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School of Swords and Serpents #3
Chaos Core
As Jace struggles to control his unraveling core, the immortal dragons challenge the Empyreals for control of the world's destiny. Thrust into a competition against the deadliest students from around the world, Jace must lead his team of friends to victory. If he fails, all of humanity will be bound to the will of the Scaled Council. And if the dragons don't defeat the Empyreals, dark forces within human society just might. The heretics have stepped up their attacks, pushing the Shadow Phoenix clan to the brink of annihilation. A conspiracy of the wealthy and powerful threatens to enslave a very special group of students. And the Inquisition has dark plans for the Eclipse Core. And, like his core, Jace is splitting at the seams. Torn between the need to stop the Grand Design from falling into clawed talons and his quest to find his mother and the answers she carries, the young warrior must dig deep within to overcome the forces aligned against him. Chaos Core is the third installment of the best-selling School of Swords and Serpents series.
441 pages, Paperback
First published February 10, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 15, 2021
A fun interesting but inconsistent story and series.
it's enjoyable and even perhaps worthy of more than a one-time read. However the author makes several content and continuity mistakes that pulled me out of the book as they increasingly become more distracting. For example a group of antagonist students early in the book were labeled as disciple class powerful and intimidating for chapter or so and then for the rest of the book they were considered adept class not as powerful as the main character. This goes along with some plot issues or perhaps bad editing that goes along with the content errors. I never really ran into this problem before the last two series of attempt to read. With this series is not so bad as to make it unreadable. In fact I would almost consider adding this to my actual library rather than reading it on Kindle unlimited. This is a very fun fast read for young adults. It is a mix of genres including martial arts fantasy, magical school, and sci-fi. There's nothing inappropriate in this third book.
Lee knows how to write a pretty good story. It is interesting fun and fast-paced and moves you along without getting repetitive or drawn out. In fact if it wasn't for the inconsistencies in continuity plot and sometimes even characters I think this could be easily a five-star read or at least getting there. When you're reading book after book and have fresh stories in your head it is extremely distracting when the next book contradicts certain facts from the previous book. These continuity errors become even more distracting when aspects of rules of the world are ignored or forgotten with each book. In book one is clearly shown that if you break someone's fusion sword it is a crippling blow because it is attached to a person's core. It is a pretty solid rule that he completely ignores in this book as he destroys the weapons of a few side characters at some points and they come back continuing to fight with the weapons once again. in fact at one point he completely defeats a character leaves for a second for spoilers then comes back and has another major showdown with said side character. It makes absolutely no sense and really brought this story down. In fact if it wasn't such a well written story at times it would be a two-star story.
But even go so far as inconsistencies in characters. There is a spirit rat that is described in one as a giant rat. It can apply and remove facial mask to the character. it is seem to be hinted at as being a rather large creature. in book 3 it is small enough to crawl upon the main character shoulder. Certain side characters do not have consistent stories from people. In part two it was Deacon in this book it is Raphael. even the main characters birthplace is changed from book 1 to book 3. Individually they don't really matter small internships but as a story grows it becomes extremely distracting.
I do enjoy the main side characters. They're interesting but I think in book 3 we sort of take a step away from them. In fact romance that had been handed to in book 1 shown in book 2 completely disappears in book 3. Even in book 3 we have one character who is shown to have the court of being afraid of heights later on in the story it is another character who then shows the same fear. I'm not sure if the author mixed it up or was just trying to spread it out between characters. At the same time they're interesting and I hope to see more of them in future books.
