Bloodline Post-Launch Report

4/8/2021

First, I just want to thank all of you that have already picked up Bloodline. And there are a LOT of you!

It feels like just yesterday that we were watching House of Blades sell a few copies, hovering over our calculators and saying "Okay, if we can manage to sell a few books every day, maybe I can actually write full-time. But how long can we keep that up?"

Well, I'm pleased to report that we haven't run out of new readers yet.

We hit #1 on the Kindle Store again, for the second time this book, and we stayed there for an entire day*. Even now, we've only "fallen" to #2. That's...incredible. I never know what to say to that.

*Correction: two entire days.

I will say that all these people devouring the book, and discussing it online, really fires me up to work on the next book. I'm refreshed and revived, and excited to get writing!

And that'll probably last until about halfway through the next manuscript, at which point I'll have my regularly scheduled panic attack.

But such is writing.

Once again, thanks so much for putting up with me all this time! I can't wait to see where we go from here!

-Will

88 Comments

Shep

4/8/2021 03:18:30 pm

Book 9 is amazing! On my 2nd read through already! Keep em coming!

Fredrik Tonn

4/8/2021 04:12:46 pm

Same here, almost love the second time more than the first because i can take it slow and enjoy the craft!

Thanks Will, great great book!

Nigel

4/8/2021 07:19:11 pm

Totally 👍 agree. Great book. I love reading Wight's book the second and third time.

Simon alexander crannell

4/8/2021 07:29:21 pm

Just came across this series about a week ago and already went through books 1-9 already just wondering how long the span between release usually is still going to relisten to it a fiew times this month

Rando

4/8/2021 07:33:37 pm

You can figure on about an 8 month wait between books.

Blackflame

4/9/2021 12:24:49 pm

it is typically pretty fast for these types of books!

Butterflies

4/10/2021 07:09:32 pm

I was a little disappointed in the latest book. I say that with a heavy heart because I am a super fan of Will Wight's work. This book felt a little incomplete. So much of the story was a repetitive attempt to persuade Heavens Glory and the residents of Sacred Valley to flee, it was almost 80% of the book and it was boring.

I also felt Malice had a different personality in this book. She was not the same cold woman who disowned her own daughter, she cared too much about helping Yerin.
Likewise, Northstrider abandoned a member of the Akura clan in GhostWater, but saved Yerin at much greater personal cost? Why did Yerin forgive Heavens Glory school (I get that she likes Lindon, but the conflict is what makes a novel good, it seemed like a missed opportunity to skim that)?

Overall, I felt that this book developed a lot of interesting things for Book 10. However, it is not my favorite of the series and it left me thinking of Soulsmith due to the general messiness and repetitive scenes.

Sorry for angering everyone...

Thanks

Name Requested

4/11/2021 01:37:51 am

I was also not thrilled to the max with this one. Thrill gauge filled to maybe 80% due slow start and a lot of time spent on frustrating interactions. Also the whole Titan sequence at the end

Name Requested

4/11/2021 01:46:46 am

Whoops published with a slip of the thumb! Ignore the other post!

I was also not thrilled to the max with this one. Thrill gauge filled to maybe 80% due slow start and a lot of time spent on frustrating interactions. Also the whole Titan sequence at the end had me scratching my head a bit. That said, everything in between was perfect - very strong. The stuff with Malice and Northstrider didn't bother me much. For Malice, I felt she was very cold until my second read of wintersteel, when I realized that she is focused on presenting as cold and impartial, but actually does care a lot about her family. Remember how she intervenes with the ninecloud court to allow lindon to see Mercy? and then when she does humiliate her, she keeps lindon from seeing her. which is something no one else would notice, but saves mercy from her worst fears. Both her and northstrider constantly had to keep tabs on the dragons, but then suddenly their greatest enemy was gone, so they have some time to spare. Also, if suriel can see thousands of futures where lindon and yerin become powerful enough to take down dreadgods, then malice and northstrider can likely predict a few of those as well

Kris

4/11/2021 03:53:42 pm

I agree. To me this book ranks well below Skysworn. There are a lot of things I can point to that I didn't like but the all relate to the same thing... TIME. This entire book too place over the course of maybe 5 or 6 days. And started the DAY AFTER the end of the last book. By having such a short time line, it made a lot of the events problematical.

Mercy somehow advances to Overlord in that single day despite the narrative stating that she'd spent most of that day caring for her brother.

Eithan performs the Pure Storm whatever on Zeil when he's been at Sky's Edge since shortly after he lost the last round. And he only received his sky fortress the day before they left for Sacred Valley. As he needed the plants from it to do the procedure, it's a glaring issue.

Very little time spent on Lindon's reunion with his family.

With everything else on his mind, Lindon still had time to figure out his own Overlord revelation AND decide on his Sage name. Glad he had time for THAT. Again, he did this in a single day.

