This Young Master Is Not Cannon Fodder

A Cultivation Fantasy (Tianyi, Book 1)

By: D.C. Haenlien

Narrated by: Ronnie Rowlands, Tiffany Suzuki

Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

A cultivation fantasy published in light novel style.

On the surface, Xi Tianyi was the only son of Sword Empress Xi of the Buzhou Immortal Sect, the number one expert in the Huang Realm. His birth was noble, his status exalted. But the truth was that Xi Tianyi was actually a reincarnated man from a world known as Earth.

On Earth, he was no one special, but with his new life, Xi Tianyi aims to reign invincible: past, present, and future. Among his goals was to travel back to Earth and reunite with his family.

However, as Xi Tianyi proceeds further on his Immortal path, he discovers that rather than the protagonist, why does he seem more like the cannon fodder villain?

©2021 D.C. Haenlien (P)2022 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

big fan

it's different and funny while still interesting and having a legitimate plot I've already read it twice and still enjoyed the audiobook although I have mixed feelings about the narrators I would recommend this series to most people

Not my usual but good.

I don't usually go for the wuxia type titles but this was a pleasant surprise

Great Start

amazing start for the authors first book I vary much enjoyed it. I am looking forward to the next books

very good book

I love cultivation books this one's a very good one I wish to it probably four or five times already I would like to get more of them instead of just three but I like the other books of men writes too but I need more

Awesome!

Really loved the story and finally an MC that isn't starting from nothing but instead a young master with a powerful and rich backer and i Really liked the part when he just shamelessly used his wallet to defeat a was stronger opponent. looking forward to book 2! Oh and the narration was really good too, no cringe moments with names or anything like that.

5stars

Well done. Well narrated.  will be looking forward to the next from this author. Is worth a listen, give it a try.

Not bad at all

First off, I want to state that this is the first book of this kind that I've read/listened to. I'm basing this review on the audiobooks own merits and not in comparison to anything else I've read. I really liked the story. I will say that the naming of everything in the terms they are described in (heavenly sword dragon of the earth realm side strike) through me off for a while. Once I got use to them though it was fine. That young master definitely wasn't cannon fodder in this book.

So, if you are into this type of book, I'd recommend it. The story is captivating.

Pretty good

Interesting story, it definitely isn’t boring. I really enjoyed it, I will for sure listen to the next one.
Great narration too.

What a surprise!

Right up front before you read any further just know that I recommend this book to anybody thinking about giving it a shot. A little context for my review. I tend to take it easy on the first and last book of any series as not every series makes it to “The End” and the first of anything can be a shaky endeavor. I also try to make clear the distinction between the quality of the writing/performance of the author/narrator and my personal tastes should they differ.

I will start out talking about the narration team first as I do not have much to say about them. This is my first time encountering either narrator. They did a pretty good job all around. There were a couple of places where tiffany's performance seemed a little flat to me. To be fair though the amount of dialogue she has in comparison to her counterpart is low. Both of them have quite a few books that they have narrated for up and available on audible. It does not appear to me as though either one of them has done dual narration before or that they have narrated for a book like this before. So as a first outing I think they did a pretty good job And I'd like to see more from them in the future.

Moving on to the author who appears to be relatively new to writing, I think the quality of the story was well done. The author has another series available on Amazon called “Adelheid” which follows the story of a lady reincarnated as a girl. This one has an earthling reincarnated as a boy. While I am still relatively new to cultivation stories, I can say that this one took me by surprise. It is definitely unique among those stories in my experience. The main character knows that he used to be an adult male on earth with family and has at least gone through college. He doesn't seem to know how he died or came to be in this new world. His first memories were as a baby being held by his new mother who is an immortal cultivator. This first story seems to span from age 10 to 13 for our main character. He is a very effeminate looking male and runs into quite a few harrowing events throughout the story. everything from an assassin to a flower picker which is a euphemism for a criminal who really needs to be castrated. Of course, there are the normal cultivator type issues as they climb to power. Now for my personal preference things felt to me as if they were a little off. I'm unsure whether it was a disconnect between the writing and the performance of the narrators or if it was first book jitters. It appeared as though the story was written so that it was way over the top. As we go through this story we learned that our main character isn't the only individual reincarnated from earth and as such as keeping that secret. There are also a number of references where the main character compares his experiences to those of fiction books he read when he was on earth. We also have this evil emperor who has long since been defeated but there's this Harry Potter element where he's left pieces of himself as a bid for reincarnation and our main character has one of those pieces.

Ultimately, I found the story interesting enough to continue. It is absolutely not what I expected. The second book is out now in eBook form as of the date that I am leaving this review. Book three is slated for release on December 30th. Lastly, I will say well done to everybody who had a hand in bringing this the first book of a new story to us the audible listeners and I am definitely interested in what comes next.

Perfect to scratch the xianxia cultivation itch

This is a pretty average xianxia/cultivation story, & that is not a criticism. While it didn’t blow my world, it hit each note perfectly satisfactorily. I can see someone new to the genre finding it a bit obscure & jargon filled, but if you’re already a fan of the genre, its solid. My only 2 criticisms are that its technically a reincarnation/isekai, but that has only a psychological impact on the story, not bringing any ideas from modern times, & that it doesn’t focus on humor & the titular concept as much as the summary would suggest.