The Dao of Magic #1

The Dao of Magic #1

by Andries Louws

I'm Drew Liam, a cultivator, a human being capable of crushing mountains and rerouting rivers with a flick of my fingers. But seriously though, I'm sitting on a mountain so far away from civilisation it might as well be the godforsaken arse of the world and these control freaks still won't leave me alone. I'm about to ascend and can't wait to leave this crapfest of a planet. Turns out, the powers-that-be decided that an unaffiliated rogue like me is too big of a risk to let run around free.

So they sent all the sect-, organisation- and churchmasters, hidden Dao protectors and other bigshots my way to kill me. This failed, obviously. I managed to ascend in a glorious shower of divine power and ascend, after which someone else managed to bitch slap me to another dimension altogether, unfortunately.

Long story short, I just woke up in a valley watching some critters murder each other while trying not to freak out about how bad it smells here. Soo… where the fuck am I? Why is that deer fighting a feathery squirrel? Why am I teaching this baby rabbit saved from a cannibalistic mother how to kick beings in the face with the power of qi? Fuck it, let's just kidnap some clueless kids and teach them the wonders of the supernatural power called qi, alright?

Come join Drew as he adventures across a rather primitive medieval, low magical fantasy planet while trying to regain his status as a cultivator who spits in the face of the heavens and the earth.

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, World Literature, Magic, Supernatural, Young Adult, Dragons

426 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 22, 2018

About the author

Andries Louws is an avid reader of fantasy, science fiction and pretty much everything interesting since a young age. He is still thankful to the nice ladies at the local library that let him check out all those violent action thrillers, epic fantasy books and encyclopaedias without enforcing age requirements. He also studied multimedia design and computer science while devouring as many novels, audiobooks, and video games as he could get his hands on. He then started writing his own stories after reading one too many badly translated Chinese novels and hasn't stopped since.

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Reviews

[Timothy Nugent · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read about 3/4 of the first book and I had to put it down. So far there is not a bit of plot. The main character never struggles with anything and we have no reason to read about him. He has no epic quest, and there is no bad guy. He isn't overcoming any obstacles. It is just about a dude who wants to learn things. The book goes heavily into its own cultivation system, which is good, but ignores any sense of storyline to do it.

Also, has major grammar/writing issues.

[Artur Serra-Salvat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is a refreshing melting pot of the LitRPG sub-genre and this other sub-genre of cultivators of qi and martial arts. A constant in LitRPG is that the protagonist uses an unexpected cheat in order to gain advantage with respect to the rest of the world. In the case of this book, the cheat is simply a scientific approach to qi and any other energy in general.
What made the book enjoyable was the mixing in the protagonist of the typical individualism of a cultivator with an obsessive purpose of increasing power with a strong scientific curiosity that deviates this purpose with “experiments”. Maybe the result is a playful personality that discourage some readers but to me is one of its best points.

[Superbunny · Rating 2 out of 5]

i was sold on the book blurb. the book however, did not deliver. 1000+ yo immature MC with a superiority complex and who swears like a 10yo trying to be cool. DNF

[Steve Naylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating 1.5 stars DNF

I thought I would like this book. This is one of those DNF books in which instead of hating the book, I just didn't care. I was listening to the audiobook and it took 3 hours before there was a second character introduced. The first 3 hours was all internal monologue for the main character. The main character Drew was a cultivator on a different world about to ascend when he was attacked. He wakes up on this new world and all his advancements are gone. He is just a normal person again, so he starts the process of becoming a cultivator again. Some of the things he said were out of place for that context. When he got to this new world he said "Looks like were not in Kansas anymore". How does he know that phrase. Even if he was on earth at one point, he was there for over 1000 years. I can't imagine that is something he would say. He also complained of wanting coffee, though as a cultivator he didn't need to eat, sleep or anything and could survive just on chi. So that reference is completely out of place. The cultivation is interesting at first but then Drew starts mixing it with computer programming. He sets up a program in his mind to do things with his chi. That was kind of boring. There was about 15 hours left in the book and I just decided I didn't want to waste my time. I am sure that it would have gotten better later since finally a new character was introduced but it was a little too late for me.

[Gloope · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Nearly the entire book is an internal monologue from the main character about his musings on cultivation. I usually love a well thought out magic/cultivation system, but despite the inordinate amount of time spent on the main character's scientific approach to cultivating, I didn't really get a better understanding of the system. I felt like the only purpose was for the author/main character to look smart.

