The First Step is the first book in the A Thousand Li series by Tao Wong. It is a wuxia inspired book first published 2019 and the audiobook is narrated by Travis Baldree. A narrator who should get some credit as he tried to pronounce the names in Chinese. Now the author is not actually Chinese but comes from Malaysia and is currently living in Canada. I thought I should mention it as I will discuss some strangeness in this Wuxia story that I was surprised by. I will also not even try to write out all the names as I listened to the audiobook which means I have no idea how they are spelled. Most are just side characters though who rarely shows up more than 30% of the book.
Now, the story follows the farmer Wu Ying who wants to support his family and enters the Verdant Green Waters Sect. His life become a mess though as everyone at the sect seem to hate him for being a peasant and he will have to fight by everything he is worth in order to just get half of what the rest of them gets as he has no money, no status and an absent sponsor. What he has though is the luck and skill of a hero.
Wu Ying is presented to us as a good son who wants to care for his parents. At least at the start. He doesn’t mention his parents again after that. I couldn’t really get a feel for him. He seemed gentle, being kind and polite but then he just suddenly turns bloodthirsty and arrogant and in the scene after he was polite and wise. He has no consistency which means that I have a hard time attaching myself to him. Now, this isn’t strange for a wuxia novel as the genre relies heavily on the “golden” protagonist. The one blessed by the heavens who has all the luck, all the women and all the skill of a genius not seen in a thousand year. Mary Sues with other words and Wu Ying has some of the tendencies. His setbacks often come from him being bullied to do extra work but he always handles them even when it makes no sense.
There are some side characters, but most of them are just there randomly to then vanish. Half of them is just there for two reasons either to bully Wu Ying or to save him by giving him just what he needs (or better). Such as the nephew of the merchant who sells the plum wine. He was sent without money to by the most expensive wine in the country. He stumbles over a rare skin that the nephew wants, and the nephew gives him not only a plum wine, he gives him three of the most expensive ones from his families special store. All because of luck. Whether you like it or not is up to you, but I have a hard time with it as it makes the characters struggles feel unimportant.
Now as I mentioned at the start of the review there was a mentioned of a strange thing considering it was a wuxia story. In Chinese wuxia you will notice that most men look like popstars, very thin and hardly any muscles on them. In this story they all have a lot of muscles, it being mentioned several time.
Now, you might think that it isn’t that strange but several Chinese stories I have read actually explains why they are so thin despite being martial artists. Its because the chi they use replaces muscles. A rule is, the less muscles the more chi, as muscles fade away along with fat to ensure that they use chi instead. Of course, there are some stories that doesn’t leave an explanation but from what I can tell this is strongly a belief centered around Buddhism and Daoism which might be why the author didn’t use that rule. If you don’t know of it then you can’t use it. It isn’t that important, but it made me look up the author as I previously thought he was Chinese.
It is impressive that the entire book felt authentic enough for me not to suspect he wasn’t Chinese, it proves that he must have made quite a lot of research in order to get it right. Personally, in my own wuxia book, I choose to remove elements like the overpowered main character and long explanations of chi and the like that just went on a bit too long. These are clichés littered in Chinese stories, but the clichés are well received in the west, and I fear this book might not be to westerners liking. Though, what would I know? The wuxia literature has grown in popularity lately.
I would say it is a good wuxia novel, but not an overall good book. It lacks any real motivation, goal or feeling of real progress. What progress there are is a giant leap from nothing to power without much happening in between to explain how Wu Ying has progressed. The motivation of the character Wu Ying, which is to support his parents, vanishes in the book and is just replaced with a will to get stronger to survive which doesn’t really feel as urgent or intensely as it was meant to be.
There is also no goal which comes from a lack of villain. There are some bullies that I cannot remember because they are so insignificant, and there is no end in sight. Being stronger doesn’t work as a goal. Is it to become an Inner sect member? To be a grand master? To defeat a certain enemy? Gain status? None of these exist and it makes the story feel slow paced and boring despite having quite a lot of fights and tournaments.
This is a story I won’t continue reading as there was nothing that made me interested in following Wu Ying story, but it made me interested in looking up other books by the author and maybe other series are more to my liking. This book earns itself a 5 out of 10, it is average but does make a good wuxia story. Unfortunately, it also has a lot of the chinese clichés that really aren’t good writing and makes the story feel dry.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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