Soulhome

The Weirkey Chronicles, Book 1

By: Sarah Lin

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Betrayed. Murdered. Reborn. One last chance, to make it right.  

Theo's adventure ended with his mentor's hands around his neck. The betrayal cost him his friends, allies and everything he had built...but not his life. Though broken and powerless, Theo has one last chance to enter the Nine Worlds, wielding the knowledge and expertise of his first life. This time, he needs more than just power, he needs to unravel the deception that killed him once...and is coming for him again.

Reborn in the world of Tatian, the odds are stacked against Theo this time. Demons are crawling from the darkness, inter-dimensional travelers are working against him, and a shadowy conspiracy lies in wait to destroy him. Theo has a plan to gather allies and regain his power, but weakened from his rebirth, he'll have to survive long enough to enact it.

Sarah Lin is the best-selling author of Street Cultivation, the critically acclaimed The Brightest Shadow, and several other completed works. Soulhome is the first book in her newest series.

©2020 Sarah Lin (P)2021 Sarah Lin

Slow starter, but worth it

This book has several beginnings. It's short, so it wasn't too bad, but you should know what you're getting into. First there's a prolog where things go very badly for the MC. Then Chapter 1 seems like the real start... but the MC still doesn't realize something important. Then about half-way he reorients himself and things start to pick up. It reminded me a bit of Re:Zero but the realization comes much earlier in the story.

PROGRESSION: I'm pretty sure that some of the top negative reviews didn't finish the book. It's true that the MC has a setback but once he realizes what's blocking him that supposed setback makes him more powerful in the end. He does lose a couple fights but once he figures out his new gravity powers he starts dominating and carries multiple rounds himself. And it's important to remember that he just arrived in the world a few weeks ago and he's trying to catch up to people who have been soulcrafting their entire lives.

In the later books in the series he's flying, doing orbital bombardments, and creating black holes. But you can't start there, he has to build a strong foundation of gravity-based powers first. If you want your protagonists to be OP from Day 1 this might not be for you, but I think it's more satisfying to see them work hard to reach that point.

MAGIC: Soulcrafting is an amazing system and this first book only scratches the surface. If you like the system at all there's a lot of cool stuff later. Not all the details are explained now but you learn more about the magic as you go along.

PLOT: This book is a bit weaker but it has some good twists. As I said this one is a bit of a slow starter. There's a short tournament arc that is just "good" but once the climax kicks in it's amazing to the end.

CHARACTERS: The MC isn't exactly who you might expect. He thinks he knows who he is but his first life he was basically being manipulated and handed the easy path. On his second life he has to reconsider his nature and I get how that's not for everyone. For other characters: Fiyu will be fantastically relatable for introverts everywhere, Navim is everybody's big rock friend, and Nauda is just okay for this book.

WRITING: Good, in the "simple and carefully worded" sense. I found the first book a bit blander than I remembered but the writing keeps getting stronger as you see more cultural perspectives. For now it moves things along well enough and the action scenes are top notch once they get going.

NARRATOR: Travis Baldree is the GOAT as far as I'm concerned.

All in all this is a mostly good beginning to a fantastic series. Don't miss out on it because the beginning starts a little slow.

A story of an author who hates her main character

Mild Spoilers


Pretty much summed up in the headline
The author really seems to hate her main character
Everything he does fails
Every challenge he undertakes he fails
Every time he tries to help he fails
A plan he's been working on for 40 years? Yeah he'll screw that up
There's a tournament arc (brief) and the main character is worthless
Female side character goes in beats her enemy in seconds
Secondary female side character goes in struggles briefly then wins
Main character goes in and gets beaten in seconds badly (He remarks how badly he lost just so you know he knows he's worthless)
Female side character gets a second fight and your made to think it's an even fight cause the other side sends in their best but don't worry she wins within an minute
The only time he's any good is during combat in the first few chapters and only unless the female side character is present then he's barely a blip sure he helps but the author makes sure to tell us that the female side character could've done it without him the author makes sure the reader knows by having the main character himself remark on it
Mind you the main character is on his second run through this world (Story explains that kinda) and he should know how to fast track to his previous strength or at least he should be a worthwhile fighter seeing as how he was really powerful during his first run and he's 60+ years old but nope
He's simply worthless acts like a teenager when his plans go awry and barely seems to understand the magic system that he was gaming pretty good to reach his previous level of power
All in all the author kinda comes off as a misandrist and should've just told the story of the female characters perspective as she very clearly wanted to and just left the useless main character out of it
Travis is as always a fantastic narrator but even the best can't fix bad

I love the magic system

I love crafting things personally so the idea that you craft things as the basis of the magic system is awesome. I've read the books that are out and have been waiting for the audiobooks. You can't really beat Travis as a reader.

Great

I enjoyed this story much more than I thought I would. Its sort of cultivation meets crafting with a splash of base building

Sarah Linn is Awesome

I had the pleasure of reading this before I listened. And the narration made it better

Very good and would like to see more in audio form

I really enjoyed this book and the next and would love to see the later books be adapted. I really like the idea of the soul home for a cultivation method.

great progression style fantasy

it was a really good book and great choice in narrator, can't wait for the rest of the series on audible.

Creative magic system with amazing narration

The author is incredibly creative with the worlds and magic in this series and the narrator is amazing. Can't wait for the next books in the series.

fantastic book eith a fantastic performance

Soulhome is a fun, fast paced story with an interesting magic system and world building. I thought the different cultures and how they interact with each other was very interesting. Poor Fiya is a cinnamon roll. Travis Baldree was excellent as always. Highly Highly recommend!

Impressive Story Enhanced by Audio Version

I have enjoyed reading many of Sarah Lin's stories, including Soulhome. But this audio version narrated by Travis Baldree is phenomenal, so you will also want to listen to it. In this novel, Sarah Lin introduces us to the main characters for this series, which leaves room for continued character development and world building. The main protagonist, Theo, is a complex individual, which readers experience as they become privy to his inner thoughts and motivations. The soul crafting of the protagonists' foundation and power structure is intriguing and a novel way for characters to grow in magic capabilities. Lin has developed a unique, one-of-a-kind method of building and ascending in power levels. Everyone will enjoy this fresh take in progression fantasy.

Unique story and great performance.

I really enjoy the unique style of magic in this story, Sarah Lin's worlds are always interesting and the world building is magnificent. I think the characterisation in this story is really strong and all the voices are unique in style as well as acting.

Fantastic

A fascinating and novel magic system combined with a twist to the reincarnation subgenre. I loved it.