Shifting Tides

Painting the Mists, Book 7

By: Patrick Laplante

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Not all wounds heal. Some scars, you keep forever.

Cha Ming has returned from Jade Moon Planet stronger than ever. The Monkey King is back. Huxian’s demon collection is up an ugly toad. They even took back an entire garden. But life is far from perfect.

Yu Wen, the love of Cha Ming’s life, is dead. He has vowed to find her in the cycle of reincarnation. To do that, he must journey to Haijing City to heal his core. Little does he know that the ancient underwater empire is a linchpin in the struggle between angels and devils.

Meanwhile, Wang Jun has returned from his long exile. His influence in Gold Leaf City has waned. He must rebuild it to fight his corrupted family. It could cost him everything; even his soul.

©2020 Patrick G. Laplante (P)2020 Podium Audio

a book with true struggle

I'm a huge cultivation fan. I enjoy both reading and writing about it. So far, with this series, I'm very impressed.

I've gotten pretty annoyed in the past by main characters that find fortuitous encounters at every turn and seem to vastly overwhelm the antagonists.

Cha Ming has had his cultivation crippled, he's been made a slave among other things and I'm sure there'll be so much more to come. This book is a martial arts equivalent to The Sword of Truth series. The main character has to struggle and find meaning in his existence. He sees the many injustices in his reality and sets out to make them right. He isn't doing all that he does for himself, but for those around him. It also seems that every action he takes has a good and bad reactions to those around him. If I were to put a word to it, I'd like to say that this author is making full use of karma in this series.

If you want a series that is straight forward in its meaning. One that the protagonist will effortlessly stand atop the world of cultivation while others bow their unworthy heads, go read more books on Webnovel. But if you want a series that has a protagonist who builds up his friends and stands on equal footing, one that loses everything just to find a small glimmer of hope in order to come out alive, this is it guys.

Depends on what you're here for

I loved this book, and the series. If you're listening simply for the cultivation ans fights then sure this may not be your thing. If you're like me however and get excited about the story, the struggle of the characters, their perseverance, the beautiful writing and how it can be relatable to what we go through and deal with in our everyday lives, this was art, beautiful.

Another good one

I've enjoyed this series a lot, and I wasn't disappointed by this book. I've enjoyed seeing the world and the characters grow.

Wash, rinse, repeat… starting to drag

The story is beginning to become quite repetitious, in same cases literally word for word. This installation was overly wordy and could have been a short story in the collection for all the movement we got through most of the book. Hopefully the next book doesn’t drag as much and isn’t so repetitious of themes that have already played out in previous books.

its good after the prolog.

the prolog is going to has well has rotting food sealed in a unplugged freezer the prolog was garbage imo. the book continues the trend of loosing more then winning like some kind of crutch the author leans on to build tension though the ending doesn't feel pyrrhic like the last books at the end.