Not as good as the first one

Travis Baldree's performance was again great, but the story and the other aspects of the book left much to be desired...

Everybody was depicted as a brute. There seemed to be - almost - no one worth mentioning in this world who is not a martial artist. Respect is not earned through having a strong, unshakeable character and displaying positive traits and real human virtues, rather through one's fighting prowess. Even the major characters seemed black and white, and we never really got a chance to see the world theough different lenses.

The world building was almost non-existent, in the time our protagonists spent in the village they gained almost no intel on what's happening outside of their immediate neighborhood - although one would think it is in their vital interest as they are surrounded by hot-tempered powerhouses -, and the soft magic system has gotten even softer. Most twists seemed rushed and there were even some deus ex machina moments that, though bad in themselves, one could anticipate from miles away.

Regardless of all this, I still found myself enjoying the book, as there were some redeeming qualities to it. Travis Baldree's narration was again a pleasure to listen to, Yerin's background started to unfold, we have got a new protagonist(?) to root for, and the brutal depiction of Lindon's struggle during advancement was spectacular.

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This one enjoyed this esteemed offering!

This one is unworthy to observe the letters that make up the words that make up this story... Yet this one was delighted with the culmination of all this.

I'm short...great book. Totally recommend.

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Fun but not as good as the first

This book falls a bit short compared to the first one. I think it's the setting and the secondary characters are what make it a bit boring. It's still enjoyable and introduces an interesting character but lacks the initial excitement of the first book.

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2 people found this helpful

Great, but I'm concerned about the power scaling

So for now, Cradle has been a very enjoyable series, Travis is excellent as always, and I'll keep throwing money at Cradle for now. I don't really have anything else to say about the book itself, so I'll just mention some of my concerns.

So the first book ended with an absolutely massive ''Oh, those guys who you thought were absolute masters? Yeah, no, 5 year old kids are 10 times stronger than them outside of the valley.'' and this book basically does it again around the last 3 hours, introducing an extremely powerful character who runs rings around basically all of the strongest guys in the wilderness without even trying, and then claims to basically be someone very unremarkable from his homeland.

Now, I think the character is lying. Reasons are plenty, for one, it makes no sense for a janitor to be where he is in this book, and secondly, I don't think Will Wight is a bad writer who would just keep pulling the same ''Your world is actually a fish bowl'' trick over and over again. We already know of the cosmic entities, so we know that the cradle itself is cosmically speaking unremarkable, but I really don't want to go through never-ending ''Oh, yeah no, an infant is stronger than a Heavenly Dragon Emperor ranked Grand Master if you just travel 500 kilometres north of here.'' rigamarole.

However...if he's actually doing that then I am, as the title suggests, very concerned about where this series is going. We're like 16 hours of listening into the 12 book series and if that actually keeps happening, this will become completely unrelatable.

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Hmmmm Fantastic.

A fantastic follow up to book one Unsouled, so fast paced and the magic system is so good. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon eat your heart out, you don't have a patch on this. This series has it all and it's only getting started, it continues directly from the ending of Unsouled, Lindon and Yerin are struggling to survive in the wilderness. But they quickly find themselves entangled in a ruin excavation dispute between several clan factions in their search for a legendary spear. They become students of Master Eithan, Lindon has reached Copper status, taking the first step on the road to power, but the warriors of the outside world are still far beyond and more advanced than him. Will he make it to Iron status, Hmmmm yes check it out, you won't regret it, the worldbuilding and the characters are brilliant, Travis Baldree continues his awesome narration, highly recommended...😁🔥💥

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another brilliant addition to a great series

book two was even better than book 1, the story is going to some great places and I can't wait to continue it . the narration is immaculate and I love the new characters introduced here

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Wow

I thought the first book was great, but oh boy was I surprised listening to this one. Excelent!

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Hilariously Silly

All good fun if you are bored, as is par for this kind of thing the plot armour has to be ignored.
I did laugh out load at the masochistic trials to upgrade to Iron. Ouch!
You need to play at 0.80 x as normal speed is too fast for some strange reason. They may be reducing the silences?
The world building if very good and enjoyable so far,

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One of the best series every read

Keep going; these books are amazing. The series goes from strength to strength. One of my favourite series of all times!

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Fabulous English author version of coiling dragon

If you like Coiling Dragon and I Shall seal the heavens then you will love this series.

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1 person found this helpful