The Dao of Magic

Dao of Magic, Book 1

By: Andries Louws

Narrated by: Pavi Proczko

Cultivation. Magic. Empowering unwitting animals!

A thousand-year-old cultivator, Drew, is about to ascend to a higher existence. As he begins the process, he finds out he has pissed off one too many demigods. Though he manages to fight off the concerted effort of sect elders and patriarchs...he is slapped away from the higher realms by something.

After an instant or an eternity, he awakens on a lower realm! The air is filled with garbage energy, and his emotions of all things are allowing him to control it. For a cultivator that has spent his existence absolutely controlling his thoughts...that won’t do at all. To regain his place in the cosmos, he will need to create the energy his is familiar with once more...even if it might poison the entire world.

Then again...he could just take it easy and leave all the hard work to his "willing" apprentices.

©2019 Andries Louws (P)2019 Podium Audio

Really close to a 5-star book... and funny.

I have listened to quite a few audiobooks whose reviewers claimed were hilarious and laugh-out-loud funny. Of all those books I think only one or two actually lived up to those claims. Keeping that in mind, I was laughing out loud like a crazy person at least once every couple of chapters. So if a fat, old curmudgeon like me was giggling all the way through this book, most other people should not have to worry that the claims are exaggerated.

Sadly, I was very close to skipping over this book based on the description. It sounded like another “over-powered, over-ego’d MC” book whose jokes were more likely to make me cringe than laugh, but based on a couple of the positive reviews which sounded like they were written by thinking adults, I took a chance...

The plot to this book mostly hangs in the background, and gives center-stage to a more slice-of-life flow. In spite of this, the book remains engaging and doesn’t have that pointless feeling that other books like it tend to engender. Really, you can feel the plot swirling around the bubble of ignorance that the MC is traveling inside and I fully expect the two to come crashing together in subsequent books.

This book isn’t for kids but that’s more due to language and attitude. Thankfully, in spite of sometimes being a little crass this novel doesn’t have any of the cringe-inducing, 13-year-old sex fantasies or completely unbelievable harem BS that seem to pollute every third fantasy title on Audible these days.

Lastly, although this is a story about a cultivator, it spends more time making light of the tropes of your typical Xianxia cultivation novel than it does adhering to the common tenants of that genre. Which I found extremely refreshing.

I honestly can’t imagine that anyone who has read this review and come away thinking they might enjoy this book will be disappointed after spending the credit.

I really wanted to give it 5 stars, but I try not to hand those out just because a book is really really good. They have to be amazing. But I’m still torn about my decision.

Lectured for 8 hours so far

This has got lots of great reviews and I don’t get it. 8 hours in and I am bored as hell. The main character is a 1000 year old ‘cultivator’. What does he cultivate? Chi. What is Chi? The solution to everything. Chi can make you strong, smarter, it can make you fly and turn non sentient animals/plants sentient. It can cut! It can dice! It can make French fries! It’s very overpowered but that seems to be the unapologetic point of it and it actually didn’t bother me terribly. What actually bothered me is that the main character just lectures you or his disciples about chi the whole fucking time. Another review called this a slice of life book but it feels like he hardly even lives he just sits there and take forever to do 1 thing because he wants to lecture the reader about his cool all encompassing power the whole time. Eventually you need to just move on and actually do shit! It got even worse when he got his disciples. Now he had a second group to lecture at and he didn’t even do it likable way, he was a pompous ass. Do not recommend unless you are super into magic rules almost exclusively.

don't listen to the haters on this one

the negative reviews on this book really illustrate how messed up the reviewing process is. first of all they don't just hate this book, they hate the genre this book should be cataloged in. (overpowered) if your wondering. I'm not one to shame people for their preference in books, if they enjoy reading about a weak ,and stupid mc that can't cross the street without getting their a** kicked twice then good for them. if they want to read about a pathetic excuse for a hero that suffers from constant moral quandaries about killing bad guys then fine. if they want to listen to constant scenes of over dramatized relationships, introspection, and moral grandstanding, go right ahead. there are millions of weak willed milk sops just like them that love that trash and that's perfectly fine. sadly those types are multiplying and there are far to many authors willing to serve that garbage. however there are so few authors writing books with overpowered main characters that are smart, competent, ruthless, cunning, unafraid, and strong as fu*k.
I personally enjoy reading about the best, I enjoy reading about my mc kicking ass, defying the bad guys, I even enjoy reading about the bad guy if he has most of the things I like in a mc. bottom line is cultivation, system, and litrpg is one of the few places we op mc lovers have to go in order to find a good book so stop sh*tting on a good author just because your tastes lay elsewhere.

