Blackflame

One of the things I like best about the Cradle series is the pace. There are secrets to be discovered, but you don't need to wait forever to find out. Take Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn as a counter-example. Sanderson is slowly building up his Cosmere, a shared universe in which all his books somehow hang together. But hell, you don't even find some things out until you get to the Alloy of the Law series, books written more than three years later. And even then, Sanderson drips out his little hints, slowly, slowly.

I'm only three books into Wight's Cradle series, and I already know the backstory of the inhabited worlds and I have an idea of where Lindon is going to end up, and new information comes at a fast and furious pace, quickly show more linking up with things already established. And we aren't even three years into the whole series. I liked Sanderson's books, but this is just so much more satisfying. For example, Blackflame actually did address the question I raised in my review of Soulsmith: why hasn't someone invaded and pillaged the Sacred Valley of Lindon's birth? We don't get a complete answer, but we did get something.

“We could…go west,” she suggested hopefully. He started to tell her no, but hesitated. She was referring to a legend. In the mountains to the west of the Desolate Wilds, there was supposed to be a hidden valley that occasionally emerged to trade with the outside. The inhabitants were weak, but protected by a curse.

Much like Cole and Anspach's Galaxy's Edge series, the amount of Wight's world we can see gets bigger and bigger as we go along. The structure of everything is the same, but also simultaneously new and exciting.

As Lindon gains new abilities, he [and we] gain new insight as well. Things that were previously seen through a glass darkly suddenly snap into focus

In my review of Soulsmith, I said that the ranks of sacred artists on Cradle were something like natural kinds. There really do seem to be differences in kind, and not just in degree. Yet, part of the arc of Lindon's life itself is that isn't the whole story. Lindon, unsouled and unworthy, achieves things no one in his home would have thought possible even for the best of them, let alone poor Lindon.

Orthos gingerly stretched out a leg, wincing at the pain. “Humans make every stage into a legend. A Lowgold is just a Jade with teeth. The only difference between Jade and Gold is a mountain of power.”
This pattern continues to repeat itself once Lindon escapes the Sacred Valley, and he is repeatedly discounted by his social betters, even as he vaults past them in power. As is typical for this kind of a book, Lindon himself is special, and he receives help, of a sort, from his patron Eithan, who sees Lindon as he is, rather than as he appears.

What we don't yet know, is the depth of the games that Eithan is playing. In Soulsmith, Eithan takes Lindon and Yerin under his wing. Here in Blackflame, Eithan adopts them into his family, and his plans. What those plans truly are, we do not know. But there are hints that Eithan knows far more than he lets on, perhaps even is more than he lets on.

Yet even Homer nods. Eithan's games are high stakes. Eithan does everything he can to cheat, to better the odds in his favor, but things still sometimes go awry. The final battle of Blackflame was genuinely exciting to read, tense and gripping. I was actually surprised at how it all turned out, so I won't ruin it for you. You should go see for yourself. show less

Cue the training music from Rocky.

Blackflame is the third book in Will Wight's Cradle series. It is time for our young heroes to train up and continue to grow their powers. In Lindon's case this means selecting a path for one of his cores. For Yerin it's all about learning to control her goldsign.

And what path does Lindon decide on? The path of Blackflame of course! It's an ancient path that has mostly died out due to it being inspired by dragons and the humans following a path of dragon have a tendency to go mad. Since this is part of Eithan's plan I have to trust that he's built in a contingency so that Lindon doesn't suffer the same fate. Time will tell.

The training portion takes about 70% of the book. I really enjoyed Lindon and show more Yerin learning how to be a team and Lindon learning a proper path. Both characters acheive great advancements. Even Little Blue the sylvan gets some action and growth. It was nice to meet Orthos, a sacred beast in the form of a giant turtle. He adds another layer to the types of creatures we could meet in the future.

In between the training, we're treated to the perspective of Jai Long and his revenge arc. I did not enjoy his view point and I'm pretty sure we aren't supposed to.

Once the plot kicks in, the final quarter of the book is one heck of a wild ride. I have to imagine since Eithan is the one who has set a lot of this in motion that things ended up more or less where he wanted them to. Guess I'll find out soon.

I also like that the titles of each book seems to be a big hint of what to expect. show less

This series grew on me over each iteration. And Blackflame is the best of the series so far from me! I planned to have these books sprinkled in between bigger series as a palette cleanser, but finishing this book gave serious doubts on whether I should continue with this and ignore my plans! It's that good. Action is on point, the characters get deeper and deeper, the world expands yet again, there is political struggle introduced, there are a lot of unanswered questions, there are training moments that are also very intriguing. Overall this is getting more and more epic with each installation, Will is definitely improving as an author with each book. Also the chapters are rather short (books are also short) so it again gives you that show more "one more , one more" vibe . And it doesn't disappoint. Impressive series! Combat is also written in such way that I can actually SEE what is happening, it never feels confusing and it just flows. Love this ! show less

There was a lot of time spent reviewing the process of cycling and how the main character(s) go about "growing" their powers. This detracted from forward progression in the story line and for a long section through the middle of the book, it was a bit of a slog to remain engaged. About 3/4 of the way in, though, the story re-started and it ended up being a pretty good "conclusion" (it is a series, so the story isn't resolved, just this installment).

Wight keeps the action coming in the third volume of this series.

Lindon has survived his transition to Iron, and now Eithan has taken him under his wing. He still has to fight his duel with Jai Long, but things are moving under the surface.

I can't get enough of these books. The pace, the characters, the world... It's all utterly spellbinding. I'm losing sleep to this series!

This was the best book of the series so far and I was happy to learn that what I assumed was a trilogy is actually longer and that a fourth book is to be released. Which is great because I think there is a lot more story to tell in this universe. I'd highly recommend this entire series to anyone who would like an Asian influenced fantasy series, heroes that use their brains not hidden over powered skill sets.

So far this is for me the weakest of the cradle series.
The first half of the book started with too much meta information.
Nevertheless after that half is raised back to the typical strength and sucked my right in.