Bloodstorm

Painting the Mists, Book 17

By: Patrick G. Laplante

Narrated by: Adam Verner

The brush of creation is about to awaken. Cha Ming must pass its final test, lest oblivion takes him.

After two decades of training in the Heartforge Realm, Cha Ming’s soul is finally on the mend. He and his friends have advanced to the second phase of the Heartforge Trials, where they must defend a dying world from fiendish invaders.

Yet it isn’t just his friends who have come, but his enemies as well. When two aggressive neighbors start to nibble away at his territory, Cha Ming volunteers to buy his allies time. His actions instigate an all-out war between three regions, and countless innocents are dragged into the conflict.

Dabbling in the morally gray comes at a price. Cha Ming’s auras quickly fall out of balance and threaten to tear apart his foundations.

Yet this is only a backdrop to the greater conflict. The fiend outbreaks are getting worse by the day. To defend the Chasewind Plane, Cha Ming must awaken the Clear Sky Brush and embrace his destiny as the next Painter.

©2023 Patrick Laplante (P)2023 Podium Audio

I loved every single bit of it

I love this series so much and this book is the best one so far. Damn, Cha Ming is turning into a monster. Watching him grow and build up his foundations and techniques is so exciting. When he started taking in planes I was not even surprised anymore and the last fight at the end was EPICCCC!!!. That new technique he created was so cool and vivid in my imagination that I can’t help but keep on replaying it in my head over and over. The way his laws and inner world played a part in creating the technique just made it even better. HEAVEN BREAKER!!! I imagined him swinging his giant staff in that moment and it was epic as hell. I really can’t wait for the next book, please don’t take to long to release it. Thank you for your work.

Best book so far

This book was so much better than any of the other books. Hope the next one is just as good.

Beyond Incredible

The series continues in the most amazing ways, each book still providing the most profound insights while containing fantastic scenes and actions.

And Adam Verner continues showing off his immense skill, making this book just as fun and adventurous as all of those prior. At this point these stories and his voice have become a staple of my world, and it’s delightful.

Despite all of these years of following along, even at the end of this book I’m excited to see what comes next!

Clear Sky Does It Again

What is there to say? Another great installment. A bit longer than previous books which is also appreciated. Have been following this series for more than a year now and really love where it has gone!

5 Stars

Still really liking this series and can’t wait for the next in line. Strongly recommend

awesome

I've been impressed by this series with each and every book. keep it up

Inconsistent

Possible *Spoiler*


Vern does "Okay" with these works, but I can't help but become frustrated when I hear newscaster-type emphasis at the end of every few paragraphs. It's unnecessary and overdone. I likely wouldn't have mentioned this in particular if I wasn't already annoyed by his tendency to mispronounce words in a way that makes me think he never bothers to check his work.

That said, my main issue with this installation is the frequent interactions, both martial and social, the MC has with other characters that just don't conform to the author's previous works. The MC's actions and reactions to the situations he finds himself in don't line up with the way the author has portrayed him throughout the series, to the point that I found myself asking aloud if this was some form of a joke. This isn't random; this is what I'm seeing after reading through the other dozen plus novels just before starting this one. It feels like the author is falling into the trap of skipping past inconveniences in order to progress the story a certain way instead of writing it that way in the first place.

I'm not a writer. I have difficulty putting all of my thoughts into words, and I don't want to spoil the story too much, so I won't be specific. That said, I'd have to say this novel was a definite downgrade from what I've come to expect from PL, and I hope this isn't an indication of the quality of future works.

Amazing book! (Major spoils and a little ranting!)

I loved a lot of things with this book since Cha Ming started becoming a Powerhouse along with Huxian near the end of the Heartforge Trials Phase 2 and throughout phase 3 in a way.

My only gripes about this book was the meeting with Patriarch Heartforge. This meeting did nothing but explain how most actions taken by Cha Ming during crucial moments were set up by Patriarch Heartforge.

Mostly, I just don't like the man because all he does is set up people from mortal and ascendant realms and throw them together to nurture the survivors of the things he sets in motion on a whim.

The man's actions scream that he plays both sides so he never loses because I know that he doesn't do everything he does because of his kindness or desire to keep everything balanced because when he let Cha Ming hear something he shouldn't have said, he immediately erased Cha Mings memories of that moment while Nine Sky was like, "Thanks, he doesn't need to know that yet, he'll get too worked up and fail.", and I'm sitting here like, "Girl, not so long ago you said that you erased your own memories of all possible futures so you can enjoy the present from now on so WTF is this?"

And don't get me started on how fate even works now since Cha Ming and Nine Skies worked together to make this current dream of reality an actual reality, making it so that it now deviates from the fate of that dream, becoming its own existence. The future is now full of unsurities I'm am at a complete loss of how fate works now because technically this reality is a paradox because if Cha Ming and Nine Sky created reality, then that would leave the question on who created the first one since they both created themselves at one point to then have that creation create their own creation of another reality.

I just stopped to looked up this paradox, called bootstrap paradox, and it now makes more sense when one of the descriptors of this paradox is 'self-creation', one of Cha Mings laws being self perpetuated existence (or something along those lines) so this paradox was actually done purposefully. Still doesn't change the fact that Nine Skies is holding things back from Cha Ming for his 'own good' and even seemed to lie to him, her savior of endless dreaming of possible realities that play on repeat for all eternity.

Just read the dang book if you've already have read 1-16, this was definitely worth the wait in my opinion.

Peak storytelling

OMG I love this book. This is not only a culmination of the last two books but also the series as a whole. Knocked it off the park. Can’t recommend it enough!

Great series

Heart forge realms was great and can’t wait to see what happens next. Immortal realm here we come!