The Cradle Series by Will Wight has many entries with 9 published books thus far with more planned. This review will combine book one “Unsouled” and book two “Soulsmith”. After reading Unsouled I felt like I needed more information in order to write a proper review. I wanted to get a better feel for the “soul” of this story. Minor spoilers for Unsouled only because I have seen some reviews of people giving up on book one, which is a mistake.
I combined these books because Unsouled felt like a manual or even a prequel to introduce us to the Cradle universe. It was quite informative on the magic system, the universe, rules, characters, and basics of how humans in this world operate. I can see how some may find this boring, but do not stop. At first, I was wondering where this was all going. The main character Lindon has tenacity, but he is looked down upon despite being a good person due to his lack of magic path or Sacred Arts if you will. This is what is so fascinating about this world; everyone has access to magic or to better say it, use madra. The hook is that the Valley we the reader and Lindon are taught about is just the very tip if the iceberg of what this world has to offer. Eventually I start to see where this is all going after we meet Yerin and learn more between the end of Unsouled and into Soulsmith.
Yerin is a Sacred Artist from outside Lindon’s valley who blows his mind (and the readers mind) that this valley is quite backward and not advanced at all despite thinking how powerful they are. Everything we thought we knew gets turned on its head and now we or at least I wanted more! Yerin is fascinating because she is just a student outside the valley yet can take down the best warriors thrown at her. She is tenacious, independent, dark, untrusting, but yet knows Lindon is doomed without her. She is also disgusted he was never trained in the Sacred Arts due to the backward thinking of his family and clan. Everything we learn in Unsouled is kids play. The arrogance displayed by past people we met can now be laughed at compared to what we get in Soulsmith.
Soulsmith is where the story really gets going. We are outside our training course and into the wilds. Yerin who seemed unstoppable is brought more down to earth in the outside world and Lindon is like a tenacious puppy. His path as this point is the same as what little kids have achieved. People assume he isn’t right in the head because he is so weak and untrained. Yerin is still impressive, but beatable now. It’s a huge reality check where now you have to be on edge to how these two are going to survive out here as Yerin has no clan nor a master anymore.
I do not want to give too much away. However, while Lindon can be quite frustrating as he pulls ahead without knowing the rules of the lands he is in, his path in this book really pays off. I really loved his journey once he got too big for his britches and paid for it. Luckily, while he is good hearted and intelligent, we finally get to see him pushed to his limits here. I knew he wasn’t going to die so it felt super satisfying to see him really scrape and claw to better his abilities, to see his survivor skills.
We get many new characters here though Eithan is the one that stands out. Not only is he our new measure of epic abilities in the Sacred Arts, but he is a realist that does what he thinks is the best in order to help others improve. At least those people he finds as great candidates to train. From what we have seen though even when someone challenges him above their station, he does have some pity on not going to far in putting them in their place. I expect Eithan will be our new bar for where we hope Lindon makes someday though I expect Wight will surprise us again down the road with showing us even Eithan is not as all powerful as he seems to us now.
I guess the thing Wight stands out with most is creating an intricate system of magic around the Sacred Arts and madra. It is a very technical and well thought out system. Sometimes I feel like it can be overexplained at times, but there is no doubt how much thought and craft has gone into detailing it. The world building is my favorite part about the series overall. There is even a universal build to the books, but I will leave that fresh for new readers to encounter themselves. However, I will be curious to how Wight keeps evolving this world as I read on. I feel like we have only brush that more backwater parts of it.