Jump to content

Cradle and Progression Fantasy


IFR

Recommended Posts

I got into this series recently, and it was good timing because the latest book has just been released.

Cradle, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a series that falls into the category of progression fantasy. It's basically Dungeons and Dragons in book form, with a wuxia spin. Honestly, that description is not a winner for me - I was highly skeptical, and only with great reluctance gave it a shot due to an exuberant recommendation from a friend.

A week after I started I had blown through 9 books. And this was during midterms. About 5 hours ago I downloaded book 10, and just finished it a moment ago.

This series is highly entertaining. It does one thing and it does that very well: it takes characters from zero to hero, from complete weaklings to absolute demigod badasses, and you feel the sense of growth.

It's the kind of series where if this specific point does not engage your interest, then you almost assuredly will not like the series. If it does, you are in for a wildly fun ride.

Anyway, the author publishes the books on a biannual basis, and there are only two more left to go in the series.

I started this thread for those who also enjoy this series, and for any recommendations of books similar to Cradle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, Lord Patrek said:

There was a thread discussing such series a while back. You might want to search for it.

Was gonna say, I had never heard of Progression Fantasy until a thread here popped up a couple months back or so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/3/2021 at 4:51 PM, Lord Patrek said:

Same for me.

Now I know enough to know that I'd rather undergo a prostate exam than reading such a thing! :P

I mean, it's pretty much a spot-on description of Malazan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will Wight's Cradle books are Westernized Xianxia. Basically, supernatural martial arts with lots of training and fighting.

https://www.willwight.com/a-blog-of-dubious-intent/the-ancestors-of-cradle

Quote

Cradle was my humble, meager attempt to write a story in the xianxia* genre: a subcategory of Chinese novels that have grown popular on the English-speaking Internet over the last couple of years thanks to sites like WuxiaWorld and GravityTales (not to mention the hard-working, dedicated, good-looking fan translators who provide such works to lazy monolingual English-speakers like myself).

As for what Xianxia is, it's a whole genre that's popular in Mainland/Greater China

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpiritCultivationGenre

On 11/4/2021 at 12:51 AM, Lord Patrek said:

Same for me.

Now I know enough to know that I'd rather undergo a prostate exam than reading such a thing! :P

How so? There's nothing particularly offensive or objectionable in progression fantasy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Lord Patrek said:

Just sounds way too juvenile and over-the-top sort of thing.

Okay, but I must note that the inspired by mythology. The Mahabharata, for example, is a very over-the-top in its fight scenes. That's how classic fantasy/mythological stories are supposed to be.

On 11/3/2021 at 2:05 PM, IFR said:

I started this thread for those who also enjoy this series, and for any recommendations of books similar to Cradle.

As for recs, you could read the works Will Wight stole ideas from was inspired by that he enumerated on his blog.

You can also read the free stuff at Royalroad - https://www.royalroad.com/home Scroll down to the "BEST COMPLETED" tab and start with those or just pick any story that suits your fancy.

On Amazon, I've read Street Cultivation. Unlike most of the other cultivation books, this one urban fantasy.

For webcomics/manga, I recommend Solo Leveling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/4/2021 at 8:03 PM, Lord Patrek said:

Just sounds way too juvenile and over-the-top sort of thing.

I think that depends on the nature of the execution. There's a broad spectrum of how something may be approached. 

For instance, I consider Wheel of Time to be progression fantasy. You have a collection of untrained farmers leveling up over several books to become demigods capable of destroying the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, progression fantasy is very similar to Rocky and other sports film since most of it involves people training then competing! Remember the awesome Rocky training montages? Progression fantasy is almost exactly like that in written form with a fantasy component.:fencing:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

Put me in the category of people that had not heard of this genre until the first thread was started a few months back.  I just discovered that Kevin J. Anderson released a trilogy early this year called Hexworld that is being described as GameLit / LitRPG.  I'll be giving it a try after I finish my current book.  Has anyone else tried this trilogy?  Is it worth the time?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Will Wight just published the last book in the Cradle series so it's a good time to pick up the books now if you're interested in it.:cheers:

P.S. Books 8-11 reached the top of the Amazon charts for the whole Kindle store (not just the scifi/fantasy categories).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Gigei said:

Will Wight just published the last book in the Cradle series so it's a good time to pick up the books now if you're interested in it.:cheers:

P.S. Books 8-11 reached the top of the Amazon charts for the whole Kindle store (not just the scifi/fantasy categories).

The penultimate book was recently published. The final book is still being written.

But anytime is a good time to start up this series. Skeptics who dislike the premise of progression fantasy are really missing out. This is among the most addictive and fantastically entertaining series I've read, and I'm pretty difficult to please.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/30/2022 at 3:53 AM, IFR said:

The penultimate book was recently published. The final book is still being written.

But anytime is a good time to start up this series. Skeptics who dislike the premise of progression fantasy are really missing out. This is among the most addictive and fantastically entertaining series I've read, and I'm pretty difficult to please.

I thought Dreadgod was the last! So there's more? On Amazon it says 11 of 11.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Gigei said:

I thought Dreadgod was the last! So there's more? On Amazon it says 11 of 11.

Amazon is wrong in this one, or they mean 11 out of the 11 published works in the series. Waybound will be the final book. This is explicitly noted in Dreadgod, which concludes with the message "Lindon's journey comes to an end in Waybound Cradle: Volume Twelve".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/3/2021 at 2:05 AM, IFR said:

Cradle, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a series that falls into the category of progression fantasy.

IFR — good recommendation, thank you. I love coming of age stories, esp in the form of military sci-fi, and this sounds kinda similar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...