This story was the culmination of the events of the past 8 books. For something that has been building for so long it just didn't deliver. Had there been more time spent before the final battle on some of the above question it would have allowed for more development. There was nothing in the last book that indicated how long it would take the Titan to reach Sacred Valley once it woke. So if the events of the book had been spread out over say 3 weeks, it would allow time for all the above events to happen and not feel like they were brushed off.

The entire final battle was also a mess. Abilities that came literally out of nowhere were key to the fight. Well, aside from a single tossed off line of dialog in the book. I get that the author is trying to show that together they are more than the sum of their individual abilities, but it just read like a bunch of random 'cool' things shoved together in order to get it over with.

And the Abidan is evidently made up of the biggest idiots to ascend from each Iteration.

I like the introduction of the next story arc for after our little group leaves Cradle, but that doesn't mean you brush off the conclusion to THIS story arc. I agree with one of the reviewers comments in Amazon..... it's like Will is tired of writing this story and just wants to move on.

Especially after taking 3 months off. I absolutely don't begrudge Will that time and his mental health is far more important than me getting the next book. That being said, knowing that he finished this book right at the end of his last writing period when he was feeling burned out and overloaded, he should have read it with fresh eyes when he returned from his vacation to make sure it was the best he could make it. The way it happened makes me feel as if releasing this book was more about a quick influx of cash rather than producing a quality story.

Name Requested

4/11/2021 04:50:09 pm

I agree that time was a huge constraint to work with and I can't help but feel that there's a reason that Will condensed it as much as he did, but I don't totally get it.

I can account for a few of your concerns, which I had questioned myself: I am pretty sure that Mercy actually advanced to overlord while in Sky's edge, so she was already overlord when sophara almost killed her that was just never addressed. The sage of twins stars is the obvious choice of name since most other powerful beings go by the name of their path. The only alternative would be to call him the void sage. This is also something that Eithan had likely planned out as well (notice how he had built his cloud fortress specifically for the purpose of building a sect?).

Lindon had been thinking about his overlord revelation for weeks already and I imagine the conversation with suriel provided the final piece of inspiration.

The part about the fight with the titan that bothers me the most is that, while the whole 'AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE!' scene was cool.... their entire objective was basically just to distract the titan...which they wouldn't have had to do if they hadn't even engaged it in the first place. Lindon could have landed on its shoulder while he was still chilling, sucked some madra, and let Dross self-destruct with no additional risk.

Also, confused about why the Abidan didn't send 3+ judges after the mad king. It seems like that would have been far more valuable than leaving them to protect a handful of iterations

Like i said, there was a lot of really great content that I loved and Will still need a nice job of weaving the story, but I think my expectations were set very high after how strong winter steel was. Maybe I'll like it better over all after a second read.

To be very clear, I don't see these issues as indicating the intention to pump out another book for money. I think this was a very difficult story to pull together because a lot of the themes go against what cradle has been thus far, but even so, there was a lot of pressure to do it justice and Will was obviously pretty burned out. So with a flip of perspective you could treat it almost like an interlude instead of hurting his motivation post-break, they wanted just focus on looking ahead

Kris

4/11/2021 05:39:46 pm

@Name Requested

I had the same though about Mercy advancing. The issues with that are three fold. 1) Given how important advancement is in these books, and how large a part of her NOT advancing contributed to her loss, it doesn't make sense that it wasn't mentioned at all. 2) Given how close the fight between Mercy and Sophora was, had Mercy advances she should have been able to do better in the fight. 3) Lastly, in Wintersteel when the evacuation was being talked about the line "It would be the Underlord's turn to evacuate next, and London would be happy to leave as long as Mercy and Pride left first" implies that Mercy, Pride, and London are all Underlords.

It's not that the Sage name isn't obvious or make total sense. It's more that in the SINGLE DAY they had to prepare to leave it was important enough to make sure everyone knew....ya know? Mercy even hinted that most people DIDN'T know during Fury's ascension party.

And I get what you're saying about looking forward, and had this been almost any other part of the story I would agree. But London said it himself. Everything he's gone through from the start has been aimed at this single event. It deserved better than it got.

I was also irritated that despite having that 3 months to edit, there were STILL continuity errors just within the book itself.

Big fan!

4/12/2021 06:39:40 am

Love the series love the characters. This one felt off. The characters felt off, you could see hints of their past selves in these people but I kept questioning why are they acting this way ( example mercy seems really insecure and the way the Akura felt with the criminals was just plain easy compared to their reputation. Why even have a trial? It would make sense if malice wanted to wipe out the family line and mercy convinced her to just wipe out the perp. Just felt off. ). The whole story felt like it didn’t progress, it was frustrating and felt very superficial which is far from what I normally feel from wills books. Can’t win them all and this one has to be my least favorite of the series thus far. Still love it all tho thanks and looking forward to the next one.

