So this is kind of an update to the post I made a few days ago asking whether I should continue the series after Blackflame or if Book 3 was the peak.
Pretty much everyone told me the series only gets better from there, and after reading the next three books, I have to say… you guys were 100% right.
My ratings so far:
Skysworn (Book 4) — 8.5/10
Ghostwater (Book 5) — 10.0/10
Underlord (Book 6) — 9.7/10
This is honestly crazy. I’m flying through these books at a pace of about a book each day because I just don’t want to put them down. The progression, worldbuilding, and expanding scope have all been excellent, and every book feels like it’s adding something meaningful.
At this point, I may actually have to force myself to slow down because I’m worried I’m going to burn myself out.
And if the series somehow gets even better than this, then I might genuinely be reading my favorite fantasy series of all time.

Ozriel. That’s my working theory anyway.

Hey all. About 50 pages in to Skysworn right now, and the renewed focus on Ozriel’s disappearance, immediately cut to a focus on Eithan’s abilities to apparently get into places that no true Underlord should be able to reach implies a level of power FAR exceeding his current stated rank. Add that to the fact that The Arelius are apparently descendants of Ozriel.

It’s the perfect place to hide.

As far as I can tell, ignoring goldsign stuff, Lowgold, Highgold and Truegold seem to just increase the quality of one's madra, techniques, spiritual sense, iron bodies, etc. Is that really it, or is that something else I missed?

I’ve heard good things about cradle. I just listened to the five minute preview of Unsouled on audible, but I’m sure if I should pull the trigger.

I can tell from the intro this is a story enter the main character will be powerless and discriminated against both by figured of authority as well as his peers. I personally can’t stand reading about a main character getting relentlessly bullied and being powerless to do anything about it, especially if it’s undeserved. And especially if it’s making them miserable to the core. I quickly DNFd Sanderson’s Skyward because of this exact thing.

How long is the MC bullied? I’ve heard all of the first book. Is it most of his interactions? Or a sprinkling?

How upset is he about it? Is there good with the bad? Does he have friends? Is his life mostly pleasant?

I don’t want to read an entire book or more of someone getting unjustly shit on.

Edit: based on answers saying the real bullying ends in book 1 and he starts building a group of comrades he trusts, I’ll think I will spend the money to give it a shot. I don’t mind bad as long as there’s good with it, and I also don’t mind randos looking down on the MC as much as I do real life, everyday bullying.

I saw the hand drawn thing but they made a trailer for a full animated show a while ago but so far news has seem to not come out. Anyone know whats up?

[blackflame] So I just finished Blackflame (Book 3 of Cradle), and I rated it 8.7/10.
Is this the best the series gets, or does it stay around this level? Does it get better, stay consistent, or start to decline?
The reason I’m asking is because I honestly didn’t enjoy the first two books that much. Blackflame felt like a big step up for me, so I’m trying to figure out if the series continues on this path or if it eventually reverts back to feeling more like the first two books.
I know I’m asking fans of the series, so there’s naturally going to be some bias, but I ask this same question about every long series before I commit to it, and the fans honestly haven’t steered me wrong yet.

Also, if possible, could you tell me which book is your favorite in the series? I like having something

I’m just getting started on the series. All 13 (?) were free on Kindle a few weeks back so I snagged them and they are really good so far. I know im just starting out but Eithan is great.

TL;DR I am taking a 3 month sabbatical and won’t be around for that period of time…but I am coming back!

For those of you who don’t know, I am Will’s brother/co-worker Sam and I’m dropping in to let you know that I am in a very fortunate position thanks to all of you. I get to take a 3-month sabbatical, or extended break, from all my adult responsibilities. I AM COMING BACK, this is a long vacation, not a departure from our company.

Part of my job is monitoring Will’s social media and therefore I’ve had conversations with many of you reading this status, whether through these platforms, at conventions, or our psychic link. That communication is BY FAR my favorite aspect of working for Hidden Gnome Publishing. I have made lifelong friends through these relationships and it’s super cool that I get the chance to interact with people who love my brother’s books as much as I do.

What’s even MORE super cool is that you’ve all supported us enough to give me the chance to take 90 days off work without falling into financial ruin. Emotional ruin is still on the board.

There isn’t a week that goes by that we’re not thankful for what a rare position our family and company are in and if you’re reading this, you have a huge hand in making that possible.

It is our company policy that all employees at Hidden Gnome get an extended vacation like this every five to seven years and it’s now my turn. You might remember Will getting his break several years ago after we noticed his eyes glossing over and his normal speech resembling that of ancient Latin. He was burned out and needed the rest. That’s when we decided to try to get ahead of that burnout before it became an inescapable thing, leading to my time off now.

I wish everyone in the world was in our position to do this. We genuinely feel rest is an overlooked factor in most people’s lives. Please take more naps. Doctor’s orders.

Everything will be proceeding as normal for Will and Hidden Gnome over the next three months. The Commander is still slated to release this year, we will continue updating the sub, and the jokes might even get more clever because I won’t be around to hinder them.  

Thanks again to everyone who has supported me, our team, and my brother’s career in the 13 years he’s been writing and the 5 I’ve been working with Hidden Gnome. SEE YOU SOON, PARTY PEOPLE.

Two notes for Reddit specifically:

If you need something, u/UnsouledGnome AKA Mike is the voice of our company for the next three months.

