Ghostwater (Cradle 5) = June 1st!

5/13/2018

I'm excited and relieved that I can finally announce the release date for the fifth book in the Cradle series, Ghostwater: it's coming June 1st!

That's a little more than two weeks away. Never let it be said I don't give you adequate warning.

Now, I know I owe you Elder Empire people an explanation. Fortunately, it's pretty simple: I did a bunch of work on Ghostwater about eight months ago, shortly after finishing Skysworn, and then kept it secret. I was planning on completing Kings / Killers by June 1st and thus hitting the five-year anniversary, but I...didn't. There's a lot of story there. On the bright side, at least those books will probably be longer than usual.

After releasing OKAK on June 1st, I was going to surprise everyone by having Cradle up only a few weeks later! Bam, it's like a magic trick!

Except I didn't finish OKAK, and I still want to release something on the five-year mark. Fortunately, I have something ready to go!

This is the big news, but it isn't the only news. Brace yourselves for more in just a couple of days!

-Will

89 Comments

Tievel1

5/13/2018 12:13:09 am

Hell. Yeah.

Oof

5/13/2018 06:55:28 pm

If Lindon has 2 cores coudn’t He hold 2 remnants

Diego

5/14/2018 09:28:37 am

No. Will said it would be like a conjoined remnant which would be unstable at first but slowly stabilize. It would be less aggressive than a True Black flame remnant due to the pure made, so that would make it more likely to find a stable source of food.

Unless Will has changed his mind on the subject. But I think it is because the entire spirit forms the remnant which includes your made a channel's and those connect both of Lindons core in a way.

Deadnettle

5/14/2018 04:50:46 pm

I'm fairly certain that Will said that he could bond with two remnants (one per core) but if he died he would only leave one conjoined remnant as per Diego's comment. I'm not sure if that was the intent of your question though.

Tom

5/13/2018 12:13:33 am

YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Adaen

5/13/2018 12:17:19 am

*Looks down at a calendar
Not June 1st*
*Looks down at a calendar
Not June 1st*
*Looks down at a calendar
Not June 1st*
*Looks down at a calendar
Not June 1st*
*Looks down at a calendar
Not June 1st*

It's going to be a very long month....

randomname

5/14/2018 02:33:24 pm

My thoughts exactly!!!!!!

Zach

5/18/2018 01:10:32 pm

I've literally been doing this every day since this update... :(

Darren of gluttony

5/13/2018 12:21:56 am

Woop woop. 2 weeks should be plenty of time to re-read the series.

And also perfect timing. I'll be able to read ghostwater whilst my wife is, likely, in labour 🤣

Gary

5/13/2018 01:40:44 am

😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

Mason jones

5/13/2018 02:02:56 am

2 whole weeks. Cradle is my favourite series atm even though I do love the others. Can’t wait to binge read

Jeremiah H

5/13/2018 02:11:07 am

So long as it was a secret....

Mahfuz

5/13/2018 03:42:12 am

Holy shit if the next news is about TG I’ll flip some tables

Jeff

5/13/2018 03:47:42 am

Tried to order it on Amazon but it was not up yet, cannot wait to click the buy it now button.

DANIEL

5/13/2018 04:11:33 am

I thought today was May 31. When I checked the date, it was actually May 13. Did you notice my teats of despair. I'm pretty sure they flooded around half of the world. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

P.S. Is ghostwater good for your health?

Niraj

5/13/2018 10:54:14 am

“Teats”...on the floor dying of laughter! Thank you for this!

David

5/13/2018 12:00:54 pm

Best typo that has ever occurred.... This is amazing "teats of despair" I can't stop laughing.

Dustin

5/13/2018 08:33:06 pm

Never underestimate the teats of despair.

Daniel

5/14/2018 03:44:43 am

John

5/14/2018 11:50:54 am

https://i.imgur.com/q3Qhu8Z.jpg

will i am

5/31/2018 05:27:15 am

I think with teats of despair you definitely need to get a Bro or Manzier to lift you up.

Jerry

5/13/2018 04:15:57 am

I'm so excited. I read House of Blades on the beach on my honeymoon. I cannot believe it has been 5 years already.

Ellija

5/13/2018 05:19:31 am

So excited for this. Is it bad I kind of expected another cradle book before okak?

Jake

5/13/2018 06:12:29 am

My favorite book series right now, well actually for the past year and a half.

Half Life

5/13/2018 06:55:00 am

Yesssss! During exam season but who needs grades anyway?

Danegeld

5/30/2018 06:22:45 am

Preach!

