Blood and Qi

John, a vampire living for near six thousand years, has gone by many names in his life. Warrior, king, god. Such great age can also be a curse, as his mind has not kept up with the regeneration of his body, and he struggles to even remember his own name.

That is until powerful beings called the ascended come to Earth and remove a shield blocking our solar system from the Tree of Life. John is healed, and his mind restored, and he is ready to learn this new way of gaining power, this self-cultivation, and defend his world. But he's no longer the apex predator. A high ascended wants his head, and armies of demons, dark ones, and g'athu stand in his path.

John has accumulated many skills throughout his life, and with the NCS giving him knowledge and guidance on the ways and techniques of self-cultivation; he is determined to fight. Joined by the strange and beautiful Amber, a woman as extraordinary as any vampire, John endeavors to grow in might.

It's a race for survival, and if humans manage to endure the current invasion, their only prize will be a far deadlier one. Vampires are unknown, could John and his kin be the reason Earth was kept from the Tree of Life?

©2024 Anthony Alves (P)2024 Tantor Media

I liked the premise more than the plot and execution

For me this book went from hard to put down to waiting for it to be over. I'd say the first half of the book was the former and the last half the latter.

How slow/dumb the protagonist was was a downer for me. I don't believe someone that old could be that dumb, so it felt forced.

As for the plot, it's hard to articulate what I didn't like about it, but it felt like there was never a point where the protagonist just won, it was always barely made it out or suffered greatly to succeed kind of thing. And I'm fine with that, I just don't want it to be the entire freaking book.

A LEGIT GEM

True sleeper here. I went in expecting nothing, now I'm strapped in for the ride! The MC is a little slow, but understandably so. I hope his continue rise makes him less so. BJ Harrison absolutely kills it! I'm a new fan. Top tier narration. Amber makes up for being annoying at times by being hilarious at others. And she's a female character that's not begging to be simped on and actually helps the MC for once.

Overall great book. I'm really looking forward to a long and awesome series. I hope the suthor hangs in there like our MC and keeps pushing on. We've got to make it to the stars with these one :)

P.S. UBABA IS BEAUTIFUL! NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE SAYS >:(

Great narration!

BJ Harrison did a fantastic job narrating which provided a much different experience than I got from reading this book.