James Nicoll Reviews

Warby Picus’ Sky Pride, Volume One is the first volume in Picus’ ongoing cultivation fantasy webserial.

As her entire family is being cut down by assassins, Madame feeds her sickly son a pill, hoping to usher him into a better life. Scarcely has the boy eaten the pill than the assassins break in, killing Madame.

Accepting doom¹ does not mean forgoing revenge. Madame is dead but as the assassins soon realize, her incendiary bombs are perfectly functional. The entire household, dead and living, goes up in flames.

A badly burned, maimed boy wakes up on a garbage heap.

The common folk of this place and time are not inclined towards charity. A sickly, cancer-riddled orphan missing fingers (like Tian) is someone to be shunned, someone at whom one can throw rocks. The common folk are disgusted that Tian clings to life.

Tian has two assets.

First, he has a spectral mentor in the form of ​“Grandpa Jun.” Grandpa Jun’s ability to affect Tian’s world is constrained. But he can give useful advice and spur Tian to greater efforts.

Second, Tian has tremendous potential. What Grandpa cannot do for Tian, Tian is more than capable of doing for himself… provided only that someone points the way. Many people of this place and time hope to be heroic level martial artists. Tian has the potential to be better than that.

This time and place is filled with ambitious cultivators, people intent on improving their skills and aptitudes through means good and evil. Those with a scintilla of empathy, like Brothers of the Temple of the Ancient Crane, use their abilities for the common good. Others use their abilities to prey on those weaker than they are.

Luckily for the world, Tian is the first sort of cultivator. He joins the Brothers and becomes Brother Tian. Tian’s skills are already impressive for a beginner. His potential is astonishing. The reward? More hard work, dangerous missions, and a target on his head from powerful people threatened by Tian’s existence.

~oOo~

I don’t know whether this is a creator-end issue or a publication-end issue, but my reading experience was not improved by the story’s formatting. In most (but not all) of the chapters, paragraphs are separated by vast expanses of white space. I prefer a single line between paragraphs.

Alas, this webserial was very much not my thing. Cultivation stories seem to be about developing prowess. Hence most of the first volume is a sequence of training montages. As that appears to be the entire focus of the genre, it seems unfair or at least misguided to criticize the story for spending so much time with the activity that defines the genre. It would be like moaning that SF spends too much time talking about rockets or that mysteries invest excessive page count on crime.

It also didn’t help that I disliked the philosophical underpinning of the setting, in which certain bloodlines are inherently superior to others, and such people are justified in looking down on the lower orders, who are useful only to do the gruntwork.

That said, certain interludes make it clear that the situation is more complex than the characters realize.

The story picked up a bit once Tian joined the Brothers. Or I should say that once his purpose of his labors isn’t simply self-improvement but rather community service. That transition happened a lot later in the narrative than I would have preferred.

The prose is functional, the pace at which new chapters are produced impressive, the characters are suitable for their intended purpose… but this really isn’t my thing.

Sky Pride is available here (Royal Road).

1: USA delenda est.