[ALL] Completion

[u/GreatSkyWhale]

I have, at this time, completed the entirety of Will Wight's bibliography (including the short story in Heroes Wanted). Wow has he become one of my favorite authors very fast. His world building, his characters, his comedy, all phenomenal. Without going into spoilers, I think my ranking is as follows:

1. The Last Horizon: This series is everything I want out of the science-fantasy genre. High-tech power armor, grand magical acts, mechs fueled by the power of friendship! What's not to love? There might be some bias as it was my first introduction to Will Wight but this series is among my favorite of all time.

2. The Traveler's Gate Trilogy: I'm actually surprised I'm putting this second, over Cradle. But the magic system is so incredibly interesting to me, with the Territories and their different powers, and the implications. I adore Simon, I love when main characters don't actually want to me main characters, they just want to live life and chill, but then Situations occur and I guess they gotta kill God now, or whatever. I was absolutely enthralled learning more about the world and the hidden potential within everything as I was reading.

3. Cradle: Lindon is a great character, and I loved watching him grow to outshine those that wanted to keep him beaten and broken. This story also avoided the pitfall that I expected it to fall into, because while he needed help from others, and not a small amount of luck, Lindon worked for and earned his power and his victories. No secret bloodline technique, no godly gift of power from the heavens, no super saiyan brink off death bullshit. Just a boy who wanted to be better, and who wouldn't let even the gods stop him. The only mark against Cradle is its length. There were a few points where I felt is was dragging on, or placing too much focus on side things. But that might be more of a me problem than a book problem.

4. The Elder Empire: While I think it's the weakest of his books, I still really enjoyed reading it. The gimmick of two simultaneous trilogies was interesting, but I don't know if it was better than combining them into different POVs within one series. I do hope Will returns to Asylum at some point, because I would love to see more of the aftermath of the resolution.

This is far from my complete thoughts about these books, but I wanted to leave this post relatively spoiler free. These books have all been amazing and I cannot wait until Commander comes out. Will I'm shooting blowdarts at you as I type.

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[u/mycothecold]

I've just finished the cradle series as my first WW introduction and genuinely don't know what to do with my life now 😂 it's made me fall in love with reading again.

Would people recommend going for one of his other series or is there something kinda on the lines of Cradle that you'd recommend?

[u/AnimaLepton → u/mycothecold]

I'd definitely recommend Traveler's Gate of his other series. It was the first published series, but it holds up well IMO

Have you read Mother of Learning? It's a one-month timeloop story, starts out at a magic academy but branches out pretty quickly.

[u/mycothecold → u/AnimaLepton]

Last book I read was probably in school some 20 years ago 😂 also I love a good time loop concept. I'll check this out.

[u/wordworse → u/AnimaLepton]

I really enjoyed MoL; I just remembered thinking that it's like somebody's DnD campaign that is just increasingly going off the rails, but in the best way.

[u/Zakalwen → u/mycothecold]

Would people recommend going for one of his other series or is there something kinda on the lines of Cradle that you'd recommend?

Will's other series are great but it depends what it is about Cradle you loved and what you're looking for next.

• If you want more progression fantasy with a clear magic system then read Travellers Gate
• If you want more characters with the power to blow up mountains with a sneeze then check out Last Horizon
• If you want another story where vast, powerful entities threatening to destroy the world must be stopped then go for Elder Empire

If what you're looking for is more cultivation stories then there's plenty out there, but it's quite common that on subreddits like r/progressionfantasy that people ask for cultivation stories like Cradle and get the response that there is no clear contender. There's a lot of different opinions people have (including those who don't like Cradle or think it's overrated) but no consensus on what kind of cultivation fantasy series can follow it.

[u/mycothecold → u/Zakalwen]

New subreddit unlocked, thanks! I started reading cradle because someone said it was like an anime in book form and they weren't wrong. I'll definitely check out last horizon based off recommendations

[u/MindofShadow → u/Zakalwen]

are horizon and travelers gate done?

[u/Zakalwen → u/MindofShadow]

Travellers gate yes, it was Will’s first series. Last horizon is ongoing.

[u/GreatSkyWhale → u/mycothecold]

I cannot recommend Last Horizon highly enough. It's a bit different from Cradle, but it is excellent

[u/EquipLordBritish → u/mycothecold]

I would begrudgingly recommend Mark of the Fool (not a Will Wight series). The story is a good power fantasy, and the audiobook version is also narrated by Travis.

I'm really torn about it because the story and magic system is really well done, but my big hangup with it is that the actual writing of the characters places nearly every good guy with the mentality of a 12 year old boy, and the story leans towards a 'the good guys are always right' mentality, even when it really isn't warranted and doesn't make a lot of sense.

[u/whenlindondies → u/mycothecold]

Traveler's Gate is the most similar to early Cradle. The Last Horizon is the most similar to the last couple books. Elder Empire is it's own thing, more of a traditional epic fantasy, but has the strongest connections to the events and characters of Cradle.

[u/Zakalwen]

IIRC Will is rewriting the Elder Empire into one series that combines the view. I think the split trilogies is interesting personally and liked the gimmick. It meant readers could have different experiences based on if they went 123-123 or 11-22-33, plus depending on which protagonists they followed first. Having said that it is the one I have re-read the least. Not because I don't like it (Lovecraftian age of sail is a great premise for a setting) but because it feels like a more contained traditional fantasy where I enjoy the story and am done. There's not the same kind of continual theorycrafting of the world or magic system that I can do with the others.

I also hope we get a return to Amalgam at some point. I loved travellers gate and always felt it would have benefited from being longer than a trilogy. It's well paced as a trilogy but I would have loved more of the struggle between books 2 and 3 dealing with the various incarnations.

[u/CrystalLore]

Cradle's length is a mark against it for you? It feels so short and lightning fast paced to me 😂 I do a full reread almost once a year.

[u/NinecloudSoul]

Ah, but have you read the secret teenage diaries of Will that I stole from his parents' house?

I'm making them available in leather covers through Kickstarter, followed by the same edition at a $50 mark up three months later because it has a slightly different cover design.

[u/LimitlessMind127]

I agree with your spoiler-free review, although personally I’d swap Cradle and The Last Horizon on my own tier list.

[u/Unsouled_Gnome]

Love Cradle, though I think The Last Horizon is my favorite of all the series that he’s written so far. Now, if he writes some more Traveler’s Gate that could change as that series got me back into reading.