Senlin Ascends

"Devoured this book in two days. If you love adventure, imaginative settings, and character growth in an unlikely protagonist, read immediately! Or just read immediately because it's that good. :) "

"So to be clear I'm giving this book a 3 star instead of a 2 because I think the problem is more along the lines of, this wasn't for me, instead of, this was terrible writing. The book had an amazing premise. It starts with a mysterious tower and even though there is an actually paper guide to it, still the tower is riddled with secrets and traps.<br/><br/>The worst part of the writing style that I couldn't get over was the progression. Senlin loses his wife within a few minutes of their arrival and the plot is him of course trying to find her. But no. It was like one of those open world games with a million and a half side quest. Sometimes I think he forgot about her all together. Even with the side quest you think there would be some movement but yet again no. Chapter upon chapter went by and nothing happened.<br/><br/>Senlin was another problem for me which was no fault to the author it's just I have found I can't much enjoy a book unless I relate to the characters. Selin was an intellectual screw up. For him to be so well prepared he sure did get taken advantage of at every turn. It drove me mad, he seemed to never learn from his mistakes. I will say though, that when I could muster the brain power to listen to the audiobook, that even when the tower tried to eat his humanity he stayed the course. <br/><br/>Honestly I would have dnf this if I wasn't reading it in a group.....and I also picked it. There was good world building, a multitude of characters, it's just that I couldn't connect with any of them. The story meandered to a point where I began to daydream and didn't much care about the rest. I will say the tower intrigued me and I'm sure the story only gets better but I cannot find the strength.<br/><br/>Senlin's wife was still a mystery to me. I did start to get a sense of their relationship with flashbacks but it should have been more fleshed out. While there connect was seemingly genuine, I knew almost nothing of about her in end. And with no surprise we are left with a cliffhanger that in no way help to sway me to finish the seires."

"This book is kinda dull for the first half of it. It’s a lot of world building and the main character is kind of just being swept around without knowing what he’s doing and we don’t really get a good idea of what the stakes are or why we should care. But about 60 percent of the way through it just starts getting better and better."

"Great story. Pretty immersive, funny, and unusual. The world building was very well done, and the mysteries of the tower and it's idiosyncrasies provide a cool sense of wonder at every level."

"Short but alot of world building and characyer development. It was honestly really interesting. The second gets better "