Will Wight

Tuco · Sep 12, 2022

Brahma said:
Genuinely curious what your opinion of the 1st book/series will be.

I liked the first book, am almost done with the second book now.

Lindon (Great, I spoiled myself just looking up how to spell his name since I read on an audiobook and wasn't sure if it was Linden or Lindon, FUCK) is a fine protagonist, I'm sure he'll develop more of a personality as he stops being this underpowered beggar. The power differential in this book isn't a plot device I like as much as a protagonist who is growing alongside his compatriates, but I kinda assume he'll keep getting rando buffs until he's on par with the other people in the book, so that's fine. The world building is interesting, remnants are a very cool plot device that I don't think I've heard of before. I was disappointed that the kid bad guy in the Hidden Valley school that was stuck as a kid didn't become Lindon's frenemy, the idea of an old man being trapped in a kids body trying to undo his screwups is kinda compelling.

Ukerric · Sep 12, 2022

Tuco said:
I liked the first book, am almost done with the second book now.

I'm sure he'll develop more of a personality as he stops being this underpowered beggar.

When Lindon bows respectfully and utters the word "Gratitude", powerful men blanch. Weapons are death-grasped instinctively. Sphincters open up uncontrollably.

Ritley · Sep 14, 2022

Tuco said:
I liked the first book, am almost done with the second book now.

Lindon (Great, I spoiled myself just looking up how to spell his name since I read on an audiobook and wasn't sure if it was Linden or Lindon, FUCK) is a fine protagonist, I'm sure he'll develop more of a personality as he stops being this underpowered beggar. The power differential in this book isn't a plot device I like as much as a protagonist who is growing alongside his compatriates, but I kinda assume he'll keep getting rando buffs until he's on par with the other people in the book, so that's fine. The world building is interesting, remnants are a very cool plot device that I don't think I've heard of before. I was disappointed that the kid bad guy in the Hidden Valley school that was stuck as a kid didn't become Lindon's frenemy, the idea of an old man being trapped in a kids body trying to undo his screwups is kinda compelling.

Yeah it’s really hard to address any of this without going into at a minimum light spoilers, but based on what your complaints are I think you’ll like the rest of the series so far.

Tuco · Sep 19, 2022

Halfway through Book 5 Ghostwater now.

Am enjoying it quite a bit. The narrator, Travis Baldree, is the same as Artorian's Archives of the CAL / Dakota Krout universe. The universes in the Artorian's Archives series and the sibling series, Divine Dungeon are verrrry similar to the Cradle series, which is fine because they're both staples of the progression fantasy genre. The protagonist of Artorian's Archives, Artorian, is also extremely similar to Aethen Aurilius (sp, don't want to spoil myself by looking up the spelling....) and the voice that Travis Baldree uses is similar. I don't view that as a downside, just an interesting similarity. It was kind of like how the Bobiverse' series and Project Hail Mary had the same narrator and the protagonist was very similar, to the point where it was easy to share something of an emotional context.

Anyway, the book series is great. The choices the author makes to grow the characters and explore the universe are very interesting, enjoyable, clever. The surprises in the books are well-founded and fit very well. I wish Book 4 was about 25% longer, it felt like Lindon didn't have an opportunity to really help or be helped by the Skysworn and a couple of short arcs in the middle or end would have fleshed the empire out a bit before the powercreep of book 5 made them maybe irrelevant???

I'm glad that they exposed the idea of a multiverse and celestial beings at the start of book 1, because that mitigates the feeling of repetition as each book introduces exponentially more powerful scales. There's a sense that even if "wood" has a powerlevel of 1, copper is 10, iron 100, jade 1000, gold 10k->100k, lord is 1m-10m and monarch is 100m or whatever, there is a celestial being on an "administrator" level power. So when Lindon goes from being fucked with by Jades to Golds to Lords it doesn't feel like the author is just making up bullshit to repeat the progression.

No spoilers plz.

Intrinsic · Sep 19, 2022

Tuco said:
Halfway through Book 5 Ghostwater now.

Am enjoying it quite a bit. The narrator, Travis Baldree, is the same as Artorian's Archives of the CAL / Dakota Krout universe. The universes in the Artorian's Archives series and the sibling series, Divine Dungeon are verrrry similar to the Cradle series, which is fine because they're both staples of the progression fantasy genre. The protagonist of Artorian's Archives, Artorian, is also extremely similar to Aethen Aurilius (sp, don't want to spoil myself by looking up the spelling....) and the voice that Travis Baldree uses is similar. I don't view that as a downside, just an interesting similarity. It was kind of like how the Bobiverse' series and Project Hail Mary had the same narrator and the protagonist was very similar, to the point where it was easy to share something of an emotional context.

