Will Wight (author of the Traveler's Gate, the Cradle Series, and The Elder Empire)

We don't have a thread to discuss Will Wight's books. So I thought I should change that.

Will Wight currently has three series written.

The Traveler's Gate Trilogy, The Elder Empire and Cradle.

Of the three Cradle is my favorite, mostly because I adore the protagonists.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jun 10th 2019 at 8:12:27 PM

Seriously considering buying the Cradle books, I've been super bored lately and looking for things similar to Wings of War (Bryce O'Connor), one of my all-time favorites. There are many shining reviews on Amazon that praise this series, but before I get them I'd like to know (without spoilers) if the books meet my criteria:

1. Plot (does it have a good story)? 2. Pacing (does the writing flow naturally instead of jumping from one scene or dialogue to the next)? 3. Character (are the characters in-depth and well-rounded, heroes and villains alike?) 4. And finally...romance. (Are there ships? Do they play a role in the story?)

I have not read Wings of War, so I couldn't tell you if they're like it or not

1. Plot

I'm personally not that invested in the meta-plot, but I really enjoy the parts of the plot actually affecting the main characters. Thankfully the meta plot only has a small amount of content per book.

In comparison to a lot of other series, it has more "training" scenes because of being inspired by Cultivation style novels.

2. Pacing

I'm not the best judge honestly, I binged the series of 6 books over 4 days, so its hard to tell.

3. Character

The character's are my favorite part about the series, I really like all of the protagonists and how they bounce off each other, and the villains get a good showing too.

4. Romance

Very very subtle romance. Lots of character's getting closer as friends and moving forward in their character arcs, but not more than 4-5 lines a book about any potential romance. Although at least one is definitely brewing.

Does anything come of it? And what do you mean by "meta plot"?

Does anything come of it?

As of book 6, not really, it's been super slow burn but considering where the two characters started in context it's a fairly big happening.

And what do you mean by "meta plot"?

Probably talking about how there's an overall plot with a ticking clock going on in the background that you never quite forget is there but isn't the main driving force for each individual book save maybe the first one. So far at least.

Found the Cradle series a few weeks ago, midway through the third book. Definitely loving it, though I'm torn between "give us more information on the metaplot" and "the metaplot probably won't be interesting anyway, let's stick with Lindon."

Made a page.

Ehehehehe.

I actually started a reread a few days ago and am also 1/3 of the way into Book 3.

It's just such a light and fun read.

I tend to fall on the "Let's stick with Lindon side".

How are you liking the character's so far?

I really like Lindon. He's a Nice Guy in a world of assholes. Eithan is pretty clearly Lindon grown up (even more so with his pure madra and Abidan bead), and Yerin seems like she wants to be nice but has been bitten far too much. Slightly worried about a brewing love triangle, but the romance has been so subtle as to be basically nonexistent, so I doubt it will go in a bad direction.

The villains are a bit too much for me. Far too many of them are assholes or obsessed with the worst possible interpretations of honor. "My friend tried to murder someone who is basically a child, the child managed to kill him, I MUST HAVE REVENGE!" Jai Long at least has his sister to temper him, but the Jai Patriarch is just an asshole who hates the weak for being weak and the strong for being threats.

Yeah, Lindon is a pretty interesting protagonist in my opinion.

Blackflame spoilerI do like how while nicer than most Sacred Artists, he's still not just always nice for the sake of it. Like when he healed Jai Chen specifically for the benefit he might get later.

Yerin is probably my favorite character. My favorites are kind of boring actually. Mild series spoilers. Being Yerin>Lindon>Mercy. Although its pretty close all together.

There's a scene later on in the series that is definitely my favorite in the any of the books. And I'm interested to see if others like it as much as I do.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jul 25th 2019 at 11:55:41 PM

I know that six books are out now, but is that the entire series, or is he going to continue? Obviously I haven't gotten to the end, but considering that the first three books cover about two years, I find it doubtful that the last three will cover twenty-eight years and the salvation of Sacred Valley.

I believe the author has said at least 12 books in the series.

There might have been a more recent number, but I could only find a secondhand mention on reddit in 2017.

But I'm fairly sure another similar range thrown around more recently, but I couldn't find the post.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jul 25th 2019 at 11:30:39 PM

Finished Skysworn. Lindon's gathering a harem, isn't he? The romance subplot is so subtle I have trouble seeing it even when I'm looking for it, which I consider a good thing.

And poor Eithan. He's one of the few good people in the series, but all his peers hate him, and his direct subordinates think he's crazy. "Yes of course you've made us a lot of money, all your plans have worked out with minimal downsides, and the few problems like the awakening of an angry god aren't your fault. But we don't like you anyway."

Read once done with the next two books. I reread Skysworn yesterday, and the structure of it's kind of weird event pacing wise. Really feels like maybe the Jai Long stuff should have been added to Blackflame, and the rest of the book tacked to the front of Ghostwater. I didn't notice first time around, since I jumped book-book fairly rapidly.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of the subtlety of the romance arcs in Cradle.

Also wait for the end of book six. Not going to lie, I 50% seriously ship Yerin/Lindon/Mercy...

Eithan is great. I can't remember precisely the book its in, but him doing minor good things for his subordinates with her powers is a really nice touch.

Skysworn spoilers To be fair, Eithan did screw up in allowing the Jai Patriarch to leave the Labyrinth to further his plans with Lindon and the Jai clan, he absolutely could have shut him in minutes after he entered to minimize the risk.

I've just finished Ghostwater on my reread.

And I forgot how much I like it.

