About

Waybound is the 12th and final book in the Cradle series written by Will Wight.

Waybound book cover

Blurb

Years ago, Lindon left his home as a powerless Unsouled. Now, he goes to war with the most powerful beings in the world over the future of Cradle itself.

The Weeping Dragon has a grudge to settle, and Lindon intends to take out the Dreadgod with his friends by his side. But rival Monarchs know his plans, and they won’t let things end so easily.

If Lindon does win, he will ascend to the heavens. But he may not find a safe haven there either.

In the worlds above, Suriel and Ozriel face off against the Mad King to determine the new shape of the cosmos. The victor will decide the fate of countless universes.

Whether he wins or dies, Lindon will soon leave this life behind.

The time has come to say good-bye to Cradle.

Review

🛈 This is a spoiler review.

What a journey! I started Cradle after the release of the fifth book (Ghostwater) and since then I've always read the newest book on release day (Wintersteel and Waybound needed two days to finish). One of the best ever series I've had the pleasure to discover, thanks to the many gushing reviews I saw on the r/fantasy sub.

Progression fantasy in general is my favorite subgenre at the moment. Characters, worldbuilding, the magic system, high-stakes action scenes and humor make Cradle special for me. Despite the epic scale, it is a fun read, unlike what you usually see in (grim)dark works. Perfect for the escapism I crave. And it has great reread value, especially after the reveals in books 8 and 10. I did a full reread in preparation for the final — felt like I channeled Lindon's will power to alternate between reading and getting work done over three weeks!

The prologue set the tone, with Suriel removing Ozriel's restrictions but they were still stuck due to the Way being cut-off. It was good to know Eithan had an alternate plan, but I feared he would die. A few chapters later when Lindon called Ozriel's echo to fight against three Monarchs, I wondered if Suriel (and other Abidan Judges) will somehow use the echo to create a new Reaper.

The time chamber set up in the first chapter was impressive to say the least, especially Lindon borrowing authority to heal Mercy and the caves based on the original Abidan. And then, Lindon's personal will training was frightening. I didn't realize Lindon could come out of the pocket world, and some of my favorite scenes in this book were his fights with Shen (and the follow-up which included Malice and Northstrider). Ozriel's echo using a single action to sweep away attacks from three Monarchs was simply astounding!

The rest of the team trying their best to train and advance was nice too, before it was interrupted by Shen finally succeeding in one of his attacks. And thus, the action continued non-stop. First, Yerin slashes open a way, which ends up landing her in the fight between Shen's forces and House Arelius. Mercy and Ziel then succeed in reaching Lindon, only to be sent away to join Yerin. I liked how Little Blue and Orthos did their best even when Lindon was in agony. Oracle Sage teaming up with Mercy was a terrific combination. And then Ziel got the Shield Icon and Yerin started imitating Eithan's sword swings!

There are so many memorable side-characters in this series. Larian absolutely shines whenever she shows up, especially loved her use of the Bow. It was nice to see Eight-man Empire continuing their commitment towards a better world. The fight sequence against Weeping Dragon was my favorite dreadgod battle. Lindon combining techniques from both cores to push away dragon's breath was amazing (poor Moon people though). Everybody getting Dross copies was another pleasant surprise, though I wish it was more like Bob clones (from Bobiverse) with different names and personalilty changes. And then, despite the Dross clones initially giving Ziel a support role, he came up with a way to use his array and one of the prototype penance to kill the Weeping Dragon!! It was really cathartic, especially after he had failed to finish off the Storm Sage. And this was followed by another chilling escape for Malice.

I had to stop reading at that point (way beyond my usual sleeping time). Woke up to see that the next chapter was Eithan's fight! My fear heightened when he got ready to accept his death, but thankfully, Suriel and Makiel arrived in time for him to take the fight to Mad King. The chaos fiend escaped (probably as a plot point for a future series), but Daruman finally died. This time, I had more confidence that Eithan will be revived, but it was shocking that Makiel gave up his life to help Suriel with the restoration!