Adam Griese

4/12/2021 10:42:12 pm

At the end of the day there are some times in a story where you have to suspend disbelief or gloss over the plot holes in order to enjoy it. Definitely ran into that a few more times than I'm used to, but given the rate at which Will has put out high quality content and how quickly he and his team have had to grow, I feel they've earned the benefit of the doubt. Even if I felt this book was a total lemon, I would still be as confident and excited that in another 6-8 months we'll get to experience the unadulterated warm-fuzzy feeling of another beautifully executed cradle book

Kris

4/13/2021 11:14:28 am

@ Adam Griese

*sigh* For the most part I agree. We already suspend disbelief while enjoying these books with people throwing fire from their hands and talking turtles. I believe that it's a disservice to the author to do nothing but sing praises for work that isn't close to either his potential or his previous efforts.

I don't know what the average reader of Will's books reads outside of the Cradle series. However if THIS book rates 5 stars, then there must be some pretty crappy stuff out there. Fan-wanking away the problems is fine for hard core followers. But it'll gradually result in fewer people willing to shell out money for these books, myself included. More importantly, the errors in the books indicate a deficiency in the underlying PROCESS. There needs to be a dedicated PROFESSIONAL copy editor that goes over these books prior to the Beta Readers. There is only so long you can get by with free help from friends and colleagues. I'd actually be willing to pay more for Will's books if they were better put together.

Just in this book:
Chapter 4 - Page 69
"Bleed me, I'm going to need a source of blood aura now."
Like the Hearts Gem that was one of her prizes? You know "...the ultimate source of blood aura."

Chapter 11 - Page 205
"Elder" should be plural, not singular.

Chapter 11 - Page 208
"He left an image of himself standing still while he ran invisibly towards the First Elder."
He is literally standing right next to him after grabbing his arm, why would he need to run towards him?

Chapter 18 - Page 334
"Yerin dashed out of a blue-edged crack in space before the portal had finished forming, and she shot through the air to land on his cloud."
How exactly did any of them follow London? He took the stone Mercy had carved and none of the others can travel spacially. Plus Lindon had left the location that he transported to, so how did Yerin appear so close and not where the anchor was?

Chapter 19 - Page 352
"On his Thousand-Mile Cloud, Lindon shot forward."
You mean the one that was just destroyed when "Fingers the width of roads crashed into his Thousand-Mile Cloud, dispersing the construct."

Epilogue - Page 374
"Dross had been going through them, but even for him, it was difficult to separate what had come from the Titan and what from Lindon's own mind."
Last we saw, Dross was in some sort of spiritual coma....so he's not doing anything. Unless you mean he had gone through them in the seconds he had during the fight.

Now are these types of things the end of the world? No. But I read a lot, and NONE of the other authors whose works I read has issues like the above in their books. I can accept story telling decisions that I don't necessarily agree with, although those will gradually cause me to lose interest in a series. However I absolutely see no reason that things like the above get through the review process. I found those in 3 days after 2 read throughs. And yes, I realize that many of those are ambiguous enough that they can easily be taken a different way. But a well written work shouldn't leave room for misinterpretation or misunderstanding.

That doesn't mean there aren't great parts of the book. What I enjoy most about Will's writing is that on each read through I see things differently, or find things I missed the first time through which change how I see a scene or character. At first I hated the way everyone in Sacred Valley was acting, but the more I thought about it the more it made an unfortunate sense. It falls into the whole "You can't go home again." Lindon was seeing things as they actually were, rather than as he remembered them through the rose-colored glasses of his childhood. He's grown, while everyone else (even his parents) have stayed the same. It also touched on how his family has an image of him that is a snapshot in time, and can't see him as anything other than what he was. As someone who has a family that still treats me like the teenage pain in the ass I once was even though I'm nearing 50, I can relate. That part was incredibly well done in my opinion. It could have used just a LITTLE more time spent to make it clear what was happening, but still a great part of the book.

I've said this before, and I firmly believe it. Will's STORYTELLING is phenomenal. But as this series has grown larger and longer, the WRITING has suffered. He NEEDS to find a copy editor he can work with to help with these books. Otherwise it's my opinion that he won't reach his full potential to be one of the best fantasy authors of this generation.

Bob

4/13/2021 01:16:22 pm

During my first time through Bloodline I also felt we were spending way too long talking about Lindon and co. persuading the people of Sacred Valley to leave and being betrayed every few pages. I was right along with Yerin when she said "would the Titan stop dragging its feet and kill everyone already?" The Titan was clearly going to get there sooner or later, and reading about herding the cattle wasn't interesting enough for me to put aside my eagerness.

The second time through was much better in the middle. I slowed down a lot more and could appreciate more of the details around how the main characters interacted with the clans and schools. I particularly enjoyed the parts with Ziel since his experience with the Weeping Dragon was actually an asset and he seemed to move farther along the path back to caring about life.

