The Quintessence: Crucible Book 1 - Awakened: (A Cultivation Progression Fantasy) Kindle Edition

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

I'm conflicted. I randomly stumbled across this book somehow. Overall I think it was a good start to a series and I felt the book was paced well enough for me to want to keep reading right until the end and I did that in two sittings. I really liked the concept and the magic system was cool, but appears so open-ended it could be used to do anything the plot needed done. And the main character seemed kinda boring and the bad guy appeared 1-dimensional.Lots of jumping around too, flashbacks and whatnot, almost broke the immersion.The ending felt really rushed.Also seems a bit too similar to the Cradle series.Overall I would recommend for a nice easy read, but I'd probably wait for the series to be completed before I proceed further.

Actually pre-ordered this book, because the premise really intrigued me. And it didn't disappoint. There's good world building, an interesting cultivation system, no over the top coming of age / power ups and enough mystery. And yet, there is some nagging feeling that something is not perfect.Maybe it is the pace of the book, which seems slow at times. Maybe it's the obvious plot twist that I saw coming from the second chapter. Maybe it's because some of the book is leaning on will wights Cradle series (which is probably my favorite in wuxia/cultivation/litrpg books). Or maybe it is my dislike for zealotry and the obvious telltale signs of what that means in a book and for a character.So I hope book 2 picks up the pace a little. Less zealotry. And then I'll definitely buy it :)

I loved the story. It had different take on the cultivation perspective than most and different world building. I loved it!!

Carney did not disappoint in this book. It features a compelling story, great characters, and a driving plot. It is a good example of what cultivation novels should be. I'd easily put this on a level with Will Wight's Cradle. The story of the corrupt church and the incorruptible inquisitor gave this book a different feel from many cultivation novels I've read. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I'm sad I have to wait on the next one.

What do you get when a world of cultivators follow false Dieties? You get this book. the main character is part of a society/cult where following the rules of the first ones is everything and not is punishable up to death. the writing was fantastic and the narration was Grade A . all around great book and left me waiting for the next one.

Carney generally has good writing skills, and most of the technical aspects of this book are solid.I give it two stars for the following reasons:There is very little earned progression (that’s supposed to be the driver of this sub-genre). The protag struggles almost not at all, earns almost nothing, but is handed cosmic power.There is a clear end game for the multi-book arc, the character development along this arc could run through several novels (see the Cradle series for a near flawless example), but this skips right to a confusing and weird end.The characters aren’t relatable. Several instances of characters reacting to new info in ways that aren’t consistent with previous behavior, makes the audience lose sympathy for them, and sort of clunks. Puts you out of the story.I almost feel like this is an earlier work by the author that he, instead of rewriting it, just tried to clean off enough of the turd-factor to publish it.

I was a bit leery of reading a wuxia book by an author already doing litRPG books that I love. I needn't have worried. Knocked it out of the park, I won't doubt again!Minor copy errors will need to be fixed but they are very rare and don't detract from the story. Still gets a full 5 stars from me.

This was a good start. The worldbuilding is interesting as was the lore. Not everything is as it seems though. Something is hidden from the humans and there are those who wish to keep it that way. Fanatics, heretics and 2 young twins who will have to solve the mystery of what's going on. If they can survive that is. The mc was a bit passive in places and had a bit of a whine to him but what 15 year old doesn't? I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next.