Review: Skysworn (Cradle #4) by Will Wight

Rating: 9/10

Synopsis

With his duel fast approaching, Lindon is locked away in prison.

As a Blackflame, he is too dangerous to remain free. The Skysworn, protectors of the Empire, have imprisoned him to keep him under control until the day of his promised fight arrives.

When it does, he will face Jai Long.

But a new danger approaches the Empire, closer every day. Only the Skysworn stand between the people of the land and total annihilation.

And Lindon may be forced to join them. 

Review

“Eithan looked from his enemy’s weapon to his own. “Longhook, is it? You can call me Tiny Scissors.”

This was an excellent continuation to the Cradle series. Narrator Travis Baldree was once again masterful in voicing each and every character and I really enjoyed every minute of it.

Lindon got some character development! In part because there isn’t as much focus on Lindon’s power advancement in this one, Will Wight was able to give Lindon’s character some more focus and add to his personality. We were able to see more of how Lindon cares about those around him. Before this book, as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, Lindon was pretty one-sided as a character. He was focused on his training and power progression and that was pretty much his whole personality. In this one we get a few glimpses into more of who Lindon is outside of being a Sacred Artist and that was really nice to see.

As usual, the side characters stole the spotlight from Lindon. Eithan was spectacular. At times funny, mysterious, and intimidating, Eithan is my favorite character in this series so far. Then there is Yerin, Lindon’s best friend. We get to see more of her past and therefore get more character development from her than in any other book. We are also able to see more of Orthos and the mentor role that he has with Lindon. This was a book that was much more focused on character development than the last three and it really improved the series as a whole.

“He is looking to stand out by provoking one of the Empire’s villains in front of everyone,” the turtle said, not bothering to keep his voice down. Everyone heard. “He is not confident enough in his results to let them speak for him, so he has to distinguish himself in another way. He is the weakest sort of scavenger, crawling along the bottom and looking for scraps. Crush him.”

Book 3, Blackflame did a lot to advance the world building of this series. However, Skysworn managed to not only expand the world even more than Blackflame did, but also increased the stakes as we are able to see more of the threat against the entire world of Cradle. Events transpire that threaten the very existence of the clans that populate this world. The tension and epic-ness this created were both boons to a series that felt somewhat small in scope previously.

“If I have to choose between disappointing you or my disciple…well, I’m sorry, but I don’t like you very much.”

The action was, as always, incredibly well written. The unique and creative usage of the Sacred Arts magic system for each book makes every battle unpredictable and so much fun to imagine. We are learning the magic systems as our protagonists are learning about it and that makes it all the more enjoyable. I said recently that as far as entertainment value goes, the Sacred Arts ranks right up there with Mistborn’s Allomancy in my eyes and I stand by that. There is just so much to learn and so many ways this magic system can be used to make the story even better than it already is.

I continue to highly recommend this series. Although, Blackflame was my favorite of the series so far, Skysworn was right up there with it. Will Wight continues to make improvements as he goes along and I am looking forward to seeing what he will do with the rest of the series!