User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I love Will Wight's Cradle series. Several people have said that this is similar to Cradle and so I found the first novel at a great Kindle price and I gave it a go. Well, It's was good enough for me to read it in a day. It was a good read.
The story takes place in ancient China and I love all the details of culture and Chinese Meridians. I am an acupuncturist and I know the meridians and acupoints very well to say the least. I love having a story with my work and passion in it. They speak of the five elements in this. He calls Spring/Wood Air which is strange, but I suppose I can see that.
This is a cultivation novel. I felt like there was little character development here. I really don't know Wu Ying accept he wants to advance. The ways her learned and advanced were great, but I wish there was more character work. Wu Ying really didn't have much interaction with people until on his adventure to get win, he meets a soldier and they become friends for a little bit. It's the most character development we get.
Wu Ying had so much advancement in the wilds, I almost thought the story would be better served if he simply roamed the wilds learning what he could. The sect has too many politics to be great at learning. I mean it is learning, but dangerous learning. I also wonder how different the story would be if WuYing's antagonist, the lord from his village had tired to befriend him and slowly sabatoged him or found ways of keeping him down. That might have been more interesting.
There were many things I enjoyed and I felt there was a lot of things that didn't feel fresh, but I still had a great time reading it and couldn't stop. I want to continue with this story and hope it gets better with each book. It's great to read between Cradle books.
Rating: really liked it
*This is one of the books I read for #SPFBO 2019*
I have to say this book is quite different to a lot of the others in the batch. It's a story which focuses primarily on martial arts with a strong influence from Chinese/Asian cultures. There is a magic called Cultivation where you infuse your body with healing magic and Chi and you can channel through the meridians. The practice is almost like a meditation technique but also something which you can enhance with time and determination.
We follow Wu Ying, a young peasant who is from a poor family but striving to do better and join the inner sect. He's not rich or qualified in the same way many of his competitors are, but he has determination and desire and is willing to push on through the challenges and obstacles.
What I like about this title is the emphasis on the martial arts techniques and the culture. There is a good story there but the basis in reality and inspiration was clear to see and to enjoy whilst consuming the story.
I found some small spelling/grammar issues, but most were minor and did not pull me too far out of the storyline.
Overall, it's a start to what could become a fun story. I think it's a bit sprawling and it certainly has a few directions that the narrative is trying to go, but once you get to know the character and his personality you can't help but to enjoy his qualities, although sometimes I think he did escape some situations a little too easily and unscathed.
I gave it a 3.5*s in the end as it was certainly different enough to be memorable and one that I think entertained me too. Definitely a good start point with Wuxia novels too.
Rating: really liked it
There are seven types of conflict in literature, man v. man, man v. nature, etc. Cultivating books are set up to be man v. self except here. Here the author pretty much ignores that in favor of a man v. society approach. The MC is a commoner who makes it into a cultivation sect at the same time as a young noble from his hometown. For some reason this noble takes this as an affront and seeks to do the MC harm. Never mind that if the noble succeeds in harming the MC the noble risks being kicked out of the sect in disgrace ruining his own life.
In other words, the major flaw of this book is laughably one-dimensional villains. Take the young noble: he risks everything for nothing. At one point the MC even wonders at why the young noble hates him and can't figure it out. That is as good as the author admitting he has failed to give his main antagonist motivation for his actions. And where are the big city nobles that look down on country nobles so lacking in honor as to lower themselves to fighting with commoners? The author can't even be bothered with cliches to give his main antagonist that slight bit more depth.
This is so prevalent throughout the book that I could just say that the author's world-building is shallow. For example, the MC, upon arriving at the sect, is put to work. Later he finds out that he was suppose to "register" his work with a sect department. The punctilious and petty jerk in charge of the "registration" department (who is also a noble) gives the MC an assignment likely to kill him as punishment for failing to register. Never mind the fact that there was no way for the MC know about the department sooner or that this happens with enough frequency that the "elder" that put the MC to work had a bet with himself about how long it would take the MC to realize he had to "register" his work assignment.
Again, the nobles are bizarrely uniformly petty, but united. Where's the underling that hopes to move up and so reports the registrar's inappropriate behavior to the registrar's enemies. Such a ridiculously petty and vindictive individual would have made plenty of enemies at the sect, but the author can't be bothered to put thought into anyone's actions but the MCs.
In spite of the foregoing I enjoyed 3/4ths of this book since most of it focuses on the MC's journey. The problem is the poorly written antagonists are key to the story and virtually the entire focus of the final chapters. Which leads me to this book's next problem: a weak resolution.
