2/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
The main character, Matt, died and was going to be reborn in a different world. He spun a wheel and it randomly landed on tree. So he was reborn as a tree, and he just sat in darkness for years. He got notifications of people dying. Then a young druid was able to communicate with him and he visited for a while.
The kid who was talking to Matt died, so he was left alone again. The town near him was wiped out. He was attacked by a demon king and cut in half. Some druids moved him to another spot. He regrew.
He was moved again. After some time, the village he was moved to was attacked. There were more fights, more leveling done by main character, and by the people he was protecting.
The main character got a skill that let him create a secret hideout. This hideout was upgraded multiple times and became a sort of research lab. The village was attacked again and wiped out. After a long time, the main character started to rejuvenate the land around him by growing trees.
Non-humans started being slaughtered in the land, so the main character accepted refugees into his valley. The main character started to level up and research random things.
The valley was attacked. He defeated the attackers, and then had to do some politics with the residents of the valley.
Review
This book had an interesting idea. I thought it sounded pretty cool. However, I don’t think it was executed well.
For such a long book (about 716 pages), surprisingly little happened in it. Yes, trees are limited in what they can do because they are immobile. But…at least have the character do more than eavesdrop on others, research random stuff, and occasionally impale enemies with roots.
The fight scenes in the book were unbelievable. The characters were bantering throughout the fight. When authors put conversations in fight scenes, the fight scenes are bogged down. They become slow, which has the unfortunate side effect of making the scenes unbelievable. In a true fight, there is very little time for banter. All participants in a fight are too focused on trying to stay alive and deal as much damage to the opponent as possible. Also, the characters themselves during fight scenes didn’t feel believable. They were fighting, and one started to lose, and the one losing basically had the attitude of “oh well, guess I am going to die now.” I don’t think it is realistic to have characters be so blasé about death.
The emotions and reactions in the story felt a little off. It was like the author was trying too hard. Especially toward the end, when the main character started to become the leader of the valley. The way he negotiated and the way people reacted to his policies was weird. He would make demands, and he would stick to his guns when people disagreed, which was fine, but the way he did it made it seem like he was lording it over them in a way that was demeaning.
The book was hard to get through, especially after the 40% mark. I think this was partly due to the fact that the main character seemed to disappear from the limelight. The book was written in first person, but the story was told more from the perspective of the people around him. He mostly just…watched them.
One thing that bothered me with the writing was the lack of descriptions. Lack of descriptions made sense, because the main character was a tree, and didn’t have eyes, but I felt like the book needed more. The main character could see the spirits of people around him, which was fine at first, but towards the end of the book, it implied that he just needed to think about something he wanted to do and it would be done. Why couldn’t he have thought of some way to develop eyesight? The book implied he could see through some of the trees he grew, but I wasn’t exactly sure how that worked.
Another thing that bothered me was the random switches between present and past tense. The book was mostly past tense. But then it would have a few sentences of present tense. Or it would have a sentence with both present and past tense. It was a little disorienting.
There were several lose threads in the book that I saw, even though I had to start skimming. For example, there was a random guy who appeared randomly, and said some cryptic things, then left just as mysteriously as he had come. And one of the main character’s acquaintances told the main character that she felt like he was someone who was good. This guy was never mentioned again. Another issue I saw was one of the characters said she would let herself be executed in two years in order for her city to be at peace with the neighboring country. That…never happened. The negotiations fell apart somehow, and that character got to keep her head. I didn’t understand those parts at all.
All in all, this book had an interesting idea. But it was not executed well.
Fireheart Books 