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The Path of Ascension #10
The Path of Ascension 10: A LitRPG Adventure
With Matt, Liz, and Aster having finished the Path of Ascension, it's time for them to enter the war along side Light and Shadow to see if they can not only stem the tide but turn it.
Ascenders are known to do the impossible but its never so easy as it sounds.
Don't miss Book 10 of this action-packed fantasy adventure that blends everything you love about LitRPG with Xianxia.
About the This is a mix between LitRPG and Xianxia. It's like a car that looks like a LitRPG with dungeons and skills, but the interior and engine are all Xianxia. It features a magic system and progression system that are logically and internally consistent, as well as realistic fight scenes and a rational MC.
Ascenders are known to do the impossible but its never so easy as it sounds.
Don't miss Book 10 of this action-packed fantasy adventure that blends everything you love about LitRPG with Xianxia.
About the This is a mix between LitRPG and Xianxia. It's like a car that looks like a LitRPG with dungeons and skills, but the interior and engine are all Xianxia. It features a magic system and progression system that are logically and internally consistent, as well as realistic fight scenes and a rational MC.
730 pages, Paperback
First published October 8, 2025
982 people are currently reading
241 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
October 15, 2025
After two filler books in a row, being Books 8 & 9, I had hoped to really get back into the pace and fun of the earlier books of the series with Book 10 and our team, now Ascenders, joining the war. Unfortunately, many of the annoying trends from the previous two books follows in Book 10. Whatever the tropes and the fundamentals of this genre may be, in the end, it’s how these stories make you feel that really matters. Book 10 was ANOTHER let down and ANOTHER FILLER! That’s three in a row!
I know some people may disagree with my assertion this book is a filler, but I will explain my reasoning. For a book in a series to not be filler, it must contain its own story arc. This can, and usually does, fit within a larger narrative arc for the series as a whole or part. The larger arcs of this series are the lives of Matt and his team, and within that currently in the arc of the war. During the Minkala (dungeon world) arc, told over multiple books, we had story arcs within each book of conquering floors.
In this book, there is no sub-arc of the war. There’s no beginning, middle and end of a story within a story within a story. It’s just the first act. And I’m not sure it’s even that, as I think this enemy alliance forming an ascender-killing super team that is alluded to in this book, it’s possible that won’t even been settled until the war arc itself is. And so THIS IS FILLER.
THIS IS BAD WRITING. This is how you lose your hard won audience. We want payoffs! I want to feel satisfied when we finish a book in a series, not left feeling like blah or outright angry. This unfortunate narrative direction of the last three novels had caused this series to go from top 3 in my rankings on my profile to the bottom, and now, I’m officially kicking it off entirely.
And that’s not just because of the fillers, there’s so much more wrong fundamentally wrong with this series with regard to its magic system.
The magic system is suffering from what I call the “DBZ effect” and that is that as we progress in power, levels or cultivation whatever a series uses, the only where for these series to go is up. More power. And with more power, we scale up everything from items to skills to opponents, all conveniently at or near the level of the protagonists to create the semblance of challenge, adversity and stakes.
The author doesn’t even try to list how many skills the team has, because it’s an absurd amount, closer to a hundred than not. And there’s zero reason for this superfluity as even in the few fights in this book, the same handful of skills are all that used. It would be much easier to follow the strategy and builds of these characters if the author simply limited the skills in some manner, such as combining them, tiering past them and deleting them, limited number of slots, etc.
I am thankful there were some good fights in this book, maybe two or three with any real interest. Otherwise it’s just OP ascenders murdering thousands of same tier grunt soldiers. However, there isn’t much strategy as even in the one battle where they set up a defensive position, most of them sally out to fight in melee. Another annoyance is the way the author has chosen to write these fights, from a single perspective, being one of the team or an enemy. It really limits how teamwork can be seen as a factor, if it is at all.
The world-building seems interesting at first. It’s a mostly unique set up of a universe with lots of worlds, full of a number of “great powers” competing for worlds and their resources, being rights and mana, in order to cultivate their elites to high tiers and ascension. This gives them a reason to make war. But the star-destroying abilities of the highest tiered folks makes war more costly than it’s worth, so the high tiers stay out of fights and there’s these rules for warfare which sum up to armies at set tiers, being 15, 25, and 35, only being able to fight each other, and the high tiers reduced to manipulating, I mean managing logistics which ranges from training low tiers up to logistics and strategy.
I don’t feel this system itself is contradictory and does work logically. It also makes sense that the empire’s new dynasty and its investment in tiering up worlds, opening access to rifts and education, has boomed its population and given them a larger pool to draw ascender talents from. This is the basis for the conflicts in this series as the empire’s investment in egalitarian policies has yielded dividends that will eventually make them unbeatable.
My problem is how the rest of the great powers, apart from the Guild/Corporation allies, have responded to this. Like the last two books, this one starts with perspectives from antagonists and allies alike from the other great powers. One of the Julia, I think of the Republic, is convinced the Empire is “cheating” somehow to create this new batch of ascenders so close to the last group. And this makes no sense.
I said so in my last review, the author seems to have noted some confusion on this so basically just went into a super long explanation about how it really does make sense. But it still doesn’t. It’s just a numbers game. The empire is cultivating more talent than the hierarchal Republic. More people are getting a chance to tier and show their capabilities and potential and this leads to more ascenders, faster. Whereas the Republic only has their elitist class to draw talent from. To me it makes more sense for Julia to recognize the reality than to delude herself. And this doesn’t have to change her motivations for war. Seeing what the problem really is, the empire’s system is better than the republic’s, means that they either have to change their system, share power, and possibly undermine the political power of the elites, or they have to try to contain and or destroy the empire now, before it’s too powerful to confront. Being bad guys, they choose the latter.
