- #1
Not a deep story, but a decent time waster.Fun story, but up to where I'm at, it's a dull version of the beginning of Against the Gods. It's a wise old mentor trope with a random Self insert in xianxia. The prose is good, but the power levels and combat is hit or miss, the romance is pretty whatever, and the drama isn't even that deep.The main topic is what is cultivation? Is it longevity? Does it matter to live for a 1000 years if you are sitting in a cave for 90% of it? Is it strength?I like this author, but this story reads like a fanfiction rather than a novel- namely because the author is not good at writing a action and combat story. The scale and power levels are very vague, almost to the point of irrelevance, the main character can do all sorts of unique stuff, but done in a lame fashion.For example: in Naruto there's several fire techniques and there's seals that explode. People would rather read about all the fire moves than just fights where guys are throwing grenades over and over.Here this guy throws grenades over and over, different types of grenades sure, but grenades. He also hits people with the mace. However, you are not invested into the grenades because the author doesn't focus on it. There's no real tension and even worse the new grenades seem random too. In fact all the power ups feel like they are introduced a chapter before they save the day. This is bad writing.The author tries to offset this by having side characters with unique abilities fight and showcase their skills, but it makes the whole fight feel arbitrary.And it's this arbitrariness that infects the entire story. You see it when a war breaks out, ends and breaks out again in half a year. So when you get character x was forced to do something because character y didn't return on time, it rings hollow.Another example would be the classic perseverance scene, when the MC has to keep walking despite every step leading him to death. Some stories have the MC walk stairs, walk through a river, walk through a desert etc. It's a pivotal dramatic scene, that gets the reader's heart pounding.Here, it feels fake and shoved in.Maybe because people wanted more action that the story is like this, but the story is made to be an adventure mystery novel, and the result is no one is happy.