Ghostwater spoilers Yerin & Mercy's road trip is great, plus Lindon really catches up this time around, which is good for narrative purposes. Of course I've always had in my mind that Yerin essentially has a +1 stage modifier to whatever level of advancement she's on, due to her very solid foundation of skill. Suu is also Best Girl

It's also nice to have a clearer narrative arc compared to Book 4

Finished Ghostwater. Keeping Yerin and Lindon separated for the entire book was certainly an interesting way of doing things. And now Lindon has a Presence. I wonder if it's normal for Abidan to gain their Presence before they leave their world, or if it's normally handed to them after.

Anyone else reading this? Besides 32nd, obviously.

Finished Underlord. Loved it all, except for the "once again, someone swears a blood oath on Lindon for defending himself from a stronger opponent." Though I did like Charity's more subtle revenge. "You killed my nephew, which showed great strength and cunning. So I'm going help you... by telling an entire enemy kingdom to keep an eye on you."

Also loved the epilogue, with the cut to Lindon's sister. I was afraid this whole thing was going to turn into a "Shaggy Dog" Story where he returns home to find they're all already dead, but Orthos could probably solo the entire Valley by himself. And he's about to do whatever the sacred beast equivalent of advancing to Underlord is. He might even be able to talk Jai Long into helping out, depending on how much Jai Long is paying attention to what's happening.

Of course, everything we learn about the power levels makes the Sword Sage's death in the first book stranger. Even with poison and surprise, how the hell did a bunch of Jades manage to kill him? That's like a bunch of kids managing to blow up a fully operational tank.

Oh... maybe that's it. It wasn't "fully operational." He had his spirit veiled all the way down to Gold, and with poison, surprise, and superior numbers, they were actually able to kill him.

Because I read them all at once the first time around. It did all blend together somewhat, but Underlord is definitely one of my favorites.

I'm excited for Lindon getting dragged into the Akura side of the tournament plotline. Plus it will be nice to see some more interaction between Lindon and Mercy, since the Lindon-Mercy connection in the younger trio of Eithan's team is probably the weakest.

I initially thought the Sage's death was simply the Sacred Valley having some kind of "brings down any Gold+ Sacred Artist to a vastly hindered state" but I found out recently about 20% of the posts on the Cradle subreddit are people asking that question and there seems to be more to it. Such as theories about the Sage needing to die there in a place connected to the Albyrith to ascend, amongst others.

Flat out my favorite thing in the whole series is the Underlord revelations of Lindon, Yerin and Mercy being, well, kind of embarrassing?

I'm so glad it happened though for Yerin, because I spent that whole section on the edge of my seat the first time around.

What did you think of that plot point Discar?

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jul 30th 2019 at 7:45:08 PM

I definitely did love the Underlord thing. Both as a concept (explains why there's such a strong barrier to Underlord) and their individual reasons. My favorite plot point, however, was when Dross first gave Lindon a combat simulation in Ghostwater, and I realized that Lindon had suddenly gained one of the most powerful weapons on the planet simply by being nice to a literal piece of trash.

I don't really go on Reddit (I don't think I even have an account), but I might poke my head in to see what's going on.

When's the next book coming out?

Character page up, if anyone cares.

Apparently no date is set currently.

But the author did say releases should be within a year for the Cradle series, so sometime in the next 7 months.

So now I have to wait for another series forever? Dammit, this is all your fault. Even though I found the series on my own before I found this thread.

I'll try his other books next. I tried Traveler's Gate before, but I can't remember why I stopped.

Excellent timing, Will Wight just announced Uncrowned will be out before the end of October.

Well, that's some good news at least. I wish we had a more active literature fanbase here to discuss things.

I restarted Traveler's Gate. Maybe halfway through the first book. Good, but Simon and Alin both annoy me in different ways. Simon is mostly fine, but since his primary flaw is "has no idea how to talk to people," he stumbles into a lot of problems that could easily be fixed with a word or two. And Alin is just a big-headed jackass. He's either going to become a villain or get a hefty Break the Haughty.

Leah might be my favorite of the three, but she doesn't get as much screentime so I can't form a sure opinion on her yet.

Finished Crimson Vault. Loved it. Alin's storyline hit me a lot harder than expected. He started out as a showboat but ultimately a good man, then the good man came to the fore, and then he became so focused on Good that he became a literal Incarnation of virtue in the worst possible way.

I've noticed that Elysia is very similar to Valinhall in a lot of ways. Alin mostly summons powers, and he's supposed to be earning everything before he uses it. Besides the different things they focus on (Elysia on virtues, Valinhall on skill), I think the really important differences are only that Valinhall isn't supposed to be used to summon creatures, and in Valinhall it is impossible to use powers you haven't earned rather than merely unwise.

Elysia doesn't have a city section for Valinhall since it's too young, but I wonder what its virtue would be. Charity, maybe? Giving people things without them having to earn them?

Finished The Traveler's Gate, including the short stories. Loved it. Loved everything about the Territories, from the differing moralities to the "everyone follows the same rules but each Territory has slightly different exceptions." Loved any scene where we get to see what Simon looks like to other people. And once again loved the subtle romance.

Got a lot of questions about Valin, though.

I've heard the author is working on another book in this series. When is that one coming out?

Oh, and page.

Edited by Discar on Aug 9th 2019 at 2:26:27 AM

I didn't really enjoy The Travelers Gate that much, I didn't want to mention it before you started because I didn't want to bias you.

House of Blades was decent and Crimson Vault was good but City of Light felt like a slog to get though for me.

Its a bit hard to me to pin down the exact reasons why.

But Alin's character did feel a little mean spirited to me. Not that I think its a bad thing that he's in the wrong, but I found the writing around him, especially early on, felt like the narrative was putting him down just to build Simon up.

I think there were a few other reasons, but just in general I didn't enjoy reading Co L

I'm not sure exactly when the next book is coming, I do recall the author saying something about more Simon books though.

Checking his blog, it looks like the next book is in the Elder Empire series.