The author’s justification instead is that the Republic sees lower tiered worlds as basically planetary zoos where “mortals” can live out their days oblivious. That’s a weird reason to justify the expense of defending these worlds when they provide little else in regard to mana or talent. To me this like saying those in advanced games are economies on Earth shouldn’t invest in infrastructure in the developing world because it matters more that we, advanced folks, like the idea of humans out there living our primeval existence like they’re in touch with nature or whatever. But the reality of that arrogance, is that people are dying of curable illnesses, don’t have access to clean water, electricity, good roads, the infrastructure that allows them to then become self sufficient and have the same benefits of advanced society we share. Basically the Republic’s culture isn’t logical to me.
The aspect of world building I hate the most is the immortal stuff. I’m sorry, nobody is spending 20,000 years in an army as some low level officer anymore than people are married for millennia. The whole thousands of year this and that of this series is just so utterly ridiculous to the point it doesn’t even matter. If someone is a 20,000 year old Tier 25 lieutenant, why be a lieutenant at all? What’s the benefit of this to the individual? They aren’t even tiering up. This true effects of immortality within this magical system are not logically played out to realistic and believable effects, it’s just noise added to the pile of noise that this series has become imbued within instead of telling actual stories, very similar to the downward trajectory in quality with Defiance if the Fall.
Alright enough lecturing on that. Now to specific complaints. During the Maven ambush, the commander makes the call to basically protect the ship and its cargo of an entire supply base and to “keep their secrets” rather than take the opportunity to eliminate the only Tier 25 Ascender-level threat of the Sects. A move that would cripple the entire Tier 25 aspect of the Sects’ war on the Empire.
How could one station’s worth of supplies and one easily replaceable ship not be worth that cost? The author makes the case, through the Commander, that if the ship is destroyed, then they won’t have any way to return to Empire territory without revealing Allie’s (Shadow, yes it’s confusing the constants switching between real names and super hero names) secret talent of teleporting basically anywhere she’s been before and take a lot of people and stuff with her. But the team member who flys the ship has shown they can shrink the ship with Pim Particles or whatever, so why wouldn’t they also have a backup ship? And even then, the team could conceivably kill everyone from the Sects in the ambush and then steal one of their ships, or if not, no one alive to report their ship was destroyed in the first place then they could teleport and maintain the secrecy.
But no, the author doesn’t want Maven to die yet as he’s kicking that payoff down the road like everything else, so he simply contrived the situation to that effect.
We also got numerous perspectives of generals from the Empire debating strategy. Most of it was useless filler, but in one case they argue that sending Team Zero (both ascender teams and their auxiliaries) behind enemy lines is “too dangerous”. But then they decide to divide the team based on ascender teams and then send them behind enemy lines! What sense does that make? Zero sense. It’s safer to divide their power and send them behind enemy lines than it is to send them together? Just a totally weird perspective scene with a nonsensical outcome. But again, the author wants the gang to be nerfed for the next set of pointless fights, so that’s what we get.
Suzanne (Queen) falling off the path is stupid. It’s clearly a choice made because of the possible implications of her completing the path on the war, and so she can have a character arc. Robbed the audience of the payoffs of one of our favorite characters for more needless hemming and hawing about her feelings in future books.
Aster is accused of being a “fraudulent” ascender, being carried by her teammates. And that’s cause she is and she was. Even in the practice bout in the beginning of the book between the ascender teams, she’s quickly eliminated and basically useless. Her contributions are mentioned here and there in the actual battles, but amount to throwing her a bone. Then the author switches to focus on her new bloodline, for which we spent probably 5-10% of the book so that she’s eventually more of a contributor. Too little, too late.
There is a conversation concerning the value of the path versus an academy between the Team Zero members. It is clearly the author trying to shore up the lore around the path. But there’s no fixing it at this point. The ONLY disadvantage of the path is that they don’t get free items. That’s it. The managers, the personalized trainers, training programs, access to rifts and transport are all benefits that undermine the lore of the path being about bootstrapping. It’s time to move the story along and stop trying to fix things that are irrevocably broken. No series’ lore is perfect. And the author even makes my point for me when the team meets with their accountant, set up for future plot lines around their individual business ventures, by giving the items they received they weren’t allowed to keep and them being so worthless at this point that the team gives them away.
In the end, this series hard turn that began in Book 8, continues. A pattern of meandering, overly in-depth and mostly useless explanations of things to pad the word count, no book-long story arcs, and NO PAYOFFS! This series is no longer one I would recommend as I don’t see these issues, created not only by the confusing and overly complicated and power-gapped magic system and world building, but also because the author doesn’t seem to understand the fundamental aspects of why people read this genre, I don’t see those issues getting better.
If he doesn’t believe me, then he can look at the decline in sales of his series from book to book (which can be evidenced for the rest of us by the drop in number of reviews). There is a way to salvage the excitement of each book at least, and that is with self contained arcs that finish with big payoffs. Even if the magic system is ridiculous and the world building is broken, you can still have fun.
But this isn’t fun. This sucks.
I know some people may disagree with my assertion this book is a filler, but I will explain my reasoning. For a book in a series to not be filler, it must contain its own story arc. This can, and usually does, fit within a larger narrative arc for the series as a whole or part. The larger arcs of this series are the lives of Matt and his team, and within that currently in the arc of the war. During the Minkala (dungeon world) arc, told over multiple books, we had story arcs within each book of conquering floors.
In this book, there is no sub-arc of the war. There’s no beginning, middle and end of a story within a story within a story. It’s just the first act. And I’m not sure it’s even that, as I think this enemy alliance forming an ascender-killing super team that is alluded to in this book, it’s possible that won’t even been settled until the war arc itself is. And so THIS IS FILLER.
THIS IS BAD WRITING. This is how you lose your hard won audience. We want payoffs! I want to feel satisfied when we finish a book in a series, not left feeling like blah or outright angry. This unfortunate narrative direction of the last three novels had caused this series to go from top 3 in my rankings on my profile to the bottom, and now, I’m officially kicking it off entirely.
