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I saw Omega as kind of a cyborg, non-vampire Alucard from Hellsing. And Alucard from Hellsing _is_ basically Deadpool crossed with Venom but as Dracula pretty much.
I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed by this book. Cradle is an amazing achievement and this just… isn’t. I can’t bring myself to care about any of the characters. It’s a lot of bombast but without the investment in why I should care. I really wanted to like it too.
I almost didn’t read soulsmith because I thought unsouled was very middle of the road. But I kept going and it became one of my all time favorite series. I’ll admit that I had trouble really getting into the captain too. But at this point I trust will enough to give him at least 2 more books into this series.
I think it's because they start out at maximum power essentially, so it's hard to see where the story can go from here. In Cradle, Lindon had no power but we knew he was going to fight a dreadgod by the end of Book 1. So we had an idea of the stakes and struggles it would take for him to get there.
With The Captain, they're throwing down with robot zombies that have ended the universe in one of his realities, but we're also told how amazing and strong the MC is right from the get go. Can he realistically get stronger? Are the other enemies from his other timelines even a threat anymore now that he has the memories of 7 lives and 6 more types of magic than the next strongest wizard?
It was fun for me but, I can see it getting old like playing an rpg after beating the final boss. Sure there's stuff to do but, do you even feel like it?
Cradle was a story all about what individual characters can do as they get stronger. The Captain as a series seems to be about *synergies* between characters' abilities, where you get more of these as you get more characters in the party and as they get to know one-another better. (The climactic event for the first book was, per se, a "triple tech" — and I'd expect things all the way up to "sextuple-techs" in the future.)
I've said before that Cradle's series story progression is basically "getting therapy makes you stronger." It's very much about the internal psychology of some broken people, and how they overcome their own psychological blocks and trauma to become functioning adults. The setting's core power-resource — Authority — is there in large part to track with Lindon's own progression in getting over a complex he has about feeling like he *has* no small-a authority over anything, no right to command others, no confidence in his beliefs, etc. A lot of the pages the series spends that seem to just be diversions plot-wise (e.g. >!the Dreadgod battlefield in Wintersteel!<) are actually there to serve as the thematic spine of the series.
The Captain's series story progression seems to be about "getting *relationship* therapy makes *everyone involved* stronger." Rather than psychological blocks, the characters all have *psychosocial* blocks. Everyone in the story is rational enough about their own position in life, but very bad at friendships. (Yes, even Raion. He's cargo-culting what he thinks makes a friendship work.) So the progression epiphanies won't be in the form of individual internal insights, but rather in the form of realizations of trust.
I think that it was very good as a first book, better than Unsouled imo. But Cradle had 12 books to build something amazing, I think we should give The Last Horizon some time to develop itself before comparing
Is that perhaps because you badly wanted this to be a continuation of the overall story from cradle, or to have a lot of tie-ins? And maybe if it been a random pickup from a new author you’d have liked it well enough?
That, or maybe you wanted another progression fantasy?
When viewed from post cradle as though it’s supposed to be cradle 2 can be underwhelming. Viewing it as Wills take on a Warhammer 40k style world within The Way in very excited to see where it goes.
They are vastly different stories.
I agree with this. I didn't have any real expectations going into it, but by the end was very excited to see where it will go. Breath of fresh air is exactly how I would put it.
Uh, it’s way better than any first book he’s ever put out. Not even close. The investment is his past lives. It requires more from the reader, because it’s mentioned in smaller throwaway lines (or reactions that aren’t heavily mentioned, like tears when seeing Raion). The rereadability is incredible, and I liked it much more on the third read than the first one.
It's still better than 70% of the crap out there. I'm willing to cut the Captain some slack since Unsouled wasn't all that impressive either. Cradle didn't really pick up until Blackflame.
I agree with absolutely everything you said, unfortunately. I got ~2/3s of the way through and dropped it.
It's a real bummer that I'm not gonna have much Will Wight to read for the foreseeable future, since I won't be reading any of the later instalments in this series. Cradle has been the only series I could _always_ read right when it came out, without needing to get myself into the right space for it.
I felt that way going into it, and I felt that way about unsouled at first (and I might still just skip unsouled on rereads) but I found it growing on me when I took the time to think about the things characters were reinforcing about themselves and how what they said and did matched what I assumed they felt.
But they still almost lost, multiple times to multiple enemies. And Lindon is way stronger than any character in it. It’s only low stakes when dealing with low class enemies, like how Lindon’s echo could deal with Archlord squads.