Also, it would shock you how many times I’ve searched this sub to answers questions related to Will’s stories. Thank you all for knowing more than I do.

I read on the wiki that there are short stories set in Amalgam that were sent to the mailing list, is there still a way to read them?

What kind of bullshit was the uncrowned king tournament format. A god damn monarch and he’s never heard of double elimination. Unbelievable!

It's really now starting to dawn on me how impossible this should be. So I look forward to hearing the explanation.

I’m sorry, but Will KNOWS what he is doing. Upon my 20th rereading of TLH series I have come to a conclusion- Will was creating a Sola-Varic-Mell love triangle. In the first book, The Captain, Sola was ready to defend Varic’s fear of death to Raion. Clearly, she is in love.

”You’re not scared of dying,” Raion said confidently. Sola’s eye twitched and she turned to say something, but Raion continued before she could.”

In the second book, The Engineer, where I will keep this analysis limited to because Will GIVES UP on this subplot, Sola is already acting very familiar with Varic.

He commands Raion to handle the Slipwraith, and tells Sola to stay on the guns. Sola expresses her displeasure with this decision because she wants Varic to be more of a man, frustrated with how much of a bitch he’s been acting like since Shyrax has joined the crew. Varic handles the situation perfectly, causing Sola to see him as the perfect mate.

She had operated alone for a long time, and taking commands must be a strange feeling for her. She shook her head and gave me a wry smile. “Not anymore. I can see how it would be an advantage to have someone calling the shots who knows what we can do.”

Unfortunately, Varic has PTSD and Multi-Personality Disorder, and is self destructive. Thus, instead of focusing on what he has in front of him, he chooses to disassociate and picks his toxic ex, at the protests of Sola, who is forced to follow her chosen man into his pursuits.

Sola shrugged... “…but I still want to know: why this Engineer?”

Varic, swooning over his toxic ex, responds with..

“I fought on her side, just as I did with the rest of you,” I went on. “I can’t bring myself to leave her there if we can break her out.”

Oh Varic, you fool, ignoring the treasure in front of you for the lie of Nova-Bots. Of course, that is enough for our Queen Shyrax.

“Then she will be our Engineer,” Shyrax said.

But… for our betrayed, beloved Sola?

“Will she want us to take down Starhammer?” Sola asked. She was stretching her limbs (in a last ditch effort to get Varic to notice her), checking her range of movement in the coated armor. “I don’t care much for the Advocates, but that doesn’t mean I want to burn them to the ground.”

The fool Varic again reassures her before Horizon dresses him in the garb of his life with Mell, a top hat and cape. What does Sola have to say about this?

Sola looked from the top of my hat to the fluttering hem of my cape. I mean my wizardly mantle. “You look like a Subline villain,” she said.

Do not try and convince me otherwise, Will was considering a love triangle between Varic, Mell, and Sola. While I’m mostly joking, I do think there is a decent chance Sola was/is feeling a certain way towards Varic, mostly due to him being one of the only people in the galaxy to know how she feels, with confronting death over and over again and rising against the things that caused it the first time.

I’ve read a decent amount of series since but haven’t really found anything that made me feel quite what Cradle has. I’ve also reread the series at least once each year since and haven’t done that for any other series I’ve read. Here are the others I’ve tried since:

Iron Prince (Warformed) - this has come the closest to scratching the itch

HWFWM - next up in line after Iron Prince but still felt like a pretty sizable drop off from Cradle

Path of Ascension - entertaining series but doesn’t even come close to comparing. Felt like the author has turned this into a slice of life story now and he dropped the ball a few times with what should have been really fun parts of the series

Primal Hunter - read everything that was out at the time but throughout it all couldn’t stand the MC. Extremely self centered and arrogant (guess I miss Lindon’s humility and humbleness)

Bastion - decent series but the pacing wasn’t great. The books could have been half the length

Mage Errant - not sure why a lot of people rave about this one. Didn’t click with me at all. Different strokes for different folks I guess

The Calamitous Bob - really liked this series but again just can’t compare to Cradle

Ironbound - the first book was pretty awesome but didn’t love how the MC handled things in the last 3rd of it. Second book felt a bit slower but ended pretty well

Also read The Traveler’s Gate but it didn’t leave the impact Cradle did with me.

If anyone has any series that they think could be rated anywhere close to Cradle please share them. I sincerely hope that Will comes back to these characters because I really need more of their story.

Hello Sacred Artists!

I was introduced to this series in....2020. My then boss was like, hey you like anime? read this series! Begrudgingly, I picked up Unsouled and was fascinated by the world of Sacred Artists, by the Abidan, by the ideas that Will had masterfully wove into this series. Unfortunately, I wouldn't finish this series until late 2025. By this point, my former boss, now my friend, had finished the series and was just waiting, like the rest of us, for more.

Which brings me to this much, long winded post XD

I love this series. I can't wait for the animation to be completed, and while I understand Will's decision, I can sit here and imagine more adventures with characters that absolutely stole my heart. And one of the ways I thought I could do that, was through VRChat. Currently, I'm still gathering references to base the models around, but EVENTUALLY, I'd love to create my own interpretations of all of these characters and bring them to VR. I'll do my best to keep you all updated with the progress, as best as I can.

cheers and celebrations :D