One thing in particular is still fuzzy to me even now after twice through... Why exactly did they fight the Titan? Because it took a chunk out of Sumara's ring? He was standing there watching to make sure it didn't move towards the survivors, then attacked to drive it away once it took a bite of Sumara's ring. It still wasn't really doing anything to hurt people nearly as much as an actual fight around it would. I don't really mind how the fight went down as much as not having a super great reason behind it. As somebody mentioned earlier, they could have accomplished what they did in driving it away by Lindon going solo to consume before enraging it. But what was the point? The valley was already destroyed....

There was a lot to love though! I appreciated greater insight into will and authority and how those work differently in sages and heralds. I also really loved basically every moment with Eithan dialog and Fury dialog. Eithan in particular had some great one-liners! And the cliffhanger, though not as good as "Who's Dross?", still has me very eager to get the next one.

It's definitely not Wintersteel or Ghostwater, but it's also definitely not a failure in my book! I'm confident that I will enjoy future rereads :)

Name Requested

4/14/2021 11:59:48 pm

@Kris
Ironically, google got the best of me. Name was requested and I complied, I'm Adam. Believe me, I hate the circle jerk for circle jerk's sake more than anyone. I look forward to these books so much that I'm inclined to curb my criticism for the sake of my own enjoyment though. But I do agree with your assessment. Will's storytelling is top tier - and I've also noticed that his language has advanced quite a lot as well - but a professional editor would go a long way.

You actually nailed A LOT of the same errors that had annoyed me while reading. I think I can account for one, but I didn't love it even with the explanation: In chapter 18, I believe it's implied that Eithan is the one who opened the portal to chase after Lindon.

Glad you enjoyed the story more the second time around. To me that homecoming awareness was the saving grace that gave the sacred valley interactions some of the depth it warranted.

I don't know if Will will read all of the comments, but I'm sure he's already very aware of the books weaknesses already and I have a feeling that book 10 will be a fucking gem.

Bill

4/16/2021 01:36:29 pm

@Bob

If you go back and read again, you will see the reason they actually attack the titan is simply to turn it. The titan is done, all it wants to do is leave and there is a mountain in its way so it’s planning to leave through that mountain. Once it does that it will continue in that direction, basically walking over not only every one they saved by dropping them in the wasteland, but continuing straight through the breadth of the blackflame empire.

4/22/2021 08:03:03 pm

I really hope Will reads these comments. I agree with all the above comments. I guess I will keep my part brief. At the end of the day character development is key. As Lindon says, he advances and we need that development piece. This book above all really concerned me. The pacing was so off it made me worry about the next few books. Things outside with the Abidan are moving way to fast. Lindon needs time as a sage while he works on Monarch and now I feel like that time is being taken away.

Noah

4/12/2021 07:50:55 am

Your books do not show as included in my audible membership. I know the newest shouldnt but none do.

BlackMage

4/13/2021 08:49:42 pm

The earlier audiobooks all show as included in my Audible membership. You may wish to check with customer support.

Adam

4/12/2021 06:41:21 pm

Great book. Broke the mold and stayed great.

Adrienne

4/8/2021 03:20:01 pm

I feel like this book went by SO fast! I was completely immersed and saw the percentage at 91% on my kindle and damn near cried. You spin an amazing story, and I'm so glad you're able to write full time. Selfishly, because it means I get to enjoy your work!

Guhtts

4/9/2021 04:51:46 pm

That part! Literally saw that on my kindle phone app and got pissed at Will! I know, it’s not his fault but still, it kinda is.🤣

Grant

4/8/2021 03:26:09 pm

Bloodline was amazing, though I have to say I expected nothing less at this point. Not to put any pressure on you, but so far you have more than lived up to the challenge. I remember desperately waiting for the Crimson Vault to come out years ago and I have only be more excited for each book since. Thank you so much for writing such wonderful books, you do great work Will.

Grumpy

4/8/2021 03:30:24 pm

Bloodline out of the way, now is the perfect time to start a new series. Strike while the iron is hot. Stretch your skills and do something different but going back to an old series will not get you new readers. I liked Travelers Gate but now it time to introduce your readers to the series that will next great work.

Jeryd

4/8/2021 07:59:32 pm

Hush, Good Sir. I appreciate the idea but I need the next dose of Lindon and his journey. I hope Will follows his passion and that he will explore a new series in time... but not yet...

Matt L.

4/8/2021 08:38:46 pm

No!

Dross

4/10/2021 10:46:06 am

No that can't be right. That's ridiculous. New series, something different. Get out of here with your nonsense words.

Matt

4/11/2021 07:55:02 pm

Anyone else hear this comment in Travis Baldree's Dross voice?

Bob

4/13/2021 11:46:12 am

I'm torn on this! On one hand, the cliffhanger with Elder Whisper alone has me incredibly curious and dying to get the next one. On the other hand, I reread Traveler's Gate recently along with the other side stories, and I think I would be equally excited for Will to pick that up again!

Evan Heggem

4/8/2021 03:30:36 pm

Loved the book! Favorite series of all time! Heard you only wanted to do 12 books, and kinda noticing a few details skipped over or never be resolved. I know you said you want to move on to other things, but please don’t end it like game of thrones in a rush! Your attention to detail is why you’re one of my favorite authors. Again, loved the book!

