Soulsmith

The second installment of the Cradle series picks up exactly where the previous left off - almost as seamless as if they weren't separate books. This series is lamentably a bit predictable, but the light reading entertainment it provides nonetheless is sometimes exactly what's needed. Eithan in particular is an interesting character, and I'm pleased we're following him into the next book.

Better than the first one. Closer to a 3.5.

The writing could definitely be better, the visuals in particular lack clarity and imagination, but I do really appreciate how digestible it is. Started it on a whim while working through some denser books and accidentally devoured the entire thing so there's that.

I don't love the world building, it feels somehow both overly expansive AND hollow? It's weird.

Has some great moments, and I did immediately start the next one so it probably deserves the bump to 4.

I spent about 4/5 of this book wondering whether I should bother to finish the series, and figured maybe I should take a break and read something else afterwards.
I'm not totally sure what happened next, but I picked up the sequel and started reading it immediately after finishing. I guess it's good??

Wight please don't create a character who's 1000 times more interesting than your main character and have him turn out to be the villain we're supposed to root against.

This was my second attempt at reading this book. The reason being that I wasn't in the right state of mind the first time around and it bored me a lot. I'm very happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed it! I was again surprised (in a good way) at the end of the book and I can't wait to read the next instalment!

This started so good. New clans, new powers, new world was shown to Lindon. However, as the story went it started to drag.

Don't get me wrong, I loved every second Eithan was on the screen, but 5 clans alliance kept being mentioned and we only saw two of them with third one mentioned here and there. Will is definitely keeping stuff to be revealed in sequels and I didn't like that he sort of artificially inhibited the world building third of the way through.

I don't mind Lindon stopping by to train, to reach new levels, but it's like stopping the flow by putting the cork back in the bottle.

I'm much more persuaded that this series has huge potential than I was while reading Unsouled which really now feels like a prologue and nothing else. It's sort of Naruto for adults and I'm now here for it because it started going in its own direction. Only I fear the series is struggling from the same thing as many mangas do - artificially prolonging the story development for the sake of profit but... I guess this is the perfect moment to mention that I got almost the entire series along with the rest of Will's books for free on Kindle. So no harm there :) Kudos to Will for doing this, it's almost unheard of but he got a new fan.

Once I catch up I'm definitely buying the last book, I don't see how this can go wrong from here. I just can't give it 5/5 for the lack of progress in the second half of this book.

Lindon is in a lot of troubles by the end of this book and one thing that frustrates me is that I read descriptions of sequels and this stuff doesn't seem to be resolved in book 3. :/

P.S.: If Eithan turns out to be even remotely like Ardyn Izunia from Final Fantasy XV he's going to be one of my favorite villains. He's not a villain yet, don't even know if he becomes one. But he has the same “joker” persona vibes as Ardyn and I'm all here for it!

After finishing Unsouled I was very keen to continue the story and journey with the 2nd novel in the Cradle series, Soulsmith.
However, after an intense fight and escape at the start, the novel quickly slowed down to a grind.
Differing factions, ancient ruins, dreadbeasts, Lindon attempting to grow in power, mysterious strangers, and new threats and characters all should have manifested into an interesting read. But it just kind of...meandered along.
All of these could have been incredibly interesting and there were some strange choices made that continued to stall things and what should have been some impossible escapes.

There was very little character growth beyond powering up, and very little actual story. I think I wanted more from the 2nd book after such a promising start. I also don't think it suffers from the sequel problem, because it doesn't really feel like a traditional ‘sequel' more just kind of a pause in the journey.

Now that's not to say there weren't positive things. The progression was cool, the action was still quite well written, and the world continues to expand including the powers. I think sometimes the power we're seeing only in the 2nd novel from other characters gets a bit much at times at how powerful everyone is. I still like Lindon and Yerin (though she doesn't get much time to be interesting beyond just ‘sword aura stuff' which she does frequently). I think the highlight was definitely the introduction of Eithan. Without Eithan I might have struggled more through this book.

Overall I wanted to like Soulsmith more and it just didn't do it for me.
I will however be continuing the series because there is still stuff here I'm invested in and interested to discover.
However, this book felt like a set-up for future stuff. Future antagonists, fights, levelling up, etc etc.

I am still looking forward to Blackflame and I hope the story and character growth pick up again.

Music Recommendation: Skrillex - Quest for Fire

Man, this series is amazing.

I like this one, a lot of toughening, Lindon and Yerin finally having some decent companions, We also get a look at one of the more interesting occupation in this universe, A Soulsmith, not a lot, but some glimpses, and finally more powerful practitioners or sacred artists, I wonder if Mr. Wright was weaned on chinese fantasy, because this one reads like one of those, not the same, but it has it's own mythos.........

I honestly thought this would be boring........but totally different and the characters, I just can not believe the power levels shown, this is one story where-in the future is written, but Lindon and company has a chance of changing, a really, really intense volume!!!

Great sequel thst built on the foundations of Book 1, Unsouled. Where as book 1 struggled a little bit to find itd legs, book 2 took off running. The characters and the clans that we meant were all interesting in different ways, and Lidian continued to grow at a much faster pace than he did in book 1. The fishers might be the most interesting group we have encountered so far and I hope to see them again in the future.

Still exactly like an anime! Eithan is the most interesting character in the book.

Executive Summary: It started a bit slow, but ended strong. This continues to be a fun series.Full ReviewI enjoyed [b:Unsouled 30558257 Unsouled (Cradle, #1) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465881128s/30558257.jpg 51106215] a lot, and went right into this book. Then life got busy and I put it down for nearly 2 weeks. I think if the start had been a bit better, I'd have made the time to read it anyways.I said in my review of the first book that this series reminds me a lot of shonen fighting anime and that theme definitely continues here. One of the main issues with those series is “Power creep”. The protagonist gets stronger and stronger so of course his opponents have to get stronger as a result. This one takes a slightly different approach. Mr. Wight ratchets up the power creep almost immediately without leveling our hero up. So instead Lindon finds himself in a world where everyone is not only far more powerful than himself, but everyone he's ever known in his life. A lot of the cleverness of this series revolves around how he still makes his way through conflict despite the huge power gap.However I still feel like the power creep is far worse than normal for a series like this, so I'm hoping the huge spike was mostly a one time thing and that it doesn't hit ridiculous levels in the next book.I will say that once I had more time to read I made steady progress again. The ending of this book got a lot more interesting than the start did. We're introduced to a fairly mysterious new character, and once we start to learn more about them, it really sucked me back into the series like I was in the first book.I want to start the next book right away, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time. I have a hold in for another book for my book club and I have no idea when that will come in.As this is an ongoing series, I'm no rush to catch up to the newest book, because then I'll just be stuck waiting. That said, I do really want to know what happens next, so I may end up reading it right away.

While some part were mildly interesting this tale has begun to get muddled up. The magic system is more confusing and while interesting new characters are introduced, there is nothing that endears a reader to them. Lindon continues to progress and Eithan is a nice addtion. But I was most disappointed with the handling of the disciple of the sword. All in all I am in no rush for the next book to come out

I don't know how Will Wight does it. Unsouled was published in June 2016 and he releases the sequel THREE MONTHS later, with zero drop in quality.

I loved Wight's Traveler's Gate series, but Cradle is shaping up to be even better. The magic system is both rigidly defined and expansive in nature, and is fully integrated into almost every aspect of the world. Combine that with the classic trope of a young, weak protagonist who painstakingly builds up more and more strength, and you have a great book on your hands.