Casualfarmer

Beware of Chicken 3 was a great way to start off my 2024 reading. I absolutely loved getting back together with these characters. It's time for the Dualing Peak tournament and several of Jin's disciples head off to participate in the fun while Jin and Meimei take care of things at the farm. Sort of.

The story is great for fans who like the kung fu tournament trope and yet still has that cozy feel. While we do get to visit with all of the characters, Tigger and Shao Lan have the most page time and character growth due to tournament events. It's amazing how far Tigger's character has come since book 1. The tournament was a lot of fun and I like the new friends the characters made along the way.

I've sometimes commented after watching a Marvel movie (or similar action movies) where a lot of cities are destroyed as the heroes fight it out with the villains that we never get to see the aftermath. Apparently I wasn't alone with this thought. I greatly appreciated the author taking the story there and how it was treated. More people with Jin's attitude would make the world a better place. There are some interesting long lasting consequences for Jin based on related events so I'm interested to see where this goes next.

Now the wait for #4 on audio begins.… (mehr)

Beware of Chicken 2 is another satisfying entry into the series. Since this is slice-of-life fantasy, there isn't a regular plot and the narrative meanders as it switches between characters going about their lives. And there are a LOT more POVs in this second installment, including some from the antagonists. The biggest surprises were Big D and Washee's story lines. I loved how the author worked in a traditional Chinese myth as part of Washee's character growth. Big D's quest for knowledge was heartwarming with the others that he interacted with and helped out. I admit I was getting a bit of book fatigue by the end as it was almost double the audio length than what I'm used to. It ends on a wonderful note and with plenty of interesting things for the characters to explore in the next installment.

Travis Baldree continues to do a great job at narration though, with all the added POV characters, sometimes the voices sound a little more similar. Also, since I'm listening to this on audio, I'm not entirely sure if I have the character names spelled correctly.… (mehr)

Everybody was kung-fu farming...

Beware of Chicken by Casualfarmer is the first volume in the series by the same name. It is a casual cultivation story where the main character, Jin, rejects his society's vision of what it means to be a cultivator and go live a quiet life on a farm with his animals. What is his society's idea of a cultivator? One who practices the cultivation of qi in combination with mastering martial arts and tends to be a total jerk to anyone else who is considered weaker than themselves. I see why Jin rejected the idea.

This was definitely a case of the right book at the right time. Apparently I needed a fantasy slice-of-life about a cultivator who rejected the traditional cultivation route and decided to farm instead. Turns out that farming is a powerful way to cultivate even if no one realizes it! So many funny, laugh out loud moments in the story. Plus I loved all the animal points of view!

I listened to the audio book narrated by Travis Baldree. I think Travis had fun working on this one, especially with how he did the animal's voices.

It's straight on to Volume 2 for me.… (mehr)