Chris Allen

4/8/2021 07:01:09 pm

I couldn't agree more!

R. Jones

4/8/2021 03:32:30 pm

I found out about you on Reddit r/fantasy. I have devoured the Cradle books on Audible, completely immersed in the world...probably will never get enough of it, so please keep on going as much as you can.

Big Blue

4/8/2021 03:38:42 pm

Such a great book. It really set things up for the rest of the series to be even more amazing!

Darkwood

4/8/2021 03:44:22 pm

Loved book 9. Can't wait to see where you go next. Hoping for a Will-style Dungeon Crawl. Keep writing, dude. You're doing great.

Dagenheim

4/8/2021 03:59:41 pm

Kindle has been worth it all just to bring me this series. Just ridiculously good, I hope this turns out to be a 20 book series. I'd love for it to only be half over, and go through all the levels of ascension until Lindon and Yerin rule the Abidan. Thanks for all your hard work!

Ree

4/13/2021 02:58:34 pm

Same! I would love for the series to go on until we get to see Lindon ascend.

Matt L.

4/8/2021 04:11:06 pm

Will the book was amazing. I feel like a dreadbeasts constant hunger is how alot of your fans view your work. Just know that every book you decide to write ill pick up. Also if you put "sect of the twin stars" or "founding member of the sect of the twin stars" on anything hat, shirt, or Keychain even ill buy it. Thanks again for the book

Wes

4/8/2021 04:40:43 pm

Hear hear! This series has hooked me in the same way that the Stormlight Archive did. You’re doing an excellent job, Will, and held my attention for the entire four hours it took me to read the book. I am again saddened to have to wait for another to come out, but thus is the danger of starting a series before the author has completed it. I’m just as eagerly awaiting Reaper as I was The Rhythm of War last year, keep up the great work.

Jessica H

4/8/2021 04:12:29 pm

I'm all about introducing readers to you. My local library has a program where patrons can order a book once a month off Amazon to add to their collection. I've started with Unsouled and will keep going until all of your books are on the shelf!

Madeline

4/8/2021 04:20:20 pm

Is Charity going to start trying to set Pride up with Kelsa now since Malice failed to set him up with Yerin? Much loved sibling of the person you want to marry into the main family is just as good, and it sets up a long string of people only want to set Pride up with women who have no interest in him jokes.

4/8/2021 04:54:06 pm

Was just snooping through some of your old posts on this blog. On June 10, 2013 you were thrilled to reach 3,779 on Kindles best seller list for House of Blades. Now Cradle has achieved two number 1’s. Congratulations on all of your success and how far you’ve come. This series is incredible.

Daniel Schinhofen

4/8/2021 06:19:50 pm

Picked it up on ebook and audio. Still love the series.

Rjorgec

4/9/2021 05:56:57 am

Wait I know you. You write great stuff, keep at it.

rory rory

4/8/2021 06:21:49 pm

I'd write a paragraph, but why bother when saying "dude we love your work" is suffice. keep em coming and we will keep devouring it without fail.

Billiam

4/8/2021 10:06:10 pm

Read it. Loved it. Need more of Lindon flexing on his family. I also started imagining Eithan with a big bushy blonde Mustache. Never enough mustaches in these. Other than that, perfection.

Wayne

4/8/2021 10:47:34 pm

Already read the book, I have to say it's one of the best so far in the series. I can honestly say it only has two downsides 1. I wish it was twice as long and 2. Now I have to wait for the next book. Another great book as always please keep them coming. So time for the real question when is Reaper coming and why not this year?

Shawn

4/9/2021 12:35:31 am

That's cool. So whens the next book? Lol jk. Still, I generally never want to know anything about authors or their thought process as it has the potential of ruining their books in my mind. Example being H.P Lovecraft. Terrible person, great writer. Entirely turned off from ever reading his books after learning about him.

Happy to say though that I quite enjoy hearing from Will.

clifford

4/9/2021 03:14:56 am

read it in just umder 7 hours, was wrecked going to work the next day but worth it. on my second read through now.odd qyestion if i get the book muliple times with kindle unlimited does the author get reimbursed?

Somnus, Patron of Simon link

4/9/2021 05:38:56 am

Man i was so worried while reading the beginning of the book that there wouldn't be any way keep building tension since Wintersteel kind of seemed like the end of Lindon's main Arc(he got strong enough to save SV). Boy was i wrong. Now I can't wait for book 10. Onwards!

Ozrmk

4/9/2021 06:56:28 am

Great series that opens up a literal universe of spinoff series. There’s world building and then there is WORLDS BUILDING

Geoff

4/9/2021 06:59:44 am

It’s the relationship between Lindon and those around him. Each person is unique and stays true to their personalities. You want to know more and become even more engaged with them. That level of investment keeps me craving these books and it’s what makes the books enjoyable the second third and so many more times.

