/lit/ - Literature

I've finished Street Cultivation and the third book turned out to be a pleasant suprise, making the the first two books retroactively better than I thought. The series has a lot of flaws, and the author's ability to write was simply not enough to properly execute the story, but the overall message, ideas, in addition to subversion and deconstruction of typical cultivation definitely push the series above many others.

Honestly, I'd say after someone gets into the genre, then the series should be basically a required reading, providing a thoughtful reflection on the Xianxia genre as a whole. Which does not mean that I agree with the author, and I think the theme and message it sends is rather indicative of the fact that the story was written by a woman, providing a point of view that could enrich the genre, if authors reflected on it. It's weird that nowhere I've heard of the series it was mentioned that it's a deconstruction, instead of just another xianxia, but in modern world. It was only decent as a progression fantasy, but as a deconstruction of Xianxia it's rather successful. Actually, I could even say that the series managed to portray struggle in a way that many works fail to, making progress actually meaningful, instead of just another empty 'numbers go up.' It's funny how a series that's critical of the entire Xianxia/Progression Fantasy mindset manages to do the progression justice more than the majority of books in the genre.

Of course, the series itself has more than a few flaws, the main character is basically a stoic brick, world-building is barely there for the first and second book, and a lot of the books could be just skimmed (although I advise against simply skipping chapters you don't want to read, just skim it like any non-halfwit should). Still, I'd rank the series as a must-read if you are familiar with the genre in any significant way. If only the author was a bit better...
PS: It's frustrating how I only know two 'modern Xianxia' series (Street Cultivation and Web of Secrets), yet both are too problematic is significant ways to be just enhoyed as progression fantasies, are there any others that I haven't heard about?