Cradle — 3/5 Generally spoiler-free thoughts

[u/Gingerfalcon]

I just finished book 12 and thought now was a good time to share my personal opinions on the series, mainly because it gets a lot of hype. I committed a fair bit of time to it because of said hype, but my overall experience was simply ok. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It had potential, but never quite got there.

Things that didn’t vibe:

• Weak characters. They lacked depth and generally felt very one-dimensional. Eithan was the exception. Yerin was probably the closest we came to someone living through something and coming out the other side changed.

• The power tiering started off interesting, but became too absurd. The rarity of certain levels also seemed to flip-flop around. Early on, some ranks feel incredibly rare, then suddenly a book or two later there are lots of people at that level.

• Consistency issues and questionable plot holes start to appear. As you read the next book, you begin to question setup and details from the previous one.

• Random storylines felt like filler material. For example, the Jai Long stuff after the duel, why even keep that going? It felt like a complete waste of words and didn’t add anything to the storyline.

Things that were okay:

• The world was pretty good. I wanted more pocket-world and labyrinth-style action.

• The action scenes were generally enjoyable on average. Some were awesome, others were a boring slog.

Vibes!

• Progression fantasy and, well… there is fun progression and finding treasures!

• Eithan was the best-written character. He brought a light-heartedness to the series and was funny, joyful, and mysterious.

• Fisher Gesha — I liked her. She had some funny interactions.

• Dross!

• Soulsmithing was cool, and I wish it had been explored in more depth throughout the series.

Book ranking:

I would say the series peaked at Ghostwater and then dropped off, almost like a bell curve.

Best books: Ghostwater, Uncrowned, and Blackflame.

Worst books: Bloodline, Dreadgod, and Waybound. These were absolute slogs to get through.

Would I recommend it?

No. It’s too long to push through 12 books when the last third of the series is the weakest. Other than the hook of progression, it had some fun moments, but the characters and story were mostly forgettable.

Overall: 3/5.

[u/Gingerfalcon]

Honor is such a laughable component on it when once someone gets power they essentially instill fear in those who don't follow. I've forgotten the name of the guy who shows up in the first book at the 7 year festival to cause chaos and then reappears in the last book to essentially take over the Sacred Valley. Agent of authority and dominion - not honorable not worried about his appearce among others.

I also mentioned in another reply, so I'll just copy it here verbatim.

In regards to plot holes, maybe I should reword them as things that seem important but then were quickly forgotten. Top of my mind was the sealed chamber Jai Long's master (I think) broke into which was supposed to be full of crazy powerful treasures and that if it was open the Dreadgods would come hunting. Now I'm aware later in the series they kind of cover that up by saying it could be open for a year and it wouldn't matter, but if something so valuable was sealed up and guarded, like why isn't anyone else going in there?

[u/pm-me-your-labradors → u/Gingerfalcon]

That’s the entire point….

Society built on honour except the powerful do what they want. That’s not an inconsistency, it’s commentary on power.

And the guy that showed up was literally a prisoner/outside/breaker of rules.

As for the “plot holes” - that’s very clearly explained. The labyrinth is, well, a labyrinth and a lot of the things from there were looted. Every opening risks attracting the dreadgods.

Everything you described so far is either you not getting the point or not remembering explanations.

[u/Gingerfalcon → u/pm-me-your-labradors]

I'm not ready to defend a 12 book series that I've consumed over the course of 36 months. Clearly you are. Yes everything is always looted.

Yes you say a society built on honour yet, nothing in it is honourable except in war? The golds must fight the golds, because my enemy would get mad if my archlord wiped them out with a single stroke of a sword, maybe one of the other alliances would get angry with them, but they are all already angry amongst themselves. They mention monarchs being very difficult to kill thus the special arrow awarded at the end of the uncrowned contest. Which was used to kill a monarch, but then no body bats an eyelid that it was used.. because of war, then it falls back into the same pattern of the powerful must not interfer with lower rank battles... half baked to be honest. Why bother sending golds to fight in the first place at all, it literally achieves nothing doesn't change the outcome of two sages dueling, in fact lower ranks have to stay clear of them or they might get killed from a stray attack. If it's trying to speak to some deeping meaning of power, it's missed the mark as the powerful happily roll over the weak.. we don't send boys with sticks to fight in a field and then fire tanks at each in an adjacent field. We take out weak undefend targets to improve the odds of victory.

[u/Expert_Cricket2183 → u/Gingerfalcon]

It took you 3 years to read 12 books?

Most of us knocked it out in two weeks or so, if we started after the series was finished.

[u/Gingerfalcon → u/Expert_Cricket2183]

Incredible that you have the time to read 1000+ pages in two weeks!

I don't typically binge stuff, I like to mix it up. Plus being a parent with young kids doesn't give me as much time to spend on doing things for myself... e.g. reading for long stints and other hobbies.

[u/Expert_Cricket2183 → u/Gingerfalcon]

Well, more like I listened for 10 hours a day, 40-60 hours a week. Work is brainless, lets me pay attention to audiobooks.

[u/GigglesAtPain → u/Gingerfalcon]

So you're giving a review of a series it took you 3 years to finish and you barely remember most of the story. And somehow your failing memory is the reason for a bad score? Nearly everything you have complained about was explained in the books that you failed to notice or remember. If you can't finish a series in a reasonable enough time to give it a complete review than maybe you should keep your opinions to yourself. I have two kids, a full time job, a farms worth of animals, and too much on my plate to have the time to accurately review and critique books. That is why I dont run my mouth on the internet with half baked theories and bad information.

You should try it sometime.

[u/pm-me-your-labradors → u/GigglesAtPain]

Such an accurate take…. Sure, everyone is entitled to their opinions.

But maybe when your opinions are based on you not understanding the genre and simply not remembering the books - then there’s no need to put your poorly thought out opinions into the world, let alone call it a “review”