Every reader should give themselves the treat of the Cradle series. I hope Lindon’s story never ends!

Julianne Hillman

4/9/2021 07:08:58 am

Hi Will!
Just wanted to say that I am only on chapter 8 now of the audiobook for Bloodline and I’m already SO hooked! My heart is pounding with anticipation for this book and what will happen. This by far on my favorite series so just wanted to let you know, huge fan and so looking forward to the rest of it!

Chris

4/9/2021 07:52:32 am

I can remember very vividly picking up house of blades for the first time back in June-ish 2013 (I think that’s the right year), a couple weeks after it came out. I had just finished reading a Harry Dresden novel and wanted a new series to read. I went to goodreads and liked to go down the rabbit hole of “readers also enjoyed” books in the top right corner. The first thing that drew me in was the chains on the book cover. I thought I’d check out the synopsis, and decided to pull the trigger and give it a read. I was hooked. Finished the series, and saw you were moving on to another series (EE) but said you’d come back to that world later. Told myself I didn’t want to read the new books because there was no way they could be as good as the travelers gate and didn’t want to “taint” the books I thought so much of. That lasted a couple months and then I thought to hell with it and bought those books as well and really enjoyed them (Urzaia is still my favorite character of yours...and Simon). I have bought all your books on the release date since. Except for soul smith, as you gave me a real treat sending it to me early like you did. Was laid up in the hospital with back surgery, and that made the time pass so quickly even with the horrible hospital food. I am ever thankful for you doing that Will, and every once in a while talk about it with my wife. It really meant a lot. I did end up buying soul smith, but not on release day. You have a fan for life Will, guaranteed, unless you become a carny (smell like cabbage and small hands)...or Dutch (obviously kidding about both). Now that my response is the length of George R R Martin book, I’ll stop writing. Good day.

Adam

4/9/2021 08:03:31 am

Will as a testament to my enjoyment of Cradle, I picked up the Foundations trilogy sets on Tuesday, the 23rd of last month. By Saturday the 27th I was done with Wintersteel. I of course finished Bloodlines on the 6th. Amazing series, love the characters and the world, as well as the story of course. I'll sing your praises to the world, dont stop any time soon haha. I have so many questions and thoughts about the story so far and where it's going, I'm chomping at the bit for book 10 haha. Cant wait to see what happens in the aftermath of the Abidan abandoning Cradle and seeing our heroes development! I'm especially stoked for them ascending as I'm sure so many are!

Kolai

4/9/2021 08:11:34 am

Just so you know Will. You know have responsibilities of a Monarch cause we love your work and now we expect you to keep em pumping lol

Stu link

4/9/2021 08:40:48 am

Could you share your work ethic/system with Jonathan Renshaw. It has litterally been 7 years since we've seen anthing on paper from that guy.

The Neanderthal

4/9/2021 11:00:11 am

Absolutely loved the book! Great job Will! so many answers and so many excellent nefarious plots! although i would certainly rank this book among the lowest among all the cradle books with wintersteel as the best followed by ghostwater!

Can't wait for the next book! Thanks for this wonderful delight Will

Diarmadhim

4/9/2021 11:02:52 am

You're a monster! Keep up the excellent work 😁 I look forward to reading your books for years to come. Please license Cradle for a table top role-playing game system and setting!

Cameron

4/9/2021 11:57:01 am

I need more, I need 10 yesterday. Why must time move so slowly

Madeline

4/9/2021 01:21:22 pm

Why did Fury have to ascend? I get that there's a limit to the number of Monarchs who can be on Cradle at any given time, but Cradle's population of Monarchs was just reduced by one in the last book.

Veritas

4/9/2021 02:42:09 pm

If I had to guess it's to make room for the next generation of Monarchs. That and he was bored as hell! He has no one left to fight.

Madeline

4/9/2021 03:09:17 pm

To me, those are reasons why he would WANT to ascend. Cause yes, killing Vroshir sounds like it would be incredibly fun for Fury. But making room for the next generation of Monarchs is something the existing Monarchs do already... the Arelius Monarch before Tiberius ascended after he advanced, not before. I see no reason why he could not have taken Sseshethkunaz's place, and only ascended after the next generation of Monarchs rose.

BlackMage

4/9/2021 06:44:26 pm

The limit should be on the number of Monarchs per faction and not the number of Monarchs on Cradle.

Raphael Hendrix

4/9/2021 07:38:41 pm

The balance is not solely based on Monarch number. I believe it stretches to branches of Authority and balance of power in The Way. Not only did the Monarch who died follow a different path he opposed the Akura family and thus his influence directly opposed Malice. Thus probably helped to provide spiritual balance. If he was eliminated and there were two shadow focused allied Monarchs it would probably shift the world balance.

Jeremiah

4/9/2021 02:10:03 pm

I was quite fond of Bloodline. Not my favorite of the series but not every new book can be. The middle of the pack for a series that I love every part of is not a bad place to be. You have our thanks for a great book once again!!