The book has a small culmination with the MC accomplishing something fairly impressive. However he does this by greatly antagonizing all the nobles (since they are completely uniform in their actions and thoughts). The nobles were already risking everything to just bully the MC so this book essentially ends with the start of a serious class war. This, of course, significantly undermines any sense of story resolution. So this author appears to be yet another in a long line that attempts to get readers to come back for the rest of the story rather than because they are actually good writers.
Bottom line: Largely an okay read, but not particularly inspired with truly poorly written antagonists.
Rating: really liked it
Long Wu Ying knew what to expect in life. He'd be a farmer like his father and live a simple life, that was at least until he was conscripted into the army. Due to unforeseen circumstances Wu Ying was offered a spot with the Verdant Green Waters Sect and a life as a cultivator. Now he's entering a world he never imagined and life as a cultivator.
I really wanted to like The First Step, but I honestly found it bland. It reads largely like a rough draft waiting for the finer points to be added. We have the hard working farm boy trope with Wu Ying along with the obnoxious nobles who believe they are better than everyone else. What the story is missing, is personality. Wu Ying for example doesn't have one unless hardworking has become a personality trait and no one told me.
Unfortunately on top of the characters having no personality, the story also lacks descriptive action. The battle sequences are vague and easily forgotten. The author chose to describe fights using form names as though all readers are familiar with them. Perhaps for a reader with more familiarity, it would be more than enough. I found it lacking.
The First Step was unfortunately disappointing for me and I won't be continuing the series.
Rating: really liked it
Rating 4.0 stars
Somewhat of a typical cultivation story with chinese/asian society. This society is set up into sects and then further separated with the nobles and the peasant's/commoners. Every person is this society is taught how to cultivate at least a little. This is a process of purging the bodies of toxins and opening up meridians to allow greater growth and power. This will give everyone at least a little more strength to help with daily living. Also there is a war that has been going on for what seems like forever between the sects and having even the peasants be able to cultivate a little will help them when they are conscripted to the military. This is what happens to our main character Wu Ying. He is conscripted to the military. At one point he comes to the attention of an elder and is offered a position as a cultivator. This is not something that he ever thought would happen. While everyone learns to cultivate a little, he never thought he would have the opportunity to do this for a living. A true cultivator that progresses far enough can live for a very long time. Yes the life is filled with dangers, but the rewards are so great.
He finds out that just progressing in his cultivation isn't the only fight he needs to win. He is a commoner surrounded by nobles. Most nobles feel that commoners are so far beneath them that they automatically should win regardless of actual ability. They are all learning how to fight but whenever Wu Ying lands a blow on a noble, there is an uproar about how he dared to strike a noble. The martial arts and cultivating were very detailed and was interesting. I didn't like the overall feel of the book though. Wu Ying chose to try and become a cultivator and yet even though he is progressing, I don't see him actually ending up happy surrounded by people that hate him. Why would he want to stay with these people? It was a little too over the top for my liking. He is in a no win situation. If he succeeds, he will have even more enemies than before.
Rating: really liked it
Needle in the HaystackNormally finding a decent English translated Wuxia novel is a bit of a struggle. Oftentimes I feel like it comes down to whether you are okay with grammatical errors or poorly written stories. This has none of those problems and many of the positives. The character is practical and doesn’t benefit from some magical ring or item that makes him super talented. Instead he is a grinder from the lowest rung of society who works his way up to stand on par with people who had every advantage of wealth or genetics. The world has enough magic to be interesting but not so much that things feel ridiculous. I like the simplified and dare I say realistic presentation of martial arts. I love the less philosophical focus of the character on the “great truths” of the universe and more of the very real dangers of his present. I can’t wait to see where this goes!
Rating: really liked it
I wavered between 2 and 3 stars. It was okay but it was excruciatingly well intentioned with delightful footnotes. The actual storytelling was strained, the character development limited, and the wordsmithing weak, but I did kind of like it, so Goodreads "three stars = I liked it".
Good hearted farm bumpkin with a heritage of a mysterious family sword tradition is drafted into war and then offered the opportunity to join a cultivating sect. Politics abound but he finds a core of friends and manages to vanquish the irrational entitled lord's son from his village.
So it's tropelicious but pleasant. I got more out of learning about cultivation novel tropes from reading this than I derived enjoyment from the actual story. So if you treat it more as a reference book than a novel, it works a little better.
And did I mention the footnotes? That's what pushed it fully into the three star "I liked it" for me.
Rating: really liked it
God, this book is such a chore. I honestly became annoyed with how one-dimensional the enemies of Wu were and how little he had as a personality. Oh, he was the stereotypical farmer become an important trope, but besides that, I couldn't tell you what food he enjoyed, what he liked about people or if he had any likes/dislikes beyond nobles mistreating him.
Maybe I'm spoiled because I have been reading Volcanic Age and Peerless Dad, but most of these wuxia/Xin Xia works are just so bland and unappealing. I get the idea of progressive fantasy, but just strength for the sake of strength and rank, with nothing in between, is such a draining reading.
