Great series, fantasy/fiction genre at its best. Creative and engaging from the first page. ( )

So far this is for me the weakest of the cradle series.
The first half of the book started with too much meta information.
Nevertheless after that half is raised back to the typical strength and sucked my right in. ( )

Wight keeps the action coming in the third volume of this series.

Lindon has survived his transition to Iron, and now Eithan has taken him under his wing. He still has to fight his duel with Jai Long, but things are moving under the surface.

I can't get enough of these books. The pace, the characters, the world... It's all utterly spellbinding. I'm losing sleep to this series! ( )

Cue the training music from Rocky.

Blackflame is the third book in Will Wight's Cradle series. It is time for our young heroes to train up and continue to grow their powers. In Lindon's case this means selecting a path for one of his cores. For Yerin it's all about learning to control her goldsign.

And what path does Lindon decide on? The path of Blackflame of course! It's an ancient path that has mostly died out due to it being inspired by dragons and the humans following a path of dragon have a tendency to go mad. Since this is part of Eithan's plan I have to trust that he's built in a contingency so that Lindon doesn't suffer the same fate. Time will tell.

The training portion takes about 70% of the book. I really enjoyed Lindon and Yerin learning how to be a team and Lindon learning a proper path. Both characters acheive great advancements. Even Little Blue the sylvan gets some action and growth. It was nice to meet Orthos, a sacred beast in the form of a giant turtle. He adds another layer to the types of creatures we could meet in the future.

In between the training, we're treated to the perspective of Jai Long and his revenge arc. I did not enjoy his view point and I'm pretty sure we aren't supposed to.

Once the plot kicks in, the final quarter of the book is one heck of a wild ride. I have to imagine since Eithan is the one who has set a lot of this in motion that things ended up more or less where he wanted them to. Guess I'll find out soon.

I also like that the titles of each book seems to be a big hint of what to expect. ( )

There was a lot of time spent reviewing the process of cycling and how the main character(s) go about "growing" their powers. This detracted from forward progression in the story line and for a long section through the middle of the book, it was a bit of a slog to remain engaged. About 3/4 of the way in, though, the story re-started and it ended up being a pretty good "conclusion" (it is a series, so the story isn't resolved, just this installment). ( )