The author threw away all character development of the main cast. Nearly everyone is a different person in the book with no convincing path or time foThe author threw away all character development of the main cast. Nearly everyone is a different person in the book with no convincing path or time for them to have changed.
This book shares a rare and ignoble place with the last book in Brent Week's "LightBringer" series and the last season of Game of Thrones as finales that are so truly terrible they retroactively ruin the series, and prevent any recommendations ,, re-reads, or interest in ever consuming more of the creators artistic works.
I'd heard quite a lot of hype about this book from fellow fans of progression fantasy, and while it isn't terrible, I personally found Empty Calories:
I'd heard quite a lot of hype about this book from fellow fans of progression fantasy, and while it isn't terrible, I personally found to be unfulfilling, similar to Solo Leveling (If you enjoy it, you may enjoy this story as well.)
Humans are ruled by an AI, and have been fighting aliens for centuries using items called "CADs" that essentially make life a litrpg. Each CAD has a specialty determined by their AI ruler...and in centuries, it's never thought to give anyone a boost in the blatantly obvious best stat, growth, despite being stuck in a war that is at best a stalemate, and at worst one they're losing.
The MC naturally gets his CAD with pififul scores in everything but growth, but his growth stat is orders of magnitude higher than anyone else in history. Despite knowing this, he's nearly not let into a war college, then treated like dirt by the faculty.
Later, once (view spoiler)[the worst of them realize this, instead of making amends, they DOUBLE DOWN and try to bully him enough to drop out (even though it would just slow down his growth, and with his ability he'd STILL be able to eclipse and retaliate against them maybe a year or two later. The AI lets this happen to allow faster growth, but everyone else is apparently just brain-dead. (hide spoiler)]
Many of these stories give the MC some cheat, but usually they aren't this blatant, or visible to other people.
If the characters or training were good enough it could make up for this, but I find the first bland, and eventually started skipping over fight scenes due to boredom. I personally don't like tournament arcs, which is part of the issue (this is Tournament arc: The book.), but the training/growth was generic and just felt entirely un-earned.
Sure, he worked hard, but like many LITRPGs, it's mostly just "repeat the same action X times, or fight X enemies to level up." Power growth just feels so divorced from what the character is doing, and the *interesting* part (IMO) where they actually learn something new is stripped away.
Numbers go up, sure, but that's it. Compared to watching Zorian in Mother of Learning working through shaping exercises or experimenting with item crafting, it just feels so sterile and robotic. I don't feel that rush whenever the MC gets stronger, because with the CADs, it doesn't really feel like he earned it or really overcame anything.
In the movie "Click", the protagonist had a magic remote that would let him fast forward through parts of his life. Eventually he ended up even skipping through things like Sex, or Golf. He ended up in the same place in the end, sure, but for many things the important part is the journey, not the destination. That's the crux of my issue with the book....more
It feels like the author had a bunch of different ideas he wanted to try, but had no idea how to put them together. So, he took the idea of the levelsIt feels like the author had a bunch of different ideas he wanted to try, but had no idea how to put them together. So, he took the idea of the levels in the tower, and took all those separate ideas and glued them roughly together into a novel.
I dislike short stories, and even more so in this case, as these long scenarios are fleshed out with characters and settings that will have NO relevance afterwards (Save one minor exception.) The tower defense portion at the end was especially rough, IMO.
On top of this, the rest of the plot seems lukewarm at best, and Sera has returned to being a loathsome character. She treats Corin like a toddler, berating him for not consulting her before making ANY choices, including browbeating him for not consulting her before being FORCED into a duel which he knew he could win (while she was nowhere nearby), because of the LONG TERM implications... in an illusion instance in the tower, which will last all of a few hours.
Meanwhile, everyone else decides on nigh suicidal ways to "prove themselves" for no reason, and when Corin objects, she makes him look like some controlling asshole.
