Review Detail of Epitaffy in Dropped...sh

One Man, One Spear is an underdog story that is very heavily focused on fighting and just getting stronger without any strong reminding presses on his motive on getting stronger. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I seldom look into any cultivation books so I can't really compare it to others but I can compare this book to my personal thoughts as a writer and a reader. Cultivation is all about breakthroughs, defying Heaven and reaching higher realms. In that sort of world, there's a whole culture and system running with that idea. Or that's just my basic understanding of it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your protagonist, "Long Chen" is a common tragic child. Parents are supposedly dead because of a tide of beasts destroying their village, he's not able to cultivate naturally because of certain reasons, that sort of thing. He perseveres through sheer effort and a degree of luck. Also, the fact that he's supposedly the incarnation of the Dragon Emperor. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The story is... fine as is. If you're a casual reader who's looking to see someone get stronger each chapter, then this is your book. For me, I don't particularly find the development as appealing. The protagonist is getting stronger, for what? To meet his parents who are actually not dead? Okay, I can understand that. But it's mentioned in one chapter and not mentioned again throughout his training. The reason why certain characters do certain things is what makes us root for the character but for me, as the reader, I don't feel any sentiment towards his motive and I feel like it could have been handled better. I'll talk about this more on a separate paragraph. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- My main gripe about this book is how monotonous some chapters can be. Long Chen gets stronger, Long Chen acquires something to get stronger, so on and so on. There are some chapters that do focus on the grander scheme of things, and I take notice and appreciate that. It's just, I go by the rule that each chapter should bring something important onto the plot and the chapters where Long Chen was only getting stronger as the narrator info dumps how Long Chen was getting stronger, is irrelevant to the plot in some sense. If I can skip it and not miss out on anything, then the chapter is moot. Although, this all could be my personal opinion since I don't usually read any cultivation books and my idea of writing is more western-based. Moving on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- His motivation, his parents. We only have vague ideas about them. The old man who helped him with body cultivation is doing so for his father, if I'm right, and we get to see a glimpse of his father in a short cutscene. And that's about it. Tell me, do you feel anything about that? Their supposed deaths are a tragedy to Long Chen, but not a single moment where Long Chen would sit down and think about them. No flashback scene through the memories of Long Chen, no mention of them directly beside the letter scene, no nothing. For a kid who cried upon receiving a letter that his parents, or at least his father, was someone powerful, he sure doesn't stop to wonder "Why is his father this powerful?" or "Why is he testing me?" nor the obvious "Why did he faked his death and put me through all of this unneeded suffering as a kid?". It's quite the left out detail if you ask me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grammar and writing style. It's fine for me, but it could be better. The author uses Onomatopoeia which is something that I don't really encourage as a writer when you could use a much more detailed paragraph as opposed to a common "SCHWING!" on each fighting scene. There are some grammatical errors but the author said that he'll fix them when he can so I'll let it slide. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overall, One Man, One Spear is an alright book. You get what you get from the synopsis, a cultivation book. It's a 5 out of 10 for me. I hope the author can understand this as a message to continue writing and continue improving. Have a good day.