Street Cultivation is Street Quality.

tl;dr – I love books in which the MC overcomes all odds, especially in cultivation novels. However, this book is best described as if the universe exists just to ruin this guy’s life. He does not overcome, he just gets run over (while somehow living) and then lays there to wait for the next car.Even when you think the MC finally has caught a break, you’ll find out in the next chapter it’s just one more depressing reason to hate this book. I’m halfway through SOLELY because I keep thinking SURELY something good will happen soon, instead of just more impossible life destroying tragedies, but it never does. I’m officially giving up on this book. Based on the first 7 hours, the book probably ends with a 3 hour monologue about the MC slowly dying of aids while in horrible pain due to all of the debt siphons on his core.

I loved Sarah Lin’s changing faces. It was fantastic and I’d kill for a sequel. I also LOVE Travis Baldree, and he did a great job. But this book just isn’t good. Before I started reading I thought it was a clever idea to take cultivation/wuxia and modernize it. However, as I started to listen I have seriously changed my mind. I don’t know if it just isn’t meant to be, or if it was just done incorrectly, but it feels so absolutely out of place.

The biggest grievance I have is with the non-stop ass beatings the MC gets. Everything goes wrong all the time. He never really “overcomes” anything, just kind of survives, gets lucky that someone healed him and he’s not dead, and then somehow (it’s never explained and makes no sense) he comes out of it stronger? Getting absolutely curb stomped makes you stronger? But it’s not just a physical beating. Every other scene something terrible happens. Just life ruining incident after life ruining incident. None of them ever are ‘overcome’, they’re just kind of barely scraped through.

I personally like books in which the MC overcomes hurdle after hurdle, especially in cultivation novels. However, this book is best described as the MC just getting beaten down by life over and over and over without a single positive moment. Even when you think the MC finally has caught a break, you’ll find out in the next chapter it’s just one more depressing reason to hate this book. There just never seem to be benefits. My life is depressing already. Why do I want to read a book where I’m constantly rooting for the MC but literally NOTHING GOOD EVER HAPPENS? I love grimdark novels, but this isn’t even grimdark. It’s like the author wrote a character based on an ex-husband and just decided to see how shitty of a world/life she could give him.

Sarah Lin, if you ever read this, please let this series die. Make 300 sequels to Changing Faces and I’ll buy them all. But no more street cultivation. It just does not work.