Anyway, the book series is great. The choices the author makes to grow the characters and explore the universe are very interesting, enjoyable, clever. The surprises in the books are well-founded and fit very well. I wish Book 4 was about 25% longer, it felt like Lindon didn't have an opportunity to really help or be helped by the Skysworn and a couple of short arcs in the middle or end would have fleshed the empire out a bit before the powercreep of book 5 made them maybe irrelevant???

I'm glad that they exposed the idea of a multiverse and celestial beings at the start of book 1, because that mitigates the feeling of repetition as each book introduces exponentially more powerful scales. There's a sense that even if "wood" has a powerlevel of 1, copper is 10, iron 100, jade 1000, gold 10k->100k, lord is 1m-10m and monarch is 100m or whatever, there is a celestial being on an "administrator" level power. So when Lindon goes from being fucked with by Jades to Golds to Lords it doesn't feel like the author is just making up bullshit to repeat the progression.

No spoilers plz.

I'm interested in your opinion on it as a "long" series of books, in that there are 11 of 12 (?) books released. I have a friend who I would like to read but she's against anything over 5 books because of the feeling that things get lost, convoluted, earlier stuff becomes irrelevant, and other reasons that I consider relevant. It is a hard commitment going in to a 12 book series. On the up side at least you know it is almost finished and the author is still very active. (fwiw I don't share this apprehension. Malazan, Cradle, Dresden are all long series and incredible in my opinion. But it is still relatable for someone tentative about that type of investment)

Anyways, just interested in a new perspective on that since you're at that line in the sand of 5 books right now.

Thanks!

Tuco · Sep 19, 2022

Intrinsic said:
I'm interested in your opinion on it as a "long" series of books, in that there are 11 of 12 (?) books released. I have a friend who I would like to read but she's against anything over 5 books because of the feeling that things get lost, convoluted, earlier stuff becomes irrelevant, and other reasons that I consider relevant. It is a hard commitment going in to a 12 book series. On the up side at least you know it is almost finished and the author is still very active. (fwiw I don't share this apprehension. Malazan, Cradle, Dresden are all long series and incredible in my opinion. But it is still relatable for someone tentative about that type of investment)

Anyways, just interested in a new perspective on that since you're at that line in the sand of 5 books right now.

Thanks!

I didn't know how many books were released for it when I started, thanks for spoiling it for me, asshole.

Just kidding. I don't know the names or lengths of any of the books but if they're ~10 hours long it's not even that much of a commitment to me. I consume my books via audiobook and listen while I'm doing other stuff (yard work, dishes, going to sleep, relaxing, waiting, commuting etc) so I'm basically filling time with enjoyable stuff. The WH40k Horus Heresy is much more intimidating.

I also don't mind dropping off franchises that are good for the first N books but stop being good after a while. For example I stopped reading

Artorian's Archive because it got a little repetitive in the last book, and won't pick it up unless the review scores increase dramatically.

Ukerric · Sep 20, 2022

Tuco said:
I didn't know how many books were released for it when I started, thanks for spoiling it for me, asshole.

Just kidding. I don't know the names or lengths of any of the books but if they're ~10 hours long it's not even that much of a commitment to me.

Book 1 - 8:45
Book 2 - 8:23
Book 3 - 11:01
Book 4 - 8:43
Book 5 - 9:16
Book 6 - 10:42
Book 7 - 9:32
Book 8 - 14:39 <--- the chonkiest
Book 9 - 11:12
Book 10 - 13:07
Book 11 - 12:28

You're welcome. It could be worse. It could be the Wandering Inn (shortest: 34 hours, longest: 61 hours).

Ranak · Sep 21, 2022

Had a friend recommend Cradle recently and hadn't heard of it before, though I had heard of Wil Wight. Does it translate well to audiobook or is it one of those series that definitely need to be read to get the most out of it?

Ritley · Sep 21, 2022

Ranak said:
Had a friend recommend Cradle recently and hadn't heard of it before, though I had heard of Wil Wight. Does it translate well to audiobook or is it one of those series that definitely need to be read to get the most out of it?

Haven’t done audio books myself, but everyone that has for this series says it’s fantastic. I can’t see a reason why it wouldn’t be.