I am interested to see where the author is going to go with the book series but it is becoming harder to read with all the minor issues. And depending upon if they increase or continue will determine whether this will be a one-time read or multiple revisit.
it's enjoyable and even perhaps worthy of more than a one-time read. However the author makes several content and continuity mistakes that pulled me out of the book as they increasingly become more distracting. For example a group of antagonist students early in the book were labeled as disciple class powerful and intimidating for chapter or so and then for the rest of the book they were considered adept class not as powerful as the main character. This goes along with some plot issues or perhaps bad editing that goes along with the content errors. I never really ran into this problem before the last two series of attempt to read. With this series is not so bad as to make it unreadable. In fact I would almost consider adding this to my actual library rather than reading it on Kindle unlimited. This is a very fun fast read for young adults. It is a mix of genres including martial arts fantasy, magical school, and sci-fi. There's nothing inappropriate in this third book.
Lee knows how to write a pretty good story. It is interesting fun and fast-paced and moves you along without getting repetitive or drawn out. In fact if it wasn't for the inconsistencies in continuity plot and sometimes even characters I think this could be easily a five-star read or at least getting there. When you're reading book after book and have fresh stories in your head it is extremely distracting when the next book contradicts certain facts from the previous book. These continuity errors become even more distracting when aspects of rules of the world are ignored or forgotten with each book. In book one is clearly shown that if you break someone's fusion sword it is a crippling blow because it is attached to a person's core. It is a pretty solid rule that he completely ignores in this book as he destroys the weapons of a few side characters at some points and they come back continuing to fight with the weapons once again. in fact at one point he completely defeats a character leaves for a second for spoilers then comes back and has another major showdown with said side character. It makes absolutely no sense and really brought this story down. In fact if it wasn't such a well written story at times it would be a two-star story.
But even go so far as inconsistencies in characters. There is a spirit rat that is described in one as a giant rat. It can apply and remove facial mask to the character. it is seem to be hinted at as being a rather large creature. in book 3 it is small enough to crawl upon the main character shoulder. Certain side characters do not have consistent stories from people. In part two it was Deacon in this book it is Raphael. even the main characters birthplace is changed from book 1 to book 3. Individually they don't really matter small internships but as a story grows it becomes extremely distracting.
I do enjoy the main side characters. They're interesting but I think in book 3 we sort of take a step away from them. In fact romance that had been handed to in book 1 shown in book 2 completely disappears in book 3. Even in book 3 we have one character who is shown to have the court of being afraid of heights later on in the story it is another character who then shows the same fear. I'm not sure if the author mixed it up or was just trying to spread it out between characters. At the same time they're interesting and I hope to see more of them in future books.
I am interested to see where the author is going to go with the book series but it is becoming harder to read with all the minor issues. And depending upon if they increase or continue will determine whether this will be a one-time read or multiple revisit.
June 22, 2020
Meh. The books in the series just seem to be getting worse. Apparently the Locust Court wasn’t enough. So then dragons were made as the next problem. Oh and our MC’s core dies again, for the second or third time. I think that Mr. Lee could’ve given us a great series with just the locust court as the main problem, he didn’t have to include all these other problems like the Flame thing failing and all that stuff. I think that one arc needs to be finished before the next one. When you try to cram three different story arcs into a series at one time, similar to what is happening in this series, the story and books as a whole suffer. I don’t think there has been enough character development to feel attached to any characters. Supposably Jace and Clem started some sort of relationship at the end of book 2, nothing occurred. Abi had been distrustful of Jace for a time and then is completely forgiving of him just a few chapters later.
I read this book twice, the first time, I couldn’t wait for book 4 to come out, and given the fairly long wait, I read this book again a few days before book 4’s release. After reading it, I felt as though I didn’t really want to read book 4. Now I know why, and I’m listing those reasons out in this review. I hope book 4, which I am now going to read will fix some of these problems for us, but i wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t. The cat is already out of the bag, Pandora has opened the box, it is going to be very hard to fix it all, or have any solid world building and character development if the MC is trying to fix all those problems at once. Oh well, the series still has the potential to be great, and it held my attention and interest the first time I read the first three books, so I do think that you all should give it a shot as well. Everyone has different opinions and many will, (hopefully) disagree with my rating and review for this book.