And that’s not just because of the fillers, there’s so much more wrong fundamentally wrong with this series with regard to its magic system.
The magic system is suffering from what I call the “DBZ effect” and that is that as we progress in power, levels or cultivation whatever a series uses, the only where for these series to go is up. More power. And with more power, we scale up everything from items to skills to opponents, all conveniently at or near the level of the protagonists to create the semblance of challenge, adversity and stakes.
The author doesn’t even try to list how many skills the team has, because it’s an absurd amount, closer to a hundred than not. And there’s zero reason for this superfluity as even in the few fights in this book, the same handful of skills are all that used. It would be much easier to follow the strategy and builds of these characters if the author simply limited the skills in some manner, such as combining them, tiering past them and deleting them, limited number of slots, etc.
I am thankful there were some good fights in this book, maybe two or three with any real interest. Otherwise it’s just OP ascenders murdering thousands of same tier grunt soldiers. However, there isn’t much strategy as even in the one battle where they set up a defensive position, most of them sally out to fight in melee. Another annoyance is the way the author has chosen to write these fights, from a single perspective, being one of the team or an enemy. It really limits how teamwork can be seen as a factor, if it is at all.
The world-building seems interesting at first. It’s a mostly unique set up of a universe with lots of worlds, full of a number of “great powers” competing for worlds and their resources, being rights and mana, in order to cultivate their elites to high tiers and ascension. This gives them a reason to make war. But the star-destroying abilities of the highest tiered folks makes war more costly than it’s worth, so the high tiers stay out of fights and there’s these rules for warfare which sum up to armies at set tiers, being 15, 25, and 35, only being able to fight each other, and the high tiers reduced to manipulating, I mean managing logistics which ranges from training low tiers up to logistics and strategy.
I don’t feel this system itself is contradictory and does work logically. It also makes sense that the empire’s new dynasty and its investment in tiering up worlds, opening access to rifts and education, has boomed its population and given them a larger pool to draw ascender talents from. This is the basis for the conflicts in this series as the empire’s investment in egalitarian policies has yielded dividends that will eventually make them unbeatable.
My problem is how the rest of the great powers, apart from the Guild/Corporation allies, have responded to this. Like the last two books, this one starts with perspectives from antagonists and allies alike from the other great powers. One of the Julia, I think of the Republic, is convinced the Empire is “cheating” somehow to create this new batch of ascenders so close to the last group. And this makes no sense.
I said so in my last review, the author seems to have noted some confusion on this so basically just went into a super long explanation about how it really does make sense. But it still doesn’t. It’s just a numbers game. The empire is cultivating more talent than the hierarchal Republic. More people are getting a chance to tier and show their capabilities and potential and this leads to more ascenders, faster. Whereas the Republic only has their elitist class to draw talent from. To me it makes more sense for Julia to recognize the reality than to delude herself. And this doesn’t have to change her motivations for war. Seeing what the problem really is, the empire’s system is better than the republic’s, means that they either have to change their system, share power, and possibly undermine the political power of the elites, or they have to try to contain and or destroy the empire now, before it’s too powerful to confront. Being bad guys, they choose the latter.
The author’s justification instead is that the Republic sees lower tiered worlds as basically planetary zoos where “mortals” can live out their days oblivious. That’s a weird reason to justify the expense of defending these worlds when they provide little else in regard to mana or talent. To me this like saying those in advanced games are economies on Earth shouldn’t invest in infrastructure in the developing world because it matters more that we, advanced folks, like the idea of humans out there living our primeval existence like they’re in touch with nature or whatever. But the reality of that arrogance, is that people are dying of curable illnesses, don’t have access to clean water, electricity, good roads, the infrastructure that allows them to then become self sufficient and have the same benefits of advanced society we share. Basically the Republic’s culture isn’t logical to me.
The aspect of world building I hate the most is the immortal stuff. I’m sorry, nobody is spending 20,000 years in an army as some low level officer anymore than people are married for millennia. The whole thousands of year this and that of this series is just so utterly ridiculous to the point it doesn’t even matter. If someone is a 20,000 year old Tier 25 lieutenant, why be a lieutenant at all? What’s the benefit of this to the individual? They aren’t even tiering up. This true effects of immortality within this magical system are not logically played out to realistic and believable effects, it’s just noise added to the pile of noise that this series has become imbued within instead of telling actual stories, very similar to the downward trajectory in quality with Defiance if the Fall.
Alright enough lecturing on that. Now to specific complaints. During the Maven ambush, the commander makes the call to basically protect the ship and its cargo of an entire supply base and to “keep their secrets” rather than take the opportunity to eliminate the only Tier 25 Ascender-level threat of the Sects. A move that would cripple the entire Tier 25 aspect of the Sects’ war on the Empire.
How could one station’s worth of supplies and one easily replaceable ship not be worth that cost? The author makes the case, through the Commander, that if the ship is destroyed, then they won’t have any way to return to Empire territory without revealing Allie’s (Shadow, yes it’s confusing the constants switching between real names and super hero names) secret talent of teleporting basically anywhere she’s been before and take a lot of people and stuff with her. But the team member who flys the ship has shown they can shrink the ship with Pim Particles or whatever, so why wouldn’t they also have a backup ship? And even then, the team could conceivably kill everyone from the Sects in the ambush and then steal one of their ships, or if not, no one alive to report their ship was destroyed in the first place then they could teleport and maintain the secrecy.
But no, the author doesn’t want Maven to die yet as he’s kicking that payoff down the road like everything else, so he simply contrived the situation to that effect.
We also got numerous perspectives of generals from the Empire debating strategy. Most of it was useless filler, but in one case they argue that sending Team Zero (both ascender teams and their auxiliaries) behind enemy lines is “too dangerous”. But then they decide to divide the team based on ascender teams and then send them behind enemy lines! What sense does that make? Zero sense. It’s safer to divide their power and send them behind enemy lines than it is to send them together? Just a totally weird perspective scene with a nonsensical outcome. But again, the author wants the gang to be nerfed for the next set of pointless fights, so that’s what we get.
