Hollow Core: School of Swords and Serpents (Book 1)

Information

Status

Ongoing

Year

2019

Author

Shadow Alley Press

• The Offer
  Sep 30, 2019
• The Arts
  Sep 27, 2019
• The Elders
  Sep 26, 2019
• The Cottage
  Sep 19, 2019
• The Rooms
  Sep 18, 2019
• The Headmaster
  Sep 17, 2019
• The Return
  Sep 16, 2019
• The Release!
  Sep 10, 2019
• Chapter 5–The School
  Jul 5, 2019
• Chapter 4–The Verdict
  Jul 4, 2019
• Chapter 3–The Challenge
  Jul 3, 2019
• Chapter 2–The Clans
  Jul 2, 2019
• Chapter 1 – The Champion
  Jul 1, 2019

Reviews

Community Reviews(4)

• rrandommRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  This story is quite enjoyable.
  As of chapter 33, the MC is rather familiar:
  Spoiler: Spoiler
  He grew up very poor, loves his mother dearly, is very determined and hard working, yet considered trash because he can't cultivate due to an anomalous core. Somehow he gets into the academy, and the powerful people are determined to ruin him to ensure that he trash stays as trash. His determination is unwavering, and he discovers that his anomalous core allows him to become the most powerful of all.
  The writing flows well, pulling me along. There are very few grammatical errors to break the immersion.
  My main suggestion for the author is to flesh out certain characters a bit more so that the immersion isn't broken by my mind saying, "wait, it makes no sense for her/him to do that." In particular,
  Spoiler: Spoiler
  Why does Clem like him? She lets slip that she would like to end up with him, but her like for him seems so unmotivated that it broke me out of the flow. And in general, why are his friends so friendly with him? The pressure to reject him is almost immediate, and he spends almost no time with them because of his after-dinner job, and yet they decide to become and stay friends with him anyway. That degree of loyalty after so little time together seems inadequately justified. A few sentences ahead of time could make their friendship seem more like steadfastness and less like unmotivated attraction to the MC. The author did this very well explaining why the one elder sponsored him to get into the academy (he got to spite an enemy and also got to use the MC as a very profitable slave); a little more of this with the friends would be helpful.
  One last thing: The character's reflections in ch33 on his personal cost for his actions was well done.
  Good work! I look forward to the next arc!
• TechmanRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 3.5

  Good writing style, descriptions, and dialogue. Interesting cultivation system that makes me want to learn more about the different techniques and clans.
  Unfortunately, the plot has been very depressing and characters have questionable decision making and NEVER COMMUNICATE. So many of the issues the MC deals with, other than everyone hating him in general, come from people not telling him something and then getting mad that he doesn't know it.
  The MC makes some pretty idiotic decisions too. Flawed characters aren't a bad thing, but sometimes it seems like he really doesn't deserve to attend the school and brought a lot of his problems upon himself.
  It's just frustrating because this is an interesting world and the story could be really good. Overcoming adversity is a great theme, but right now it's kind of a "one step forward, two steps back" deal for the MC with no foreseeable payoff for him where this was all worth it. If anything, his situation is going to get even worse before it could possibly improve.
  Overall, I still follow and read this story because it's got potential and I'm hoping it will get better, but there are still frustrating aspects.
• James33333Royal Road

  ★★★ 3.0

  I really like this story...But, I think the balance between good things & bad things happening to the protagonist is heavily in favor of bad things happening, but the new chapter does give me hope that will change soon. Speaking of, each new chapter makes me hop that by the end of the book (or book series) that Empyreal society BURNS!!!!... or at the very least they get what's coming to them.
• StukafighterRoyal Road

  ★ 0.5

  Including the MC, his friends, as well as every antagonist in the story. Nothing is properly explained. Villains are cartoonishly evil rather and seem to have no real purpose aside from hammering into the reader head just how unfairly persecuted the mc is. The whole plot seems to be setting up the character for some eventual super awesome unbeatable power which is really fucking cringe. Read the whole book on kindle unlimited. Literally cannot fathom how the author thought it was ready to be published. So many errors. All in all a complete waste of time. Which is pretty sad because if there had been just a little more time setting up a believable story with more realistic characters it seems like this could've been so much better.