Micky Yang

What's the point of armor!?!?!?!?!?!?

Revisado: 03-19-25

After hearing about this series in a youtube video and wanting an honest to god, fun, thrilling high fantasy novel, we've come to this: A generic fantasy with characters not given the time to shine. I generally like generic! I like cheese! But ffs just let me have some time with one character!!!!!!!!!

Stop ping ponging me around when someone's story reaches a revelation or when something significant happens! Just when I start to like Ella, you throw me to someone like freaking Rist! Then when you've forced me to listen to Rist be Rist and not change in 3 freaking books and something interesting starts to happen, you pawn me off to Dayne! THIS IS NOT HOW YOU ESTABLISH A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOUR CHARACTERS AND THE READER!!! I don't care about any of them because you're not giving me the time to care! Every time something happens, the story abruptly friggin changes!

And my gosh, what's with this chase sequence!? Why are we doing this stupid chase sequence??? Calen, come on! I get it, but reason has to hold out, Rist is probably dead by this point. And don't get me started about Rist. Like, you're stuck in enemy territory, they're giving you everything you want. You know one of two of your best friends is the chosen dragon dude, and you have no idea why the gosh darn king is talking to you? Like, you have a general good idea of how people use words as manipulation tools, cause you yourself have done so, but you can't figure out what this supposedly evil circle of magi wants with you??? Gtfo of here. Most unlikable character in this series by far.

And then there's the whole situation with armor! WHATS THE POINT OF WEARING ARMOR!?!?!?!? The author literally makes it a friggin point that every being in this book can "cut", "Rend", "Punch", "Tear", and whatever other verb there is, through armor like "Butter". Yes, LIKE BUTTER. SO WHAT IS THE POINT OF ARMOR!? Have you seen those youtube videos of what a sword does when it encounters chainmail? Let alone full blown plate + leather padding? Seriously man, you might as well have these people fight in billowing robes, cause at least that can cause a distraction with how useless armor is!

The book has great prose but the characters are a very weak spot of the series. None of them have any semblance of likability and the book(s) don't give us the time we need to get to know these characters. It also seems that new characters joined the fray and now we have to care about them too. For example, when we meet Dayne, I couldn't give two flying ****s about who this guy is, why he came back, or what he went through. I just wanted to hear more about Calen but NOOOOOO, I have to hear about this nob's origin story. Dayne has a decent story to be told, but his presentation was off putting and threw the pacing of the book. And now there's this weird fascination with Farda and Ella and an inkling of romantic interest??? You ****ing kidding me? Where is that gonna go? How is that possibly gonna end? Gee, I hope that whole thing of murdering her friend on the ship never comes up.

Also, this series takes heavily from Eragon and LOTR. Perhaps too heavily. Mithrandir and Uraks? Mithrandir and Urgals? Yeah...

It's alright for what it is but the switching of POVs in this series is beyond exasperating. The narration carries this hard.

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A good story, just not for me

Revisado: 01-31-25

I feel somewhat betrayed by the reviews and the story itself. The story is good, phenomenal even, however, I argue that it is also selfish and beguiling.

The story takes place in the Kaigenese empire, on a peninsula known as the sword of Kaigen, hence the book's name. It opens up with a fourteen-year-old Mamoru who learns that his world is not truly what it seems. His mother, Misaki, a depressed housewife, is also not what she appears to be. The story deals with heavy themes such as depression, guilt, war, death, adherence to tradition, fears of being progressive in an old-fashioned patriarchal society, and the consequences of failing to do so. It was around the midway point of the book that I realized that this book wasn't what I thought and I felt utterly baited for listening to this. I kept on listening, and whilst the story was in no way, shape, or form bad, it wasn't the story that I had thought I was listening to.

This book is not an adventure fantasy; it is a mother's introspection. Almost every scene, event, and character developmental arc is used to boost Misaki's character. She is a great character, don't get me wrong, I just didn't expect her to be the MAIN character. The world of which this story is set in seemed hastily crafted, relying heavily on inspiration from ATLA and Eastern Asian themes. And while this book was a journey, it was not the kind of journey I was looking for. It is in this way that I think the story is selfish. I know many do not agree and that's fine.

