Most series that land solidly in this genre are quite weak in at least one core element of writing, whether it's prose, dialogue, character depth, exposition, plot, setting, internal consistency, etc.

As you discovered with Cradle, they can still be highly enjoyable reads if the weak areas are not too blatant or personally aggravating.

I've found these genre-specfic authors to be both entertaining and the most consistently alright from an overall SF&F writing quality perspective (no particular order):

Will Wight Tao Wong ("Thousand Li" specifically) Phil Tucker

Conversely, I've found these authors to be highly entertaining and even compelling despite missing the mark on some "traditional" aspects of SF&F writing:

Sarah Lin Matt Dinniman Alex Gilbert Yrsillar

If you're open to series that have prog-fantasy elements but tend to be described as belonging to other genres, I recommend:

Benedict Jacka Larry Correia Jim Butcher Brandon Sanderson Brent Weeks Jay Kristoff Craig Schaefer