I can now say that I have read every will wight novel published this far, and his vision for this multiverse is really cool. That said, I think the experiment in the elder empire series was a mistake. while the world is fascinating, the plot and characters were a bit of a stretch for me, while the overlapping nature of the stories made many pivotal and interesting scenes in one trilogy boring and predictable in the next. rach series began as a kind of adventure story, about a swashbuckling sea captain and an assassin, these were stories I think worked very well, but as the characters were pulled into the political sphere of their world their actions and choices began to feel less justified. they seemed, for example, to care whether the common people followed the new emperor even though, from the audience’s perspective, they contributed almost nothing to either the power of the emperor or the guilds. there was a guild war, but very little talk about what guilds wanted out of the whole deal outside of money, ora new Emperor. even the regents, who should have been major political pieces for every guild, were little more than particularly powerful warriors by the end of the books. this was a “political” story told the way you might tell an adventure story. less game of thrones and more full metal alchemist, if that makes sense. the political organization of the world lacked depth, mostly because there was little exploration of what any guild used to get, or to stay, in power, and while that has worked fine in Cradle, where power belonged to the most advanced sacred artist, so that all they needed to do to stay in power was flex their godlike powers, a world of guilds needed a more complex interplay of selfish and selfless motivations. the emperor is dead, every guild now has an opportunity, but also a risk, and the elders are coming. it would have been cool to see that.
the design of this series was its second, and far bigger flaw. shares side of the story was interesting, but not as good as cradle for the reasons mentioned above. (a high bar to hit). I’ve seen book series like this that explore events from another perspective, and I already know that two thirds of the book will be very boring, because I already know what happens. basically the only reason I read this is because will teased Ozriel and I had to hear more about that. having read it, I can say that I would have missed out on a very compelling story about calder and his wife, but because of the number of chapters I kept skipping through, I think this series would have been better served in a single “epic fantasy” multiple POV style like Sanderson or peter F Hamilton, than as two series about the same events.
all of that said, I did enjoy the series, both of them, and I loved the eldritch horror treatment of this part of the growing “cradle” multiverse. it was really quite fun, even as I skipped chapters. I dont regret buying or reading them at all, and cant wait for the next installment in calder’s adventure, (though I’m way more excited about wintersteel) I just hope we get a more, normal, series out of the deal this time instead of this kind of dual series again. No matter how many authors do it, it just really doesnt work for me if I already know the ending.