Alex

5/13/2018 07:42:56 am

Dude you are a writing machine!

Riley

5/13/2018 07:59:53 am

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! BEST DAY EVER!!! (In two weeks!!!!)

You got me Will, this is amazing!!!

Failed Dragon Turtle Cultist

5/13/2018 08:43:25 am

*begins rolling the boulder technique in anticipation*

Well no! Of course *I* never stopped rolling the boulder... Might have been more pebble sized during the hiatus...

Finn

5/13/2018 08:52:36 am

Life complete! Perhaps this will finally drive the ghouls haunting my house off.

Shah

5/13/2018 09:17:26 am

Excited about a new install of cradle, keep up the awesome work. Your killing it.

TBoy

5/13/2018 09:27:11 am

Wait, really?

Huh, I expected at least another 5 month wait.

Godking of the Outer Lithosphere

5/13/2018 09:28:58 am

Wow, you work pretty fast Will. I guess that month of silence wasn't just for show.

Sword Immortal Darknorth

5/13/2018 09:49:49 am

I was very surprised to see a Will Wight post this early. Normally you don't see them before mid-afternoon.

Then I realized that this post was made at 4AM Florida time. I see what you did Will. You stayed up until 4AM to make this post. At least it wasn't a school night!

That's probably why he hasn't responded to anything yet either. He's still sleeping.

Kaden

5/13/2018 10:20:38 am

This was ... Unexpected

OrenVelciter

5/13/2018 11:01:48 am

Awesome!

Just curious, what’s the word count for cradle 5?

Corey

5/13/2018 12:13:49 pm

Exciting ^_^ Cradle is my favorite series so I’m super happy to hear a new one is out soon!

Ashley

5/13/2018 02:05:38 pm

Where can I preorder?! Please post it on Amazon so I can give you my money immediately!

5/13/2018 05:11:10 pm

Will doesn't like pre-orders. Most self-published authors seem to agree that the current pre-order system leaves something to be desired. It's bad for overall sales and it often glitches and sends out the wrong version of the manuscript to people, which is a massive mess because the author has to call the people up at Amazon and get them to fix it.

5/13/2018 02:29:32 pm

Awww yis! We've got the upcoming Andrew Rowe book, Ghostwater and a sequel to Alec Hutson's the Crimson queen all within a few weeks of each other! I absolutely cannot wait! one of the best spring seasons for book releases ever.

Chris

5/13/2018 09:06:04 pm

Always amazed lately to hear people praise Crimson Queen and put it on the same level as Will's work; hell I think Will even considers it amazing too iirc.

5/13/2018 10:06:21 pm

Not a fan? Comparing it to Will's works is like comparing apples to oranges for me. I enjoy them both for different reasons. Will is still one of my all time favorites though.

Will link

5/14/2018 05:43:52 am

It's in a different subgenre of fantasy than my stuff. For what it is, I thought it was great.

But it lives next door to what I'm writing.

deadnettle

5/14/2018 11:13:50 am

My thoughts exactly.

Jon

5/14/2018 07:19:19 pm

I actually found Crimson Queen BECAUSE of Will.

I Need an Idiot’s Guide to the Willverse

5/13/2018 03:08:46 pm

...that...was...not expected. Bravo! Well done! Excelsior!

But now: I love Cradle, BUT...when do you plan on finishing OKAK? Please understand, I’m just asking because I’m concerned for your well-being. Badgers are nasty creatures, after all...

Associate of the Badger

5/14/2018 09:02:25 pm

Do not sit idle Will The Order of The Mailed Badger has grown quiet be we have not disappeared... Oh no we have simply bided our time and grown stronger in the darkness of patience. We expect great things of you; you understand the consequences better then most...

DesprateFan

5/13/2018 04:25:25 pm

Ooooooooh... mhmmmmm.... yes Will....

Your *news* is too big! I can't take it. I'm going to choke.

Mike

5/13/2018 05:55:46 pm

I love you. Not in a weird way...ok maybe a little weird.

5/13/2018 05:58:23 pm

Out of curiosity, will these books ever have an audible version?

Have you released the cover for the new book?

5/14/2018 06:03:47 am

I'm in the process of finding a reader for Cradle, but it gets a little more difficult because I have to lock in whoever I find for a long series. So I want to make sure I get it right.

And I haven't released the cover yet!

5/14/2018 11:17:35 am

Nick Podehl would be absolutely amazing as a narrator for any of your series. I know that it may not be reasonable (or even feasible) to get him for your works, but you would definitely draw new people who listen to his stuff. I have several friends that intentionally listen to books read by him just because he's the one reading them.