The remaining story is mostly "fluff" in which the 1000 year old main character acts like a immature teenager in an attempt to humor himself. Most of LitRPG heavily targets the young and nerdy audience with main characters that are supposed to behave and have a similar sense of humor to the audience. Despite fitting the target audience, I felt that the main character wasn't "playful", just an immature jackass.

Despite the length of the novel, there isn't much plot, suspense, or character development. I love a good slice of life story but for that you really need dialogue between characters (sadly lacking). The main character enters the story as all powerful and never really faces any challenges that he can't solve with a simple thought.

[Erick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry folks...wait, I'm absolutely not sorry. This book annoyed the heck out of me from the start. So much so that I didn't want to finish it. Drew is a dickhead. The author tries to mask it with some witty writing, but he doesn't succeed in my opinion. I think one of the biggest mistakes is leaving us alone with this jerkfish for the first fifth of the book before you bring in a side kick for him to interact with. All this does is amplify how horrible of a person he is. Hey, maybe he does get better. But I sure don't want to stick around to find out because I loathe him so much. I thought maybe it'd be okay once he adopts his bunny side kick. That should make someone seem better right? Hell to the no. It actually makes him look worse. Because his idea of fun is kicking the bunny like a football in order to build its chi. You can say this is okay because the bunny isn't really hurt. But it just shows just how nasty this guy is. Like I said, maybe he figures it out. But I hated him so much I didn't stick around to find out.

[joshua glenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor writing.

The Mc swears like a middle schooler trying to swear like an adult. Words like "SHIZZNIT" appear a lot. More than 10% of the book is WRITTEN IN CAPITAL LETTERS, BECAUSE IT SHOWS HOWS SHOUTY THE MC CAN BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When a book actually causes my eyes discomfort, it loses 3 stars.

Lastly for 1,000-year-old demi-God he is extremely immature. All in all, a bad format of writing, and a not so likeable mc. 2/5

[Soo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mini-Review:

4 Stars for Narration by Pavi Proczko (May be my fav by this narrator.)
4.5 Stars for Fun Concepts/Twists
3 Stars for Characters & Setting

I actually listened to parts of this story several times in a disconnected fashion. That didn't make a big impression on me. In fact, the story didn't really hook me until the end. I am a lover of details and fun connections. There's a good bit of that towards the end of the book. Story pacing goes all over the place, and I didn't have a good grasp of any of the characters until 60%-ish mark. It's hard to appreciate a story of quirks when you don't really know the quirks. But! Once it clicked for me, I enjoyed the story a whole lot more.

[Maho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read. It was fun for book 1, but I instantly went to book 2 and it's just more of the same. The book has too little action in comparison to too much explanation about why the MC is smart and good and badass and such. Just feels somewhat unbalanced.

[Dean Kinred · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premises of the book is pretty cool. But thats about it, hes taken the cultivation system and twisted it quite a bit- where the dao in most decent cultivation stories means seeking the truth in what ever dao it is, AKA illusions, sword, fire, void, time, ETC- he just made it into a magical mental computer construct and literally articulates his thoughts in fights, like- most 10 cm to the left, move again for enemy dodge attempt, stab.

And he talks like a stupid teenager trying to be funny in front of his friends, SHIZNIT is one of the words he likes to use. WTF this is someone who was an old man, then reincarnated into a 10 yrs old child, and lives for another 1000 years fighting and being hunter the whole time because he is so smart and does what ever he wants.

I liked the first part until I realised he sets a world up, has a 1000+ yr old martial artist who is immature and looks down on EVERYTHING because hes super smart.....

Had a lot of hope but seriously, so many books now days have either a super immature smart arse MC of just a previous socially awkward horny person who gets drowned in super models. Tired of all the seemingly endless terribly average stories that a raining from the sky now.

[LionessLover · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea is fine, execution is horrible. Juvenile writing and jokes unending. The whole text feels random, there is no path, even from one paragraph to the next there only is a loose connection. The more I read the worse it felt. It's less apparent when only reading a few pages. The text is jumping around no particular path - constantly.

[Lara R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dao of Magic is a fun, irreverent take on cultivation fantasy that leans hard into humor and clever problem-solving rather than traditional power progression.

Drew is an already max-level cultivator who gets dumped into a low-magic world after a failed ascension, and watching him apply logic, science, and sheer audacity to completely break the local magic system is highly entertaining. The book shines whenever it explores his tinkering with mana, his unconventional teaching methods, and the absurd results of introducing higher-level cultivation concepts into an underdeveloped world.