Suzanne (Queen) falling off the path is stupid. It’s clearly a choice made because of the possible implications of her completing the path on the war, and so she can have a character arc. Robbed the audience of the payoffs of one of our favorite characters for more needless hemming and hawing about her feelings in future books.
Aster is accused of being a “fraudulent” ascender, being carried by her teammates. And that’s cause she is and she was. Even in the practice bout in the beginning of the book between the ascender teams, she’s quickly eliminated and basically useless. Her contributions are mentioned here and there in the actual battles, but amount to throwing her a bone. Then the author switches to focus on her new bloodline, for which we spent probably 5-10% of the book so that she’s eventually more of a contributor. Too little, too late.
There is a conversation concerning the value of the path versus an academy between the Team Zero members. It is clearly the author trying to shore up the lore around the path. But there’s no fixing it at this point. The ONLY disadvantage of the path is that they don’t get free items. That’s it. The managers, the personalized trainers, training programs, access to rifts and transport are all benefits that undermine the lore of the path being about bootstrapping. It’s time to move the story along and stop trying to fix things that are irrevocably broken. No series’ lore is perfect. And the author even makes my point for me when the team meets with their accountant, set up for future plot lines around their individual business ventures, by giving the items they received they weren’t allowed to keep and them being so worthless at this point that the team gives them away.
In the end, this series hard turn that began in Book 8, continues. A pattern of meandering, overly in-depth and mostly useless explanations of things to pad the word count, no book-long story arcs, and NO PAYOFFS! This series is no longer one I would recommend as I don’t see these issues, created not only by the confusing and overly complicated and power-gapped magic system and world building, but also because the author doesn’t seem to understand the fundamental aspects of why people read this genre, I don’t see those issues getting better.
If he doesn’t believe me, then he can look at the decline in sales of his series from book to book (which can be evidenced for the rest of us by the drop in number of reviews). There is a way to salvage the excitement of each book at least, and that is with self contained arcs that finish with big payoffs. Even if the magic system is ridiculous and the world building is broken, you can still have fun.
But this isn’t fun. This sucks.
November 17, 2025
Re-read
-------------------------
So yeah, after reading the book for the first time within a month, I have finished the entire series once again. Admittedly, I skipped some parts of the book as this was the most recent read. Now I will continue the story where I left it on Royal Road, and then I will read the next issues as and when they are released, and hopefully I will not have the urge to read the series once again. So let's go and continue the DCC series with book 5 of that particular series.
Original Review
-------------------------------
I couldn't wait for learning more after finishing the 9th book, so I started reading the further story on RoyalRoad and recently finished the 400th chapter of the saga. But even though I had already read the story, I couldn't skip and couldn't help but read the book in full. These are just so readable, and I flew through the first 9 books and then would be waiting for the books as they are released, and once I am caught up on the RR, then I will wait for the episodes to be released there as well. So let's celebrate a wonderful story and writing by Chris, and let's Keep on Reading.
After the book ends, we have 200 pages of short stories about different characters called "Echoes," and they obviously flesh out the minor characters a little bit, and we have the gamut of stories about people in different great powers. People reacting to Matt, Liz, and Aster's ascension and much more.
People who don't read generally ask me my reasons for reading. Simply put, I love reading, so I have made it my motto to Forever Keep on Reading. I love reading everything except for self-help books, even occasionally. I read almost all the genres, but YA, Fantasy, and Biographies are the most read. My favorite series is Harry Potter, but then there are many more books I adore. I have bookcases filled with books that are waiting to be read, so I can't stay and spend more time on this review. Remember, I loved reading this and love reading more. You should also read what you love, and then just Keep on Reading.
-------------------------
So yeah, after reading the book for the first time within a month, I have finished the entire series once again. Admittedly, I skipped some parts of the book as this was the most recent read. Now I will continue the story where I left it on Royal Road, and then I will read the next issues as and when they are released, and hopefully I will not have the urge to read the series once again. So let's go and continue the DCC series with book 5 of that particular series.
Original Review
-------------------------------
I couldn't wait for learning more after finishing the 9th book, so I started reading the further story on RoyalRoad and recently finished the 400th chapter of the saga. But even though I had already read the story, I couldn't skip and couldn't help but read the book in full. These are just so readable, and I flew through the first 9 books and then would be waiting for the books as they are released, and once I am caught up on the RR, then I will wait for the episodes to be released there as well. So let's celebrate a wonderful story and writing by Chris, and let's Keep on Reading.
After the book ends, we have 200 pages of short stories about different characters called "Echoes," and they obviously flesh out the minor characters a little bit, and we have the gamut of stories about people in different great powers. People reacting to Matt, Liz, and Aster's ascension and much more.
People who don't read generally ask me my reasons for reading. Simply put, I love reading, so I have made it my motto to Forever Keep on Reading. I love reading everything except for self-help books, even occasionally. I read almost all the genres, but YA, Fantasy, and Biographies are the most read. My favorite series is Harry Potter, but then there are many more books I adore. I have bookcases filled with books that are waiting to be read, so I can't stay and spend more time on this review. Remember, I loved reading this and love reading more. You should also read what you love, and then just Keep on Reading.
October 15, 2025
big ol nothing burger
I believe I'm done with the series. It's basically a travel journal for the 3 MCs. They are over a century old, but they're written like they're 30. Instead of focusing on the war that's been hinted since book 5 and the various sides and their motives and politics, we get a huge nothing burger. I've never read war portrayed so flippantly. We know it's a game of the powerful and the management of territory and resources, but none of that is really factored into the story. Looking for tension and narrative, then look elsewhere. There is absolutely no plot. Nothing of importance occurs. Like, literally nothing happens! Nobody important is lost, no heroes fall, no real important territory is lost, no large scale battles that decide the outcome of the war, nothing! We get nothing, we lose! I'm serious, the book just stops, and since there is no plot, we're left realizing we basically read the author's stream of consciousness put to paper. I'm done, this series is a waste of time, and the audacity of the author to release something unfinished like this as an individual book in a series is disappointing and lazy.