I read this book twice, the first time, I couldn’t wait for book 4 to come out, and given the fairly long wait, I read this book again a few days before book 4’s release. After reading it, I felt as though I didn’t really want to read book 4. Now I know why, and I’m listing those reasons out in this review. I hope book 4, which I am now going to read will fix some of these problems for us, but i wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t. The cat is already out of the bag, Pandora has opened the box, it is going to be very hard to fix it all, or have any solid world building and character development if the MC is trying to fix all those problems at once. Oh well, the series still has the potential to be great, and it held my attention and interest the first time I read the first three books, so I do think that you all should give it a shot as well. Everyone has different opinions and many will, (hopefully) disagree with my rating and review for this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2020
Once again Gage Lee has given us a masterpiece full of action, deceit and betrayal so much so that Jace and his team do not know who to trust. The dragons had returned from Shambala and they were threatening Empyreal society, they wanted to take charge of the world once again saying humans had made a mess of things. They organised a competition called the Empyreal Gauntlet in which the deadliest competitors from around the world would be tested. Jace knew he and his team just had to win otherwise all of humanity would be bound by the will of the Scaled Council. However this was not the only danger on Jace's horizon, the inquisitors wanted Jace out of the running, they saw him as a threat to their power as an eclipse core warrior, the heretics were threatening everyone as they refused to accept the Empyreal Flame and its Grand Design, and dark forces were all around them. Jace, Hagar, Clem, Abi and Eric plus Jace's rat mentor Hahen and the small dragon Niddhogg planned, trained and plotted how to go about winning the challenges set out for them, never thinking that the Church and the Dragons were planning on rigging the tests in favour of the dragon team. Seems our young heroes are thrown into the jaws of death a hundred times over just to settle a theological argument, and as usual the powerful pulled the strings, but Jace would not bend his knee to anyone. This 3rd book is so exciting as Jace is on the brink of shattering his core yet still he takes risks which could turn him into a hollow once again. It's a breath taking read from start to finish and I know I am already eagerly waiting for the next book in this very powerful series!
August 8, 2021
I'm sorry to say that this book was a total flop for me. The main character grew a ton in the last book and I was excited to see what came next, but rather than expand the world to give him more to do, he suddenly has him become crippled to keep him struggling. This is accompanied by having him also retreat from his friends, so there's no relationship growth. And then they school puts on a ridiculous challenge that's hard to swallow as realistic, just to give activities--but it also means he isn't learning anything in classes anymore. Finally, what broke it all is the terrible world building. There were big issues (disciple core not being meaningful at all, despite major lip service) and small issues (the giant rat from the first two books is suddenly small enough to sit on his shoulder). I pushed and pushed through this book, hoping for a grand finish to make up for the bad plotting, just didn't do it. Oh well.
February 20, 2020
Dissapointing
This book had potential, but the plot made no sense. The Emperiam flame who is essentially God has created the Grand Design, a plan that will lead to Utopia if followed. There are two species, humans and dragons. Currently humans are in charge of the Grand Design. The Dragons think the humans have been handling their responsibility poorly, and initiate a ritual challenge. The winner basically takes control of the world. If the dragons win, humans will be enslaved. So with the fate of the world at stake, you would think humanity's mightiest champions would be chosen. Nope. The competition is held between student teams coming from various schools. This makes no sense. More over its not even clear that the best students are chosen. This book is filled with logical inconsistencies. It was very hard to finish.
This book had potential, but the plot made no sense. The Emperiam flame who is essentially God has created the Grand Design, a plan that will lead to Utopia if followed. There are two species, humans and dragons. Currently humans are in charge of the Grand Design. The Dragons think the humans have been handling their responsibility poorly, and initiate a ritual challenge. The winner basically takes control of the world. If the dragons win, humans will be enslaved. So with the fate of the world at stake, you would think humanity's mightiest champions would be chosen. Nope. The competition is held between student teams coming from various schools. This makes no sense. More over its not even clear that the best students are chosen. This book is filled with logical inconsistencies. It was very hard to finish.