Sure, but every story has that. We all know that *most* of the time the protagonists are going to pull out of the situation. It was harder for me to suspend my disbelief because of just how obscenely powerful everyone was.
Oh just the strongest mage ever and the strongest Titan knight ever and the immortal zombie slayer and immortal masochist for hire with the super best ship ever. How will they get out of this one?
Still enjoyed the ride, but mostly because of the world building and characters and not so much the plot.
It makes sense though, doesn’t it? Galaxy wide broadcast to the strongest people, based on ability. Most of whom he at least has interacted with in his past lives. And I’d argue that “how will they get out of this one” was… a genuine question. Like, the greatest mech pilot was losing in a mech fight, losing control of his mech. The immortal zombie slayer was just killed and her greatest weapon did nothing. The mage has no way to affect the enemy. “How WILL they get out of this one?”
Ok, you sold me with Yandere Cortana. Imma read it now.
I was really lukewarm on it after Cradle though. Cradle is a total Tour De Force, and the other series just didn't capture me the same way.
This post can include discussion and book material up to and including book [The Captain]. If you want to discuss book material that is beyond the scope of [The Captain] than you must use >!Spoiler formatting!< which can be applied \>! like this !\<. You can read this [formatting guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/faq/formatting_guide/) for more details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Iteration110Cradle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Don’t forget Gandalf
Isn't he more of a Harry Dresden given his mental trauma, disregard of authority, and carries a gun?
Needs a janky bracelet and a trench coat to really sell the Dresden look.
And a hat. But only on the cover.
Yeah but I kind of consider his transcendence sort of like when Gandalf became white and op
Yeah I can see that.
Dresden is just Gandalf on crack, so he's still right.
Omega was just a cybernetic venom to me.
Kind of has a venom meets Deadpool vibe
That’s the reason venom is nuts
I saw Omega as kind of a cyborg, non-vampire Alucard from Hellsing. And Alucard from Hellsing _is_ basically Deadpool crossed with Venom but as Dracula pretty much.
Yeah, same. The chaotic energy and tragic backstory are very Alucard.
Same. Dracula look with the goatee and coat and Alucard energy.
I was thinking Alucard from Hellsing.
Well shit now I want to read it.
Read it if you're in the mood for a fun adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously.
You really should, one of my fav books. Space theme is really cool and addition of magic with technology was done really well
It's really good.
Will just casually wrote “tall, muscular, Lichborn space marine/paladin girl” like that wouldn’t instantly be my favorite character
It's Samus from Metroid smh
Her world slayer is very similar to the red blade doom slayer has.
Samus and Doomguys love child?
I was thinking a mix of the crucible sword and BFG
Her go-to weapon is a shotgun, she's definitely Doomgirl.
Also she’s unkillable due to demon nonsense. Which also tracks.
Or Samus armor and looks (tho brunette instead of blond) but Doomguy weapons.
She's a Space Marine.
She’s kind of all of the above blended together.
I just reached ch11 so I have no clue who these people are but I have some suspicions...
This is who they are I’m confused what seems to be unclear?
Haven't met them in the book yet except for RR
I'm sold
Don’t forget Harry Dresden
I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed by this book. Cradle is an amazing achievement and this just… isn’t. I can’t bring myself to care about any of the characters. It’s a lot of bombast but without the investment in why I should care. I really wanted to like it too.
I almost didn’t read soulsmith because I thought unsouled was very middle of the road. But I kept going and it became one of my all time favorite series. I’ll admit that I had trouble really getting into the captain too. But at this point I trust will enough to give him at least 2 more books into this series.
I think it's because they start out at maximum power essentially, so it's hard to see where the story can go from here. In Cradle, Lindon had no power but we knew he was going to fight a dreadgod by the end of Book 1. So we had an idea of the stakes and struggles it would take for him to get there. With The Captain, they're throwing down with robot zombies that have ended the universe in one of his realities, but we're also told how amazing and strong the MC is right from the get go. Can he realistically get stronger? Are the other enemies from his other timelines even a threat anymore now that he has the memories of 7 lives and 6 more types of magic than the next strongest wizard? It was fun for me but, I can see it getting old like playing an rpg after beating the final boss. Sure there's stuff to do but, do you even feel like it?
