A review by kierano
Soulsmith by Will Wight

• Strong character development? Yes

4.25

 

After my strikingly positive experience with the first Cradle novel, Unsouled, left me wanting more, I didn’t want to waste much time before diving into the second instalment, Soulsmith. Part of this was so I wouldn’t forget the story, but most of it was genuine curiosity about where the series would go next.

Soulsmith picks up in the immediate aftermath of the first novel, with Lindon having left Sacred Valley with Yerin. The pair are struggling to survive the Desolate Wilds, but soon fall in with an alliance of sacred artists in the area searching some recently materialised ancient ruins for a legendary treasure.

Tactful Info-Drops

Much like Lindon, the reader is thrown into this situation with almost zero context. The ‘fish out of water’ trope is nothing new, but Wight puts it to great use here. It can be a little baffling trying to piece together the politics of the ‘Five Factions Alliance’ that have gathered at the ruins, but it helps that Lindon is also out of his depth.

You’re told everything you need to know eventually but not an iota more, which I think is smart. Wight doesn’t overload the reader with lore and leaves them with questions that will hopefully be picked up in later books.

My one issue with Unsouled was that I felt like I didn’t have a great grasp of the magic system, but Soulsmith did a really good job of expanding my knowledge on the topic. There’s still a lot to keep track of, and I can tell there’s more to come down the line, but this is where the magic system clicked with me in a way it hadn’t before.

Part of this is because we finally get to see Lindon ‘advance’ in Soulsmith, the risks and benefits of which necessitate Wight in explaining the magic system to us in a little more detail. Like I said, Wight chooses what information to give the reader very carefully. It’s a balancing act that’s a sign of a good writer.

Fist-Pumping Character Growth

Lindon himself remains a wonderfully endearing character. I don’t want to bandy about the word ‘inspiring’, but there are moments later in the novel taking place inside the Transcendent Ruins that had me grinning ear to ear. There’s a theme running throughout the series that hardship breeds strength, and watching Lindon push himself as far as physically possible in pursuit of that ideal is, yeah, inspiring.

Watching him overcome his deficiency is a lot of fun, but like in Unsouled, Lindon always remains on the backfoot. He remains humble, subservient, and honour-bound to people a lot more powerful than him, but always manages to maintain his dignity. It's a great, complex space for a main character to be in.

Unsouled featured a somewhat revolving door of supporting characters, with friends and foes entering and exiting the story pretty regularly. It looks like some of them will be sticking around with Soulsmith. I was even half-expecting Yerin—Lindon’s prickly saviour from the first novel—to abandon Lindon at the beginning and was happy to see her stick around.

We’re also introduced to Eithan—a powerful sacred artist who takes an interest in Lindon and Yerin—and Jai Long—an antagonist with powerful motivation and backstory. I won’t go into detail on them, but Wight treats us to several sections from their points of view that serve to remind us just how weak Lindon is, as well as expanding our knowledge of the world and teasing what’s to come.

These sections also work because they signal to the reader the direction of where the story’s going. Lindon doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, and there were several points in the novel where he’s on the outside of the conflict brewing in the Alliance and didn’t really have a concrete goal beyond his usual ‘find a way to get stronger’. Switching things up POV-wise kept the pace up while implicitly promising some deeper conflict down the line, which worked well for my engagement with the story.

The Big Picture

There are also several mysteries introduced in this novel—the big kind that probably won’t get resolved for several volumes—that had me drooling. It’s a light touch, but if you’re a fan of these kinds of worldbuilding mysteries (who isn’t?) I imagine you’ll have a good time with Soulsmith and, hopefully, the rest of the series.

Overall, I’m having a blast with Cradle. I can definitely see myself finishing the series (I’m already a good chunk into volume three) and think it’s incredibly deserving of it’s high status among fantasy fans.