Tuco · Sep 22, 2022

Ranak said:
Had a friend recommend Cradle recently and hadn't heard of it before, though I had heard of Wil Wight. Does it translate well to audiobook or is it one of those series that definitely need to be read to get the most out of it?

The audiobook is good. Travis Baldree does a fine job. He doesn't have much range in terms of voices but it works for Cradle. He puts in the right amount of emotion into the emotional bits, the intensity in the intense bits and doesn't have any annoying ticks. After listening to so much Jeff Hays who loves crazy voices it's a nice break to have normal sounding people without crazy accents.

Tuco · Sep 24, 2022

Starting book 7 now.

Dross is by far my favorite part of the series now. I wonder if some readers find him annoying but his almost fourth wall breaking interjections and jubilant negativity regularly make me audibly chuckle like an idiot and the concept of a mind bolstering intelligence is compelling and rare in fiction. I can't think of any other characters like it. Jarvis in ironman is close but not internal to tony stark (along with most similar entities like master chief and cortana), the mind enhancements in old mans war, wh40k geneseed, etc) aren't separate intelligences.

I think now that im in the middle of lindons presumable path toward ascension I'm enjoying the heavenly side chapters less. I don't like multiple povs or spoilers and even if the series takes a surprising turn I don't like that the obvious path is laid out for the reader and eclipsing the adventures on the way. It's all good though.

Tuco · Sep 26, 2022

Just finished book 8. Vasectomies aren't fun but laying on my recliner on my deck all weekend powering through cradle isn't a bad way to recover.

book eight ends in a tremendously satisfying way of course, but i kinda hoped it would've ended in a transformative disaster with aethen being gandalfed into the abyss, the entire akura clan getting wiped out and lindon and yarin being thrust into an unfamiliar world and having to survive veiled while the dragon and cultists search for them.but whatever, it was super enjoyable watching the dragon get roided up and still getting defeated twice. Note i don't know how to spell any of these names and don't want to look it up and get spoiled again.

Ritley · Sep 26, 2022

Tuco said:
Just finished book 8. Vasectomies aren't fun but laying on my recliner on my deck all weekend powering through cradle isn't a bad way to recover.

book eight ends in a tremendously satisfying way of course, but i kinda hoped it would've ended in a transformative disaster with aethen being gandalfed into the abyss, the entire akura clan getting wiped out and lindon and yarin being thrust into an unfamiliar world and having to survive veiled while the dragon and cultists search for them.but whatever, it was super enjoyable watching the dragon get roided up and still getting defeated twice. Note i don't know how to spell any of these names and don't want to look it up and get spoiled again.

It’s spelled Aethianne

Tuco · Oct 4, 2022

I finished book 10.

I'm still enjoying the story. I like the world Will Wight created with massively disproportionate powers that keep themselves in check and the population of trash-golds alive through an honor system + mutually assured destruction. The concept of monarchs ending up being somewhat somewhat petulant and wanting to stay in the lowbie zone at the cost of *everyone* around them is an interesting result that I imagine Lindon will heartily address.

I wish that more time elapsed in the series and more time was spent on Lindon. He's been active for like 4 years and has already surpassed all but like, 20 people in the entire world without anything obvious giving him an advantage except apparently luck, determination and plot armor. I would've enjoyed another 20% of the book dedicated to Lindon power-leveling everyone in his new sect. One of the concepts that doesn't quite fit to me is that if it's so easy for sages / heralds / monarchs to raise people to peak true gold with, and true golds have a place due to the rules around fighting, why don't the very powerful do more to help? Some chapters dedicated to either showing why that doesn't work or showing Lindon close that gap because he's the MC and does obvious things that everyone else overlooks would've been nice.

I also kind of wish the "Voltron" chapters with the abadon / judges / vorcha didn't exist at all, and instead Will Wight exposed what was going on in subtle ways that Aethen or Lindon could perceive. It feels like we haven't even gotten to the endgame yet and the mystery around the heavenly powers is a bit dispelled and the characters are children like everyone else, just with reality altering powers.

Anyway, I'm consuming chapter 11 now.

velk · Oct 5, 2022

Tuco said:
if it's so easy for sages / heralds / monarchs to raise people to peak true gold with, and true golds have a place due to the rules around fighting, why don't the very powerful do more to help? Some chapters dedicated to either showing why that doesn't work or showing Lindon close that gap because he's the MC and does obvious things that everyone else overlooks would've been nice.

