I can't get enough of this series. This is a bit slower than the first three, but it's still the same sweet, sweet action you get in in the other books.

So much fun here! ( )

Skyworn, the fourth book in Will Wight's Cradle series, serves as a transition piece to the next major story arc of the series. The narrative starts off focused around Lindon's upcoming duel that has been looming since events in the second book and broadens in scope as we learn more about the threat of Dreadgods.

It's nice we get deeper characterizations of Lindon and Yerin as they examine their motivations and reasons for growing along their paths. I enjoyed the addition of Mercy to the crew - we'll see how much being from the Akura family has an impact on things. Our plucky heroes still have a lot of growing to do to face what's coming.

I'm excited to find where the story goes next! Eithan has a plan and I just know it's going to be the best kind of crazy for everyone involved. Also, I totally ignore the in-book description of Eitahn's scissors and replace them with brightly colored kiddy safety scissors when I imagine his battles for the pure hilarity of it. Comedy gold. ( )

This was the weakest book in the series so far. As power levels ramp up I hope this isn't a trend. ( )

I am in love with this series. I adored the continuing lore and learning about how vast the world is right along with Lindon. Duels! Consequences! Action! Dreadgods! Also! New character alert! If I wasn't already hooked on this series, Mercy alone would've gotten me. ( )

And so we come to the end. For now. Will Wight's website says work on the next installment in the Cradle series will start after the summer of 2018. Thus, it is appropriate that a number of plot threads from the first three volumes get wrapped up here.

Lindon finally faces Jai Chen, his nemesis. Yerin achieves a final solution with her unwelcome guest. Someone finally catches up with Eithan. It is a time of endings.

I'm not sure what it is, exactly, that reminds me of the four last things in Skysworn, but it does. There has been an apocalyptic element in the background all along, but this is the first time it comes to the forefront. Maybe it is Lindon's first real brush with death, with his own mortality. Or the Naru clan, with their angelic wings. Or maybe it is just the eldritch horrors that we finally meet face-to-face.

This fifteenth century triptych of the Last Judgment is oddly evocative of Skysworn for me, given that it in general the Cradle series has an Eastern vibe to it. Perhaps it is St. Michael in the middle, weighing souls, reminiscent of Suriel and Ozriel saving people from chaos. Or the glowing sword behind Christ's head. Or the fact that Christ is sitting on a rainbow. I could see a high level sacred artist doing something like that.

For all of the pan-Asian flair of the Cradle series, it has some of the aesthetics of Christian apocalyptic art. Of course, the apocalypse is not unique to Christianity. It is something like a human universal. Probably for the reason that the world does occasionally look like it is going to end.

But this is not the end for Lindon and his friends. Not yet anyway. He still has a long way to go before he meets his destiny. ( )