I finished this book because I was waiting for it to get better, but it never did. I don’t know what book other people were leaving reviews for, but it wasn’t this one. I feel bad that one of my favorite voices had this to work with. I would have dropped it immediately if it was anyone else.
I don’t mind wish fulfilment stories, but this was dry and dull. There was no emotion in any of the story. It was like a grocery list. A lit of events without description. For example, the main character literally spent years training under a master, and I have no idea what that training was, just that the book says he trained. That’s it. Nothing else.
I decided on this book because it sounded like he would learn to love his family and grow as a person. But the author never showed that beyond saying, “I love my family” repeatedly and crying occasionally. I can probably describe every character in a sentence or two because they were so flat and devoid of personality. Even when characters died, I didn’t care because I didn’t even know them in the first place.
The magic system sounds like it could have been interesting, but it was so overly complicated and explained over several minutes sounding like a textbook. Most of it wasn’t relevant to the story being told. The first chapter is just him reading from an encyclopedia, and that is the most interesting way exposition was conveyed throughout the entire book.
I’d say look elseware unless you are looking for an example of the pitfalls of writing, such as exposition overload, flat characters with excessive visual descriptions, and no emotional engagement whatsoever.