[Story] The Weirkey Chronicles: Reborn across Nine Worlds (Fantasy Cultivation)

Title: The Weirkey Chronicles: Reborn across Nine Worlds (Fantasy Cultivation)
Author: SarahLin
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Tags: Mystery, High Fantasy Magic, Male Lead, Martial Arts, Portal Fantasy, Isekai, Reincarnation, Wuxia, Xianxia
Audience: –
Main Lead: Male
Status: Ongoing
VB Assessment Score: PDE 2 CDD 2 SWB 3 || TQ 3 SV 3 || Overall: 13
Number of Chapters: 25
Chapter Length: Medium
Reading Level: Medium
Date of First Release: September 5, 2020
Date of Last Update: November 10, 2020
VB Reviewed? No
Available on Platform(s): Royal Road
Number of Views: 123K
Number of Reviews: 23
Synopsis:
Theo’s adventure ended with his mentor’s hands around his neck. The betrayal cost him his friends and allies, everything he had built… but not his life. Though broken and powerless, Theo has one last chance to enter the Nine Worlds, wielding the expertise of his first lifetime. This time, he needs more than just power, he needs to unravel the deception that killed him once… and is coming for him again.

Review(s)

TheEarlofBronze: I gotta admit, this story feels very, very satisfying. It’s got polish, it’s got clear direction, it’s got a tight and small cast, an intelligent and easily visualised magic system that actually takes your standard cultivation nonsense and makes something workable out of it… basically it’s got a LOT going for it aside from it’s length. Just need some more now.
I highly recommend pushing through the prologue and chapter 1. They’re probably the weakest part so far, by the time chapter 2 & 3 rolls around the story is in full swing, things are moving and characters are being properly introduced.
Definitely a story to keep a close eye on guys. 

Garlath: The concept is full of promise: a twist on the usual isekai theme makes the story more interesting while giving the main character more complex motivations. The author manages to mix the excitement of discovery and curiosity about the setting, with regret of events in the past very well, and without losing the sense of forward-looking that many value highly in such stories.
The magic system is complex, well designed, unique and interesting, mixing litrpg and cultivation elements into a unique system.
The grammar and style are both excellent: this is not the authors first novel:  chapters are well thought out, part of a coherent whole, and spell/grammar checked.
Can’t wait to read more!

partiallycyber: Thus far, this seems to be a really solid story – the cultivation, especially, is pleasingly tactile and intuitive. Highly recommend for the innovation there alone. Pacing is on point and Sarah Lin does an excellent job of reminding the reader of larger story-arcs with subtle foreshadowing without getting sidetracked.
The characters are believable and sympathetic, which I greatly enjoy. Theo especially hits a really sweet spot between bitter and melancholic while not being depressing to read.
Between style and grammar, I’ve no complaints. No obvious typos, punctuation is where it should be, and sentences are smooth. The story follows a single character’s POV, which I enjoy, and the writing is brisk, doing an excellent job of describing the world without lingering overmuch on any one detail.

Stillness: I’ll begin by saying that the writing style is excellent, the grammar good and the setting fascinating. Moving on to why I’m conflicted; I really dislike the main character. Theo, our protaganist, is kind of an ass. He is overly prideful, selfish and bitter. Theo starts off the story fine, but is betrayed, killed and returns to his original world Earth. It isn’t shown in the story, but is implied that he lived the next fourty years on Earth trying to find a way back to the Nine Worlds to have his revenge. I don’t really get why he is so obsessed with getting revenge. It turned him into a bitter old man. It isn’t explained exactly how he got back to the Nine worlds in a youthful body, but he procceds to go about gaining power all over again. There simply isn’t much that’s likeable about his personality and that prevents me from caring about his story. I’d recommend reading a few chapters to try it out, but don’t fall for the hype.

WachTraum: Anyone can look at Sarah Lins previous work to know that she can write believable, likeable characters and a tight plot with just the right amount of fluff, so I am not going to dwell on these points. Although just in the early stages, I have trust in the author to deliver.
Instead I want to point out the extremely creative magic system. It’s “hard” enough to suspend my disbelief, while flexible enough to make every persons Magic feel different. It also features a perfect explanation for the different stages often found in cultivation stories and offers a fresh look at training/progression that is not a derivation of punching this really hard stone 1000 times real real hard. Last but certainly not least it is – for me at least- TRULY ORIGINAL.
All in all: Highly Recommend for all Cultivation Lovers, but especially for worldbuilding/magic system fans

Tanner_1000: Sarah Lin definitely has that thing that she brings to her characters every time she writes them out. Her street cultivation novel seemed stereotypical, but at the end brought out a interesting and fluid character development.
In this novel, she uses some cliches but does it masterfully to avoid the common tropes that makes a story a job to read. The main character Theo, is fleshed out to be a old man that is kind, yet knows his limits on how far kindness can be in a new benelovent world. His take is on foundation and patience for gathering power, which may make some readers who want a quick” overpowered character sway away from this story.
However, it is refreshing to see that after facing defeat from some unusual encounter, Theo has not given up or have much of a resentment. This not being shown as cowardly though, but as endurance. The story as of now mainly seems to be slowly cultivating, while Theo mends any type of dissent or arguments between different cultural backgrounds.

[omitted other reviews due to length and enough content shown above]

Story Post Last Updated: November 11, 2020