I believe I'm done with the series. It's basically a travel journal for the 3 MCs. They are over a century old, but they're written like they're 30. Instead of focusing on the war that's been hinted since book 5 and the various sides and their motives and politics, we get a huge nothing burger. I've never read war portrayed so flippantly. We know it's a game of the powerful and the management of territory and resources, but none of that is really factored into the story. Looking for tension and narrative, then look elsewhere. There is absolutely no plot. Nothing of importance occurs. Like, literally nothing happens! Nobody important is lost, no heroes fall, no real important territory is lost, no large scale battles that decide the outcome of the war, nothing! We get nothing, we lose! I'm serious, the book just stops, and since there is no plot, we're left realizing we basically read the author's stream of consciousness put to paper. I'm done, this series is a waste of time, and the audacity of the author to release something unfinished like this as an individual book in a series is disappointing and lazy.
October 7, 2025
Absolutely gutted, went to get the book this morning but it's saying not available in my country on Kindle. Does anyone know if it will be abito all countries eventually?
(Only put one star so this question gets noticed, will change once I've read book)
(Only put one star so this question gets noticed, will change once I've read book)
October 16, 2025
another absolutely masterpiece of immersion you have to read!
I've read almost 150 books in 2025, I'm reading about 17 different series that I have to painfully wait for the next installment of. This series is one of the ones I hate the wait for the most! But it's always worth it! I have to say in complete honesty, every single time I get my hands on the next in this series I never want the book to end. Not once has each book been anything less than an emotional, pulse Pounding, laugh until I cry, action packed and so immersive that I feel like I'm in the world watching it and know Matt, Liz, Aster and all the other amazing people and personalities in here. I hope this series keeps going for as long as possible, because just like when I closed the last book in the Belts road and Malloreon saga its going to be bitter sweet as I know I'm going to feel like I have to say goodbye to (the obvious trio most of all) people I have know most of there lives and lived through the most key parts of their lives with them. Will I be sad to say goodbye? Definitely. Would I change it? Not if you paid me! If you haven't started this series, what the Hall are you waiting for!? Dive on in and enjoy it. Its not a question of if you will get sucked in, its how much.
C.Mantis thank you for adding these people to my life. Just please write quicker.
I've read almost 150 books in 2025, I'm reading about 17 different series that I have to painfully wait for the next installment of. This series is one of the ones I hate the wait for the most! But it's always worth it! I have to say in complete honesty, every single time I get my hands on the next in this series I never want the book to end. Not once has each book been anything less than an emotional, pulse Pounding, laugh until I cry, action packed and so immersive that I feel like I'm in the world watching it and know Matt, Liz, Aster and all the other amazing people and personalities in here. I hope this series keeps going for as long as possible, because just like when I closed the last book in the Belts road and Malloreon saga its going to be bitter sweet as I know I'm going to feel like I have to say goodbye to (the obvious trio most of all) people I have know most of there lives and lived through the most key parts of their lives with them. Will I be sad to say goodbye? Definitely. Would I change it? Not if you paid me! If you haven't started this series, what the Hall are you waiting for!? Dive on in and enjoy it. Its not a question of if you will get sucked in, its how much.
C.Mantis thank you for adding these people to my life. Just please write quicker.
October 19, 2025
A bit odd, but good
This book feels like a collection of short stories more than a novel. They're likely plot-relevant short stories and they're enjoyable, but I was genuinely confused at the end.
Despite that, the character work remains decent. It suffers a bit from the lack of longer arcs in this book. The plot is quite weak across the whole book, but many of the stories have good plots. While those take a back seat, the world building is fantastic. As usual, the myriad perspective and looser timeline constraints of an anthology give the opportunity for amazing world building and the author takes advantage of that.
Overall, it's a good book, but not what I expected at any point while reading it. Next time, more of this would be fine, but I do like the longer stories as well.
This book feels like a collection of short stories more than a novel. They're likely plot-relevant short stories and they're enjoyable, but I was genuinely confused at the end.
Despite that, the character work remains decent. It suffers a bit from the lack of longer arcs in this book. The plot is quite weak across the whole book, but many of the stories have good plots. While those take a back seat, the world building is fantastic. As usual, the myriad perspective and looser timeline constraints of an anthology give the opportunity for amazing world building and the author takes advantage of that.
Overall, it's a good book, but not what I expected at any point while reading it. Next time, more of this would be fine, but I do like the longer stories as well.
October 18, 2025
another great instalment of this vast series
Wow what a great book. I especially loved the ‘echoes ‘ chapters after the end of the main book. Looking at the lives / decisions and the impact of some of the people that matt liz and aster had come across within the other books was another great example of how well rounded the creation of this whole series truly is. Just can’t wait for the next book
Wow what a great book. I especially loved the ‘echoes ‘ chapters after the end of the main book. Looking at the lives / decisions and the impact of some of the people that matt liz and aster had come across within the other books was another great example of how well rounded the creation of this whole series truly is. Just can’t wait for the next book
November 19, 2025
Wow! Another fantastic installment. I love this series! The magic system is so vast. it’s a wonder the author can keep up with the complexity of all the skills, talent, abilities, and magic. The growth and power of the main character is phenomenal! This series is just fun and pure enjoyment for me, I look forward to the next installment.
October 11, 2025
I wasn't sure what would happen after they ascended... Wow!
The whole plot revolved around the 'Path of Ascension' till Tier 25, but what happens after. Well, then they are ascenders and have all the duties and responsibilities that come with that, but first, they have to fight in a war. I love Team Zero, it's all so great. Good job, I'm exited for the next book.