And then, we finally got to see how Shen was breaking oaths (but I didn't get how Daji dodged his soul-oath, or perhaps he didn't and his trial was just poorly handled). Anyway, poor Tiberian (during Ozriel's sweep attack, I had hoped the chain was snapped too). Emriss being captured by Shen and Northstrider working together was sad to read as well, especially given her history. Luckily, Lindon came to her rescue. Northstrider having to confront his own memories and then ascend was a nice outcome.

The end game began with Shen's latest desperate plan pulling Lindon to face the remaining dreadgods. Somehow, with help from the new weapons, Lindon and Dross held off against two dreadgods and Shen! Meanwhile, after Lindon disappeared, Mercy got a better understanding of the seventh page of her book and Malice's Icons. And then, we got the cutest advancement to Herald which was much easier than even Yerin and Ruby merging. Malice fighting and holding upper hand against three Sages and three Heralds (with 5 of them having Dross) was incredible. Yerin rejecting the Sword Icon and then touching Death Icon was really, really well done, as was Mercy using Suu to launch the last prototype penance.

We don't get even a hint of a breathing space from non-stop action. While Lindon continues to hold, Emriss helps Mercy and Ziel advance to Monarch. Eithan is resurrected. Emriss must have talked to Sha Miara already, so with help from Yerin, Miara gets past Shen's defenses. I thought Shen still had some more tricks to play when he escaped, but he finally succumbed and then his remnant got stuck in the vault with Tiberian! I was shocked that he tried to ascend, I don't think he tried that even when Mad King had come to Cradle. The plan to kill the remaining dreadgods close to each other was nice. But overall, Bleeding Phoenix and Wandering Titan didn't seem as impressive as Weeping Dragon, despite getting a boost. I shudder to think what Silent King would've done if he hadn't been the first to be killed.

The remaining chapters were great as well — giving us a glimpse of ascension, formation of the Reaper division, Lindon taking care of his sect, setting up Eight-man Empire and constructs as a measure against future Monarchs (though I was hoping for a more robust solution), Lindon getting Soulsmith inheritance from Shen's remnant and so on. I had guessed Li Markuth would make an appearance when the fragment of Mad King sent Haven prisoners to wreck havoc, and the pay-off was nice. Absolutely loved seeing Yerin, Mercy, Ziel and Lindon in action as Reapers. Fury made an appearance, wish it was more substantial and I was hoping to see Northstrider too. The reunion with Eithan and Suriel was heartwarming. Not sure how Lindon pulled off the labyrinth heist! The epilogue was a nice touch, neatly tying with the start of Unsouled. And of course, bloopers left us hanging till the next adventure in the Willverse.

There are a few things that I hope will be touched upon in future series, companion novels, short story collection, etc. What's the deal with Elder Whisper? What happened to Sesh's body, did Northstrider make a weapon? Also, what about Shen and Malice's bodies. When the Twin Star sect's guardians were being mentioned, I thought it would be remnants of Noroloth and Red Faith, but it was Ekeri (whom I had forgotten) — so what happened to Red Faith? Hope it was something like going off to the Dream library to continue Emriss's work. Having seen Lindon using his Void Icon to heal madra channels and repair damages to Windfall, I was hoping he'd do something about the destruction from the Dreadgod fights. Perhaps even recruit the Herald mentioned by Eithan during his deal with Shen in Wintersteel. Well, I could go on and on about other things, so I will just stop my review here ;)

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What others are saying

From Terence's review on goodreads:

Waybound is a book that had great expectations set on its shoulders. The conclusion of the 12 book Cradle series, a number of storylines, and the final battles with enormous consequences. There are still a number of storylines that I had vastly different expectations for, but all in all Waybound delivers an enjoyable story.

From Donald's review on goodreads:

Cradle is probably my favorite series that I've EVER read, and I was nervous about how much there seemed to be to wrap up. Will delivered. The pace and pressure on Lindon and his friends doesn't let up from cover to cover. The book is packed with emotional payoffs for plot threads that have been building for years now.