February 16, 2020
The author decided he made the Mc too powerful and invented a way to cripple him again. This made the third book quite a chore to read which is a shame as the second book was great. This book felt like filler and didn't really advance the plot at all. Zero character growth as well, in fact I felt Jace took several huge steps backwards in this book compared to the second.
He takes on twelve hollow students who, given his own experiences, should mean a lot to him. He spends a whole school year with them and yet you learn nothing about them and only two are ever mentioned by name. He acts like training them is a huge chore when this should be a worthy cause to him. Really disappointing and feels like he's back to being a self centered douce from the first book.
Unfortunately I don't think I'll be buying the next book unless the author turns the Mc around.
He takes on twelve hollow students who, given his own experiences, should mean a lot to him. He spends a whole school year with them and yet you learn nothing about them and only two are ever mentioned by name. He acts like training them is a huge chore when this should be a worthy cause to him. Really disappointing and feels like he's back to being a self centered douce from the first book.
Unfortunately I don't think I'll be buying the next book unless the author turns the Mc around.
June 18, 2020
Good book, hard to start but worth it
I really enjoyed this book, but I did stumble a bit in getting started in this story. The last book ended on a strong point, and seemed to finish an arc - what was wonderful about this story (but also difficult to grasp right away) was this is the start of a new arc.
Or rather... the story was self contained but definitely leading into the next primary story. And that was good - just not expected.
I’d recommend reading this. I enjoyed the introduction of dragons - and a lot of the world building elements contained in this story. It fits well and I look forward to the next book.
I really enjoyed this book, but I did stumble a bit in getting started in this story. The last book ended on a strong point, and seemed to finish an arc - what was wonderful about this story (but also difficult to grasp right away) was this is the start of a new arc.
Or rather... the story was self contained but definitely leading into the next primary story. And that was good - just not expected.
I’d recommend reading this. I enjoyed the introduction of dragons - and a lot of the world building elements contained in this story. It fits well and I look forward to the next book.
December 14, 2020
I really like this series as the world building just works, and despite having a small main cast of characters the outside influences help the story along immensely as Jace and his classmates cultivate themselves through the levels. Having read the books and waiting on the audios to catch up, always an issue we all have, the narration brings a bit of extra depth to where i know the story leads us and so i find myself appreciation it more. A series I shall most definitely be staying with as i like each book and audio more.
January 21, 2021
I quit
I admit I'm a fan of cultivation novels. Ill also admit most of them aren't great works of literature. Honestly I'm just happy if they spell check them most of the time. The reason I keep reading them is that they are fast paced stories set in colorful worlds with heroes you want to see succeed. I've tried but I can't go on with this series. Lee commits the greatest sin for cultivation stories, its boring. The characters are flat and uninteresting. I could care less about the story. Nothing draws me in, so I'm leaving.
I admit I'm a fan of cultivation novels. Ill also admit most of them aren't great works of literature. Honestly I'm just happy if they spell check them most of the time. The reason I keep reading them is that they are fast paced stories set in colorful worlds with heroes you want to see succeed. I've tried but I can't go on with this series. Lee commits the greatest sin for cultivation stories, its boring. The characters are flat and uninteresting. I could care less about the story. Nothing draws me in, so I'm leaving.
June 14, 2021
Didn't like it as much as the other two, though was still very enjoyable. The competition between the different schools and dragons was an unbelievable way to decide who would essentially be controlling the world. Likewise with the team that Jase selected - the school has 7 years and they chose mostly third years? Jase I understood, similar with Hagar. But the others? The only explanation being that it was people Jase could trust. Anyway, the competitions were fun, Jase having to fix his core and teaching the other hollow cores were interesting as well.
