Street Cultivation: a different take on progression

About

Street Cultivation is a completed trilogy written by Sarah Lin.

Blurb

In the modern world, qi is money.

The days of traveling martial artists and mountaintop masters are over. Power is controlled by corporations, modernized martial arts sects, and governments. Those at the bottom of society struggle as second class citizens in a world in which power is a commodity.

Rick is a young fighter in this world. He doesn't dream of immortality or becoming the strongest, just of building a better life for himself and his sister, who suffers from a spiritual illness. Unfortunately, life isn't that easy...

Review

Progression fantasy is one of my favorite subgenres, but I've been trying to space them to avoid burnout. I've read Sarah Lin's New Game Minus series before, so I've had Street Cultivation on TBR too. I wanted to binge the trilogy in one go and finally got a chance recently.

Book 1

I was drawn in right from the beginning. The setting was interesting (a phase shifted Earth with similar but changed political history). Economics plays a major role in progression of the characters. Rick struggles to stay afloat while taking care of his sister. Their relationship was one of the best highlights throughout the series 👍 👍.

Rick finds himself participating in combat events. For once, the tournament arc didn't have a sudden disturbance leading to escalation of events. The book ended well and can be read as a standalone too.

Book 2

The best parts were a series of chapters roughly in the middle of the book that focused a lot on relationships between various characters. I wish we got more such chapters as well POV from some more characters.

Book 3

The pacing continued to be good. It also helped that the world tour led to deeper world building and introduction to new characters. The second half was more interesting and I enjoyed the ending.

Given that some of the usual tropes of world saving, vengeance, rapid progression to higher tiers of power, etc were deliberately subverted, I wish we had more slice-of-life chapters. I liked Rick as a protagonist throughout the series, but a few more chapters from other characters would've made it for a more balanced reading. That said, I've seen readers in this genre preferring single POV, so perhaps this is to be expected.

Overall thoughts

The magic system was well thought out, versatile and interesting. I also liked that smart choices can make a difference even when the magical progression is largely dependent on available finance.

Writing was easy to follow, but I wish some scenes were shown actively instead of being described. Some elements of the plot became repetitive over the series, though one of them had a good explanation in the final book.

I finished the trilogy in less than four days and I was entertained throughout. I hope the author gives us more books in this setting.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What others are saying

From Lukas Lovas's review on goodreads for book 1:

I did not expect to enjoy this book quite so much. There is a very strong underdog vibe here and the writing is solid with plenty of humorous exchanges that made me smile or outright laugh. I like the setting of wuxia theme in the modern world and the story itself was enjoyable.

From Andrew Lukyanenko's review on goodreads for book 3:

I really like how the author handled balance between training and life. Too often we see heroes who focus everything on training. It is quite refreshing to see main hero, who wants to live well and have more things in life that pure training. And I'm glad he has a nice sister :)

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2021 bingo categories (applies to all three books):

• Backlist Book
  • as far as I know no sequel has been announced, but won't be surprised if it happens
• Comfort Read (HM)
• Self-Published
• Has Chapter Titles