It'd be easy for Bezos to make you a millionaire, why hasn't he ? He's certainly made some people who work for him millionaires, why are they special ? ;p

Tuco · Oct 5, 2022

velk said:
It'd be easy for Bezos to make you a millionaire, why hasn't he ? He's certainly made some people who work for him millionaires, why are they special ? ;p

I'm not part of Bezos sect. If Bezos could increase the productivity of his sect's workers by 10-100x by raising them from low-gold to true-gold through a modest cost, he would. In our universe, if Bezos invested in his hourly workers, it would increase their economic mobility and they'd either become less productive or move to a better job.

Note, I'm not saying that the world-building in Cradle is bad or breaks down or trying to theorycraft anything. I'm just saying I would've enjoyed a few chapters of Lindon building up his sect in book 10, and would've enjoyed more time-skips in the books in general. It might be that most of book 11 is Lindon spending a decade building his sect and I don't know it yet because I just started it. It's OK that Cradle has been Lindon speedrunning mega-boosts from one impending disaster to the next while passing up people who have been at it for decades or centuries, it doesn't have to be a book that slow-rolls his progression with massive timeskips.

Brahma · Oct 5, 2022

Tuco said:
I finished book 10.

I'm still enjoying the story. I like the world Will Wight created with massively disproportionate powers that keep themselves in check and the population of trash-golds alive through an honor system + mutually assured destruction. The concept of monarchs ending up being somewhat somewhat petulant and wanting to stay in the lowbie zone at the cost of *everyone* around them is an interesting result that I imagine Lindon will heartily address.

I wish that more time elapsed in the series and more time was spent on Lindon. He's been active for like 4 years and has already surpassed all but like, 20 people in the entire world without anything obvious giving him an advantage except apparently luck, determination and plot armor. I would've enjoyed another 20% of the book dedicated to Lindon power-leveling everyone in his new sect. One of the concepts that doesn't quite fit to me is that if it's so easy for sages / heralds / monarchs to raise people to peak true gold with, and true golds have a place due to the rules around fighting, why don't the very powerful do more to help? Some chapters dedicated to either showing why that doesn't work or showing Lindon close that gap because he's the MC and does obvious things that everyone else overlooks would've been nice.

I also kind of wish the "Voltron" chapters with the abadon / judges / vorcha didn't exist at all, and instead Will Wight exposed what was going on in subtle ways that Aethen or Lindon could perceive. It feels like we haven't even gotten to the endgame yet and the mystery around the heavenly powers is a bit dispelled and the characters are children like everyone else, just with reality altering powers.

Anyway, I'm consuming chapter 11 now.

Funny. I really enjoy the "Voltron" chapters. I think it might be me wondering how the Lindon crew is integrated. Especially since they have an "in". Will they be given sidekick jobs to the "Voltron" crew?

Tuco · Oct 13, 2022

Finished book 11.

Pretty satisfying end and book series so far. Looks like book 12 is coming out next year. I'm excited to see how the dread gods / monarchs story wraps up and Will Wight has done a fine job surprising me throughout, but I can't help but feel the Voltron chapters overshadow everything going on in Cradle. I like the ambition of the Voltron battles being unconstrained by conventional physics but it's dangerous ground for a progression fiction to tread. The interactions are so unconstrained that it bounces between sounding like two coppers fighting and random bullshit. Like, "Then she threw a rock at him and, and, every dude on a distant planet nutted in his pants. Then he threw a kick and a bunch of stars blew up. Then she called upon her ultimate power and the next chapter got deleted." Which is fine, I like ambitious writing and am enjoying the progression from mundane to metaphysical.

Ukerric · Oct 13, 2022

Tuco said:
She called upon her ultimate power and the next chapter got deleted.

I'm absolutely going to use that somewhere...

Captain Suave · Oct 14, 2022

Ukerric said:
I'm absolutely going to use that somewhere...

Wight absolutely should steal that and follow it with a blank chapter and a forever-unexplained gap in the story.

Will Wight

I got Tuco'd!

Bearded Ape

Karazhan Raider

I got Tuco'd!

Person of Whiteness

I got Tuco'd!

Bearded Ape

Molten Core Raider

Karazhan Raider

I got Tuco'd!

I got Tuco'd!

I got Tuco'd!

Karazhan Raider

I got Tuco'd!

Trakanon Raider

I got Tuco'd!

Obi-Bro Kenobi-X

I got Tuco'd!

Bearded Ape

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.