What I’ve Been Reading Lately: Cradle

What I’ve Been Reading Lately: Cradle

Fundamentally, every work of art, every story, is an attempt at communication. The author chooses to ask us a question, and we find the answer in the dialogue between the author and ourselves.

Cradle is a series that asks the question “If one dude did magic kung-fu to another dude so hard he exploded, would that be sick or what?”

And we, the readers, answer “Absolutely the FUCK yes.”

Cradle is a world where everybody has the capacity to practice the Sacred Arts, which are primarily the discipline of using mystical energy to be as bullshit awesome as possible. You aren’t allowed to be a major character in this series until you have committed at least one (1) act that would look sweet as hell if it was airbrushed onto the side of a stoner’s van. 

At one point we meet a member of a king’s landscaping staff. Her job is to mow the lawn, trim the hedges, and keep those damn slugs out of the vegetable garden. She can also command trees to rip you apart and devour your life force for herself, because fuck you, it’s Cradle. People just do that here. 

The main character is a young man by the name of Wei Shi Lindon, who has a natural deficiency that makes him extremely weak in the Sacred Arts, and is therefore banned from studying them. He responds “respectfully, no” and proceeds to spend the following ten books learning Sacred Arts and punching everything. 

It’s a little rough around the edges, but I had fun reading it and the author clearly had fun writing it, so I think it succeeds as a series. Would absolutely recommend if you just want to have a good time reading something. 

(Naturally, I got deeply attached to the biggest bastard in the main cast, because he’s hilarious. This man is a bitch and I like him so much.) 

As a delightful bonus, unlike most action series, the treatment of the female characters is genuinely excellent. The author is not here for fanservice, he is here for FIGHTSERVICE, which is when EVERYONE FIGHTS SO HARD THE LAWS OF PHYSICS GIVE UP. We’re ten books in to a twelve book series and I have yet to see a single woman’s boobs described on-page. 

In Cradle, when a teenage girl is worried about her body changing, what she means is that she’s unsatisfied with the amount of swords she can use at one time, so she’s going to grow six extra arms to hold six extra swords. Surprise! THE NEW ARMS ARE ALSO SWORDS, because the time spent picking up a sword to fight with it is time you didn’t spend swordfighting, and that is unacceptable to her. Now she and her eight swords are going to suplex a dragon, because on Cradle we know no gender politics, only THE BLADE.

Also, there’s a turtle.

More Posts from Shoccoe and Others

1 week ago

hot damn, I was right about that last part lmfao

I have a gut instinct telling me this butler character is gonna be a highlight. His sass. His attitude. His barely constrained urge to strangle Wax… It’s beautiful.


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2 weeks ago

gasp!!!!!

I’m on early Rhythm of War, no one spoil future stuff!!!

I’m genuinely baffled what the hell Shallan is suppressing that could possibly be worse than what she already remembers. Like. What. What the fuck. How.

1 year ago
A satyr bard!
A clownfish fishgirl clown girl!
A magical girl!
A wool mage!
An unstoppable force of destruction and violence!

First tumblr post! Woo! These are some miscellaneous characters I've done for DnD games and whatnot!

3 weeks ago

They call him Adolin “I’ll fight as many at once as I have to” Kholin. Genuinely what the fuck. What the fuck do they put in this man’s food. He never even considered the fact he could lose. It- oh my God.


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1 week ago

Unsure if the replies to this post are promising or scary

Wind and Truth Spoilers (Maybe)

Yeah so I’m like… 90% sure Taravangian!Odium is going to elect like- some total innocent as his champion. I don’t remember he or Dalinar imposing any like… restrictions on who could be chosen as a champion. So like… while there’s a chance it’s a powerful Fused, I think a more surefire bet would be something akin to a Singer child. A sickly, frail Singer child. A blind sickly Singer child with no parents. Taravangian listened to Dalinar rant about “journey matching the destination” so many times. It’s uh! Yeah. I’m worried for our man.

3 weeks ago

I’m getting really good at stopping myself partway through a Stormlight Tumblr post to check the tags and like, perfect-parry Spoilers


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3 weeks ago

Oh that’s Vivenna.

.

.

.

Okay Googled her to see what she looked like again and got confirmation on accident lmfao. Hellllllll yes, so she managed to awaken a sword fully? Proud of her! Suuuuper curious what her command was!!! Aaaaa this is so exciting.


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7 months ago

A Single Breath of Godhood

The mist filled my nose and suddenly I was God. I was no longer merely *human.* I knew too much to be a man anymore. I saw too much. I controlled too much. I was too much... and I could feel it fading away quickly. All of the world - no, the universe - was clay in my hands. I knew intrinsically that if I willed it, I could change anything. The sun would grow to consume the earth if I wanted. I could make every murderer suffer the same fate as their victims.

But I also knew that if I let go of this breath, all of that would leave me. I'd return to what I was. Only moments had passed since I'd been God, but the feeling of being more was so profound that they felt more real than the 20 years of life I'd lived before that moment. Why had I come here? Why had I become God? My life was so small in comparison to all that I observed now... I had wanted something though.

The memory struck me - struck divinity - like a gong, the pain of my memory flooded throughout creation in ripples of destruction. They were undone a moment later at my will. I'd taken the power of all things so save her. A single life. The way I saw her now was seemingly detached from my pain. I was God. I knew everything, and as I looked at her corpse... Bones, simple carbon and calcium... blood, iron and water. I was God and she was dead, and even if I made a new her. One that knew all she did and was exactly like her in every way. Something I knew I could do. I knew she wouldn't be *her.*

I almost let go. Then I almost took out my rage on everything that existed. Then I understood all was for nothing. I couldn't save her, so nothing really mattered at all. I was all there was, and I had nothing at all.

Before my breath released, I made a single change. The form of her face in stone which would never fade. She would be the last of all things to exist, yet she'd never truly be back... Then I let go. The power flushed from me and the last of my Godhood was channeled into a thousand tiny miracles across the world. A girl's foot healed. A scholar was chosen for a school he loved, despite wealth and circumstance. A child breathing again when their mother thought all was lost... then I was human. And I was empty. Not for my lack of divinity, but for the lack of my love.


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1 week ago

Oh interesting, so is this going to be set with like… the return of the Radiants and stuff? Big open world where Stuff Is Happening? Sounds neat!

hey. you're interested in the stormlight au rp server i'm making where you get to do stuff in the sunmaker's empire that spans from azir all the way to eastern roshar because he bothered to choose an heir. i wish there was a more concise way to describe it but it sounds so fun doesn't it you get to experience worldbuilding and do roled play with ocs quick let me know if you would want an inviiiiite............. fades away like a force ghost

1 month ago

Adolin, here and now, more than anyone else in the series, you are truly radiant.


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