Warning! All spoilers for previous books in the Cradle Series are UNMARKED!
Everything has changed. Eithan is gone, the Dreadgods are awake and more dangerous than ever, and everyone remembers ascendant beings doing battle in the sky. Old alliances are shattered, ancient enmity is put aside, and even the cults of the Dreadgods are no longer guaranteed to be enemies.
Lindon and his allies must advance now, faster than ever. He sends his friends off to train, to find new allies and fantastic treasures, while he works to unravel the miracle that is the Labyrinth. If they can become strong enough, fast enough, then perhaps they can slay the Dreadgods and force the Monarchs off the planet to prevent them from rising again. The problem is, Lindon is still bound by an oath, so he can't tell anyone that plan.
And the Monarchs themselves are far from idle. Reigan Shen immediately begins to move against Lindon's team, urging the other Monarchs to get rid of them as fast as possible. Akura Malice steels her resolve and keeps her daughter close, far from Lindon's influence. The other Monarchs have their own goals and plans.
Above it all, the Abidan finally have their Reaper back. His trial is swift, his punishment servitude. But it is not so simple. Because his crimes, while horrible, were also the inevitable result of a failing system. Ozriel was the only one trying to solve anything. No one else had any better ideas, and Makiel refuses to accept any responsibility. With Suriel as his warden, Ozriel continues his duty as the greatest weapon of the Abidan, but time will tell if anything has truly changed.
And for the first time since the Dread War, all four Dreadgods rampage.
Dreadgod is the eleventh novel in the Cradle Series by Will Wight.
This novel provides examples of:
- Berserk Button: Putting Makiel and Ozriel in a room together turns out to be a bad idea. Makiel flat-out says he wants Ozriel to be an enslaved weapon without even the ability to speak, while Eithan rants that he should have burned the entire system to the ground. Though Suriel does note that Eithan has clearly changed, as he apologizes for his outburst and does not rise to some bait Makiel drops.
- Engineered Public Confession: Redmoon uses one of these to turn their cult against Red Faith, putting him on speaker while he's saying something extremely unflattering about the Bleeding Phoenix.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Unlike most of the books in the series, which take place over at least a few months, this one only spans a week or two. By the end, many of the side characters have barely caught up to what happened in Reaper, much less the sudden shifts in the status quo that happen in this book.
- Godzilla Threshold: Reigan Shen has been plotting to awaken the Dreadgods and use them against the other Monarchs for years at the least. He throws that all out and fights to contain them just to convince the Monarchs that they need to get rid of Eithan's disciples as soon as possible.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Malice allows Reigan Shen to attack Serpent's Grave in a way that will implicate Lindon (though he manages to evacuate and warn people first) and then announces to the world that he is a new Dreadgod, the Empty Ghost.
- Inherent in the System:
- Eithan points out that he tried to work within the Abidan system for centuries, but his every attempt to solve the very problem that Makiel constantly complained about (there is only one Reaper, and he's irreplaceable) was voted down. Makiel blames him regardless, but the others, especially Suriel, are more willing to listen.
- Northstrider points out that without the Monarchs balancing each other, any random Herald could slaughter a continent. Lindon doubts that would be worse than the Dreadgods, but does admit there needs to be a better solution than just kicking the Monarchs off the planet.
- Killed Off for Real: After being a main antagonist for the first several novels, then gradually edging towards a Noble Demon redemption arc, Jai Long is possessed by the Silent King, forced to attack his sister and Kelsa, and once the Silent King's control over him starts to waver, he is torn apart by the other possessed sacred artists, and his Remnant isn't even able to form before it too is destroyed.
- Never My Fault: Makiel freely admits to creating the replica Scythes which ended up in the hands of the Mad King, because he blames the whole affair on Ozriel. If Ozriel had been more reliable, he wouldn't have needed to find a replacement weapon. If Ozriel hadn't left, they wouldn't have been understaffed, and the replicas would never have been stolen. Everything is ultimately Ozriel's fault. Notably, the other Abidan aren't quite on board with this logic, and Eithan acts like he won the argument.
- No-Sell: Once Ozriel is back with Abidan, he interrupts Silverlords who are plundering a Sector and intending to leave it for dead after. They were told by Daruman that Ozriel was weak after his return, and set up numerous traps for him on the off chance he showed up. Ozriel wipes the traps and bindings out of existence, and the planet-destroying bombs that were supposed to distract him, and the escape transports; he doesn't destroy them, they simply cease to exist. When the Silverlords fight back, their attacks do nothing.Ozriel: So Daruman told you I was weak, did he? . . . Weaker. He should have said weaker.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Once again, Emriss. She is the one calling for calm and unity in the face of the Dreadgods, while everyone else mostly grumbles and defends their own lands. She quickly (but secretly) backs Lindon when she realizes he has a real chance of getting rid of the Dreadgods for good.
- Northstrider too, a little. While he's aggressive, he accepts Lindon's word about what happened with Eithan, and is even willing to listen to any plan he might have for solving the Monarch problem besides "get rid of all the Monarchs and hope it works out."
- Larian of The Eight-Man Empire. While on the surface she appears to be a supporter of Shen, Northstrider, and Malice, she is secretly working with Emriss to back Lindon & Co in their efforts. Including essentially allowing them to rob Shen blind and then lying, albeit poorly, directly to Shen's face about it and offering to return the treasures he had paid her.
- Scylla and Charybdis: The Monarchs think that Eithan could come back at any time, so they know they can't kill Lindon. Their alternative, to cut off all his options until he has no choice but to ascend, is not much better.Larian: Let me see if I understand our options. We kill this kid, and Ozmanthus returns from beyond to kill us all. Or we make the kid's life a nightmare of misery, then he advances, and then he returns from beyond to kill us all.
- This Is Unforgivable!: All the Monarchs are furious when Lindon kills the Silent King, thus empowering the other Dreadgods, since it will cause destruction across the world. The hypocrisy is astounding. Emriss and the Eight-Man Empire, however, are faking, and work to help Lindon finish the job.
- Time Master: One of the Monarchs who died in the Dread War, The Rune Queen, was known for the Grand Oath Array, an impossibly complex scripting technique that Ziel's own Path is based on. Lindon sends Ziel after it to help him train and learn. Its most impressive aspect? It can stop time.
- Troll:
- Eithan acts like he thinks Gadrael's slap was just a friendly smack, and mocks him for being the second choice for Titan (after Eithan).
- Malice brings Lindon to Moongrave, then denies him entry, then allows him entry, then has him sent on a tour around the city for hours, largely because she thought it would be funny.
