Introduction:
Dreadgod is the eleventh book in the Cradle Series by Will Wight, released in July 2022. It takes place directly after Reaper, the tenth book, which I reviewed alongside all the other nine books here The book is about Ozriel’s trial, and Lindon’s struggle against Monarchs.
Please note: for this review, I am assuming that you have either read my previous review of Cradle Series, or have read the series before.
Plot:
After Eithan reveals himself as Ozriel in the last book, and battles the Void King to save Cradle and his students, he is brought for the trial. Here, he is leashed, and the judges decide to use him as a living weapon.
Meanwhile, on Cradle, Lindon is preparing to face the monarchs, as he is certain they will come after him. Not only does he know that their presence creates the four Dreadgods, but they will either try to kill him or ascend him to get them out of their hair, since they now know that he is the student of Ozriel.
My review:
Lindon is trying to restore Dross at the start of the book, and despite making him more efficient, and repairing his damaged spirit, it failed to bring out his old personality. Lindon is understandably broken up about it, as I am too. Looks like we’re not getting back the old Dross.
… or are we?
The four Dreadgods have been awakened, and are now attacking together. This is an unprecedented emergency, and Yarin is called along to help. Lindon also goes to face the Dreadgod Silent King, because Dross wanted to feast on his dream madra. He is also the reason why I have used the image of a tiger for the cover of this review.
Speaking of which, Dross gives this awesome introduction to someone he was about to save in chapter 2:
[I have come to pull you from the abyss of silence,] the spirit whispered. [To free you from the chains that bind your mind and restore you to the waking world.]
If you remember, I speculated that the monarchs do not want to ascend, because they will find themselves weak compare to the world outside of Cradle. Whereas in Cradle, they are on top. It is hard to move at the bottom when you’ve been on the top of the food chain for so long. Northstrider confirms this in this book, not wanting to ascend because he refuses to be treated as a slave.
But this leaves him with a conundrum. Staying on Cradle will let him enjoy his position, but the world has not enough resources to make him stronger than he already is. If he ascends, he might get challenged, and this might get him beyond his current level. But he won’t do it for the reasons described above.
Of course, I assume this is the same for the other monarchs as well.
The book actually develops the secondary characters like Sage of the Red Faith, Ziel, Orthos, and Kelsa, sister of Lindon. This development does not come at the expense of the main characters, though. Also, some characters also die, and Fisher Gesha returns!
As the book is titled Dreadgod, naturally, they are heavily featured in this book, specifically Silent King, the dreadgod who uses illusions. I’ve complained in the past that I don’t like the fights with dreadgods, because I’m not a fan of monster versus human fights, but I must say, that Silent King was a great opponent. Which is to say, less twisted abominations, more strategy.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that there is no human conflict. In the latter part of the book, Lindon ends up going against the monarch Akura, after exposing the conspiracy of the monarchs and the dreadgods. That entire fight was great; it easily flowed from scene-to-scene.
Is this book worth reading? Yes. Of course, how can I say otherwise? There’s a reason why I’m such a big fan of this series.
The fights are great, the character development is great, and for the first time, Lindon is taking decisions, instead of working under the shadow of Eithan or someone else. In terms of where this book stands in the series as a whole, I think this is just after Ghostwater, and tied with Reaper for me personally.
So, if you do not know of this series yet, for some reason, go read the first ten books, and then this one. The twelfth book is already announced for 2023, so we have to wait until then for more Cradle goodness. But the wait is well worth it in my opinion.
And I will be here to review it. In the meantime, follow me on Twitter. If you like my reviews, buy me a coffee.
Muse of Eagle 