A review by wolvenbolt
Reaper by Will Wight

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

...THE TRAIN PICKED RIGHT BACK UP AGAIN AND IS GOING EVEN HARDER NOW!!!!

To paint a picture of how thrilling this book was, I went to bed at 4am, I just finished the book now, it is now 6:43am. I couldn't put it down, I tried, I couldn't sleep, I needed to know what happened next, and now I do, and it was totally worth it.
Why?

Because ever since book 2, Soulsmith, I had a theory that

Eithen is Ozriel,

and I was goddamn right! Everything was lining up for me! Here are as many of the clues as I can remember:

• Ever since Mercy could go up and down advancements, I realise there could be other ways of doing this, possibly permanently or for as long as someone wanted. Since they kept mentioning Ozriel, I suspected he was hiding on Cradle, but disguised. So he had to have removed his madra and vast spiritual presence somehow (I originally thought he stayed in Sacred Valley and was possibly related to Lindon).
   
• Eithen in Uncrowned always stayed near the same placement of 62 - 65 in the tournament, almost deliberately, showing himself to be far more knowledgeable than his underlord level.
• He has the same sight as Ozriel, which was meant to make us think of him as a descendant but could actually be the man himself.
• He was an underlord advising a Monarch, Tiberian was also an Arelius and should have had the same sight abilities, why would he need anyone else advising him, especially someone far lower? Unless he had knowledge exceeding Tiberian because he was once a higher advancement.
• In the second book, he said he was actively looking to recruit, but only set his eyes on Lindon and Yerin, and after recruiting them, he never tried to recruit anyone again like he did them.
• His knowledge of how to achieve higher advancements, yet he himself not advancing. I originally thought this was because if he advanced high enough he'd be detected by the Abidan.
• His interactions with the Arelius clan wasn't like a brother or so, it was fatherly. He acted as if these were people he was fond of, but didn't personally grow up with. Like a grandparent or something.
• Ozriel was repeatedly described as looking similar to Eithen.
• Ozriel manifested the Broom Icon, and Eithen fights with a broom and scissors, who the hell fights with a broom? What were the chances both of them did?
• His vast madra stores had to have been built up from centuries of cycling, high advancement, or both. Suggesting he is far older than he was. Now that I think of it, the second it's revealed that Ozriel was missing, I started thinking he could be Eithen because Eithen seems too powerful and knowledgeable for his advancement level.
• His marble was either from a heavenly messenger or was his own communication device for the Abidan.

It all made sense, I was convinced it was true, and it was EXTREMELY satisfying knowing I was right. And it proves that it makes sense for the story as I saw many little breadcrumbs from as far back as the 2nd book!

I'm so happy the book is heading in that direction 🥳 Let's keep the train going, onto the next book, Dreadgod!