his power level or his decisions. Common problem with ‘overpowered’ MCs, its hard to write scenarios that will challenge the MC without dumbing them down or forgetting about a power they have or just not taking an obvious path for plot reasons. Jim definitely has suffered from this, making a lot of fight scenes frustrating and his powers are definitely getting a bit stale (still cool and there tons of fun ways to use Qi threads that could be used tho).
Power levels are also getting pretty unclear and the jumps in power between level seem too small, like the high level King and dukes seem kinda weak :/
I will definitely continue with the next book, can only hope that author ups his creativity for situations and bad guys so that he doesn’t have to keep dumbing down or temp nerfing MC. Definitely like the side characters still too so i hope they can power up too but in a way that makes sense like some alchemy when they get ingredients on the north and maybe some of legacies or become agent of a god, idk, oh and definitely push those romances further!!!!!!! People there age all juiced up from battle would have def made progress

good at sea story

so in this book jim an friends are kidnaped an work out a deal with the kidnappers to help get across the sea has some good twist in it jim an friends seem to be getting more evil or are they good in this book. i did not like this one as good as the other 2 but was still a 4 star book