Don’t get me wrong, the word cultivation is mentioned every other line but it’s almost like no one, not even the characters, know what it takes to progress or what the progression/cultivation system is. This being said, I think the author wanted it this way and there is nothing wrong with that. It all depends on personal preferences and whether you enjoy the writing style. A lot of philosophy, almost wanting you to come up with your own answers. I’m no philosopher. I am just a simple progression fantasy, cultivation ranking system style, book fan.
It depends on what you expect in wanting to read this story. I was hoping for a cultivation driven story like cradle or a thousand li or something similar, but it’s far from that. I got a story that jumps around with characters and timelines – I think it’s fair to say that the story is not focused and many times I found myself confused. Everything get jumbled together, thoughts, reality, past, present, motivations, feelings … and while some may like, I didn’t. I can tell you that by the end, I still didn’t understand the cultivation ranking system or where the story was going – there is no clear explanation (I’m not even sure we know what ranking Solus is). Besides Solus wanting revenge and Leo/Griffin wanting a thrill, there is no clear direction. Again it’s a character driven story and many may love that. It’s all about expectations.
This being said, the story is so confusing at times that they needed to bring 4 different narrators to help bring the story into focus and help the listener figure out which character was speaking or in whose head we were, or which timeline we were. They did their very best, given the poor structure of the story.
This book is a philosophical book with a bit of cultivation thrown in from a western philosophical perspective. That’s fine but let me at least know the basics, what is the lowest you can start in cultivation then how far can you progress? What kind of powers can you get? Things are mentioned but nothing is explained. I even went online trying to figure out the ranking system, I didn’t find any. Almost like I should know what they are talking about it. Besides mentioning the ranking systems, the realms and heroes which I had no idea which came first or which one was after. I don’t know, maybe things will get cleared up but I read the entire book hoping to find answers and didn’t find any. I really wanted to like this story but I just didn’t. It’s a fantastic premise, a western cultivation story! But it fell short in my opinion. At least in the first book.
This being said, if the concerns I have stated are addressed in future books, this could be a great series indeed.