The tone is very tongue-in-cheek, with plenty of pop-culture references and snarky internal monologue. That won’t work for everyone, but if you enjoy overpowered protagonists who solve problems creatively instead of through brute force, this delivers exactly that. The pacing is generally good, and the worldbuilding ideas are interesting, even if the stakes feel intentionally low because Drew is rarely in real danger.

The reason this lands at four stars rather than five is that the humor can occasionally be a bit much, and the lack of meaningful opposition may leave some readers wanting more tension. Still, as a lighthearted, clever entry into cultivation fantasy, this was a very enjoyable read and a strong start to the series.

[Jonathan Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 Stars

[Victor Sanchez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, first thing first
Is it a good book? Not... really. Its serviceable, of course. But it has a very smug, white-man point of view on Xianxia (which is good and bad), a very underdeveloped setting (taking more time explaining Dao than explaining his past or the world they live in beyond the most generic description), it has a very, very juvenile humor (poop, fat jokes, dick jokes and memes from 2008 I think) and yeah, the protagonist is beyond OP for the setting.

Yet it is entertaining.

As long as you don't take it seriously even by a moment, it is an entertaining book. Like reading one of those parodies of harry potter in which Harry is a jaded American wizard or the silliest Doctor Who episodes, it's fine.

So into the good is that it explain a lot of the more unique aspects of Xianxia, of Qi and the expectatives of the setting. It manage to reconcile it with the more usual view western audiences have of magic.

Some scenes are funny, the fight scenes have clear choreography and are not what you could call offensive.

So a firm 5/10

[Galaleo Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

This new take on a cultivation novel is fun and exciting. Best part is the hilarity of the entire book. I couldn’t put it down and couldn’t stop laughing. I recommend this to any fan of humor and cultivation stories. I can’t wait for the next installment.

[Endoria · Rating 1 out of 5]

The tone of the blurb is exactly how the story is written, how the MC behaves and how the MC thinks and talks to himself.

15yo edgelord trying very hard to be cool. Its a cringefest and you will quit within the first 50 pages if you have any expectation to quality and fantasy novels.

[Abram · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly the dao of magic was pretty boring.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book for a couple of simple reasons. First, unlike so many other authors I've encountered, this author understands that a fantasy story is interesting in and of itself. Therefore the author doesn't detract from the story by giving his MC unnecessary issues in lieu of actual character development. Here the MC is someone who has spent a thousand years trying to improve himself and his abilities and climb to ever higher celestial heights. It is true the MC has made enemies along the way but these enemies arise from the MC's natural interactions with the universe he inhabits.

Just as the MC was about to ascend to a higher plane his enemies manage to knock him back to a lower plane. In this way the MC wakes up on a planet he knows nothing about with virtually no powers. Thanks to his thousand years of experience the MC is quickly able to remedy this situation. In fact the MC's knowledge of higher forms of magic allows him to become something close to a minor god in a matter of days.

This brings me to my second accolade for this book. To criticize a book for having an overpowered MC is ridiculous simply because it is meaningless for two reasons: First, essentially any MC can be called overpowered if someone so desires. Second, even if "overpowered" has some significance, it is the use of power that makes a story interesting, as is the case here.

Higher magic on a lower plane can act as an epidemic and kill all intelligent life. The MC doesn't really owe this world anything but still he doesn't want to be responsible for killing a planet. As a result the MC sets out to police his own magic and along the way he gathers a group of apprentices and so impresses a female dragon that she begins to stalk the MC. And that is, in a nutshell, the story of this book. It may not sound like much but the focus of the story is on the individuals and their journeys through life so, even though there is no last-second avoidance of Armageddon, this is quite an enjoyable read.

Bottom line: Before this book I didn't know that "magic cultivation" was a genre. It turns out that I have unwittingly read four or five other books in this genre, all of them pretty bad. Therefore, if you are interested in "magic cultivation" books "The Dao of Magic" should be an enjoyable read for you.

[Paul Calhoun · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was giving this book slack based on the assumption that the MC was just a massive tool until OTHER CHARACTERS started using the same words and attitudes he had. Also the MASSIVE AMOUNT OF CAPITALIZED TEXT wasn't very fun. A compelling world and a not-half-bad plot can't make up for the fact that this just wasn't cleaned up or indeed edited at all from what I can tell. That combined with the entire ensemble apparently being as debased as the MC himself seems to think their planet is, and the MC being just as bad. I add a star for it being indie, but it's still barely 3 stars.