5/15/2018 12:01:24 pm

He was the one I was looking to hire. Problem is, we expect him to be booked for quite a while.

5/15/2018 02:21:37 pm

I'm sure it can't happen, but Michael Kramer?

Wishful thinking...

Chris N

5/17/2018 07:49:57 pm

Yeah, Nick Podehl or Michael Kramer would be great if possible. MacLeod Andrews who did Steelheart and the Reckoners series would be really great too. Lindon's voice sounds to me a lot like David's from that series. Greg Tremblay who did the Arc of the Scythe series might be a good one as well.

6/2/2018 09:04:34 am

Nick Podehl and Michael Kramer are top pics.

James Marsters is also awesome...He has narrated Dresden files.

While I am waiting for audible version, I use the fairly good built-in narration in the iphone. It is a very good Text to speech engine. You can go to Settings -> General -> Accessibility --> Speech
There, ensure that Speak Selection and Speak Screen are ON. Then, go to Voices and download the Alex voice for English. (Ensure that Alex shows up as the default voice for English).

After enabling narration feature, go to Kindle app in Iphone, open the book and then swipe the screen down with two fingers. This will start the narration. Enjoy!

( Here is an article that basically gives these instructions:
https://www.cio.com/article/3024584/ios/how-to-listen-to-web-pages-books-and-other-text-on-your-ios-device.html )

Matt

5/13/2018 06:24:14 pm

Good thing I started re-reading Cradle this past week.

This is awesome.

Skull (High Gold of Bone Dragon Sect)

5/13/2018 09:02:35 pm

I eagerly await the sacrifice of the upstart Wei Shi Lindon into my queens maw.

Path of a Hopeful Reader

5/13/2018 09:31:54 pm

Skysworn was way too short, and the actions the characters took seemed a little too contrived. Yerin didn't seem like Yerin. Lindon didn't seem like Lindon. Only Eithan acted like himself.

Is Ghostwater at least longer? What do our favorite characters do?

Walter

5/14/2018 12:09:01 am

I get where you’re coming from. I didn’t even realize until you wrote this, but Lindon felt a little too nice and Yerin way too one-directional. I’d say it was more like them being too much themselves. Yerin sold herself into service to fight the blood Phoenix people despite no real plan because shes so stubbornly against her ‘unwanted guest’ except she’s been able to get over just about anything else in order to preserve her freedom, and Lindon was all too happy to exploit any opportunity to advance himself despite potentially losing allies because he’s being driven by saving his home, yet he just forgets all of that and sells himself into service which will potentially stunt and delay his growth instead of performing deeds for the Aurelius family and earning their support items/elixirs/direct tutelage of eithan? I mean it wasn’t too far, and maybe I remember wrong, but Lindon has always been cunning and manipulative while calculatively risking his own safety/well-being/growth from even way back without any spirit against coppers older than him near the spirit fruit tree to splitting his core, but not happy go lucky I’ll try my hardest and the luck of the simpleton will carry me through, which is what I think we saw more in skysworn. He’s played the part of cheerful companion, but he usually had his own agenda- skysworn felt like the cunning was an act/fleeting temptation.

5/14/2018 04:51:37 am

^ This. I genuinely pray that Ghostwater is more like Soulsmith or Blackflame. In Skysworn the pacing and character actions just left me so confused, story needs to slow down a little as well. Yet at the same time I would say that everyone needs to advance at least 1 level. (preferably everyone gets to Truegold or above) To me the new challenges they face do not seem remotely possible to face at their current levels of power.

Path of A Hopeful Reader

5/14/2018 10:08:19 pm

A thousand applause for this man who agrees with me.

Incognito Scavenger

5/13/2018 10:26:30 pm

I just hope in Ghostwater we have more of Lindon being forced to rely on his wits rather than his strength. The series is at its best when its like this imo

Meng Hao

5/13/2018 10:26:54 pm

Waiting for Will to say something else, or even just respond to comments be like:

http://memeshappen.com/media/created/2016/11/3-MORE-DAYS-UNTIL-TURKEY-PATIENTLY-WAITING.jpg

5/13/2018 11:58:22 pm

I’m so STOOOOOOKEEDDD. Except, this won’t be super short will it? I love all your books(except still mustering the effort to start EE), but skysworn felt like 25%-35% short of the full adventure I had from the others, like a book 3.5 rather than 4. I’d much rather wait another 3 months for a full ride, if you’re on the fence about it. —- actually scratch all of that after stoked. IM SO HAPPY AH!