The whole plot revolved around the 'Path of Ascension' till Tier 25, but what happens after. Well, then they are ascenders and have all the duties and responsibilities that come with that, but first, they have to fight in a war. I love Team Zero, it's all so great. Good job, I'm exited for the next book.
November 8, 2025
Great Follow Up
The war has truly started and so we get to see lots of cool skills, battles and a deeper insight into the political side of things.
The book is a bit short as the last 20% is basically a short story of a catch up with characters we have came across in the previous books and how things have changed for them and how the larger knock on affect carries on. Looking forward to the next one as it looks to be a great one.
The war has truly started and so we get to see lots of cool skills, battles and a deeper insight into the political side of things.
The book is a bit short as the last 20% is basically a short story of a catch up with characters we have came across in the previous books and how things have changed for them and how the larger knock on affect carries on. Looking forward to the next one as it looks to be a great one.
November 13, 2025
This series stagnated for me a long time ago, and I genuinely don't know how it had enough of a hold over me to keep me reading for so long. Whatever spell it held over me had me pick up this book to see if the story could improve now that the actual Path of Ascension has been completed, and the story can move on to something new. In doing so, I have learnt two things:
1. No, the story will continue to tread water and be tedious.
2. I understand now what it is that has been wrong with this series for so long; a lack of a driving motivation for the protagonists.
The first book set up a compelling motivation for the main characters, especially Matt. His was a story of someone who came from nothing, worked hard to turn the tiniest scrap of a chance to turn his life around into something truly special, and then to see how far he could go. Combined with the fact that he was a really likeable character, this motivation pulled me far enough into this story that it got me well and truly hooked in a series that would have way more lows than highs.
However, as the series progressed, that motivation had long since been achieved, and there was little left to replace it other than simply completing the path of ascension, just for the sake of completing it. This has become a story of a trio of characters doing things simply for the sake of doing those things, and nothing more. They've completed their path of ascension and are now in a war that doesn't have any personal stakes for them. They're not fighting for deeply held ideological reasons, for personal motivations, or even for a case of good versus evil. They seem to be doing it because it is expected of them, and that just doesn't make for compelling reading in my mind.
Without that compelling reason to keep reading, you are left with events themselves to keep you interested, and they just aren't up to the task. The action is tedious and mind-numbing at best, and at worst, it is impossible to follow because the author simply lists the names of the attacks being used and expects you, as a reader, to understand what is happening by the name of that attack alone when this series hasn't nearly put in the kind of work needed to make those named attacks memorable. The down time between the action, (the part that used to be the highlight of this series as this was where the actual character work happened), is now just as tedious. It's very surface-level, does nothing to add depth to any of the characters or overarching story, and instead exists just to set up the story for the next event/action set piece.
It's really not good reading, and I think I can finally say that I am done with this series. It's going nowhere interesting, and for the first time, I couldn't even muster the energy to finish this book, despite having made it more than 70% of the way through to the end. The writing has been on the wall since the start of the dungeon planet arc, but I've been too stubborn to admit it.
1. No, the story will continue to tread water and be tedious.
2. I understand now what it is that has been wrong with this series for so long; a lack of a driving motivation for the protagonists.
The first book set up a compelling motivation for the main characters, especially Matt. His was a story of someone who came from nothing, worked hard to turn the tiniest scrap of a chance to turn his life around into something truly special, and then to see how far he could go. Combined with the fact that he was a really likeable character, this motivation pulled me far enough into this story that it got me well and truly hooked in a series that would have way more lows than highs.
However, as the series progressed, that motivation had long since been achieved, and there was little left to replace it other than simply completing the path of ascension, just for the sake of completing it. This has become a story of a trio of characters doing things simply for the sake of doing those things, and nothing more. They've completed their path of ascension and are now in a war that doesn't have any personal stakes for them. They're not fighting for deeply held ideological reasons, for personal motivations, or even for a case of good versus evil. They seem to be doing it because it is expected of them, and that just doesn't make for compelling reading in my mind.
Without that compelling reason to keep reading, you are left with events themselves to keep you interested, and they just aren't up to the task. The action is tedious and mind-numbing at best, and at worst, it is impossible to follow because the author simply lists the names of the attacks being used and expects you, as a reader, to understand what is happening by the name of that attack alone when this series hasn't nearly put in the kind of work needed to make those named attacks memorable. The down time between the action, (the part that used to be the highlight of this series as this was where the actual character work happened), is now just as tedious. It's very surface-level, does nothing to add depth to any of the characters or overarching story, and instead exists just to set up the story for the next event/action set piece.
It's really not good reading, and I think I can finally say that I am done with this series. It's going nowhere interesting, and for the first time, I couldn't even muster the energy to finish this book, despite having made it more than 70% of the way through to the end. The writing has been on the wall since the start of the dungeon planet arc, but I've been too stubborn to admit it.
October 25, 2025
Just a ho-hum read
Even while some people think that Matt, Liz, and Aster's Path was too coincidental and thinking that they somehow cheated it's too late as the three of 'em followed the Path to it's completion. Joining the other Ascenders to fight for the Empire that nurtured them. In actuality Matt, Liz and Aster worked hard following the path, gaining every level on their own merit and yeah, with blood, sweat, and tears. Unfortunately this book didn't hold my attention, not like when they were actually ascending the path. There was so much politicking, and talk, talk, talking, that me thinks C Mantis likes the sound of his own words! The fighting and growth of Matt, Liz, and Aster was still the best parts of the book. So yeah I'm kinda disappointed.
Echoes, included at the end.
Unfortunately this short story wasn't as appealing as I would'a liked. It was a series of vignettes of moments in peoples lives as they watched Quill, Torch, and Scoop make their Ascension and reveal their true identities. And for the most part it was fun. But for the rest it was politicking, and talk, talk, talking.
Here's a couple of entertaining quotes:
"Firstly, he was a bird. Secondly, he refused to listen to the naysayers. And that was why he had all the shinies!"
