Soulsmith

After finishing Unsouled I was very keen to continue the story and journey with the 2nd novel in the Cradle series, Soulsmith.
However, after an intense fight and escape at the start, the novel quickly slowed down to a grind.
Differing factions, ancient ruins, dreadbeasts, Lindon attempting to grow in power, mysterious strangers, and new threats and characters all should have manifested into an interesting read. But it just kind of...meandered along.
All of these could have been incredibly interesting and there were some strange choices made that continued to stall things and what should have been some impossible escapes.

There was very little character growth beyond powering up, and very little actual story. I think I wanted more from the 2nd book after such a promising start. I also don't think it suffers from the sequel problem, because it doesn't really feel like a traditional ‘sequel' more just kind of a pause in the journey.

Now that's not to say there weren't positive things. The progression was cool, the action was still quite well written, and the world continues to expand including the powers. I think sometimes the power we're seeing only in the 2nd novel from other characters gets a bit much at times at how powerful everyone is. I still like Lindon and Yerin (though she doesn't get much time to be interesting beyond just ‘sword aura stuff' which she does frequently). I think the highlight was definitely the introduction of Eithan. Without Eithan I might have struggled more through this book.

Overall I wanted to like Soulsmith more and it just didn't do it for me.
I will however be continuing the series because there is still stuff here I'm invested in and interested to discover.
However, this book felt like a set-up for future stuff. Future antagonists, fights, levelling up, etc etc.

I am still looking forward to Blackflame and I hope the story and character growth pick up again.

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