Soul Relic

Book 1: 3/5
Book 2 3.5/5
Book 3: 4/5
Book 4: 4/5

Book 1 is by far the weakest link in this series, but I'm happy I stuck with it. It took about halfway through book 2 to really get me invested and I binged the rest of the series after that.

So the start got whiffed for me, but after that it turns into a fun adventure-cultivation story. The characters are great and continue being fleshed out. Storyline and writing are generally solid. MC's powerset starting from halfway through book 2 becomes pretty cool.

my main problems:
1. Her early power doesn't feel earned, just given for free
2. The core fix and resulting power were too quick and easy
3. The trauma of childhood with a broken core wasn't established enough, which makes the resulting
character development not work great.
4. “big bad guy” wasn't established enough. We don't really have any reason to hate the guy except
that the author tells us he's the bad guy.