“How is a sippy cup threatening or cool? It's something children use because they can’t use a real cup.” “It's threatening because anyone who fights me will be drinking out of one if they are lucky enough to survive."
And a quote from Echoes:
"He had a “My Heart Burns for Torch” T-shirt in his bag."
Even while some people think that Matt, Liz, and Aster's Path was too coincidental and thinking that they somehow cheated it's too late as the three of 'em followed the Path to it's completion. Joining the other Ascenders to fight for the Empire that nurtured them. In actuality Matt, Liz and Aster worked hard following the path, gaining every level on their own merit and yeah, with blood, sweat, and tears. Unfortunately this book didn't hold my attention, not like when they were actually ascending the path. There was so much politicking, and talk, talk, talking, that me thinks C Mantis likes the sound of his own words! The fighting and growth of Matt, Liz, and Aster was still the best parts of the book. So yeah I'm kinda disappointed.
Echoes, included at the end.
Unfortunately this short story wasn't as appealing as I would'a liked. It was a series of vignettes of moments in peoples lives as they watched Quill, Torch, and Scoop make their Ascension and reveal their true identities. And for the most part it was fun. But for the rest it was politicking, and talk, talk, talking.
Here's a couple of entertaining quotes:
"Firstly, he was a bird. Secondly, he refused to listen to the naysayers. And that was why he had all the shinies!"
“How is a sippy cup threatening or cool? It's something children use because they can’t use a real cup.” “It's threatening because anyone who fights me will be drinking out of one if they are lucky enough to survive."
And a quote from Echoes:
"He had a “My Heart Burns for Torch” T-shirt in his bag."
November 9, 2025
As far as I can see there were two main parts to this book:
1. Half of the book is spent enthusiastically in describing various items and skills Matt is receiving. It is not even "world building", but rather an excruciatingly tiresome piece of reading, equivalent to me describing to someone non technical a piece of C++ code I was working on. One star for this part.
2. The other half consists of sporadic battle engagements with enemies. This is interesting enough. Even more so if you (unlike yours truly) enjoy gleeful murder by the multitude. It is so nice when the protagonists are ethical and moral simpletons (similar to far right and progressive left in contemporary politics). Enemy combatants bad - deserve to be killed gruesomely, citizens good - try to spare. This whole war thing is so utterly stupid, artificial and has cellophane-paper-depth. 2 stars for this part.
And yes, I doubt I will pick up the next book in this series. Also, seeing the average rating is something like 4.6 goes to show that once people are invested enough in something they stop using the critical side of their brain. Either this or some of the ratings here are fake.
1. Half of the book is spent enthusiastically in describing various items and skills Matt is receiving. It is not even "world building", but rather an excruciatingly tiresome piece of reading, equivalent to me describing to someone non technical a piece of C++ code I was working on. One star for this part.
2. The other half consists of sporadic battle engagements with enemies. This is interesting enough. Even more so if you (unlike yours truly) enjoy gleeful murder by the multitude. It is so nice when the protagonists are ethical and moral simpletons (similar to far right and progressive left in contemporary politics). Enemy combatants bad - deserve to be killed gruesomely, citizens good - try to spare. This whole war thing is so utterly stupid, artificial and has cellophane-paper-depth. 2 stars for this part.
And yes, I doubt I will pick up the next book in this series. Also, seeing the average rating is something like 4.6 goes to show that once people are invested enough in something they stop using the critical side of their brain. Either this or some of the ratings here are fake.
October 12, 2025
I did like the continuation after reaching ascension, what was effectively the title of the series. But the skipping time,the repetitive missions and lack of real story makes it( book 10) a bit meh.The sometimes overly drawn technical talk doesn't make for an exciting read either,just looks like the writer trying to show off his ability to make up magic gobbledygook Also Shadow ,Allie,is so terribly annoying that if I were Matt I would have cut here in little pieces and then [Flamethrower] her into a nice shashlik afterwards. Plus Aster being an Ascender still irks me a bit but she was along for the ride so ok I guess. And Maven being able to counter groups of Ascenders? Wouldn't a group of Mavens win the war then? In other words. I love the series but it did loose a bit of steam.So 4 stars because of earlier books,3 on its own.Maybe the next,and last I believe,will pick things up again and end it on a high.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 25, 2025
C. Mantis continues his tale of Matt, a lower-class adventurer who gets an unfavorable Talent when he's magically awakened. He cannot manually increase his magic. But it does regnerate automatically.
He trains wildly to use his physical skills in magical rifts, where he can gather experience to progress.
His talent grows and it doubles with every level he attains. The doubling continues until he is a total magical monster, a mage tank. He gets a magical pet, a girl frien and progresses along the Path to completion: he, his wife, Liz, and his magical ice fox bond are Ascenders. The mightiest of the mighty in battle.
This kicks off a war between Realms. It's rare for a Realm to get an Ascender, let alone 3. And the Empire, Matt's Realm already had 2.
Five Ascenders are too many. The Empire has to be stopped. And Matt and his friends are on the front lines.
He trains wildly to use his physical skills in magical rifts, where he can gather experience to progress.
His talent grows and it doubles with every level he attains. The doubling continues until he is a total magical monster, a mage tank. He gets a magical pet, a girl frien and progresses along the Path to completion: he, his wife, Liz, and his magical ice fox bond are Ascenders. The mightiest of the mighty in battle.
This kicks off a war between Realms. It's rare for a Realm to get an Ascender, let alone 3. And the Empire, Matt's Realm already had 2.
Five Ascenders are too many. The Empire has to be stopped. And Matt and his friends are on the front lines.
October 12, 2025
To technical this time but still quality work.
The quality is here but I was bored most of the time. During a good fight an explanation of powers would interrupt the flow. If you want to explain how a power works save it for when it won’t throw you out of the action. A lot of time was spent on shard explaining, growth details, and equipment. Cool the author puts this much thought and effort into his work but to much is boring. Make the in depth study a companion release. While you’re at it include a great power list with a name and description of characters associated. I like or hate the others but forget the association or history between them. This won’t be one of my favorite in the series but in no way stops me from looking forward to the future books.