[Daniel Bowers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series is based on a serial novel that I've read online. I've read up to installment #155 and for the last 50 installments or so I've been asking myself, "Wouldn't you rather be reading something else?"

Based on other reviews, I assume that the compiled novel version is identical or virtually identical to the online serial. It has two major flaws.

1: The main character is too powerful and skilled right from the beginning. Very little challenges him. Occasionally, very briefly, he will encounter something that to his surprise is more than he can handle, but you never see it coming as the book kind of conditions you to assume that he will effortlessly dance through all challenges. Then he hits something he can't handle and for a short time he is challenged. Then he goes back to being invincible for many, many pages.

2: There's a lot of fluff and distractions. Many serial novels have this flaw. The writer feels obligated to crank out a certain number of "chapters" a week, so you end up with a lot of filler material and side adventures that don't really push the main plot at all. The novel loses momentum. The main goal of the protagonist becomes lost in all the mostly irrelevant side plots.

Ideally a good serial novel would have a very thorough outline before the first chapter is written, with at least a sentence or two of the outline devoted to every single chapter or at least to every single mini-story-arc. This sort of outline also helps keep the writer from writing himself/herself into a corner or the novel having major continuity issues. I think this writer did not do this.

[Daniyal Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's an amazing with one hella of an MC. Really well written

[John #Audible · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, I had some laughs but it got old pretty quick. Not much on the story, except the MC kidnapping people, bullying them most of the time and him bragging most of the book, the typical meaningless filler. This is typical cultivation book you see out of China.

Pavi does a great job with the audio work, no complaints there.

Some plot holes that drove me off the edge, Like him cutting off a top of a snow capped mountain and shoving it in a dimensional space. Do you think it's not going to melt now because the atmosphere and height of the mountain has changed? And if you can make a chi energy blade/lasso that can circle a entire freaking mountain and slice it cleanly in half. Why didn't you do this in the level 100 dungeon with all the mobs?

[William Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third book?

I got to the end and it said, ‘Thanks for reading the Third Book’. It clearly says ‘Book 1’ on the cover. WTF?!?

MartyStu Starts Over

I *did* read the whole thing, but it’s not a very compelling book.

I can’t recommend this as quality writing in the wuxia or litrpg genres. MC is constantly OP.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book one

Mistakes: I lost count. It's mostly just a single wrong letter within a word. Also found one random capitalized word.
Plot:This is a different kind of cultivation story.it's interesting and fun.
Characters: I like them all and enjoyed seeing them grow throughout the book.
8/10 will be reading book two.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to finish it...

I was only able to complete about 25% of this book. I can usually force my way through the grammar and spelling mistakes, but there is just no way to enjoy a book that reads as if it was never proof read. There is potential for it to become a decent book, but it needs a solid once over by an English teacher.

[Lukas Lovas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read and an interesting premise of "a god brought low and starting from scratch"...sort of. Worth a read, if you enjoy the cultivation read, though I probably wouldn't recommend this to be the first book within the genre :)

[D · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book will appeal to a very limited audience: emotionally immature males who have delusions of grandeur.
The writing is of exceedingly poor quality.
It reads like the fantasy of an angry man-child who lives in his parent's basement.
I can imagine incels thoroughly enjoying it.

[Jon Honey · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an interesting story that gets completely ruined by the authors persistent use of the word retarded to describe people and situations. Comes off as completely juvenile and embarrassing to read.

[Danny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once you finish this book, you can unsubscribe to any subreddit along the lines of r/iamverysmart, r/justneckbeardthings, and r/cringe because every terrible, awkward, embarrassing idea found in those subreddits is here in this book. There is zero hyperbole when I say this is the worst book I have ever read/listened to. It is apparent that the author wrote the main character to be everything that he himself is not - smart, funny, authoritative, benevolent, clever, fun - without knowing how to be shy if those things himself! His only means for conveying that information is to literally have the character say, "I am very smart," or, "And then we all laughed." Mr. Louws clearly skipped the day in school when everyone learned to show, not tell.

The pathetic attempts at humor miss every mark unless you're a seven year old that's never heard a poop joke before. And I don't mean to sound like I'm above toilet humor - I admit I'm the first to chuckle when someone unironically says, "I do do that," in a sentence. But these jokes about pooping or riding large black roosters are awful. I hope it comes out later that the author is really just an AI program because I find it hard to believe anyone could be so bad at the basest form of humor around.

