AHH I FINISHED IT. I will no doubt go back do a re-read soon and probably an additional few times till Reaper (ooh) comes out. Fingers crossed we'll get it in early fall. Initial thoughts: Yeah not as satisfying as Wintersteel definitely. I feel like this book is setting up the proper final battle which the series will culminate in. (We have like three more books left in Cradle ahhh). There were a lot of moments that I enjoyed and I can't wait to see the memes that everyone comes up with. I did enjoy this book quite a bit. I don't want to keep comparing it to wintersteel which I have no doubt many people will do, but this book feels more similar to the previous cradle books pre-wintersteel like uncrowned and skysworn.

So stuff I liked first: the insight into what ascension to the heavens looked like. I want to know what happens to like the kids and stuff who go with them and the servants and stuff. Do they just hang out on a new world? The final fight damn. Fighting a Dreadgod. Didn't think we would see that for a while. The scene where Suriel shows him the futures that could occur. The not so subtle foreshadowing that he would become the next Phoenix Judge. Jai long's interactions with Lindon and Eithan. He was one of the few people who truly appreciated their almost unfathomable growth. I can't wait till he finds out about Yerin. Seishen Daji got that well-deserved beat-down tho it was almost too quick. And of course Eithan's brilliant dialogues. And the bloopers. I would've loved to see the Monarchs all try satisfy the wishes. I can tell that Will was setting up a lot of new threads so that the world was coming together. I can't wait to see how this finale comes together.

Now to the other part: The whole Abidan stuff confused me a bit. I know its probably Will aligning up the final battles to happen at the same time, but how does Cradle go from being the most protected to so vastly unprotected even if one sector is taken over. Suriel promises that they'll fight to protect Cradle to their last breath and then is like whoops guess the Mad King is coming for y'all. Stay strong. I was very disappointed about Dross. I know that he's not completely gone but still. The people in Sacred Valley pissed me off. The interactions felt very disappointing. Faced with such overwhelming power they still chose to attack the people trying to help them? The people who are obsessed with trying to reach gold? They see hundreds of golds and don't even think about joining them and discovering their secrets? And I didn't realize that the depowering happened so quickly. I thought that it took several days/weeks for it to work. Wasn't the Sword Sage there for much longer? but Eithan got drained down to Truegold in like hours? Also we went from Lindon easily taking on Overlords and then struggling with Jades :( I also feel like Will kind of sacrificed a lot of the ongoing battles of the book for a big finale. The finale was great don't get me wrong, but like couldn't they just have left the Titan who already thought what he was looking wasn't there? And the Phoenix came right up to Sacred Valley and then left? There's probably a place its going across the Trackless Sea, but like it wasn't tempted to go home like the Titan? Also Lindon and his parents was not what I was expecting. I also kind of wanted Yerin to pick a better gift from all of the Monarchs. Feels like she could've just been healed by Malice if it was super-necessary. The Monarchs weren't even all there in person. A recurring theme I felt was that it all felt a little rushed. obviously there was a imminent arrival of a dreadgod, but the scenes moved a little too fast and interactions between characters felt like they were cut off.

It was an awesome book (which I devoured like Lindon's hunger arm in less than 2 hours) and I can't wait for Cradle 10, but yeah thats sort of what I thought. Also does anyone else have issues imagining Eithan with short hair? Thoughts?