Book Review: Waybound (Cradle, #12) by Will Wight
Cover art illustrated by Patrick Foster
Waybound by Will Wight
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Series: Cradle (Book #12 of 12)
Genre: Fantasy, Progression Fantasy, Xianxia
Pages: 518 pages (Kindle edition)
Published: 4th June 2023 by Hidden Gnome Publishing (Indie)
Packed with enormous action scenes, Waybound closed the final chapters of Cradle fittingly.
The end is here. More than three years ago, I started reading the first book in the Cradle series: Unsouled. That was in January 2020, and for the past three and half years, Cradle has reigned as one of—if not—the most successful self-published fantasy series. We are, after all, talking about a series where each newly released volume reached the number 1 best-selling spot in the entire Amazon Kindle store. And I cannot believe the day is finally here. Waybound, the twelfth and the final book in Cradle is out, and I have read it. After three and a half years, my journey in the world of Cradle is over. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried whether this would be a great concluding book to the series or not. Unlike most readers and fans of Cradle, I was on the unpopular opinion side in considering Dreadgod, the previous book in the series, to be one of the weakest installments. Reading that book planted a seed of doubt in my mind that Waybound would not have a satisfying ending. And I am glad to be proven wrong on this. Was Waybound a completely satisfying final volume to the series? Well, the answer to that question cannot be defined as a simple yes or no.
“As I was once taught, there are a million Paths in this world, but they can all be reduced to one: improve yourself. “For me, that meant a hunger to improve in the sacred arts. To fight greater battles and climb to greater heights. You may choose to improve in different ways, but for those of you who share my hunger, I intend to share a new technique with you.”
This is the final book in the series. Understand that I cannot divulge too much on the details in this review. Waybound continues from where Dreadgod ended. If you haven’t read this book yet, and are caught up with the series, it is adamant that a certain expectation need to be established before you start reading it. Otherwise, the conclusion of the series might disappoint you. You might notice this already if you have read Dreadgod. With Waybound being set as the final book in the series, there was never any chance of Will Wight closing ALL story arcs in the entire series. It is impossible. Wight needs to write many more books to fulfill that, especially the stories that do not take place in the world of Cradle. I fully expected this to happen. Waybound does not seek to solve everything. It, however, had a mission to bring a resounding resolution to the biggest plot started in Unsouled: the battle against the Dreadgods. And on this, Wight accomplished it wonderfully.
“[It’s every parent’s dream to see their little boy grow into such a fine young Dreadgod.]
“You’re not my parent.”
[Well, I don’t like your parents, so I choose to replace them.]”
However, those were things I desired to happen. How about surprises? One of the things that pleasantly surprised me the most in Waybound was the training montage. Cradle is a progression fantasy series. Almost every book in the series involves Lindon or his friends advancing to a new higher level of power. And in Dreadgod, I felt the training montage to be redundant, and it was my biggest criticism of the penultimate installment. Imagine my surprise to have Waybound begins with ANOTHER section of training montages, but somehow, I loved it. Wight made a good decision in pairing the training sections with a race-against-time narrative. We know by now that Lindon is mega-powerful. I do not think of that as a spoiler. Most progression fantasy series encounter this situation where the main character reaches an insane power level by the last book, and Cradle is not safe from this notion. However, without spoilers, there were valid reasons for Lindon to wait for his friends to advance their skills and powers rapidly now. It was brilliant.
“I have received more help than anyone in the universe. Even most of my power is stolen. There’s nothing noble about doing everything yourself. You just have to do your best to honor the help you’ve gotten.”
I am not heartless enough to say I don’t feel emotional reading how far Lindon and his friends have progressed. Twelve books long is still a lot despite the relatively smaller word count of each volume in the series compared to other fantasy series. And I absolutely loved reading how much the characters have developed. True, my favorite character in the series understandably did not have many appearances in Waybound, and it did detract my enjoyment slightly. But the interactions and banter between Lindon and his friends felt so believable now. And after the training montages ended, Waybound proceeded immediately to the climactic final battles. This is an incredibly battle-heavy novel, and depending on your reading preference, the pacing here might drag. Once the final confrontations started, it continued non-stop until the last 20% of the book. It is an understatement to say the battle scenes in Waybound were over-the-top and fantastic in scope. In fantasy novels, you don’t often get to see battle scenes explode as destructive and over-the-top as the one in Cradle and Waybound. Devastating explosions, fast-paced Dragonball Z-style combats, gigantic foes, blades of shadows size of towers fell from the sky and more. All of these, again, are under the premise that there is a time limit in the final battles. Suffice it to say, there were immensely rewarding deliverances in Waybound that I doubt I will ever forget. For those who have read the book, the scene I am referring to is perpetrated by Ziel.
Picture: Ziel by ladyeruart
There isn’t much else I can offer here. At the end of this journey, all I have left to say is thank you so much, Will Wight. Thank you for the incredible adventures. This is one of the most consistently splendid series. With the exception of Dreadgod, I have rated every book in Cradle post Soulsmith with a rating of 4 stars or above. Waybound may not be my utmost favorite book in the series (Reaper is), but it is my second favorite. Most importantly, it provided me a gratifying closure to the series. There is a possibility Will Wight might write a sequel series to Cradle someday. For those of you who have not started reading the series yet, you are in luck. This is the personification of manga/anime in novel format. And now you can binge-read it from the beginning to the end. I believe Cradle is a series that would benefit from being read closer to each other. I did not have the opportunity to do a full series reread before reading Waybound, and although I cannot gauge this accurately until I experience the full series reread myself, I have a feeling Waybound could end up as my favorite book in the series when that day comes. But for now, with the twelve books I read, I am content. Gratitude.
Series Review:
Unsouled: 3/5 stars
Soulsmith: 3.5/5 stars
Blackflame: 4.5/5 stars
Skysworn: 4.5/5 stars
Ghostwater: 4.5/5 stars
Underlord: 4.5/5 stars
Uncrowned: 4.5/5 stars
Wintersteel: 4/5 stars
Bloodline: 4.5/5 stars
Reaper: 5/5 stars
Dreadgod: 3.5/5 stars
Waybound: 4.5/5 stars
Cradle: 50.5/60 stars
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