All the while she constantly talks herself up as a goddess among men, and talks down Corin as trash. Normally I'd treat this as friendly ribbing, but with everything else? I think she's just honestly speaking her mind. I'd thought she'd gotten better in book two, but it appears she was just hiding her abusive, gaslighting colors, and it's clear that Corin is just going to continue to roll over for her every whim. Worst of all, the author clearly thinks she's a perfect angel who can do no wrong, so none of this will ever be addressed.
I was honestly really looking forward to this book coming out, and bought it at release, but after this, I've lost all interest....more
This book is where I finally stopped reading this series, for a few reasons.
The appeal of this series, from what I've seen from others who like it (anThis book is where I finally stopped reading this series, for a few reasons.
The appeal of this series, from what I've seen from others who like it (and from what I've seen of the authors intent), is that unlike virtually every other Xianxia protagonist, the main character is just an average cultivator. He progresses at an average rate, and actually stays in his sect for a long time, allowing characters to stick around and become fleshed out, and for character development to happen.
In theory, this is great! In practice, I don't think it lives up to the premise, for a few reasons:
1) He makes nearly no progress after book one. He's portrayed as a "dumb peasant", and virtually everyone else outstrips him. Rather than an "average cultivator", to me he comes off as the bottom of the class. While constant power escalation can be a problem (and opposite to the point of this series), I feel sideways progression where characters work on utility abilities, defense, sense, versatility, or meaningful crafting is a far better method to deal with power creep, and leads to more fleshing out of the world.
He doesn't really grow as a character, or develop meaningful relationships during this time either. I've seen a few reviews where people accidentally skipped a book, and didn't even really notice because nothing important was missed.
2) To build on this, his "craft/career" he takes up is essentially herb-tending. A lot of detail is spent on him tending fields, but he does almost nothing with it. There's no interesting scenes of strange plant growth methods, no potion making or alchemy, no growing walls or building out of plants, no scenes of him growing magical plants as appliance equivalents (heater, air conditioner, etc.) just dry, boring scenes that could have described a normal peasant farmer. Additionally, it seems like one of the worst pay jobs he could have taken.
The only real use (and decent pay days) he gets out of it is occasionally having the knowledge to pick and preserve some valuable plants in the wild, or being brought on an expedition to grab a rare plant as a backup.
3) Even with the above, I might have pushed on if the characters really were developed enough. But I don't really care about anyone. Not the protagonist, his friends, his teachers....more
I loved the rest of the series, and bought this book as soon as it came out. However, after MONTHS of picking it up, listening to a bit (audiobook verI loved the rest of the series, and bought this book as soon as it came out. However, after MONTHS of picking it up, listening to a bit (audiobook version), and getting incredibly angry and putting it down again, I've given up.
It honestly feels like some bitter enemy of Brent Weeks bought the rights to the series after his death, and decided to make the finale a mockery of all that came before. There are a lot of problems, but my main issues with it are:
1) Filler. This book should have been half the size it is, at most. There are some decent chapters, but most of the work is meaningless--no character development happens, the plot doesn't progress, it's just filler, and his editor should have cut it.
2) Zymun's plot armor, already painfully thick, reaches god-like levels. There are at least 5 times in this book alone where he should have been killed off. He warps reality around him, making other people act completely out of character (Especially Andross), and become brain dead incompetents.
The mental whiplash whenever he enters the screen is painful--he is a diabolus ex machina in the flesh, and it's just...painful seeing his sections, when compared to The Old Man of the Desert and Andross, who were so well written in comparison (at least in previous books.)
3) The worst aspect, however, is how every single strong, well written character rolls over like a straw man for the most bargain bin arguments, and: (view spoiler)[becomes religious. (hide spoiler)]
After years:(view spoiler)[no longer believing a just god can exist because of how horrible life and the chromeria is? Well, that's all rolled over with a single argument "Orhallem tried like, super half-heartedly over the millennia to send a couple prophets. He hasn't held back because of any time restrictions like the demons have (they can only appear ONE place in the multiverse in a single instant, so ration their intervention.). Nope, Orhollem has done virtually nothing...because life is meaningless without suffering. (hide spoiler)]
This is the sole argument that convinces intelligent, strong-willed people to flip their characters 180°. An argument that would barely convince a 10 year old, makes Gavin and the Iron White change philosophies.