Rating: really liked it
01/21/2021 Notes:Rating Raised from 3 to 4 Stars
The re-read was more enjoyable than I thought it would be! =)
First half is still slow but it's not terrible. I decided to dive back into the series because there are several books + audio out now. Onto #2!
07/25/2019 Notes:It took a bit for me to get into the story but once I did, I had fond flashbacks to Black Belt Theater & other old school martial films. Good fun! I will try to read the next book but who knows when I'll get to it or finish it without audio. =P
Rating: really liked it
Let's start with what I liked. The worldbuilding. The lore. The culture. The history. This book was rich with all of those things. The way the chi worked and how you 'leveled up' was interesting and I would love to go even deeper into just that element. The fact that each move of battle had its own names, 'Dragon Unsheathes Its Claws'--fascinating and again, I could read a whole book just on these different combat poses and moves. I loved how cultivation could take you in so many different directions, from elemental to healing. It was fascinating. There was no lack of depth in the worldbuilding and culture.
Now to the problems I had. Our main character Long Wu Ying is a simple peasant at the start, but that soon changes. He almost has no personality and it changes little throughout the book. At the end, you could say he's more courageous. But otherwise, I found it rather flat and a little unbelievable. He seems to rise up the ranks with ease with everything piled against him. In the some battles, he literally has broken bones, pounded to the ground, yet he can think with clarity. I think the author could've done more by giving Wu Ying a few more flaws, give him a harder time.
I also didn't love how women were portrayed here. Yes, there were a few female cultivators, but almost all the focus of women was regarding their body shape, their beauty, them as a distraction. That didn't set well with me.
I want to read on because of the world, magic system, and lore, but I'm not too sure I will.
Rating: really liked it
Okay, so, first, for those who don't know me -- I am, as I believe the author of this work to be, an Asian-American, despite my European-American name. My Asian ancestors came from a different part of Asia than Mr. Wong's, but just as he describes in his post scriptum, I grew up watching Samurai movies and Hong Kong wire-fu adventure tales... in my case, doubly because I enjoyed the action, and because I was desperate to see faces like my own; to figure out who I was supposed to be, how I was supposed to act.
I have in the past read some really poor attempts at xanxia. You may imagine my grateful surprise that this? This is not one of
those. This is no story of the god-touched, the martial genius, the one facing down all enemies with a sneer and winning almost without effort. No; this is the story of the Farm Boy Hero, the one who perseveres and trains, and reflects. This is a young man of morals, who follows the principles of Confucius, Buddha, and Lao-tzu which are built into the society in which he was raised, rather than letting his elevation and success turn him arrogant.
In short, I found this an excellent book for those who watched movies like
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero, or even House of Flying Daggers and wanted to enter more completely into that world.
Rating: really liked it
I don't like Wuxia, due to the mindset of "everyone is an asshole" and "everyone in power BLATANTLY cheats and gets away with it" except somehow for the MC and his posse. I gave this book a chance because I like the author's previous works, but apparently even he can't make Wuxia palatable for me.
Rating: really liked it
I quite liked this, but thought it had a few flaws.
The main character is a commoner, and the main conflict of the book seems to come just from that. Yes, he's training and trying to up his cultivation levels, but the big fight the book is set for just felt construed. I'd have loved for more character depth, especially for the side characters here.
I have absolutely no problem with tropes and predictability in books like this, is part of the charm really to get what you are expecting! So I breezed through the training and fighting and quest, and enjoyed it a lot. But even when using tropes I'd just prefer my side characters to be more than a "only" one aspect of personality. Sadly in The First Step I found only two side characters I cared for at all. The masters didn't manage to make me respect them, the villains where just annoying instead of fearsome, and that really is my one star missing.
Aside from that this is a good mix of action and reflection that kept me well entertained!
Rating: really liked it
AwesomeI've been seeing a couple authors try their hands at this genre and I've got to say that this is the author that seems to have done it best...even above some of my beloved and most favored of authors. The author has managed to get all the beats all the culture all the character notes you'd expect for this genre and uplift them...its like seeing a gourmet chef make a 5-star version of captain crunch or pizza rolls...5-star comfort snacks....and I have to say as much as I get down on this author for putting both the reader and his characters through the ringer, its works like these that really showcase how talented he is.
Rating: really liked it
A wuxia for those not familiar with the genre Most of the time, wuxia novels have this weird way of writing that often would got lost in translation. This novel is written in the ways western readers of epic fantasies could easily enjoy, both in form and structure, while staying true to the motifs and themes of wuxia stories. This is a great way to introduce the genre, with a relatable main character and conflicts that is very common in the genre.
