But when an augmented reality game goes off the rails, the pair find themselves whisked away to a ruined fantasy world in desperate need of heroes. Trapped in the ruins of an ancient cultivation academy, the siblings must learn to master the mysterious ghostlight to restore the broken gate that can send them home. This seemingly insurmountable quest will change Kai's life forever—or end it. Ghostlight Shadowbound is the first book in the exciting new series from the best-selling author of the School of Swords and Serpents series. Featuring cultivation, base building, quests, treasures, and monsters, this first volume is your key to an intriguing new world.
The MC and his sister were extremely jaded. I understand that their background in Anaheim wasn't the best, but nothing after being portalled out phased these kids.
That's generally a trope of this style of YA books, but there's a type of world building that takes place that allows the reader to be absorbed into the world and accept this. We just weren't given that part and as such, everything took a cartoony tinge.
The mechanics of what's being presented are good though, but the "window dressing" could've been better.
I must admit that, though I really enjoyed reading this adventure story, I thought that it was not as good as Gage Lee’s previous series The School of Swords and Serpents which was so thrilling. My main problem was in the fact that the hero was so young, yet often got referred to as the man which he definitely was not, however the character of Kai is heroic, his love for his sister is immense and his guilt for failing Biz and his fear of failing her once again nearly proved to be his downfall. Biz his younger terminally sick sister, became much stronger and more powerful once they entered the gate to another world, a splinter world where they became trapped in a cultivation academy. Their main quest was to master the ghostlight, in order to restore the ruined academy, save the students who were kept in stasis and open the gate once more to return home. Kai was full of hope and faith in being able to return his sister to his mother, however it seems Biz had other ideas about this. In this story the kids face monsters called scrats, who are the minions of the Fell Lord Inphyr who rode on a gigantic sort of bat called a Kamarotz and who was the prime enemy of the academy. The academy seemed to be run by a tribunal formed of three members who could never see eye to eye and the children saved were a mix of dram, vram, humans and a xin. The world building is very good and sets the scene for the following books in the series and the characters are nicely fleshed out, I particularly like the character of the monitor and of the blue fluffball who lighten up the story. I am still looking forward to reading book 2 as the ending is very intriguing.
So i was excited for this i loved the idea of this i love wuxia and litrpg but in practice it honestly was rough the beginning was super vague something about disney? I only assume the writer has a Disney lawyer breathing down his neck then everything got even more complicated there it adds elements of townbuiling and they haven't explained anything the whole premise is about mining the same energy you cultivate and random badguys are cannon fodder and then the boss is empty the whole thing needs work honestly the only thing i like is the brother sister relationship dynamic that was well done
Plot: Children playing a scavenger game go through a portal to a school that is trapped inside the shadowverse.
Characters: These must be the most jaded children of all time. Absolutely nothing seems to faze them. Sure they say they are worried, scared, anxious, whatever, but they never act like it. Instead they act like they are battle hardened navy seals. Able to take on anything right from the start of the story to the end. Killed the story for me. 4/10 Your characters have to be believable, just as much as the world needs to be interesting. Fail at either of these and you can lose your readers.
Another good series from Gage Lee , for those familiar with his other series ,then this follows the simliar culitvation paths but is more based in another world where travel across planes is possible and teens from Earth have particular talents that work well in the saving of the Ghostlight Academy. A few snags that give it more credibility in the action than i would expect, but the writing and the story keep the pace interesting and readers interest focused on the book. A good start for a series overall, and something i shall check out further.
I really like this book it was a very fun read very engaging with lots of unexpected twists and turns the characters were well-thought-out and portrayed with a quite a few aspects of the book that were quite fun and engaging I really like the litrpg elements that had the twist of the cultivation definitely a must-read for any cultivation fan
Found the first chapter a bit confusing, but it got clearer as I got further into it.
Couldn't put the book down, nor did I really want to. The dynamic between the siblings was entertaining, as was the relationships between the staff at the academy. A few great plot twists as well. All in all, can't wait to continue to the adventure.
This one was a bit of a slog to get through especially in the beginning. It has it's good sections but getting to them can be rough. I am not sure that I will get any more books in this series. I have liked some of his other books
Started reading, but the characters and world didn't have enough depth for me. I may give it another go at some point. Leaving it unfinished at this time.