I didn’t like the book. The narrator was fine, it was nothing like that, but the story was no good to me. The world itself was enjoyable, the magic’s and characters were interesting enough to get me 2.5 hours in but right as I was beginning to debate how long I could make it, I read through a moment that just completely took me aback and made me put the book down.
(spoiler warning)
So the main character gets into a conflict with another family that felt a bit forced but I went with it. It’s decided that he will fight a one blow duel with a member of his choice from the offended family. Simply put one hits the other then the other does the same. No real fighting, dodging, blocking. etc. just their offense vs their defense. He learns a technique disrupt abilities of souled practitioners and uses it against the father, and supposedly a very strong individual in the clan. He makes the first strike of the duel breaks the rules after the technique doesn’t have the fully desired effect, simply disrupting his armor but not moving him and showing visually what happened to everyone so he strikes a second time…. and then surrenders? In the end he’s allowed to not only break the rules, but immediately surrender without receiving the return blow effectively ending the duel. Not only is he not reprimanded for breaking the rules, he’s allowed to surrender after already dealing a blow, and is congratulated and rewarded for it? wtf is this? Idk if the whole scenario strikes anyone else as wrong as it does me but I couldn’t go on.
It ended up feeling too childish. Like you can have your cake and eat it too. I was bummed cause I started to feel excited when the main character started trying to piece together his own neutral unsouled style but this moment combined with my ongoing boredom just couldn’t get past this.
Hope this helps! Happy listening!