Andrew Tell did his best but the pronunciation was pretty bad. The names started to grate and I had to increase the speed of the audio player. Anytime he did not say their names, however, he did fine.

Overall the sword of Kaigen is a mother's emotional rollercoaster, not the fantasy adventure I was looking for, and that's okay. I can see why it resonates with so many people and Misaki is a character deserving of your time and compassion. I just didn't feel like it cause I'm on an epic fantasy high right now.

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The fall of a real story

Revisado: 06-30-24

I don’t know JF Brink. I don’t presume to understand his mind or writing process. What I do know is that JF Brink writes as though he is a professor. A professor who very much likes the sound of his own voice, and thus loves to explain and re-explain ideas and themes he has beaten to death. This book is not a good one. It has little to no story elements and no actual progressive writing to move the story, as a whole, forward. Instead, it serves as an instruction manual, an introduction to the dao: an introspection, if you will. If JF Brink were to cut out the tens of thousands of words used to explain Zach’s inner turmoil of understanding dao and his inexorable stance and whatever else, then the reader would be left with 1/3 of the book we have now. And we’d be better off for it.

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I waited and was disappointed

Revisado: 06-23-24

When I first encountered this series, I was content to listen to Derek Hunt's machinations and triumphs. I wasn't captivated by the books because the story seemed nonexistent. The characters, however, piqued my interest. I became wrapped up in their development and soon wanted to know how they would grow and become more integral to the main story. By the end of book three, I thought, "Wow! What a great idea! A time dungeon! When Derek returns, Brandi and Thomas will have grown up more, and finally, we'll get to see how they've developed!"

Needless to say, I was excited. Then book four bled into book 5, and my fantasies of a more developed side cast withered away. I thought book 6 would bring back my enthusiasm, but it didn't, and we're back to square one. Like nothing ever happened prior to entering the dungeon.

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12 books and here we are

Revisado: 04-13-24

I've done it. I've binged this series from 1 to 12 and finally, I can review the series up until now.

The writing:

JF Brink is by no means a talented story teller. He spends a majority of the pages telling us the story instead of showing us. This means that we don't really experience what Zach goes through but rather receive a 2nd hand account of what is happening. For example: We are reintroduced to Jaol, I was excited to listen to all he'd been through and to see what his reaction would be when he saw Zach again. We're told that... then given a brief explanation about how he signed a contract. I am disappointed that the author chooses to focus on explanations rather than character interaction.

JF Brink also has a habit of being instantly repetitive. He'll write a word such as: Obliterate, then within three words, he'll write Obliteration or orbliterated. It's not just obliterate, but he'll do this every so often and it happens enough that I began to hear this a lot throughout his writing.

And finally pacing, I don't know who edited this, but they need to seriously think about this story's pacing. Ever since book 7, each book spends a significant amount of time in 1 or 2 places, in which Zach trains, which means that all we're given is explanation after explanation.

The first arc: the initialization of the world, was good. It had an end game, There were goals and ways to achieve said goals without spending hundreds of pages on dribble. Yeah, you read that right, dribble.

We're now at the space war arc and in 5 books, we have barely made any progress. Since book 7, it's all about Zach powering up. Which would be great, if Zach wasn't such a boring character and there was some sort of cohesive sub-arc that made me care. Most of the books rant on and on about cultivation and all the facilities and tools, and paths, and daos, and BLAH BLAH BLAH. GAH! Jesus, I get it! There's a lot that goes into this! But for the love of... Just get on with it! I don't need 20 pages worth of explaining how Zack had a freaking epiphany or another 30 pages of how he is theorizing how to fuse his core, with another 50 pages about his core's nucleus vs his protons and the circulation of his electrons! And now, there's even MANA!

Bruh, just give us a glossary or something at this point. Literally 70% of the book is this elongated tangent on how the world works. It's in every book! He gets stuck some place, then spends 80% of the book there training, while we, the listener, must listen to the author prattle on and on about some new shtick he pulled out his butt. I'll give the author the benefit of the doubt here and assume he's not milking us for saps, but please, focus on the story and learn to pace the story in a well thought out manner.

