The Second Storm: A Xianxia Fantasy Epic

A Thousand Li, Book 6

By: Tao Wong

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

When war wages, even innocents perish. Two years have passed, and the war between the kingdoms of Shen and Wei rages on. The dark sect moves in the shadows, striking against the noble Verdant Green Waters Sect, damaging, killing and kidnapping their members.

Among the victims is Fairy Yang, Wu Ying's martial sister. On a desperate quest to retrieve her, Wu Ying finds himself caught up in inter-sect politics and headed straight for a trap. Tragedy awaits, but some paths a man must walk, no matter the cost. 

The Second Storm is the sixth novel in the A Thousand Li series, a book about immortal cultivation, wondrous martial arts, evil cultivation sects and spirit beasts. This series will be loved by those searching for wuxia, xianxia and progression fantasy works and those looking for a more westernized cultivation story. The Second Storm is written by Tao Wong, the best-selling sci-fi and fantasy LitRPG author of The System Apocalypse, Adventures on Brad, and the Hidden Wishes series.

©2021 Tao Wong (P)2021 Tao Wong

The greatness of the book comes from the

The greatness of the book comes from the dedication of the author to create reasonable and deep explanation of how the MC makes progress rather that just force feeding the MC power.

Excellent

Another great book by Tao Wong, I've really enjoyed this series. I'm excited to see the next step on the journey!

Confusing mishmash

The story is — when distilled to its essence — straightforward and simple. If such a needed distilling would have occurred, this would be (and should have been) a short story and not a full novel. After listening to it (with another serviceable performance by Travis Baldree), my feeling that these books aren’t given a thorough editing, much less a friendly review, continues to grow. I could believe that the author is self-publishing these books without the benefit of a good (or any) editor. I completely understand these are fantasy and, as such, disbelief must be suspended to a large degree. Still, the dizzying and baffling use by the author of various fighting styles/forms and “cultivation” techniques is near-incomprehensible and come across as random word generators and Deus Ex Machina tailored to what the author needed at that exact point without earning any of it organically. Frankly, it comes across as making up a bunch of stuff to fill out the story to novel length. Worse, the book is contradictory and rife with inconsistencies with itself and within (what I thought were) the canonical universe of these books. Also — and I know this may come across as a Western bias — there were so many characters introduced in this that it was impossible to keep track of any of them except the few main characters I’ve come to know in the series so far. I don’t know if I could have kept track of them better if I had read the text myself or not, but I got the feeling that the pronunciations of the names by Mr. Baldree was inconsistent and the author didn’t provide nearly enough references when the characters were mentioned for me to recall who and what they were and, again, there were So. Many. Characters! And, to my ear, impossible to keep them straight. I’ve generally enjoyed these books so far and am invested in this series, but the author needs to perhaps take more time to write them and give them a chance to be thoroughly reviewed and critically edited before releasing them. This story is more a vignette of a trial for the protagonist, rather than truly progressing his development. I’m getting the sinking feeling that the author is getting paid by the word and I’ve invested my time in another series that just limps along because the author is trying to wring as much money out of it as he can, and not because he has a clear story arc to write about. If the next book isn’t significantly better written, it may be my last foray in The Thousand Li series.

too long for what happened

the overall theme of this story should have been one of those short stories that the author has been releasing recently. if we take out all of the main characters contemplations of nature and his surroundings this book would only be long enough for a short story.

the only saving grace of this book was Travis Baldrees narration.

Really good , can’t wait for the next one. Too short.

While the context of what drives the story is never a fun one things turn out so that we’ll see more story and more form the main character. I look forward to it.

another great read

These books just keep getting better. I just wish it was longer. But that's not a real complaint, I loved every second of it.

Conflict

I absolutely love Travis Baldree's narration as always. Tao Wong has given us a book I love but makes me want to scream in outrage. Thank you both for this story I will patiently await for the next.

Another great book

one of my favorite series, happy too enjoy another book with an enthralling journey leaving me in anticipation of what's too come.

Alomst no cultivation

A mediocre performance. Very little cultivation and too much battle. Quite uninteresting. Find your roots mr. Wong

too short, and too long

The author has what I feel is a nasty habit, taking far too long to say far too little.

TLDR: this feels like a short story padded out to be a short novel.

Honestly I don't believe I have any problem with the pacing of the main characters growth in power. The cultivation is interesting, the path the main character is taking is compelling. The actions of the main character and the growth that results from those choices feel good. All this being said, The length of the story itself is too long for the contents inside it. This section of the story would be improved if it was only 4 hours long, and if we began the next leg of the adventure.

this is true for all of the authors books in the series. I might just come back to this series in 5 or 6 years, or whenever it has ended and listen to everything at 1.5 times speed over 2 or 3 days. that would mask the problems of the series.

I see others in this review section complaining of the shortness of this book, and I do agree with them to a point. I think the desire for this book to be longer comes from wanting more progress rather than more depth. If this was an 8-hour book that contained more than one short mission I do not think people would complain about its length.

Ok but a bit of a filler

Stared good but then turned to one of my most hated tropes - a kidnapping! The storytelling is a bit frustrating, stressed and simplistic. Quite a few mostly badly sexual comments, while the MC is a stiff child.

Minted

Fast paced and brutal combat mixed with great characters and some genuine humour. Honestly one of the best cultivation series around

Amazing

Another fantastic book, can't wait for the next. I definitely recommend getting this series.

Great Addition to the Series

Yet another fantastic book in the series filled with action, sorrow and loss. This book is probably the most action packed of the series so far, the fight scenes are well written and epic.