Andy

4/10/2021 04:17:00 am

Went through Bloodline twice in one go. There's still much to absorb. I loved it Will. So glad I found House of Blades so many years ago!! Thank you once again for your stellar work! (Nearly said spear there)

Brandon Mather

4/10/2021 06:53:43 am

You could say that your books leave us hungry for for more? Ah? Eh? No one? Alright.

Jennings

4/10/2021 09:21:41 am

Loved it and also hate to have to wait til the next one! I listened to all 8 again before this one released, so I’ll have to start planning as soon as I see a release date 😂

Kelly o’Btien

4/10/2021 11:11:41 am

I am so sad I’m done with Bloodline! I am going to need to re-read! Is there a new one coming?? I love love love this story..... please keep writing!!

Valin link

4/11/2021 06:08:48 am

Great Book! I love Bloodline. Thank you Will. 5 Stars.

Jay

4/11/2021 03:01:03 pm

After finishing bloodline, I'm going through the audios from the start again, and in the middle of underlord when lindon stunned eithan with the existence of dross I had a random thought...

Remember that emperor that sprung the news on eithan that jai daisho was still alive? Remember how just having one bit of news before an arelius was sweet enough for the emperor to pause to savor the moment and decide it was already a good day? What sort of reaction would that emperor have if he was gifted a dream tablet memory of those moments when eithan was stunned speechless, fumbling for a chair, mindlessly shoving random wealth at fisher gesha to clear the area of onlookers, and asking lindon what happened?

What would have brought lindon and the emperor into such a gift giving situation where such a tablet might be used? Dunno.

Why would lindon even have the barest clue that such a gift would be a good idea for that emperor? Beats me.

But hearing that scene play out again, I had the mental image of that emperor emerging from watching that memory for the first time, face filled with emotion, cradling the tablet like a fragile newborn, and immediately jumping back in to watch it again.

Nik

4/11/2021 07:46:54 pm

Truly fantastic! Keep up the amazing work!

Reader :)

4/11/2021 09:09:51 pm

Every time I get a release date, I plan when I start re-reading so that I finish the book before mere hours before it comes out.

Why does time move so slow.

More

Lightsyde link

4/12/2021 01:05:55 am

Bloodline is the disappointing book in the series.

First of all Will, I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make with all the main cast being so obsessive about a pro-forgiveness mentality when it so obviously bites them in the butt, but it all came across as very irritating and redundant.

Vengeance and forgiveness are too sides of a coin. Too much and too little are both not good. The time you spent on them could have been spent making so many other scenes better.

Also the whole “we’re trying to save sacred valley but they keep backstabbing us is painful and joyless to read”. I can understand you’re trying to make the entire escapade more realistic, but in my opinion the cost to the novel was not worth the benefits. Both the conflict and conflict resolution involved were redundant at best and frustrating at worst.

And then the final battle. Why were they even there? The only part-reason that halfway justifies Lindon’s battle with the Wandering Titan is his Overlord revelation. It’s one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen Lindon make, and I still feel so disappointed by it that I’m actually complaining about a battle scene. As a battle maniac myself.

When you recommended “Iron Prince”, you made a case for irrelevant battles as part of your critique of it. If battles fall into positive relevance, neutral relevance and negative relevance, those battles in Iron Prince fall into neutral while this one in bloodline falls into negative. It would’ve been far better for Lindon to have a realization that his home is with Yerin and Eithan (or better yet, where his heart is) than go face certain certain death because “I don’t want to see Samara’s ring destroyed”. Hellooo?

And let’s talk about the battle itself. A huge part of what makes Cradle battles so fun is the fact that Lindon, Yerin and Eithan’s techniques have so much history, meaning and effort behind them. But you just threw all(most of) that away here in favor of Xianxia-novel-level random light shows. Honestly wouldn’t all that time spent on obsessing over the forgiveness-backstabbing circles been better have spent turning your random light shows into not-so-random light shows?

Aside from Skyworn and Bloodline (and parts of Uncrowned), I’ve enjoyed the Cradle series immensely and I’ve been following you since House of Blades, so I really didn’t write this just to wail on you, Will. I hope you give my review a little bit of thought. Also if I’ve angered anyone else by writing this, it’s not my intention.

Lightsyde

4/12/2021 06:48:32 am

Speaking of which, the whole “let’s leave them because they’re weak” is stupid to the point of retardation. In Unsouled, how did Lindon triumph over Elder Whitehall? In Soulsmith, how did Lindon kill Kral the Sandviper chief? Strip down all the details, and it’s because they underestimated him due to his “weakness “. This the kind of problem that crops up when you overdo morality.

Tim Tillotson

4/12/2021 06:26:55 am

Glad I read, great pacing. I really enjoyed London’s story arc, although this book felt more rushed, less detailed in his connection to the sacred arts then prior books. The minor characters also felt more rushed, two short passages with Zeil, two with Mercy, and two with Yerin being the exceptions. I wanted to care more about the people, Yerin, the Jai’s, Dross, and Lindon’s companions, but this book felt less emotionally connected to the characters, more two dimensional than other books in the series. The scenes with Zeil and Suriel were my favorites. More like those please.

