Hollow Core: School of Swords and Serpents, Book 1

This book had a lot of my favorite elements blended together. There was a cultivation culture with a magic school setting, where all the students train in their paths to level up into strong warriors. And there were also litRPG elements, involving treasure hunts and boss type fights. It was a good blend of the two, but also resulted in both the cultivation and litRPG not being as strong and prevalent as they normally are in such books.While the characterization wasn't overly deep, it was good enough for me here, since I was in the mood of a lighter book. The friendships were nice. The magic and challenges weren't the most original, but they made a great read. The bully enemy was kind of immature, but again, it was fine for a light read.

This was an interesting and fun book set in an interesting universe. I enjoyed the energy magic and the detailed characters. There was a lot of action and fun characters throughout. I recommend this book.

Edit. I had to come back to edit and adjust the rating of this review. The first book I rated it was good but had some minor issues I thought. Unfortunately the entire series while entertaining and fun at times even striking some emotional chords is full of discontinuity and content errors. the abbreviated example is in this book is the main character is from St Louis halfway through the series he states he's from Dallas. at the end of the series a random character who was a minor antagonist and never a friend is referred to as a former friend. but in between books things that occur does not necessarily mean it will be true in the next book. Even at the very end of this book things that are stated as fact or later completely ignored. This can be a fun read and is a purely Kindle unlimited read for me. the best example I can give to the types of errors you will see is in the very last book a creature was first said to have 12 cores and with an few sentences it was then stated to have six chore and then alternately a paragraph or two later it was said to have nine cores. It was an obvious case of the author not looking at what he was writing. Again this is a purely Kindle unlimited read and if you can get by the messy plot and errors it can be a decent one time read.)Overall this story really did pull me in with a combination that felt a bit like Harry Potter meets Will Wight's Cradle seires. It is told in first person point of view and is appropriate for young adults and above. I can see it being a safe read for preteens as well. The story itself though can also satisfy adult readers. While there are a few mistakes from the author editing and some logical inconsistencies in world the overall the book left me turning page after page looking forward to the next part of the story. If they would have only put the chapter numbers in it would have been a lot more pleasing lol. Just felt sort of wrong to simply have title headings for each chapter.There is a lot of good in this work. Yes it does borrow quite heavily it feels from The Magic School genre and mixes it with a non-technical martial art cultivation fantasy. Truthfully though it was highly entertaining with just enough reader speed bumps for it to miss the mark a bit. Having a teacher with two different colored eyes one that twitches around the room and watches the other students or the other is focused on the main character was a bit too much like Mad-eye Moody which I think was sort of the purpose lol. Having a sword teach called Aurelius was definitely I think a nod to Will Wight.The world building happens at a good pace info dumping, allowing you know that is set in more of a modern time but with a martial arts fantasy twist that is world accomplishing. There is the question of if they have jet planes, fireworks and television why wouldn't they have guns lol. At the same time it feels like an alternate history which in and of itself helps with the world building putting the reader in a familiar territory with just a mystical twist.I did enjoy the characters feeling that they were well rounded to a point. And the setting itself did get a bit psychedelic when trying to figure out exactly what was going on but did not take me too far out of the story and any given point. There's a mixture of wry humor and even a bit of romance perhaps, along with plenty of action.It is a fairly solid story but some of the reader speed bumps comes sort of in content errors they're quite illogical even when looked at through the eyes of an enthralled reader. At one point early in the story he says he's been at the school for 3 months in the next chapter over the course of a few weeks it is shown to be the end of October meaning he is literally been on the end of the school for 2 months. A few times this sort of time error pops up.I also feel that the circumstance the protagonist finds himself in with the disdain and outright aggressive hatred by the antagonist and those under him seems to be ridiculous considering these are ancient adults and this is a 15-year-old kid. And that way the story did sort of pull me out but I do feel that the action and pacing of the story helped pull me through and pull me into the story enough for it just to be a nagging aggravation.So far I would highly recommend this story to any reader who wants to have a little bit of fun without going too deep. I have the feeling that this is going to be a fast paced adventure that will at times tug on the heartstrings while setting up action galore.

When I started reading back in the days of Tolkien and the other big authors books were big. My guess was that it was so difficult to publish that only some of the best stories could make it through and then also become popular. Sure, there were weak stories, but in today's age where it seems much easier to put anything out I had almost forgotten what the big classic story left me feeling like. As I came to the end of the story I realized that this story reminded me some of the big classics. A lot of authors nowadays seem to just take elements that are around us and put them together in somewhat clever little ways, but not a lot of stories seem to have a depth of imagination where many elements came straight from the imagination of the author. This is a good story and a good beginning. It is meaty, unpredictable, unique, and dramatic. I definitely would recommend.

I’ll admit, this is my first time giving Wuxia a try. I’ve been an avid reader of almost every genre, from fantasy to superhero to romance. I decided to see what Wuxia was all about, and I’ll say, I was NOT disappointed.For those like me who like a clean read, it was all that and more. No swearing that I could catch, no improper moments, it was just a straight up boat load of a great read.It kept me well up past my bedtime. It’s a deep read of political and social aspects that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Never once did I know where this story was going. That’s saying something considering I’ve read just about anything I can get my hands on and have most books mapped out in the first few chapters. It was a fresh, dark outlook into the lives of characters that you couldn’t help but cheer on. Picking up the next book RIGHT NOW. So bye y’all. It’s time to read.

My big complaint about cultivation tales has always been that the stories often seem to have little to nothing to do with characters and are all about big trainings and big powers without necessarily having a good world to base everything on. This story has many of the usual problems with the creeky foundation to the plot that makes the tales seem stilted.But Jace has some character, even if as always he's the angst-bot who gets lost in internal monologuing all too often.And the hollow core idea almost works. I think it ended up becoming a bit of a cliche by the end, but the ideas were there.And the story was somewhat entertaining, so I went on to book 2 quickly. Its one of the better tales in the genre so I'll give it 4 stars.

This is what Harry Potter did to magic as we find a demanding trial , over arduous roadblocks, and a stubborn boy who will suceed no matter what as he tries to survive through the famous school of swords and serpents.I was impressed with the world building and the way that we feel for the MC Jace as it seems everyone wants to kill him or use him for their own ends.

Fun,fun read. Very good mashup of wuxia with some YA wibes. And luckily, series is quite long already so i can read and discover some secrets that were hinted in this one. Very satisfied!

Amazing. Superb. Masterful. Funny. Clever. Exciting. Passionate. Well written.My only complaint..Not enoughnworda, pages, drama . No seriously I loved every morsel, every side quest and every denouement. Ten out of 5. Can't wait to read the next.

The wuxia elements aren't too complicated and were easy to understand. It's certainly a western take on the genre but I think it was executed well.

A book to drive your amoshion and keep you in the edge of your seat give it a go it is good