The quality is here but I was bored most of the time. During a good fight an explanation of powers would interrupt the flow. If you want to explain how a power works save it for when it won’t throw you out of the action. A lot of time was spent on shard explaining, growth details, and equipment. Cool the author puts this much thought and effort into his work but to much is boring. Make the in depth study a companion release. While you’re at it include a great power list with a name and description of characters associated. I like or hate the others but forget the association or history between them. This won’t be one of my favorite in the series but in no way stops me from looking forward to the future books.
November 10, 2025
Our main trio has reached the end of the Path, and after a short celebration it is time to enter the war. It is not just fighting though as there is ample of time for research, training and having fun with friends in between the various battles. And at the end of the book we get a side story filled with the reactions of people from their past when those hear who ascended. What follows is a decent story that fits expectations, although it is kind of lacking an overarching arc and feels more like a long setup for what ever confrontation is coming. I am not entirely sure we needed 600 pages of such, but it was still an enjoyable read. 3.5 stars rounded up with the help of the entertaining extra short story at the end (which is more of a string of short anecdotes, but still).
October 28, 2025
Decent book following the gang as they go on missions after completing the path. The fights are well done and never go into the universe quaking with a punch, which usually just gets lost on me. There is a lot of technical jargon in this book that is completely made up and impressive the author even makes sense of it all. This is in every book but I feel this one was really dense and I found myself zoning out on these parts. These were the slice of life parts so I felt they fell short of other books.
Excited to see where the war goes and the fights to come.
Excited to see where the war goes and the fights to come.
November 3, 2025
One of the best yet
I figured post-ascension we might see a lull in the story and perhaps a slower more boring novel before things picked up in pace again. I was mistaken, this book was just as energetic and fun as the others, and better for having a wider glimpse into the other great powers outside the empire. I'm thrilled for the remaining books in this series and can't wait to read them.
I figured post-ascension we might see a lull in the story and perhaps a slower more boring novel before things picked up in pace again. I was mistaken, this book was just as energetic and fun as the others, and better for having a wider glimpse into the other great powers outside the empire. I'm thrilled for the remaining books in this series and can't wait to read them.
October 11, 2025
a solid start
The war. Not the True War, but no less dangerous for it. Lots of LOOT from finishing the Path. And a solid visit to The Guilds, a different Great Power.
But my favorite is the Echoes, the extra chapters at the end showing how other people viewed them completing the Path.
Next up: more war. Spoiler alert—not everybody survives.
The war. Not the True War, but no less dangerous for it. Lots of LOOT from finishing the Path. And a solid visit to The Guilds, a different Great Power.
But my favorite is the Echoes, the extra chapters at the end showing how other people viewed them completing the Path.
Next up: more war. Spoiler alert—not everybody survives.
October 14, 2025
Epic scope and fantastic payoffs
One of the best parts of this series is the epic world building along with the social implications of the riding ascenders. This book pays off on so many of the setups from the previous nine books and moves both the characters and the story forward in fun and engaging ways. Can’t wait for the next volume!
One of the best parts of this series is the epic world building along with the social implications of the riding ascenders. This book pays off on so many of the setups from the previous nine books and moves both the characters and the story forward in fun and engaging ways. Can’t wait for the next volume!
October 31, 2025
Getting to a point where there are too many branches in the story
Well over have the book was from alternate characters. Loved the parts with just Matt, Liz, and Aster, but the view points from lvl 50 great powers as well as villains was way too much. Any time I am skipping paragraphs.... It is not good.
Well over have the book was from alternate characters. Loved the parts with just Matt, Liz, and Aster, but the view points from lvl 50 great powers as well as villains was way too much. Any time I am skipping paragraphs.... It is not good.
November 16, 2025
interesting look around
Very good. Got a look at what their next part of the story will be like post path. I could’ve done with a little more fighting but the last third of the book was cultural and societal stuff. Long part of the end is a look around the realm at characters from previous book and how they viewed the ascension.
Very good. Got a look at what their next part of the story will be like post path. I could’ve done with a little more fighting but the last third of the book was cultural and societal stuff. Long part of the end is a look around the realm at characters from previous book and how they viewed the ascension.
October 12, 2025
Another great addition to the series
A great series and a great new book, definitely recommend reading. Great world building and engaging story and characters, loved every minute spent reading this series
A great series and a great new book, definitely recommend reading. Great world building and engaging story and characters, loved every minute spent reading this series
June 21, 2025
Sure I've gotten through this book as the 1st book in the war, as I finished at least a book of the war, if not more - last chapter read was 340 in RR.
Read
October 9, 2025Awesome
One of my favorite series and a great new book in the series!
Can't wait for the next book to release
One of my favorite series and a great new book in the series!
Can't wait for the next book to release
October 10, 2025
A Great Payoff of the Title Arc
The MCs finally reach the end of the Path and it's a fantastic ride, can't wait to see what they get up to now that they're done with the Path!
The MCs finally reach the end of the Path and it's a fantastic ride, can't wait to see what they get up to now that they're done with the Path!
October 10, 2025
Fanfreakingtastic!
What an amazing book! I absolutely loved this book and such wonderful characters! I can not wait for the next book to come out!
What an amazing book! I absolutely loved this book and such wonderful characters! I can not wait for the next book to come out!
October 10, 2025
one of my favourite series
The whole series is an amazing read! I can’t recommend it enough for anybody who is looking for fantasy, progression or slice of life
The whole series is an amazing read! I can’t recommend it enough for anybody who is looking for fantasy, progression or slice of life
October 12, 2025
Simply one of the best
This series just keeps going, and going great! It is one of the best out there. Never boring, always enjoyable.
This series just keeps going, and going great! It is one of the best out there. Never boring, always enjoyable.
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