About

Dreadgod is the 11th book in the Cradle series written by Will Wight.

Dreadgod book cover

Blurb

The battle in the heavens has left a target on Lindon’s back.

His most reliable ally is gone, the Monarchs see him as a threat, and he has inherited one of the most valuable facilities in the world. At any moment, his enemies could band together to kill him.

If it weren’t for the Dreadgods.

All four are empowered and unleashed, rampaging through Cradle, and grudges old and new must be set aside. The Monarchs need every capable fighter to help them defend their territory.

And Lindon needs time.

While he fights, he sends his friends off to train. They’ll need to advance impossibly fast if they want to join him in battle against the kings and queens of Cradle.

Together, they will need power enough to rival a Dreadgod.

Review

🛈 This is a spoiler review.

Phew! This was an intense experience. Plenty of action, cool moments and top notch humor. A few more breather chapters/scenes (like Gesha meeting Lindon's parents) would've made it perfect.

Every chapter had something important going on. Prologue gave us Eithan's trial and set up hints for the end of the series, and probably for the future too. Dross got fixed in the first chapter, thanks to Ozriel's echo and Lindon's Sage insights (however, Dross chose to act differently, and that led to a top notch emotional scene later). The second chapter gave off a horror vibe courtesy Silent King (controlling people mentally is a trope I hate, so very thankful that this Dreadgod was taken care in this book itself). And so on till the end. I loved that Lindon saw opportunities to learn at every turn.

Lindon fussing while sending off his team to level up was adorable, as was Ziel's attempt to fill Eithan's role. Yerin/Blue and Ziel/Orthos pairings and their destinations were well picked. Was nice to see Blue leveling up and being more comfortable with Yerin. Yerin's Archlord revelation was good as well. Orthos didn't get much of a chance to advance and it was a bit sad to see his view of black dragons will change now. Ziel getting close to being a Sage was nice, but felt like he should've had a chance to face the Herald remnant. These two side plots could've been novels on their own, but we got only a few chapters.

Red Faith went down, but not before giving a few memorable scenes. Can't believe I went from hating him in earlier books to cheering in this one. Hope his very interesting remnant does something cool in the next book. I was more okay with Jai Long's death, but as mentioned earlier, I hate that it was due to mind manipulation. Lindon's advance defence preparations for his sister and parents were well done, and got me laughing despite the serious situation. Was nice to see Ekeri.

I was really afraid that Lindon would die or be forced to ascend when he accidentally revealed the secret to Charity (especially given Will and his siblings have been mentioning Lindondies). It was hilarious when Lindon went to train immediately after Malice restored him, when Malice/Charity expected him to be severely damaged. As a counter part, Red Faith revealed the secret to Yerin, who then goes on to inform the whole world, thanks to Emriss.

Speaking of Emriss, "kitty kitty kitty" will go down as one of the most memorable quotes. Larian's "pchew pchew", looting the Monarchs and Eithan giving live commentary of Lindon's battle were hilarious too.

Some fans had predicted Lindon will become a Dreadgod, so that wasn't a really big surprise. But, it was difficult to get a grip on what exactly his powers are now. Mercy standing up to Malice was good to see, but sad that Mercy had to fight against her family. I'm going to guess Charity will become the next matriarch.

Really hyped for what Lindon has planned in the pocket world. They are going to come out and juggle Dreadgods/Monarchs as predicted by Eithan in Underlord (but Shen will do something unexpected). I'm expecting at least one more presence, possibly for Yerin. And I'm hoping Suriel and Eithan will hold their own against Mad King. Probably Lindon ascending as a Creator might force the Judges to lend aid, give Eithan access to his scythe, etc. Waybound is a cool title for the final book, I think it will play around 'bound by Way' as well as 'readying to journey the Way'.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What others are saying

From Jake's review on goodreads:

Another adrenaline-pumping installment of the Cradle series. If you've made it this far then you know what you're in for and you're going to get exactly what you want. Huge action moments, great humor, wonderful characters, evocative worldbuilding. The only problem is that since this is the penultimate book I was even more distraught at the end than usual.

From Bender's review on goodreads:

I simply haven’t had this much fun in any book in recent memory. Reminds me of the action in Ghostwater and Wintersteel, but kicked up the the wazoo in power levels.

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2022 bingo categories:

  • Cool Weapon (HM)
  • Published in 2022
  • Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey (HM)
  • Self-Published OR Indie Publisher
  • No Ifs, Ands, or Buts
  • Family Matters