Cultivation. Progression. Ascension.
On the world of Crucible, where humanity’s spiritual artists train to fight in a war of universal proportions, Aryc Tal Venn has the potential to be one of the gods.
But when he accidentally unleashes heretical powers during his Challenge, he is forced to flee his home or face the wrath of the Inquisition.
With his sister by his side, Aryc begins a quest to uncover the truth of his own existence.
Only to discover a terrible secret.
A secret with the power to destroy humanity.
Will Aryc master his unnatural powers in time to save the people of Crucible or will he be the harbinger of humanity’s destruction?
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Awakened – Book One of The Quintessence: Crucible is the first novel in a new epic LitRPG cultivation universe brought to you by C.M. Carney, author of the #1 Bestselling LitRPG Saga The Realms that began with Barrow King.
The book is chock full of Qi cycling, measurable power progression, immortal gods, intriguing characters, deadly mysteries and universe shattering threats. It is perfect for all fans of progression fantasy, including lovers of LitRPG/GameLit, western cultivation, wuxia and xianxia.
My Opinion: 402 pages, $2.99, Available On Kindle Unlimited
Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy for review. I purchased a copy when it became available.
This is a coming of age RPG cultivation story. It is more of a fantasy cultivation story until about the 30% mark when the main character (MC) awakens his Aspect and can then see an UI and see an RPG like progression system for cultivation, his core tree.
On the game mechanics side, things are fairly non existent in the first 30% of the story. It instead focuses on world building, setting up the good and evil sides, and the MCs personal antagonists and character flaws. There’s mention of cores, and ranks, and such but it's not really defined as a clear system until after the 30% mark when the MC gets access to his core tree and quantified progression showing just exactly how much Qi he needs to open his next core and progress to the next rank. At each rank, the MC has access to a certain increasing amount of Qi to fuel magic like arcane spells or transformations. More, the MC has access to an AI companion, an Aspect, that helps him progress faster and is his rare trait.
The story side of things is a little coming of age and chosen one, in that the MC has to overcome bullies, and his own insecurities to realize his true potential and use the one thing he thought was wrong with himself to become powerful enough to oppose the great evil in the world, the phage. There’s also lots of fighting, cultivation, and some RPG progression, but the core story is that chosen one bit. On the plus side, the world is well fleshed out with complex characters and well thought out world building. There are problems and storylines that are setup that can fuel the storytelling of multiple books in the series.
Overall, I enjoyed the story after the 30% mark. Before that it wasn’t bad, it just felt more like fantasy cultivation.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Awakened - Book One of The Quintessence: Crucible: (An Epic Cultivation LitRPG Saga)