A shaky peace reigns on the vast continent of Atonkaris, with conspiracies and riots brewing everywhere.
I was sent a complimentary ebook copy of The Cradle by the author, Ron Sami, in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
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About the Book
The Cradle
The Eagre Book One
by Ron Sami
Published 17 May 2021
Genre: Dark Epic Fantasy
Page Count: 469
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A shaky peace reigns on the vast continent of Atonkaris, with conspiracies and riots brewing everywhere.
A simple fisherman finds the corpse of a stranger and unknown artifacts. For the sake of his family, he decides to take on a difficult and unusual business.
Yves Maurirta is the prince of the Cradle. He is bound by a deadly promise. Will he be able to abandon the fatal and dangerous Journey, from which no one has yet returned?
He has no name. There is only a nickname – the Gift. He is so young, but already a member of a brutal gang, and they go to kill. What will he become? What will be his fate?
The Cradle is the first book in a new series – The Eagre. The Cradle is an epic fantasy set in a vast new world with ancient belief systems, dark magic, and undiscovered lands. The series is ideal for fans of George R.R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie, Steven Erikson, or Brandon Sanderson.
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My Review
My Rating: 3 Stars
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I was sent a complimentary ebook copy of The Cradle by the author, Ron Sami, in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
Starting out being brutally honest, I didn’t finish this one. It’s rare for me to rate a DNF above 2 stars, but I really do feel like this book deserves more than that. I got about half way through this book and my reasons for not finishing are complicated. This book is billed as perfect for fans of Sanderson, and I see Sanderson influence in here. I know this is the author’s first book and his only other book listed on Goodreads so far is a sequel, so I hope this series and this author’s further works will improve in the same way Sanderson’s work improved. I happen to be in a book club that has been working through the Cosmere one book per month this year, so Sanderson is fresh in my mind right now, and I actually DNFd Elantris at the beginning of the year for very similar reasons to deciding not to finish this one.
This book has an ambitiously large and complicated world with an equally ambitiously sized cast to match. There is so much in here that’s fascinating and laying down the foundation for a potentially very long series that I expect will get better and better with time and author experience. There are too many points of view here, and the world-building gets in the way of connecting with the characters at times. Also, much like when I joined the affore mentioned book club a little late at the beginning of the year and didn’t have the full month to finish Elantris anyway, the next Sanderson book was calling louder. At the time I was trying to finish this book, my Libby hold on the current month’s Sanderson selection was quickly becoming due, and once again Sanderson called louder. This book is interesting in the same way that early Sanderson is interesting, but given the choice between this and later Sanderson, I chose later Sanderson. Could I have pushed through and finished this book and reviewed a few days later than promised? Yeah, sure, but being completely honest I wouldn’t have. I would have finished this month’s Sanderson, looked at this and thought I should finish that, look at my schedule of upcoming promised reviews, and chosen to start the next book. So I’m calling it here and reviewing where I was.
If you liked Elantris and other early Sanderson, if you like other debut novels that get compared to Sanderson like Shadow of the Conqueror by Shad M. Brooks, this really is perfect. If you have patience for the rougher earlier works of epic fantasy authors who are going to reach the highest heights, you don’t want to miss the start of this series. This is the start of something great!
If you’re like me with a TBR that’s far too long and more polished titles constantly calling your name, this one may not hold your attention long enough to finish.
Also, minor critique: The character name Ged really stuck out to me as a poor choice. I know it’s actually a somewhat common nickname for various men’s names in some European languages, such as French, but we’re talking characters in epic fantasy. That’s Ursula K. Le Guin’s lead from the Earthsea cycle, which is very much a landmark series in the history of fantasy publishing. Ron, if you knew that and used the name anyway, poor choice. If you didn’t, do yourself a favour and go read A Wizard of Earthsea! (But don’t watch the adaptations. They all failed and pissed the author off.)
In conclusion, this book is easy to read and has the bones and clear inspiration of a great series in the making. Readers who love epic fantasy and have the patience for debut epics that are heavily plot-driven with many POVs will love it. Character-driven readers, readers who need fewer POVs, etc. will lose interest. That’s not necessarily a bad thing and I do think the series and author have a ton of potential.
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Sounds interesting! I like Sanderson