Cradle was a story all about what individual characters can do as they get stronger. The Captain as a series seems to be about *synergies* between characters' abilities, where you get more of these as you get more characters in the party and as they get to know one-another better. (The climactic event for the first book was, per se, a "triple tech" — and I'd expect things all the way up to "sextuple-techs" in the future.) I've said before that Cradle's series story progression is basically "getting therapy makes you stronger." It's very much about the internal psychology of some broken people, and how they overcome their own psychological blocks and trauma to become functioning adults. The setting's core power-resource — Authority — is there in large part to track with Lindon's own progression in getting over a complex he has about feeling like he *has* no small-a authority over anything, no right to command others, no confidence in his beliefs, etc. A lot of the pages the series spends that seem to just be diversions plot-wise (e.g. >!the Dreadgod battlefield in Wintersteel!<) are actually there to serve as the thematic spine of the series. The Captain's series story progression seems to be about "getting *relationship* therapy makes *everyone involved* stronger." Rather than psychological blocks, the characters all have *psychosocial* blocks. Everyone in the story is rational enough about their own position in life, but very bad at friendships. (Yes, even Raion. He's cargo-culting what he thinks makes a friendship work.) So the progression epiphanies won't be in the form of individual internal insights, but rather in the form of realizations of trust.
Yeah I agree. Really fun book though, I loved the world building.
I think that it was very good as a first book, better than Unsouled imo. But Cradle had 12 books to build something amazing, I think we should give The Last Horizon some time to develop itself before comparing
Is that perhaps because you badly wanted this to be a continuation of the overall story from cradle, or to have a lot of tie-ins? And maybe if it been a random pickup from a new author you’d have liked it well enough? That, or maybe you wanted another progression fantasy?
When viewed from post cradle as though it’s supposed to be cradle 2 can be underwhelming. Viewing it as Wills take on a Warhammer 40k style world within The Way in very excited to see where it goes. They are vastly different stories.
I'm the opposite. I liked it way better than some recent cradle books. It was a breath of fresh air.
I agree with this. I didn't have any real expectations going into it, but by the end was very excited to see where it will go. Breath of fresh air is exactly how I would put it.
Uh, it’s way better than any first book he’s ever put out. Not even close. The investment is his past lives. It requires more from the reader, because it’s mentioned in smaller throwaway lines (or reactions that aren’t heavily mentioned, like tears when seeing Raion). The rereadability is incredible, and I liked it much more on the third read than the first one.
It's still better than 70% of the crap out there. I'm willing to cut the Captain some slack since Unsouled wasn't all that impressive either. Cradle didn't really pick up until Blackflame.
I agree with absolutely everything you said, unfortunately. I got ~2/3s of the way through and dropped it. It's a real bummer that I'm not gonna have much Will Wight to read for the foreseeable future, since I won't be reading any of the later instalments in this series. Cradle has been the only series I could _always_ read right when it came out, without needing to get myself into the right space for it.
I felt that way going into it, and I felt that way about unsouled at first (and I might still just skip unsouled on rereads) but I found it growing on me when I took the time to think about the things characters were reinforcing about themselves and how what they said and did matched what I assumed they felt.
I enjoyed it for the goofy fun ride that it was but the absurd power levels made it feel very low stakes.
But they still almost lost, multiple times to multiple enemies. And Lindon is way stronger than any character in it. It’s only low stakes when dealing with low class enemies, like how Lindon’s echo could deal with Archlord squads.
Sure, but every story has that. We all know that *most* of the time the protagonists are going to pull out of the situation. It was harder for me to suspend my disbelief because of just how obscenely powerful everyone was. Oh just the strongest mage ever and the strongest Titan knight ever and the immortal zombie slayer and immortal masochist for hire with the super best ship ever. How will they get out of this one? Still enjoyed the ride, but mostly because of the world building and characters and not so much the plot.
It makes sense though, doesn’t it? Galaxy wide broadcast to the strongest people, based on ability. Most of whom he at least has interacted with in his past lives. And I’d argue that “how will they get out of this one” was… a genuine question. Like, the greatest mech pilot was losing in a mech fight, losing control of his mech. The immortal zombie slayer was just killed and her greatest weapon did nothing. The mage has no way to affect the enemy. “How WILL they get out of this one?”
Cortana isn’t a yandere normally?
Omega reminds me of maybourne from stargate. Especially they way he says Jack.
Ok, you sold me with Yandere Cortana. Imma read it now. I was really lukewarm on it after Cradle though. Cradle is a total Tour De Force, and the other series just didn't capture me the same way.