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Common refrain these days - I picked this up because of a mention on Reddit.
Unsouled is like a quest fantasy mixed with a wuxia novel, or a particular kind of fighting anime.
Our setting is the Sacred Valley, where families and clans are dedicated to the practice of sacred arts - the use of environmental spiritual energy and internal energy to create magical effects. It's quite similar in many ways to common "qi-power" techniques of martial arts cinema. But it permeates all manner of aspects of life, not just fighting.
It's a fairly familiar set-up. The underdog hero, dismissed or bullied by his peers, turns out to be the Chosen One and possess hidden depths of talent never before seen. Right? Not really. Lindon really is handicapped. He's further hindered by his clan's unwillingness to start teaching him a Path to develop what abilities he does possess. Everything he accomplishes, he does in spite of his handicap, not because of an otherwise unnoticed specialness. Trickery, guile, shortcuts, and even outright lying are his primary means of getting ahead. Luckily for him, the Wei clan is founded on a Path of illusion and misdirection - results are more important than methods, up to a point.
Before long, however, Lindon learns that there's a lot more to the world than he's been taught.
The writing is solid, the world building is interesting, and the characters earn your sympathy or antipathy well.
Unsouled is like a quest fantasy mixed with a wuxia novel, or a particular kind of fighting anime.
Our setting is the Sacred Valley, where families and clans are dedicated to the practice of sacred arts - the use of environmental spiritual energy and internal energy to create magical effects. It's quite similar in many ways to common "qi-power" techniques of martial arts cinema. But it permeates all manner of aspects of life, not just fighting.
Wei Shi Lindon is the child of a famous fighter and a masterful creator of magic items. He should have been in a great place to start when he and his peers took the test to determine their specialization.
Instead, the test didn't react to him at all. He's Unsouled, and the clan doesn't waste valuable resources on the crippled.
It's a fairly familiar set-up. The underdog hero, dismissed or bullied by his peers, turns out to be the Chosen One and possess hidden depths of talent never before seen. Right? Not really. Lindon really is handicapped. He's further hindered by his clan's unwillingness to start teaching him a Path to develop what abilities he does possess. Everything he accomplishes, he does in spite of his handicap, not because of an otherwise unnoticed specialness. Trickery, guile, shortcuts, and even outright lying are his primary means of getting ahead. Luckily for him, the Wei clan is founded on a Path of illusion and misdirection - results are more important than methods, up to a point.
Before long, however, Lindon learns that there's a lot more to the world than he's been taught.
The writing is solid, the world building is interesting, and the characters earn your sympathy or antipathy well.