Reaper: Cradle, Book 10

This is a general review of the series up to now. SPOILERS AHEAD!I found Book 1 and Book 2 of Cradle to be phenomenal. As a huge fan of Asian fiction, I loved seeing the elegant dismantling of tropes (specifically, progress in the "right" way) and depth of "shame culture" in English.Book 5 is where things started to get iffy for me. For one, Lindon and Yerin were separated for almost the entirety of the book. Whereas before the series' primary enjoyment for me was Lindon, Yerin, and Eithan interacting, since Book 5 we see the three separated for long periods of time.Then came POV issues. With Orthos, Little Blue, and then Dross, the author seemed to enter a period of time Books 9+ especially where he would, like a four person tennis match, dutifully bounce between each characters' POV. Kinda annoying.Speaking of side characters, I recognize I'm in the minority here, but I could never warm up to Mercy. I understand that she's the "light hearted foil" to the cast, but she felt a bit of a... character written specifically for male readers, in that she made me think of a typical anime love interest girl that a teenage boy might enjoy (see in TV Tropes "That Chick with Purple Hair," "Manic Pixie Dream Girl.") That's just my opinion.But the most salient issue is that I keep reading for the emotional payoff of big events, and it's just not there. The big events happen - Lindon and Yerin have a first date - Lindon returns home - but sometimes there's not even a sentence devoted to the emotional impact. A great example for this to me is Jai Long and Kelsa. I can imagine how they would get together, but we're not really told anything about their inner emotions - we just see them physically close to each other and then Kelsa grieving.Speaking of first dates, I am of the opinion that maybe Will should stick to action adventure and leave out romance. I do like the idea of Lindon and Yerin being together, but every romance part has snagged at me as feeling rather disconnected and forced that Will had written (not just for Lindon-Yerin, but also teasers for Lindon-Mercy.)This all being said, we still have great moments every so often. Mercy's reveal of her Underlord revelation (I want to impress my mother) really hit hard. So did Eithan's reveal as Ozriel. Not every side character is boring: Dross kicks ass, Ziel intrigues me.But there's something missing in the later books that was present in the first few books. Call it coherence, call it editing, whatever it is, I feel the lack. The humor. The pacing. Other reviewers have said that it almost felt like Will wanted to totally rush the ending and give a Sparknotes synopsis in the last few books. I have to agree. Rather than a production where we are dazzled, we're given the outline notes. And the same passion for xianxia doesn't seem to be there - I miss the humble and very authentically Chinese Lindon. It feels like a bit of that character has been scrapped away, not in a natural character progression way, but more in a peeling away from the cultural origins of the story. I don't blame Will, because I think naturally our interests change and evolve over several years, but it has resulted in what feels to me a decline over the series.Some reviewers have noted a lack of "sophistication." Given that Mercy's revelation was "I am Mercy," and Lindon's revelation was "I advance," I would have to agree. Some parts are so on the nose, whereas the first few books were full of sly and subtle humor.I can't believe that the next book will be the last. With all the threads there are to wrap up, I would've thought Book 15 or later would be the last. However, I wish Will the best with his future writing endeavors and of course will be there to read the series finale.

Let me start with anything negative I can think of:* it’s hard to put this into words, but this is not a sophisticated book. Not too much moral dilemmas, tough choices or anything. Language is easy to follow and story is not over complicated* it’s super annoying to read this after a break from the previous. It’s very hard to follow, you do not remember how magic works, what weapons are involved, where the story stopped. Those books are in a dire need for an up-to-now synopsis mr Will Wight!* I can’t say I was emotionally moved at any point, though it’s rare that I doNo more negatives!I devoured this one and I always give 5 stars to such books that I just can’t stop reading and drop everything else over them.The story is good, we have a new setting, interesting one and the abidan parts of it are also progressing to a surprising extent. Pieces fall together forming a revealing ending that maybe unfortunately doesn’t come as a surprise since it was heavily hinted before. Frankly, that hint-story should have been placed after the revelation.To be honest, this series resembles an rpg (I’m pretty sure the writer has played some), we have a team and they progress together and they advance consistently. There is always a stronger foe, but each time we are facing only whoever is on our level. I find that ok, I guess this continuous progress is what I enjoy.The characters do not really evolve in terms of personality in this book. Maybe We get a small glimpse of Mercy but that’s it. I think you know by now this series is not about deep character development and that’s fineWhy do I give 5 stars again? My review structure sucks, I know, but it’s just random thought at this point. Well, I really enjoy reading this. Battles were interesting and different and inventive. No part was boring, there was a bad guy, well formed and there is a lot of menaces left to face and a lot of promise for leveling up…eerm….advancing!!I am super confident if you reach this point you will read this book nonetheless, but hey, if you have doubts forget about it and read this one, you will enjoy it for sure! I am going to start on the next one right now !!

Can't stop rereading the series. And this book is so good. Prepping for the release of Waybound. Hoping and dreading that it will come soon.

