Underlord

Soooo Gooood!!!!

I feel that we are finally getting a taste for what the broader world that this story is set in entails. The epilogue in particular is great because I thought it was an omission all along to exclude Lindon's family entirely, and I do love Orthos. I wish there was more overarching story rather than what I call ‘secluded plot bubbles (1. Jai long challenge, 2. Ghostwater, 3. Uncrownded king tournament, etc ) ‘, which are set up to promote advancement rather than to serve a greater plan. 

4.5

Another day, another book in this action packed series, Underlord, when all he was hoping for was just Truegold, the pace becomes faster, the challenges steeper, and still I see the old Lindon, whiny, reckless, always looking for a way to cheat, I mean he has all the tools, every single one.........and he still thinks like a copper.........as in competition, there are winners and there are losers, this time, I feel bad for one of the losers......I mean he was an Underlord before Lindon became an Underlord, but on both accounts he lost, I miss one of the characters introduced earlier, I am hoping they can both come back........

As I have mentioned, this series becomes better every single book, imagine combining Asian kung fu fantasy with Sci-fi, and you can clearly distinguish which is which.........definitely this series needs to be animated or made into a TV series..............

Book 7, as soon as I cycle my madra.......that left my core soooooooo low........

Ohhhhh.......read the bloopers!!!! DEFINITELY ONE OF THE BEST AND FUNNIEST!!!!

Popcorn fantasy, with a dash of competition. Still fun, still interesting even in the sixth entry into this series.

Man, this book was excellent. The previous five books just built this one to a place where every single page seemed like it was brimming with excitement or anticipation. The fights were incredible and I was genuinely nervous of the results during a fair amount of them. The villains were well done. Every single side character had interesting scenes that elevated their role in the story. The plot was tight and focused less on training (although it was still there, because this is progression fantasy after all). The ending left the story in such an intriguing place that I can't wait to start book 7. I even FINALLY liked Lindon, who had to do some soul searching about himself in order to progress, and had to have difficult conversations with his companions or make hard choices that allowed him to grow beyond “yo I need to get strong, fam”.

Everything about this book worked for me, except one thing, which isn't a problem with this book. It's a problem with this series, or maybe, progression fantasy in general. The way that every SINGLE person Lindon comes into contact with in each book is always just so much ludacriously stronger than the previous book. I get it for main/supporting villains. Obviously, Lindon is not going to be doing “final battles” with Jades or Lowgolds when he is close to progressing to Underlord. But Jades and Lowgolds still EXIST. I feel like every character is constantly progressing at an insane rate, even minor characters pop back up and they've progressed off screen to be at Lindon's level or stronger. I get this is supposed to be the draw of progression fantasy, but I disagree. Part of what makes Lindon and Yerin's arc for progression satisfying is that they are progressing so much quicker than others due to a combination of skill, incredible luck, and hard work. It cheapens the story for every person they meet to always be at their level or above them. They couldn't have a friend who they genuinely enjoy being around, who has some sort of other skill, like being really great at cooking and strategy, but is only at a Jade level? They can't have a member of their forces in a battle be a Lowgold? It's just annoying when it's EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. Maybe other people like this aspect. But I don't, because it would never happen. Powerful people are usually surrounded by less powerful people. Eithan, Lindon, Yerin, Mercy, and Orthos only bothering to talk to people if they're more powerful reeks of billionaires not consorting with peasants, and it cheapens their characters and the story in general. That's my two cents on this issue.

But this book isn't any worse than the rest with this; I mention it here finally because most of the series is constantly mentioning how rare it is to be Truegold and then suddenly in this book there's like 829272 Truegolds, haha.

But that's the end of my rant. This book is great. I look forward to book 7!

Heck, Yes, this gave me freaking goosebumps!

This was one of those rare Series where you crave for more. It's 2 am in the morning and I'm elated and dancing in the bedroom and my wife's shouting wtf, stupid.
Thank you Will Wight! You bloody rock!

Executive Summary: This is might be my favorite of the series thus far, and it's at least the best book since [b:Blackflame 35023786 Blackflame (Cradle, #3) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1493626673s/35023786.jpg 56310116].Full ReviewI really loved this book and this series. I think if I had started reading it during the weekend it came out instead of a few days later and I'd have read it in 1-2 days instead of 4. Every time I picked it up, I just wanted to keep reading, but often I either didn't have enough time, or I was too tired to concentrate properly.After how much I loved [b:Blackflame 35023786 Blackflame (Cradle, #3) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1493626673s/35023786.jpg 56310116], I found [b:Skysworn 36332410 Skysworn (Cradle, #4) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1506821104s/36332410.jpg 58010031] a bit of a letdown. [b:Ghostwater 40280403 Ghostwater (Cradle, #5) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1527845246s/40280403.jpg 62568044] was a better entry, but I wondered if the series had peeked in the third book. Then this book came along and kicked things into another gear.I watch a ton of shonen anime, and those series often become less interesting to me when the main character gets too powerful. I worried Lindon would be much less interesting the stronger he got.The typical solution to this problem is to add tougher and tougher enemies, which is a technique that Mr. Wight uses, but what sets it above for me is the cool variety of ways each of the characters get stronger.He also does a pretty good job with humor. I found myself laughing at something nearly as often as I was cheering for a badass fight scene. I especially love the way Mercy says hello to EVERYONE.My only minor issue is that I still find myself confused as to some of the larger cosmic events. I'm sure the more careful readers are getting all kinds of information out of these interludes, I find myself scratching my head. I'm hoping that in time all of this stuff will make more sense, and maybe I'll do a reread to see what stuff I was missing.This series continues to be highly entertaining and I'm eagerly awaiting the next book. I have a ton of questions, and he sets things up really nicely for what's to come next.

Where do I begin? I started this series as a light fun read to transition between more difficult books. This ended up being my most anticipated release this year.

I would say it's right up there with Ghostwater and Blackflame as one of the best books in the series. Excellent pacing as always, probably a bit too fast paced initially for my liking but slowed down well towards the middle. More importantly I think Will's character development has improved a lot from his previous books. Although it's very difficult to have good character development, well developed magic system and a fast action pace in a single book unless it's a behemoth, so it was understandable that character development suffered a bit in earlier books.

I very rarely go for a long series because most of the time I just get bored when the pace slows down to a crawl or the books get very repetitive, but I have no such issues so far with this series. Can't wait for the next book already.