Nicole

4/14/2021 07:00:42 pm

Was looking for new reads on Amazon and saw this description for something that looked promising:

“Description
Product Description
The start of a new dragon rider epic combining the best of Eragon and Pern with the hard magic of Brandon Sanderson and Will Wight.”

...gotta say, as a reader whose been here since nearly the beginning, it gave me a strangely personal feeling of joy to see “has the X Brandon Sanderson and Will Wight” be used as a sell line for great fantasy. Totally deserved, and a sign of how Will is starting to be recognized more broadly for his incredible talent.

And yes, I get this may not be a strictly fair comparison and this new book will likely fall short of Will’s splendor... but I’m still totally going to read it now.

Mike

4/15/2021 11:08:41 am

Love the books. When it is all said and done, please do a Fury spinoff.

Jon

4/16/2021 08:59:42 am

I read through a bunch of these critiques and I feel bad now for having written a brief one of my own.

I see people trying to point out inconsistencies and just being wrong, left, right, and center. Some of the reader errors are not obvious because they hinge on things that could easily have happened between scenes and which Will chose not to write down for the final product.

It would be a full time job just to explain the reader errors and, naturally, the originators wouldn't read it or would have a high probability of being upset if they did.

Thanks for putting up with us, Will! Even those of us who accuse you of things you didn't do (or did do, in some cases).

Kris

4/16/2021 01:58:55 pm

Hi Jon. I'm sorry if the discussion above about some of the issues I found give the impression that I don't think Will is a fantastic storyteller.

However I do believe that it's important to give honest feedback and talk about things that we believe to be problematical. Around 20% of the reviews on Amazon are 4 star or below vice Wintersteel which had only 9% under the 5 star level. So the few of us that voice are concerns here aren't alone and I'd rather try and give honest feedback here in 'Private' than just post a negative review on Amazon and leave it at that.

I said above that I don't know what other fans of Will read. Maybe amoung independent publishers the types of things I notice are very common. I can say that I just finished the latest Recluce book by L.E. Modesitt and am just starting Fast Ice by (the late) Clive Cussler. Neither author ever has the same sort of ambiguity in their books as I found in Bloodlines. CAN I think of some sort of reason that events may have happened? Or of an explanation for something that comes out of nowhere (I'm looking at you giant Orthos). Sure I could, but I shouldn't have to. Especially as whatever I come up with might not be what the author actually intended.

I try to present my critiques as politely as I can. Do I always succeed? No, I'm as human as the next person and sometimes lose my temper when a response to my comments is less than polite or doesn't actually address anything I said but only slams me personally.

I know one thing I haven't done is to also make sure I praise the parts that I thought were great. Which is something I'm working on.

Melissa

6/10/2021 11:06:57 am

Fwiw: Giant Orthos - remember Yarin saying to Lindon's mom that "sacred beasts can get as big as pregnant mountain"? Foreshadowing only a few chapters back.

Kris

6/10/2021 11:22:20 am

@Melissa

Yeah, I caught that. But it's literally the ONLY time in 8 books that the ability of a sacred beast to grow in size has been mentioned. That's not foreshadowing, that's 'I want to do this cool thing so I better throw in a line somewhere to justify it".

Katie

4/30/2021 08:40:36 pm

I absolutely love this series! I can’t wait for the next book—-definitely feels like so much needs to be brought to a culmination before it can end. Write fast 😁😁

Elaborate link

5/10/2021 08:08:33 pm

Thanks for Writing! It was good overall, but I found the Dreadbeast fighting slightly lacking because my immediate idea for a tactic was never addressed:
If there's a magic-sapping formation that weakens the opponent but also any spell cast upon them gets weakened... Just Shoot Them.

Like, magically accelerate a 1-ton iron arrow to mach-10, launch it into the magic-sapping formation,and when magic goes away, momentum will remain.
It's likely this wouldn't actually work, but I'd like the idea to have been brought up and dismissed, just so I could stop thinking about it and wonder when they'd try it...

Melissa

6/7/2021 03:04:09 pm

Thank you for participating in the audible plus catalogue. I loved getting into the series and having so many at once. I HAD to buy Bloodline to hear what happened next - brilliant plan and amazing stories.

I have to ask - How did they get the cloud fortress back from Moongrave in time to heal on it and yet before the 400+ people made it to the desolate wilds? Back to the portal and then flying fast? Yarin via the bridge and a quick flight? I need a map 😂 The mystery is killing me.

Subhobrata

9/9/2021 09:26:16 pm

I prefer audiobooks and have finished till bloodline. Now Waiting for Reaper. I am a fan of similar storylines available on web novel sites. I am happy that this series is way better than them. Thanks a lot Will.

In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.