5/14/2018 06:02:29 am

This is difficult to answer, because Skysworn is the same length as Unsouled and Soulsmith.

It feels shorter because I tried to do too much in that time, and I ended up having to cut a lot from the end. Which I do regret, and I can confirm that there is a genuine climactic showdown and resolution at the end of Ghostwater.

Ghostwater is roughly the same length as Unsouled, Soulsmith, and Skysworn, but if I had to compare it to something structurally, I'd compare it to Soulsmith rather than Skysworn.

5/14/2018 08:15:11 am

Gratitude! This one awaits the release eagerly! You’re the best 😁

Tyler V

5/14/2018 11:48:23 am

That's actually fantastic news since I consider Soulsmith to be structurally the best written in the series so far! There is something about reading it that just feels good, the rhythm is rock solid and progresses at an even pace.

Blackflame is the best character development and advancement wise, even if there's that lingering feeling some parts were taken out piecemeal style to become skysworn...but this is great news! Can't wait to dive into Ghostwater (no pun intended)!!!

5/16/2018 06:02:13 am

Exactly what I was praying to hear <3

Dan the man

5/14/2018 03:47:38 am

NEED THIS BOOK. DYING OF DEPRIVATION

noah farmer

5/14/2018 10:08:31 am

are you going to do a signing need to keep my collection up to date lol

Steve

5/14/2018 01:26:21 pm

It's ok, Will. I forgive you. This time.

5/14/2018 02:40:48 pm

Has a poll been done to find out which cradle book is the best? Between 1-4 i have to say i loved #1 the best. It built everything up beautifully.

#1
#2
# 3 and 4 are tied.

Dan

5/14/2018 03:55:06 pm

OK, so June 2nd we start with the "What's taking so long? When's the next book? Where's my torch and pitchfork?"

Devin

5/15/2018 09:19:07 am

Praise be to Will Wight, Lord of literature.

5/16/2018 07:55:37 am

OMG OMG!!! THIS IS JUST AWESOME!!

YOU ARE CHAMPION, WILL...

ONE AUTHOR TO RULE THEM ALL...

THE BEST AUTHOR THERE IS, THE BEST AUTHOR THERE WAS, THE BEST AUTHOR THERE WILL BE...(unless you delay other books in Cradle series, because then you will be cursed forever!)

Ok...that’s enough said...i’ve gotta go reread the whole series again for the millionth time before 1st June!!!

JayW

5/16/2018 09:24:52 am

I had to check the date again to make sure this wasn't an April Fools joke. I can't wait for this to come out.

Nitin Shekhar

5/16/2018 10:34:16 am

Since the book is ready..

Any new except before the release?

Robert

5/17/2018 05:06:31 pm

I wouldn't be mad if you released it a little early like Skysworn 🤗🤗

5/21/2018 06:29:29 pm

That might happen, but just a LITTLE early.

Josh

5/19/2018 01:24:48 am

Super excited for this. I read a lot of cultivation novels online that are translated and it's an exercise in frustration because I read Unsouled first. Chinese novels place almost 100% of the focus on luck whereas the Cradle series has made a point that Lindon is willing to grind himself into a nub if he can achieve his goals (the bloodforged body scene was amazing). Can't wait to read this and I hope we get more of Yerin x Lindon. There friendship development is amazing. I love watching them both slowly change the way they see each other.

5/21/2018 06:29:08 pm

Honestly, my initial motivation for writing Cradle was largely to hook people on xianxia novels who have difficulty getting into translated web novels because of the English or the quality.

Jason S

5/19/2018 11:32:27 am

So I had to go back and comment on this as I’ve been a bit out of the loop recently, but had I been in the loop then I would’ve totally got this awesome news on my birthday and been a happy lil’ sport. So thanks for posting this completely intentionally and not by coincidence at all on my birthday Will, and now hopefully the rest of May can speed by so I can get my Cradle fix!!!

5/21/2018 06:28:11 pm

Happy belated birthday, Jason!

Navin

5/21/2018 08:15:51 pm

Will pre-order be available on Amazon?

Joshie G

5/23/2018 07:45:21 am

I'M GETTING A PRESENT FOR MY BIRTHDAY??? OH YEAHHHHH!

Kyle Taylor

5/31/2018 06:10:29 pm

Your the best.

Barlimor

6/1/2018 02:53:41 pm

Can anyone tell me why the link loads up to the Amazon version of Skysworn and not the new book?

Will I Am

6/4/2018 08:23:30 am

I accidentally read it in a couple of hours :(

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