There is absolutely no plot or agency to the story. A guy (who the synopsis would have you believe was stripped of his power levels) finds himself on a planet where he's the only person with a higher level of ability, thus he is the most powerful person on the planet (and it's not even close) and he does a bunch of stuff for no real reason and without any real risk. There's no drama, no risk, no stakes, no point.

The only other adult character we meet just "randomly" happens to be the perfect female sexual specimen. I'm pretty sure the first thing he writes about this character is her bust size. She is supposed to be an enemy (of sorts? at least an antagonist, though you can't have an antagonist if there is no story) but the MC immediately talks about wanting to "f**k her."

There is one character who is only described as being fat. He is called "fatty" constantly by every character in the book. His weight is a (poorly executed) punchline to the extreme. For an author who thinks he's so smart - so smart that he calls out and defines any fancy word used for the listener's sake because surely us plebs have never read any other book before - he surely doesn't know how to use a thesaurus. This character is only ever "fat" or "fatty". Never corpulent, or rotund, or even obese. His weight is always mentioned negatively and the MC even acts surprised and disappointed when the character remains fat even after he should have been able to change his physique due to an interesting mental image of himself or something like that.

The MC is supposed to be over 1000 years old and originated on Earth before being resurrected (?) on a cultivation planet as a boy. There is no mention of hard dates so who knows when he left Earth, though he speaks of computers intimately and makes rather recent pop culture references. And all of this yanks the reader out of the story in jarring fashion. Why would the MC use language like "WTF" and "shiznit" if he hasn't heard anyone else say it in roughly 1000 years? He acts like science is his super power and that anyone who isn't familiar with the finer points of aerodynamics is a lesser being. Hate to break it to you Andries, but Neal Stephenson can infodump you into the ground before you can even look him up in Wikipedia.

There's so much more I can say about this book but I've already spent more effort writing this review than the author did in creating an intelligent or entertaining novel. This book is free and it's still too expensive.

[Ward · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm coming back to write a review a few months after I stopped reading this book. There is a lot about the author's approach that I take issue with and I thought I'd put it here in case I can save someone else the trouble of finding out after purchasing.

I should note that I only made it 33% into the book (according to Kindle) before my figurative nausea overwhelmed my determination to keep reading.

At first, it seemed like I was getting into a quirky take on cultivation with an author who has a penchant for childishness. But as I kept reading, rather than let the childishness fade away, it's as if the author doubled down on blatant immaturity; seemingly with the expectation that readers would enjoy such idiocy. At the time of writing this review, the book has 3.9 stars, so I guess somebody seems to like it.

I'll boil down my complaints to a few writing decisions made by the author, but I can't help but think they are just symptoms of a deeper issue on this author's attitude towards writing and maybe a reason that web novel viewership is not an indication of good writing (I found out after purchasing that the book is free to read on Royal Road).

As I mentioned earlier, it's been a hot minute since I looked at the story, but I remember that the protagonist is meant to be some very strong cultivator who finds himself in a new world, and uses his background knowledge and power to influence this new world he is in.

However, his great wisdom and experience that led him to unfathomable power over his qi boils down to a cheesy gimmick, a pattern I soon realized was pivotal to this author's take on storytelling. All that the protagonist needs to do is YELL AT HIS POWER IN ALL CAPS, maybe with a little swearing mixed in, and the elusive qi power that the world can't begin to control is at his beck and call. Rather than a backstory of years of dedication and practice leading up to a mastery of qi that few can replicate, it boils down to a cheap trick that any teenager would have tried while trying to master their powers.

Building upon his foundation gimmicks, the author proceeds to have the protagonist adopt a rabbit that he then teaches cultivation and fighting to (because, why not?). Of course, the learning experience for the rabbit involves copious amounts of the protagonist kicking the rabbit away from him (and possibly other examples of exaggerated mistreatment posing as a training montage).

I could give more examples, like how the protagonist communicates with trees, or his approach to capturing (yes, capturing) and training his students. The poor writing that riddles this book seems to be an attempt at humor, but I can't see it as any more than lazy writing.

My personal view is that the author isn't writing the book for others' enjoyment, but rather his own. And rather than using a joke and moving on, the author seems to find a joke, then re-use it over and over and over and over. Rather than increasing the humor value of the story, it sounds like that annoying person that everyone knows who is completely unaware that no one else enjoys immature repetitions of the same joke.

Anyway, this review has gone on long enough, but I think it's clear that I likely won't be picking this series back up, and that I feel like my $2.99 I spent on the kindle store was a waste (along with the time spent reading this book)