plot holes aplenty

it not a bad story, but there are a lot of things that hurt the immersion. at 25(ecact age not specified) he dies on earth and finds himself on a new planet. he lives on this new planet 40 times longer than he did earth making a habit of studying everything he possibly could yet somehow associates closer to the drop of time he spent on earth. this goes as far as doing several earth dances and not a single one from the place he spent the most time. in addition, he thinks in English after so long as well. the chi planet turns into less a place he lived and more a novelty to pull creations from whenever its convenient. this leads to the next problem. I honestly believe the word chi is used more than the word the. whenever its used, its to explain whatever the main character wants to do with a single word. you can think it comparable to Chakra from naruto except more versatile.

the author has difficulty keeping track of what has happened in the past on several occasions such as planting a tea earlier and commenting that it was coming along nicely only to later introduce the same tea and have a tree plant it as if the earlier comments never happened.

I do like the start with problems obtaining chi and figuring out how to make it as that felt like it took effort but ever after that point, its just ever increasing and the results are ever larger.

I like the characterization of the deciples, each has their own personality, faults, history, grudges, and goals in mind with a lot of differences between each.

I do not like the main character's personality not because they act like a 25 year old given all the power but, as mentioned, that power was supposedly obtained over a 1000 years. You'd expect some kind of depth or at least an explanation as to why he's been stunted to the emotional maturity of a teenager.

I would give this a listen if you are looking for an op main character that always finds triumph and struggles little to achieve anything.

if the author sees this, again you have the start of a good story and the points I mentioned, aside from chi overuse, could be addressed fairly easily with explanations. given that the book is published with books after it would make it unlikely to be worthwhile.

Pretty Good

Interesting concept, lots of world building, slowly developing secondary characters, and very good narration are my key takeaways. The MC is super OP and is meant to be such. Explore the new universe as an almost-God is what the author seems to be going for. There are a few chuckles and an occasional guffaw. I'm assuming that a few challenges start coming up in future books which is only fair since he's only had one major challenge so far and his tree had to save him. I'll tag this in my wish list, but don't have a burning desire to jump to book 2 immediately.

Apparently it's a hit or miss?

I enjoyed the book. it wasn't the best I've heard but it was fun. If it clicks for you great, this book has a personality that isn't for everyone so if you don't that's fine too.

Fresh Perspective on Xianxia Main Character

Louws takes us on a journey to see what a Xian is MC who reincarnated from our world into a cultivation world would look like from our perspective and from the perspective of others.

While Main Character is massively over powered, the author avoids some of the downsides to the trope by taking something like a One Punch Man approach, examining the inherent comedy in his interactions with others, and looking at the rather flawed psyche of someone who has lived a couple thousand years in the rather messed up culture of a cultivation world.

Also his take on how a modern (western?) scientific minded person might approach real supernatural power and the attached eastern metaphysics are a surprisingly fresh and engaging ride.

Setting this in a semi familiar western fantasy world allows us to experience two different conflicts, one between our modern scientifically minded character and the other between a western style magic system and the overpowered cultivation style magic system.

Last note, amazing magic system work. Even what could have been a standard fantasy magic system had unique points to make it more interesting.

it's funny but lacks all suspense

I don't remember who said this but "The limits of a magic system are way more interesting than is powers"

Well in this book the power of qi just seems completely without limits or restrictions. and i feel like it makes it less interesting. The main character is basically an essentric God.

I feel like this book could have been considerably better if he was less powerful for longer.

But in the end most of the enjoyment i got out of the book was the humor. The other characters don't really matter and the protagonists relationship with them is very shallow.

Good once it gets going

The first ten to twelve chapters are relatively short but are unfortunately mostly comprised of the MC talking to himself and explaining several different concepts. Around chapter four I was ready to quit but luckily I held out because around chapter 13 or 14 once other characters are introduced it gets really good and becomes a solid cultivation novel. I'm about to check out the 2nd book now!

Pointless Whimsical with Endless Explanations

I can understand world building. I can understand introducing new mechanics and terms when needed to make how something works or how someone grows or why someone seems strong but has a flaw...but this book never stops doing that. It's one large weird educational journey with a bunny in tow. I feel like the author should have tried for children's books first and got this out of his system.