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This is my first amazon review, but after reading all of Will's other stuff I felt compelled to finally take the time to make sure that anyone who reads this starts supporting this amazing indie author. I have been reading fantasy since I was eight and started with authors that I believed (while I was young) were at the top of the field. Having revisited some my childhood favorites in recent years I have found some authors unreadable (looking at you Goodkind and Eddings ?'Eddingses'?) and others poorly written or just plain boring.
In recent years I have been excited and lucky to watch and take part in fantastic new entries into the genre (Mark Lawrence, Patrick Rothfuss, Martin, Anthony Ryan's first book). In between the "big authors" releases I have downloaded, read and discarded probably forty or so indie entries. Some have been good. Some have been bad. Most have been terrible.
What I can't figure out is how some of these books obtain 100+ reviews averaging 4 stars or better, or how they can contain multi-paragraph hand written write-ups praising the "original story" or "unique characters" or "intriguing plot line". I am at a loss because most of these books end up turning me off after about 50 pages because they are some combination of a) illegible writing, and b) a protagonist that is unrealistic/whiny/overpowered/smartwhilestupid.
This book is none of those things. This author's other works do not fall into those categories. Will's stuff is well written, entertaining and contains characters that are funny, relate-able and have depth. I am a fan of pretty much every character in his Traveler's gate and Elder Empire Series. Will does small short-stories filling in background on the characters in between book releases and it is a testament to his writing that fans get excited to hear from minor characters who barely got any lines in the book (incarnation's daughter... more please).
The magic systems are well thought out and unique. The action is fast-paced and well described. The dialogue is sometimes laugh out loud funny and you actually care about what happens to each of the characters.
Honestly my only complaint with Will's stuff is that I want more and wish he could write longer books, but if he did that we wouldn't have so many releases in such a short time span.
Seriously, buy this book, then buy his other books. They are all good and they are stupidly cheap compared to some of the others out there on amazon.
Regarding Unsouled specifically, this is actually my least favorite of his three series, but I still enjoyed it immensely and believe it deserves a 5 star review. I read two other self-published Xianxia novels before this and the state of that genre is currently terrible. One of the novels was unreadable (I won't mention a name, but it involves a certain bird that is a certain color). Even if you don't like Will's other stuff, or just don't like fantasy in general, but somehow you still like Xianxia, you should read this. Its by far the best available.
If you read this and wonder which to go to next, start with Traveler's Gate. It starts a little slow in house of blades but it quickly ramps up into the awesome-sphere. The Crimson Vault and City of Light are even better.
- Series: Cradle (Book 1)
- Paperback: 292 pages
- Publisher: Hidden Gnome Publishing (June 14, 2017)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0989671763
- ISBN-13: 978-0989671767
- Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.7 x 8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 660 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#120,028 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #267 in Asian Myth & Legend
- #2714 in Sword & Sorcery Fantasy (Books)
- #4778 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
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