The characters:

With each book comes the arrival and departure of many rambunctious, colorful, and well crafted characters. Characters such as Emily, Iz, Ogras, and Alea have all fallen by the wayside to accommodate the birth of Zachary Atwood. I love Ogras, I always attribute him to Youichi Hiruma from Eyeshield 21. He's scheming, charismatic, and always seems to get what he wants, but he works hard to not fall behind.

Zach? He's just lucky. He got lucky about his birth and heritage. Lucky on not imploding when his specialty core was going haywire. Basically to fill out any sort of weakness, we just attribute it to his luck. It's like one thing after the other to justify his extreme power growth. Done with twillight harbor? No problem, here's a giant space fish that didn't decide to eat you. Escaped the fish fry? Here's a convenient crazy mystic realm where a stalkerish scion of a grade A sect wants to help you. Oh, you're done with that? We'll here's the limitless empire + this crazy time dilation realm. What's next? A crazy heavenly training ground that allows you every spirit fruit after lasting 1000 years of torment but is coincidently time dilated so that only one minute has passed in the real world?

Yeah... in the beginning I rooted for Zach, now, I'm just wondering which cheat code he gets next. All this, plus, he's a pretty dull person to follow. But I think that's more of a writing problem. There's little to no engagement in the writing to have the reader feel like they're right next to Zach.

Overall: The narration is great, Bravo to Pavi Proczko for his tireless work on this series, he really made it bearable for me. The writing, however, is lackluster. After book 7, it's a slog to get through, with each book expanding way too much on each setting Zach is in. Zach is a pretty dull character and for most of the books, he has very little interaction with other characters. Many of these books could be cut in half if the author stopped explaining every one of Zach's epiphanies to a micro detail! JUST STOP EXPLAINING! I AM SO SICK AND TIRED OF LISTENING TO 2 HOURS OF EXPLANATION! Thanks.

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I don’t believe it

Revisado: 03-29-24

An American who measures things in meters and kilograms!? Nah, there ain’t no way, hella immersion breaking!

But to be more serious. The first half of the book took effort to get through. It does pick up on the second half, so hang in there.

Narration is top notch! Loved it! Overall it’s pretty solid.

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Tell me without telling me

Revisado: 09-17-23

Yeah, tell me about your racist leftist political agenda without explicitly telling me, and tell me more about how much you hate Fox, er... Hawks news.

The chemistry between the Regi and Gwen is great, you get a scene, you feel them connect, you're in the moment, then... BAM! You get hit with how the White man's America is ruining the lives of millions of people and how unfair life is. Blah blah blah. It douses the romantic scene so fully that it made me sputter. Seriously though, as I've said in so many other reviews, leave your political outlines out of fictional writing and go write a blog post. I don't need to read another political activist mask their propaganda in the form of a romance novel. I'm just here for the romance story, not to feel like I'm being bogged down by real world views and hounded by why capitalism is horrible etc etc etc.

Besides, the whole agenda thing, I really liked Regi, Gwen seemed to always have a stick stuck a mile up her bum, but I guess I can excuse her because of her situation; but Regi was down to earth and was ultimately really sweet. Her situation sucked but she stuck through it like a champ. Their chemistry was off the charts and I rooted for her the entire time.

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Boring

Revisado: 08-09-23

Honestly, I think Travis got bored reading. I don't feel his enthusiasm for any of the characters. This story ping pongs back and forth between the MC and side characters and I could honestly give two ****s about any of them. I want to stick it out but every character is a murder-loving psychopath or a religious zealot nut job!

Just. Don't.

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I tried

Revisado: 07-16-23

I have tried and tried to love this series, but I cannot, for the love of me, find a way to call this good or even remotely entertaining. I slogged through the first two books and now I've finally reached the end of book 3, only to find this book in an identity crisis. Allow me to explain:

The Story: This series exists in a world where everyone is gifted magical abilities via Gods. However, prior to these Gods, we learn that the old way of garnering power was through cultivation. This is where it gets weird. It becomes a hybridization between a Mirin novel and a medieval RPG. By book two you are introduced to the 12 meridians which connect to a person's core and then we have this convoluted system of meridians+magic+martial prowess all culminating in how Ruwen should progress. We learn that Ruwen is special because of core and his crazy ability to harvest a bunch of spiritual energy and yada yada. Now, in the third book, the author blows things out of the water by casting him into this spirit dimension, of which should've been a mini vacation, and we learn that Blapy is not who she seems but is, in fact, a crazy void master dragon thing. Because of his innate abilities, his relationship to Blapy, and a whole bunch of other coincidences that weren't coincidences, Ruwen finds himself overpowered, bringing me to...