Such scripting of cultivation and drama and battle , love and loss. This is a well done work of literature that I am glad to have invested time into. Excited for the future of it

Just when thought I had the story figured out, everything changed and I loved it. Wight continues to evolve the fate of a world and a universe in epic proportions.

Favorite book of the series! So many questions are answered in the book, and the authors ability to continue growing each character (even the less important ones) has been great. Excited to see how Lindon ascends the levels of power laid ahead, and how the author wraps thing up in the next 2 books.

I have loved this series. 10 books and I can’t wait until the next. Great characters, great story, never losing steam. I, like I’m sure many others, will be truly sad when the story of Lindon and friends finally reaches its conclusion. But until then… what a ride!

Well I liked the outcome of this book and look forward to the next. I will cradle it to my bossom before going to bed each night.

It’s been a few months since I first read Reaper but I keep getting drawn back and rereading the ending. It may be on of the best things I have ever read.It brings everything together in such an amazing way. Rereading the series I’ve seen threads of it introduced almost as far back as the very beginning and it all comes together in an explosive way. The long term plotting is something that I just have to admire but the writing is amazing as well. It builds up nicely, the tension is amazing and then it breaks into what is honestly one of my favourite moments in literature. I really like epic moments and the series is full of them but this blows them all away. If you are a writer then study this series to learn because there’s so many lesion in so many things here.Just the ending alone would make this book a must read but good news! There’s a whole other novel before it.It’s got a nice slow start with everyone recovering from the aftermath of the last book. I really liked it. As the characters in the book remark themselves, everything has been a race against time, with the ever present need to advance that it’s nice to see them just living their lives for a while. You feel they earned the break. And then of course comes the action, which is as good as ever. It’s a book that knows how to properly pace itself and I’m amazed that ten books in we’re still learning new and pertinent things about the world and the characters within it. And then of course comes the ending. Have I mentioned the amazing ending yet?This book was a delight to read and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

The Cradle series is so imaginative, truly transports you to another world, huge in its scope. Its magical, action packed, exciting & full of wonder. Over all this, are the characters it's populated with, heroes you care about, to the extent that when you start reading you feel you're on an adventure with friends. They are all engaging, fascinating, funny, quirky, inspiring, all with different characteristics & stories but equally likeable and to me no matter how other-wordly the experience the root running through all the books is friendship & family & what that means. I won't try and explain the plot or story to you, I think its a series you have to discover and travel with yourselves, as its like nothing else I've read but as an avid fantasy reader I highly recommend it. I absolutely loved this latest book 'Reaper' and can't wait for the next one. Also Will Wight is so good at always delivering a new novel and not keeping all us fans waiting in disappointment for years to join our friends again!

I was so excited when i saw this book was out that i may have peed a little!The storytelling is amazing, i love all the characters and it never feels like any parts are just jammed in for the sake of it. Everything feels brilliantly paced and i love that it’s not all about one person, the characters all feel unique and all have believable motivations!My favourite part is that there are some lines in at least every book in this series that gives me the chills as i read it - i feel the intent from the character in that moment, and damn i love that!Thanks Will Wight for another amazing instalment! I’m so excited to see what happens next!

This was my favourite cradle book yet. I need to be careful as the plot was incredibly and I don't want to even hint at spoilers, but this book tied together a lot of threads that had been carefully laid throughout the series. That part reminded me very much of my favourite Sanderson moments and I'm frankly in awe of how well it was done. I read a lot of fantasy books and I'm one of those nerds who spends days swapping theories on Reddit. And even then, despite guessing a few things correctly, I was kept constantly on my toes by the wonderfully surprising twists and misdirection.Compared to previous books it's similar to Wintersteel in that it felt like a full novel, rather than being overly cut down for pacings sake. This was a definite improvement and I'd say the balance between pace and expanding on the characters/world is even better than Wintersteel.In previous books it's sometimes felt like character development/introspection was overly cut for the sake of a slickly paced plot. In particular with the secondary main characters, such as Ziel or Mercy, who often just felt along for the ride at times. But almost every single protagonist/deuteragonist (that's not a spoiler btw you already know who the independents are) got a solid amount of development. This also focused on who they are as people, not just advancement. Again this part reminded me a lot of Sanderson, particularly Stormlight. This added so much to the book and makes me even more excited to see what happens next!That said don't worry if you're more interested in the main characters, this is still very much Lindons story and it more than delivers there. My only real criticism is that there could have been more Yerrin development. Hopefully that's being saved for future but atm is not really clear what her path forward is as a character. There were some threads early on, won't say due to spoilers, but she still seemed relatively unexplored. Then again we got so damn much of every other character's development that that might just be by example.Anyway, I loved it and I'm so so excited for the next book!

I thoroughly enjoy this series and I'm glad that it's going to continue for a little while longer. I hope to read on all the way to Lindon's advancement to Abidan level.Fantastic series, Will Wight. Thank you for writing it. Oh and the line about the, Hounds, purple veined sword made chuckle. Intentional or not, it was funny. May the Force be with you.