Synopsis:
Cradle isn’t over yet.
Lindon’s journey may have ended, but there are still more tales to tell.
The stories in this collection will show you the world after Cradle, those left behind, and even some legends from long ago. If you’ve read the main series but you still want more, these are for you.
Witness the first Uncrowned King tournament. Visit the Monarchs and their voyages in the lands beyond. Get to know the Abidan in their homes, and meet the people of new worlds as they cross paths with familiar faces.
And, of course, check in on some old friends.
See them once again…across the Threshold.
Review:
More Cradle always means more fun. I was super excited to get back into this world, that I loved so much.
Threshold is a charcuterie board with stories of all flavors involving major and minor characters from the main series. Most of the stories are relatively short, with a few slightly longer ones thrown in.
Don’t really want to go down into the details of the stories themselves (and to avoid spoilers, but the first one is still worth a few extra lines as it’s an odd one out of the collection. We start off on a bit of tangent in a more prequel/prologue type event which takes us all the way back to immediate aftermath of the Dreadgod war. …The first Uncrowned Tournament with Underlord Reigan Shen competing for the prize. This story is more of a bait and hook, simply because it throws us nuggets of long past and no way of determining what happened in-between this and main series. It raised far far more questions in my mind, that I was thinking of heading to Florida and shaking them out of Will. Fascinating! I hope and pray we get a full prequel novella with the explanations!
The others are more closely related to the main plot line providing details into the fate of characters both with the Abidan and back in Cradle. The focus tilts more towards the sociopolitical situation in the Abidan with the Voroshir war raging on in the Aftermath of Either/Mad King events that we are familiar with. The dynamics between the Eithan/Reapers vs the other Judges/factions of the Abidan was very intriguing. Though we only got the appetizer here, it brings to light that there still is a world out there that that Will could (and should!) explore more.
Told from the perspective of both the Abidan and the cradle ascended folks, it is very clear that Ascending was not the end, but just the beginning of a new conflict not just of power, but of philosophies going back to the basics of good vs bad. No rest for the weary, as our ascended Heroes are put back into the war machine.
The writing is crisp, the stories are on point and shows us a specific facet of the character that Will has chosen to reveal. All are individual stories scattered across the story universe, but I sensed a thin underlying thread typing up the Abidan stories, which tell a picture greater than just the sum of these stories.
Overall, I don’t have to convince any Cradle fan to dive into this (and most of you already would have done just that). I thought I had just overcome the post-Cradle withdrawal syndrome, but this brought it all back. I’m heading back to a full re-read now…
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