From what I've seen of other reviews, it gets even worse from there on, as (view spoiler)[Orhollomen is a Deus Ex Machina that solves the entire plot, proving he made people suffer before this for no reason. Really, the protagonists were the bad guys all along. (hide spoiler)]
To me, the series ended in the last book, and this one is simply bad fanfiction written to finish it....more
The dungeon core parts of this book are kind of okay. Not terrible, and not great either.
The real problem is the characters. The protagonist is a guy The dungeon core parts of this book are kind of okay. Not terrible, and not great either.
The real problem is the characters. The protagonist is a guy who goes into blind rages fairly often. In the first chapter or so, he threatens to kill and use someone as a condom. He admits that this probably isn't an idle threat. What a lovely person.
There's a potential harem that pops up, which like with all harems, means that the women are boring, 2D caricatures of people. I can't say I understand the appeal. The sex scenes are never great, and the characters end up being bland and uninteresting. It also removes a large portion of the books potential audience.
I couldn't manage to care about the protagonist, the women, or the cardboard cutout villains. From what other reviews say, the Protagonist gets even worse later on....more
It took me eight tries to finish this book. I grew so frustrated with it I'd have to set the book down for a while. I loved the magic system, and the It took me eight tries to finish this book. I grew so frustrated with it I'd have to set the book down for a while. I loved the magic system, and the tower dungeon-diving puzzle scenes were great, so what was the problem?
Well, two things. The main character has a phobia. His grandfather used his mental mana too much, which drove him insane. Understandable, however, the main character gets a power that requires him to use mental mana. He's told several times, in no uncertain terms that the graduation test at the end of the year will require him to grow stronger, and he is essentially committing suicide by not doing so.
This wouldn't be a huge problem, but nearly every page we have to hear about him refusing to improve himself, which basically means he's committing suicide. Hundreds of pages of Corin going "I need to get stronger, or I'll die. But I can't do it!" Over and Over and Over. It's a lot like the 5th Harry Potter book, where he becomes incredibly angsty and you just want to strangle him every page. If that didn't both you, this won't, but if it did, you'll probably hate him too.
The second problem is his adopted sister, Sera. Everything she does is right, and everything he does is wrong, and the author seems to agree with this, even when it doesn't make sense.
Corin has a secret he can't share from the tower, because it's dangerous? He's a complete asshole for not telling her, despite the fact it could get other people killed for knowing. Sera hiding a secret about her summons in the tower? That's perfectly okay, even though she doesn't have nearly as good a reason as Corin. Corin and his friend make a decision? They should have consulted her for this unrelated thing, how dare they do anything in their lives without her, blah blah blah.
It's an abusive relationship, and she comes off as incredibly controlling, which is made worse by the fact that the author seems to feel that it's perfectly normal. It reminds me a lot of the way the women in the Wheel of Time get to be horrible people with no repercussions, and the narration treats the whole thing as okay. I don't get it, and I don't like it. Maybe it's realistic for someone as socially inept as Corin to put up with her behavior, but his friends have stronger spines than he does, and just let it happen. Kind of makes you think they aren't actually friends.
The sequel is much better, and solves these two issues, for the most part. Sera doesn't apologize, but she's a much nicer character who I actually started to like. Corin improves immensely as well....more
I picked this up in an airport, and after a few dozen pages, chose to spend my flight staring at the chair in front of me instead of reading more of tI picked this up in an airport, and after a few dozen pages, chose to spend my flight staring at the chair in front of me instead of reading more of this book.
The entire thing is one gag or "twist" repeated over and over. That's it. There's no substance to the novel, or humor. The positive reviews are baffling. ...more
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