The power creep: Ruwen has the hardest time leveling to level 10 in the first two books. By midway through book 3, his power skyrockets, like he went from level 1 noob to level 100 guild master in a second. But god forbid we understate his ascension to power, because of course, he Trained for 4 and 1/2 years with Rami in his mind, continuously I might add! The author pounds this into our skulls because they knew this is a lazy way to bulldoze through Ruwen's progression. They go on and on about how training with Rami has changed them and they weren't the same person anymore. Of how the years of constantly dying has elevated to a new level of thinking. Gah, shut up! I get it! He's strong, FFS stop letting me know every time he has an epiphany! Now, he realizes he's strong with level 100 skills and can use basically any skill in the story. He doesn't need weapons or armor cause he will naturally out grow them due to his fortification skill... which leads me to my last thing.

Items don't matter: Yeah, you heard me, items don't matter. As long as you train and cultivate and fortify, there's no need for weapons or armor or whatever! You just need to live long enough to ascend and eventually he will become a god level cultivator.

I simply don't understand what people see in this book. I'll give you a summary in terms of Dragonball Z.

Book 1: Ruwen learns he's special, people try to kill him, gets saved and locked into hyperbolic time chamber.
Book 2: Exits hyperbolic time chamber, does some missions but realizes he needs to get stronger, goes back into hyperbolic time chamber, gets sent to the spirit realm.
Book 3: Kicks spirit realm's ass, gets trained by whiz and becomes a martial arts master, becomes OP and proceeds to now become a God.

Sure there's some interplay between the characters, but I ended up not caring. Who cares about sift and Lilyann and Hamah. They were second-rate characters who have their stories barely stuck in. Right now, it's the Ruwen show, and so far, it's all about training and how much he can cheat code his way to power. Nothing has happened, and I fear, nothing will happen. So, with a heavy heart, my verdict is to drop this story. It's too mixed around and there is nothing driving the plot. Ruwen is one of the most uninteresting characters I've ever read, maybe it's because he's 16, but that only reinforces my rule of never reading stories where a teenager is the protaganist.

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When am I supposed to start caring?

Revisado: 06-26-23

I find myself listening to chapter 43, and for the life of me, I have no idea what's going on, or why I should care. Thus far, the only notable thing Felix has really done was his heroic deed at the start of the book. I was riveted by the initial writing and stuck it through... till now.

Like I said, I have no idea what's happening, I don't know who the cast of extra adventurers are, nor does the writing compel me to care. I don't know where the plot is going, and by chapter 43, I still don't freaking know! I don't care for Felix nor Pit, and I don't understand what's going on with the assassin! One minute it's not a thing and the next it becomes integral! Just stop going on about random ass subjects or explaining what resonance is etc! Just have something meaningful happen, or I don't know, maybe write some good dialogue? I'm tired of listening to Felix talk to Felix. I'm tired of listening to every minute description of how he feels or how much pain he's in or whatever! I get it! I don't need ten different adjectives to describe to me how sad he is when he sees Pit getting hurt! Just get on with it!

And why is everything a skill??? I swear, Felix's face twitching is a skill. Literally everything is a skill. What's the point of a system when he can technically just be good at everything? No sword? It's ok cause he has rocks. Just sharpen it a bit and he will start getting points in small blade skill. No rocks? Who cares; he can just use his fist and unlock the dodge and unarmed combat skill. And no, I am not making this up! There's even an acting skill! Why not just make charisma a thing? Come on man, I don't need 5 billion skill descriptions everytime the author wants us to know how he's progressing.

While the writing (in terms of diction and grammar), is well done. The story is missing a proper plot device and so far there's no clear objective for the MC. It gets boring, and by the 43rd chapter rolls around, I'd expect something substantial to happen, but no, I get to meet a bunch of asshats that are mean to Felix and still, Felix has to go at it with Pit, his non talking crow-dog thing.

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