A farmers boy gets the chance to learn at a sect. Always near to his arch nemesis his home town noble boy.
Nice Wuxia novel. The path is not too easy on the MC and he shows stuborness, passion and smartness. Also finds some intersting friends.
( )

This is my second series of novels in the cultivation genre. The Cradle books by Will Wight have more interesting fantasy elements and have a better sense of power scales from the start, but this series has much greater detail on the cultivation itself, the drama of the fights, and draws much from Chinese culture. I enjoy both and will continue the series. ( )

[Audiobook version]

The First Step is a fun, light, if overly formulaic novel. It follows the standard formula of scrappy young apprentice who has to struggle against organizational and class politics to prove just how good they really are with an adventure in the middle. The world building I feel is its strongest card. Wong crafted a rich world that feels deep and lived in. The schools of chi and kung-fu feel authentic to classic chinese fantasy and Hong Kong wire-fu as well.

Besides the standard formula being pretty obvious from the get go, what hurt the book for me was the narration. The narrator isn't bad but he doesn't have a good range of voices so I was left at several plot important moments confused as to who was talking to who. Consequentially I had to back track repeatedly to figure things out.

Over all I find the book fun and light but don't expect much more than that. ( )

1.5/5 on a normal scale, 3/5 on a cultivation scale

Very functional and kinda safe. It's an ok read to pass the time and the characters are its strongest point. It's also pretty dull. ( )