February 25, 2020
Jace never imagined how much his life would change when he'd decided to take an Eclipse core for his own. He's had to look left and right at every turn, never knowing what will be coming his way. Determined to succeed where others have thought he'd failed, he's made it his mission to become completely whole. The fact that it seems impossible to do often disheartens him. Unwilling to sit on the sidelines, he dives head first into the school's current competition in the hopes of leading all of humanity into a much-needed victory.
Chaos Core picks up where book two left off, giving us more insight into Jace's precarious situation. He's a boy who's had the odds stacked against him from the moment he'd been created. Despite his shortcomings, he's done everything possible to find his way throughout the world in which he lives.
I like the fact that Jace refuses to accept his current circumstances. He needs answers to the questions roiling in his mind. The one person who can answer them, however, is missing. Nevertheless, he's determined in finding said person no matter the cost.
Gage Lee has crafted such an intriguing series that you find yourself wanting to read more with every turn of the page. The martial arts aspects of this series is a bonus. I grew up watching Bruce Lee movies and the like, so they tickle the fangirl in me when it comes to such things.
I do so hope that Jace will find the answers to each and every one of his questions. He also deserves happiness. Will he find it? It's hard to say. Nevertheless, I look forward to more of what the author has in store for us in the future.
Chaos Core picks up where book two left off, giving us more insight into Jace's precarious situation. He's a boy who's had the odds stacked against him from the moment he'd been created. Despite his shortcomings, he's done everything possible to find his way throughout the world in which he lives.
I like the fact that Jace refuses to accept his current circumstances. He needs answers to the questions roiling in his mind. The one person who can answer them, however, is missing. Nevertheless, he's determined in finding said person no matter the cost.
Gage Lee has crafted such an intriguing series that you find yourself wanting to read more with every turn of the page. The martial arts aspects of this series is a bonus. I grew up watching Bruce Lee movies and the like, so they tickle the fangirl in me when it comes to such things.
I do so hope that Jace will find the answers to each and every one of his questions. He also deserves happiness. Will he find it? It's hard to say. Nevertheless, I look forward to more of what the author has in store for us in the future.
February 23, 2020
Excitement Galore
Jace is a great character and the battles he finds himself in are intriguing and well managed.
So when he is faced with such a momentous challenge for the sake of all humanity then we get an amazingly elaborate series of events that make for compelling reading. A massively enjoyable joyed read and another great story with an all to eager anticipation of the next in the series.
Jace is a great character and the battles he finds himself in are intriguing and well managed.
So when he is faced with such a momentous challenge for the sake of all humanity then we get an amazingly elaborate series of events that make for compelling reading. A massively enjoyable joyed read and another great story with an all to eager anticipation of the next in the series.
August 16, 2020
This is one of this frustrating books where the protagonist experiences more than his fair share of stumbling blocks. The last book it seemed the MC was becoming OP but this one went to the same formula that the first book used. The set backs are frustrating but the successes are so satisfying. I’m excited to see where the next book goes.
February 12, 2020
This series keeps getting better. If you liked the first two, you'll like this one too.
February 13, 2020
Worth the wait
I have thoroughly enjoyed Jace’s adventures. It was definitely worth the wait and was a fantastic read. So much fun
I have thoroughly enjoyed Jace’s adventures. It was definitely worth the wait and was a fantastic read. So much fun
February 27, 2020
More intelligent
This story seems to rely more on wits and strategy than the raw power of previous ones. Still an Americanized version of Will Wight's unsouled
This story seems to rely more on wits and strategy than the raw power of previous ones. Still an Americanized version of Will Wight's unsouled
March 5, 2020
This book was just fantastic
Well written as always, the cast of characters is fun and interesting, cant wait to get my hands on the next entry!
Well written as always, the cast of characters is fun and interesting, cant wait to get my hands on the next entry!
July 15, 2020
It was positive, active and had a good ending. Let's see how it will continue.
December 30, 2020
Good American cultivation wuxia - I enjoyed the ride. :) There's enough at stake here to keep me interested and the writing and ideas are fun.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews