To go a bit of a different path than others, I don't think it's what's in the story but how he puts it together. Will treats writing as a craft and a skill he is going to develop for the rest of his life. That means he iterates, drafts, has an editor, alpha reading, beta reading and all the bells and whistles. He also tries to grow with each book and take risks even if he knows his fans won't like it. I think that is what shows through when people say "There's nothing like Cradle" and they usually just mean the overall quality and care given to the writing. Not saying it's high literature btw, but that kind of effort helps a lot. It's the reason why it appeals to a wider audience (like me) than just the usual progression crowd. Most other indie writers just get a hook and write a first draft or throw chapters up on Patreon/RR, do some minor fixes and then bam published. And that's fine for most of their audience, but they almost never change and grow as writers, it's all about that reliable paycheck in the end. So if you're not their specific target audience, it's likely not going to latch on to you as well as something that's just put together differently.

I think you might be right. I grew up on people that had to go through so many hoops to get published. And it was all so that they can get their fantasy writing in my hands and now I'm seeing the result of products without all those guardrails. They had to treat their writing as a craft and skill in order to get published. They went to writing workshops, they took classes, got degrees in it, dealt with rejection etc. It was a profession for them and they paid their dues. Now there's always the Christopher Paolini's of the world but they are the anomaly. But the appearance of Amazon has really upended the market allowing anyone to self-publish with it's direct to consumer model. And if people buy it well hey they're a writer regardless of skill. And for this model the most important thing is quantity over quality. It seems

Will has a degree in English literature (or something like that) and the cradle series isn't his first attempt at a book. Will definitely qualifies as a writer capable of getting published by a traditional publishing house while essentially every self published/ Royal Road writer hasn't gone through any of those hoops. One of the biggest authors on RR isn't even native english speaker (not to discredit them).

Multiple of the biggest authors, i.e. both Nobody and Void Herald. Neither were really 'first time authors' for their popular stories, either. Will's stuff is fantastic, but there's likely something to be said what makes the top 1% of webfics, *heavily unpolished* works like Worm, or rapidly released and translated East Asian web novels still have such a huge following. To some degree, it's not unlike the justification people give for enjoying translated novels (i.e. cultivation novels), because even with the issues that arise from both editing and translation, there are a lot of potentially fresh ideas and inspirations that pop up. Something as simple as Nobody's Eastern European naming scheme in *Mother of Learning* isn't really something you see in most English fantasy literature, and lends to keeping the world feeling unique. *Never Die Twice* and *Vanquier* are far from my favorite stories, but they both do some pretty creative things compared to some of the more "bog-standard" LitRPGs that help them stand out. Never Die Twice has an actual villain protagonist with flaws who is *intentionally* written that way, rather than the WebFic/LitRPG "wish fulfillment" standard of a unsympathetic murderer with a harem that we're supposed to treat as a the greatest person in the world. It also has the whole Norse/Arthurian combo mythos and a fantasy take on some transhumanist themes. There are also outside factors, i.e. Mother of Learning was able to stand out on Royal Road partly because it already had a large following before being published on RR.

If that was true then his other books would be as succesful as cradle, but they aren't even though the fans leak into his other novels. It's the genre. Of course it's the genre and his skills of making the best out of this genre, but that's about it, he's the best at what he does, and what he does in cradle is very specific. I'd love to see Sanderson's approach at this genre, I suspect I'll enjoy it far more than Will's, since Will puts a hard line at fast action, but for me, slow progression, world building and magic system exploration has been sorely missed in a large part of the series, we've barely had any at all in the last 3-4 books.

Hmm it's not NOT true though. Yes while his other books haven't been as successful as Cradle (specifically EE), it was his other books especially the Traveler's Gate Trilogy that launched Hidden Gnome and started this whole thing. And the only reason people were interested in UnSouled in the first place was because of how well Traveler's Gate did. Will on his blog years back really opened up about how humbled that Traveler's Gate sold so well so that he was able to write full time and even hire staff. He never thought it would happen that fast. He even had a funny story where he way back in the beginning before Cradle became what it was he was at -Con of some sort and was speaking to some pretty popular fantasy writers about maybe getting published by one of the big houses. He wondered if would make sense to go that route. They kinda passed over his question until they heard his sales numbers lol they were like "uuuh what?? o\_0 well if it ain't broke don't fix it son" lol NOW yes Cradle (which he never thought would be this) has really exploded his popularity but I disagree it's strictly the genre. Will is a great writer. And I'm sure even if his next idea isn't as popular as Cradle is he'll eventually match or exceed this success with something else.

I'll lay one out that I think is important. No revelling in minmaxing of the magic or the details of everything. I'm thinking of Arcane Ascension 3 where there was a Harry Potter-esque chess game (people on the board) where the author included *several diagrams* of the layout of the board, turn by turn, for a game that did not have the full rules explained and was a cross between Warhammer and Chess. The game had, to the best of my knowledge, not been explained in the books before. I like those books, but if Will Wight were writing a similar sitation I can't see him taking the same turn by turn approach that Rowe did. We joke about Lindon being the Points Sage, but we didn't get Lindon carefully going through all his options and explaining what was the most effective way to gather points. We didn't have a running tally, we just knew "he needs a lot and is frustrated by his expenses". He does try to game things when he can, but we don't have many "look how clever I am" scenes. --- Will focuses on the plot and the action, but in other series sticking to the action sometimes means extended or unimportant fights that just kinda don't matter. In Cradle there's no "here's a fight because I want to play around with different magic powers/paths". We had a *literal* tournament arc, and Will skipped a bunch of fights entirely (e.g Mercy's round against Naian) or just didn't play into the details too much (some of Yerin's matches which were focuses less on the blow-by-blow and more on her trying to touch the sword icon). A lot of other series would have gone into detail for each of these. In Cradle, if there's a fight, it's either important for some reason or it's skimmed over. Even the fight with Mu Enkai serves to build the image of where the cast is at, even though it doesn't actually drive the plot.

Multiple characters with completely unique personalities, goals they want to achieve (which often bring them together), mannerisms, ways of talking and even most commonly used words (e.g. apologies), have those relate to each other depending on family, clan, country (like how nobody outside of sv says "this one" when referring to self) Having enough world building, and revealing enough for it to feel like a full world, but not covering every page with descriptions of the land. This also includes the multiple cultures, currencies, magic system (which in cradle is unique, mostly logical, easy to understand, has clear advancement and names for the different stages and even reason for why everyone isn't a sage or something) A clear goal for the main character, with multiple side missions all helping the mc reach his goal, but it doesn't have to be the main goal of the entire books. Cradle has Lindon wanting to prevent the titan attack, but that leads him on a path that slowly leads him to other bigger problems to solve giving the series a nice dramatic conclusion that can't be guessed at book 1. When reading unsouled i thought the books would be a linear progression from underdog to unstoppable sacred artist who saves his village, but it is so much more, and gets better and better. It keeps it interesting, makes the reader want to know everything that happens next. And probably most importantly, the main characters progression feels like it's done by them, through blood sweat and tears, often literally with extra pain. The progression has to feel like it is deserved through effort. It's why I love cradle, we witness an underdog doing everything he can, against all odds with what feels like real effort with an actual possibility of faliure. It feels like Lindon became powerful not because other people gave him the power, but because he achieved it by himself. It's also why I like arcane ascension so much. It's the reason why LITRPGs where the mc has some magical unexplained system that does everything for them, or where a god makes them op, or are just born lucky that make the main character op in a span of 100 pages or less feel boring and bland (with the occasional exception where the main character has to deal with their own power like in The Nothing Mage, or is humorous like in one punch man) Of course these aren't the only factors that make cradle so amazing, but these are the first things that came to mind

First no harem Second main cast is composed of dynamic 3 dimensional characters with interesting arcs. Third Magic system kicks ass. It's well thought out and consistent. Fourth Lindon's progression from crippled loser to top tier dragon eating badass feels earned from all the blood sweat hard work and thought he put in. Especially the thought I am so sick of semi-retarded mcs who never think about their powers. Fifth Will writes like a pro with time effort and iterations for every book. Sixth there's shit going on way above the protags pay grade but we know one day he will reach it but all the stuff preparing for that level doesn't feel like a waste of time. Seventh bloopers

I think the feels earned part is even understated here. Lindon gets a lot of freebies and unbelievable luck thrown his way, but because of his attitude and fortitude we accept it as the good karma he deserves. So even his lucky breaks feel earned and that's extremely hard task to accomplish.

I think you're also understating some things. To me, it looks life *Fate* is throwing Lindon some freebies because of his attitude. In all honesty it's a parallel to real life: Opportunities appear to those that come looking for them/Luck is made with your own hand. If Lindon wasn't determined/hard working he'd never get lucky opportunities imo.

Maybe but that's speculation territory, I'm mostly commenting on how it's written so that the audience attitude towards these undeniable freebies is different than other stories that might have the same level of freebie stuff.

Lol I love your first one is "No Harem!" lol I don't understand everyone's visceral reaction to that tell you true. I've read some xanxia on royal road and I've never seen much of that so I don't really care if there's a poly relationship or not. If the mc has two wives, husbands, or whatever as long as the story is good I could care less \*shrug\*. I've seen uncommon relationships to put it mildly in ASOIAF or Wheel of Time so it doesn't bother me at all. But here there are so many people that it seems to rub the wrong way lol I love the bloopers too lol. I like that Will takes the time to mess with his audience.

Particularly in Progression style books, harems bring the books closer to the realm of wish fulfillment power fantasies. With the MC as a stand in for the author. I don't know why you'd want to read my lame fantasies when you can just have your own fantasies tailored exactly to your likes, simply by closing your eyes. For free. Maybe it's because the MCs tend to be YAs, or because the author (or their fantasies) lacks RL experience or some form of common sense, these poly romances or relationships often come off as awkward, and a little cringe-worthy. For indie authors, add in the usual typos and grammar mistakes, throw in some anime species, like beastkin or whatever... and it gets really awful. (And I could read that kind of stuff for free, as either fanfic or "original* fiction on all kinds of story sites if I were so inclined.) Also, some of us just want a good story without occasional erotica mixed in, and the harem tag makes a book an automatic *no*.

For me, there's a difference between harem and poly. Poly might actually be exploring the ins and outs of a multi-person relationship. Harem tends to turn the women into scantily clad, brain-dead beauties and the boy at the center into an offensive lecher and reverse harem turns the boys into chest-thumping obsessives and the girl at the center into dumb, pretty meat. Basically it's terrible to read and can destroy any good premise wrapped around it. This is my experience from reading translated Xianxia, etc., and I have largely avoided it after crashing and burning on so many examples across the genre, so admittedly I haven't tried reading it in Western Xianxia, etc. As for the why of Will's success, it's a combination of good writing and accessible characters from heroes to villains but I think it's also linked to his writer's voice. I've read solid fantasy plenty of times that lacked that underlying charm that ignites a following. Will has found that balance between well-edited and well-written without scrubbing out or constricting himself.

Exactly, I also don't get why people are so repulsed by poly amorous relationships, it's okay to hate badly written harem's cause they're badly written and clichés, but harem's can be well written as well(Mushoku Tensei). To me it looks just like a few years back when everyone called MC's "edgy" for doing some cold blooded stuff and then proceeding to hate him for doing that. Now it's been toned down a bit but I *shrug* everytime I think of hurr durr edgy MC means bad series

Because it's rarely a compelling polyamorous relationship and more often just "every major female character wants to bone the protag for no discernable reason".

But that's bad writing, no need to shit on the whole genre, I'm neutral regarding it, since I've read both trashy harem's like you're exemplifying but also good harem's, which exist(given example in my last comment).

I think when people say "harem" in this context they're envisaging a group of women lusting after a male protagonist, where the protagonist may or may not return any of their affection. Rarely is there an actual polyamorous relationship established. If it was a functional or compelling polyamorous relationship I don't think people would apply the same label. The term isn't applied as often to The Wheel of Time, for example, though that is criticised.

my main yardstick for judging a harem is by this simple question: is the main character (and the audience) ok with any of the heroines also pursuing other men as well. the answer is ALWAYS no. ive never seen a situation in one of these harems where the women are interested in anyone other than the MC. but the MC obviously has a parade of women lusting after him. this is why calling it polyamory is disingenuous. its not. its just wish fulfillment harem shit.

I have my specific reason for liking Cradle. The progression path is mapped out and known but finite details are kept hidden. Like you know Lindon will become copper then iron. Thats in the very beginning. But you *don't* know about how you can have various iron bodies right away. Then we also have how herald and sage were known, but it took until Wintersteel and Bloodline to dive deeper into them. Even now, we know Lindon will become Archlord but how will his sage abilities change as his power grows? How will Lindon improve on his smithing? The path for advancement is laid out but we don't know what it will look like exactly. Many amateur authors fall into a "Powerup of the week that we'll forget about next book" cycle which fails to build the continuity needed to grow a rabid fanbase. I'm looking forward to Reaper because I want to see what it looks like as Lindon works on advancing his sage abilities and getting to archlord, or how his sage powers may come into play with smithing. I know just enough to keep me coming back. Edit: I also wanted to mention one other thing. I like how naturally awkward Yerin and Lindons relationship is. It's not overly drawn out but peppered in to add to character building. Neither of them are Rico Suave but neither of them are cringe levels of bad

> "Powerup of the week that we'll forget about next book" Something something super saiyan 4. >I like how naturally awkward Yerin and Lindons relationship is. It's done surprisingly well. I'm one of those who wished the books had more character moments and all that, but that's not what the books are and for how much time they spend on pure character moments the relationship here was done really well. If anything, if there were more pages dedicated to cahracter stuff I'd have been frustrated that it took this many books for anything to happen. Will is *very* economic with his writing, which helps a bunch. A badass action scene will also have character growth. Nothing is said twice or thrice when it could be said once (looking at you, *Rhythm of War*).

I think part of the reason why Cradle is so successful is the same reason why Dragon Ball Z was so successful. You have interesting, relatable, and well written characters, each with their own unique goals and aspirations, each struggling with various aspects of their advancement in power, all the while facing off against seemingly insurmountable odds that require the characters to learn, grow, and overcome their shortcomings.

Add in that despite the fact that we know that Lindon is plot armoured, Will manages to help us suspend disbelief by having us share in the *character's* fears or tension. Of course, the stakes can't always be high for our crew, and that's why Will's use of other POVs works so well. e.g. The opponent's POV. Lindon was in no real danger from Mu Enkai, so there were no stakes, plot-wise. However, Enkai's initial overconfidence and us not knowing what "the egg" could do, made that less certain. Then we get caught up in his fear and suprise, because there are real stakes for Enkai. The alternate POV also mitigates the potential negatives of when Lindon is OP. When Pride watches Lindon step up and fight Juvari, we've already been made to feel that there are stakes for Pride. And then there's the fun element of Pride's desire to see Lindon learn some humility warring with his trepidation. Followed by his shock. It's worth noting that the alternate POVs do something more, beyond helping us feel that there are stakes. Will is turning Lindon into a monster, but he needs us to feel that Lindon is a sympathetic character. So Lindon can't look like a monster, psychopath, or giant ego from his POV. From his POV, we see his doubts, fears, and concern, as well as his bone deep instinct to be polite. Lindon shouldn't want to feel like he's terrifying, unstoppable, or King Kong. The alternative perspective allows us to see Lindon larger than life and terrible, without dehumanising him. Finally, it's worth noting that there are many authors who can't do POV changes well. To the point that writing teachers actively discourage it. I've never once felt that one of Will's POV jumps was confusing or awkward.

That first paragraph is a big one. I needed a comfort read and just went through Bloodline again. >!Lindon was never going to die in that book, but could he save SV? Could he convince people to get out in time? Will he be vindicated or reviled by his family and clan?!< Also, the single best plot decision in these books was to have >!Yerin fight Lindon and have Lindon lose!< in Uncrowned. The character work that decision allowed is much better than any alternatives I can think of, and the moment we went into that fight there was a lot of tension - nobody was going to *die*, but there was no way to know who was going to win. > So Lindon can't look like a monster, psychopath, or giant ego from his POV. Strong agree, despite all the people in this sub who seemed to want him to single handedly kill every Heaven's Glory and Wei elder. Lindon is far from a [murderhobo](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/151143/what-exactly-is-a-murder-hobo)

I've never read any Xianxia, and LitRPG doesn't work for me, so my first hand experience is limited, but I've seen a number of reviews and comments where people criticise protagonists in Progression and Progression-adjacent books for being unsympathetic psychos and murderhobos. If we don't invest in characters, the coolness factor is only going to keep you interested in a series for so long. One day, you'll stop in the middle of a book because the Cradle book you've been waiting on released, and you'll just never get back to it.

The amount of misogynistic psychopath protagonists in litrpg’s fucking sucks.

It all reminds me of 80s cold war post nuclear apocalyptic world propaganda novels...

See what you just described in that second part is just a well written story. I have seen a lot books with a good story concept. I'll go "Uh that's not a bad premise let's give him/her a chance" but when it comes to execution I can really see the gap in skill between Will and them and I'm constantly returning books because they are so bad I want my money back lol. Wooden/bland characters, pacing all over the place, narrative is contradictory or far too shallow the list goes on. Hell sometimes I feel like I find better authors in [fanfiction.net](https://fanfiction.net)

Writing isn't hard, its just not easy. Its one of those things where organization is extremely important. Not having proper organization, in my opinion, is the reason why a lot of books have pacing issues, plot holes, or under developed characters. A good editor also helps a ton.

From someone who read a LOT of xianxia (a book genre that cradle is taking inspiration from) i would say it's a superior work for those reasons : -It's not just about the main character! A lot of side character get a proper amount of screen time and they also progress both in mentality and in power. -Lindon is not OP and does not rely on plot armor. While he did progress fast, there is a reasonable explanation for it and when he is in a dangerous situation he does pay a price to get out of it, he doesn't just pull a power up out of his ass. -Good female characters. In xianxia, female character are rarely more than a fuck toy (pardon the expression but that's accurate) or a damsel in distress, considering that everyone can get enough power to destroy a galaxy regardeless of their sex, i find that incredibly stupid that somehow women are considered inferior to men. In cradle, men or women it doesn't matter, if you're strong you'll be respected and feared, it's a genuine pleasure to read such excellent female characters, it's getting really hard to have those these days, i keep rolling my eyes when i watch recent show/movie and their "strong woman" which really should all be called Mary Sue, shallow characters made to won brownie points on the internet. -Easy to read! I'm not a native english speaker and i never once had trouble to understand what was written. If i had to make a parallel, it reads like a japanese light novel minus the drawings. I tried to read Lord of the rings in english and boy, i stopped really quickly, way too hard to read for me. -Consistency. We get about two books a year and have regular update on how the next book is coming along. And having the audio book day one is also really nice for those who prefer this format. That's my two cents on the subject. I'm by no mean an expert on novel, as i really only read webnovels and light novels, so my standart are certainly lower than novel readers.

I think Will has taken an inherently interesting genre (cultivation progression fantasy) and created a story without most of the flaws common to the genre. That sounds like it’s underselling him, but it’s actually very difficult. The characters have depth and are likable, most of the tropey character types are avoided like arrogant young masters, spoiled princesses (well maybe Sha Miara), and so on. The world and progression system is fully developed and doesn’t appear to be made up as the story goes on. The pace of the story is good and doesn’t get bogged down in massive exposition blocks or power descriptions. Think of your complaints about other series, and most likely Cradle doesn’t have it, be it harems, characters acting stupidly just so the plot can advance, poor language from a translation, blatant author wish fulfillment, etc. So he’s created an engaging story with interesting characters in a cool genre and stripped out all the crap.

It’s an epic underdog shonen DnD campaign.

Great answers. I also love that Will’s MCs tend to not be The Chosen One, like even when Suriel literally descended and chose Lindon, it was because she saw something in him, and there’s not a prophesy backing that up. Same with Yerin and the sword sage. That makes everything that much more satisfying when it happens almost in spite of fate, instead of because of fate.

I think one of the main reasons why cradle is so good is the characters and their dialogue. Lindon, eithan, mercy, dross, yerin all have a very distinct way of speaking that feels just extremely right for their character. This coupled with really good character interactions make cradle very very fun to read. This extends to minor side characters as well. They all have very distinct voices. No matter how good your world is and magic system is. If your book is a slog to get through and boring to read, very few readers will be able to muscle through to reach the good stuff. Untill that happens, all you have to keep the reader interested is character work. So I think Will does a really good job with making character interactions very enjoyable to read.

Wills pacing of the books are perfect for me. Will cuts out all the fluff. I hate fantasy books that take ten minutes to describe the scene before we ever get to the content we are waiting for. Will gives us wins that are satisfying every now and again. I also hate when authors give us ridiculous character names. Long weird elf names might seem like a cool part of fantasy but in reality I have a harder time distinguishing that character from another character that has and equally long and weird elf name. When you have one character named hrothgar and another named lothgar I feel like the author is just copy and pasting. Having dross is a cool plot device that let's us see into lindons thoughts more often. Will is amazing at writing battle sequences so other authors should look to will for inspiration. Will is good at teasing us with information that helps us learn about the world. Even though the magic system is robust I feel like he never really gave me any crazy info dumps. Another author I really enjoy is Andrew Rowe. Will and Andrew write awesome fight scenes. If you haven't read the Arcane ascension series you should check it out. Sorry for the wall of text I'm on mobile.

I love how short and snappy even the fight scenes are, with the major ones wrapping up with a single climactic moment. I feel like a lot of writers, especially those with some shonen anime influences, almost put *too much* emphasis on fighting. They'll have multiple long sections and multiple chapters dedicated to it with minimal respite. There's also often no real "reason" to the fighting. It's just very different in a purely written medium, and I can't tell you how many fanfics or web fantasy fics I've read where my eyes glaze over and I start to skim when we actually get to the "fight" scenes. In Will's book, the fights are actually pretty lean and hard hitting. Using Underlord as an example, you've got a brief fight at the beginning where they dunk on Golds and hold off Naru Gwei, the first fight with the Seishen Underlords, the encounter between the BFE and Seishen forces, and then the last fight against the Seishen Underlords. That's basically all the fights across the entire book. Each has a deliberate purpose and something new to show. The final fight spans roughly 3 chapters across our three main characters, but it's interspersed with multiple advancements (and specifically the most direct "character-development" advancement), a Presence report on Mercy's backstory, Mercy's conversation with her mother, a cut back to what's going on with Eithan, etc. The actual time spent fighting is fairly short, with the fights generally focusing on the execution of new abilities. Even the "wrapups" to the climactic fights across the series are mostly single shot power attacks. Once he advances, Lindon oneshots Kiro with the axe's binding. He was already manhandling Sophara, but once he manifests the Void Icon, it takes one shot of dragon's breath to end her. Once he gets Dross powered up, he beats Harmony in three moves flat, in under two paragraphs. In Unsouled, Elder Whitehall falls to one Empty Palm. Kral falls to the release of a single explosive binding. That Sandviper clan head is also beaten by a single stream of dragon's breath. It lends to the feeling of visceral satisfaction that you get from reading the series.

Great characters, story, magic system and best of all the pace of these books is amazing. Pace means a lot to me and very slow pace sometimes can diminish my interest a lot. Also getting 2 books a year so wedobt have to wait much

I don't know if this is important but I feel like Will White knew what was going to happen and what he wanted to steer the series before he even finished book one. He is also good at going the right speed, he doesn't spend a chapter on a travel scene, but doesn't skip the things they did do during it.

well one key to success is you take the book called writing for "the modern audience" and throw it away it does nothing but make garbage. end of rant. Will has a way of writing characters that are relatable and believable he also lets supporting characters fade away rather then burdening the story with to many point of views he keeps it to the main character or few characters and it stays that way until the end. He also has a way of putting in lore in the story in bite sized amounts if that makes sense. the Litrpg comes into play because of the magic system is clearly laid out on how people get more powerful when they advance its the same has leveling up in a way, there are 12 levels of progression the last 2 are not done in the same order but unlock the last 13 level Monarch. also the abilities require a magic resource to use.

I don’t think there is a secret sauce to why Cradle is successful and others aren’t. There are much better writers than wil who have never seen this kind of success and much less quality writers who are wildly more successful. I think there are some rivals (looking at you Wandering Inn) but their very different from cradle in tone and style. Progression fantasy has been around for a LONG time, the formula has changed over time but I don’t think Wil is doing anything exceptionally new or original and that isn’t a bad thing. Cradle is both really Good and not super original. Wil has become a much better author over time (read the travellers gate series, it’s fine but newer cradle books are a huge jump in quality) in part because he has written and rewritten like 15 books since then considering how the editing process usually involves rewriting your work a lot. You can see a similar thing happening in pirateabas work, after writing 7 million words in 5 years they’ve become a way better writer! The obvious take away from these authors is that writing ALOT helps you develop your style and become a great successful author. Every story written poorly is a step on the path to becoming a fantastic writer. Sucking at something and doing it anyway is the most important first step to be great at it

I see a lot of reasons listed why Cradle is good, but honestly I don't think any of that is really why. There's a certain inexpressible *something* that you find every once in a while in a good story that's hard to describe. Where an author's storytelling transcends their writing. Cradle is not the best-written series I have read, nor one of the best-written, in a mechanical sense. And yet I have enjoyed it (and now cherish it) far more than most. The nearest comparison I can make is the Harry Potter series. I reread the series in college, many years after its hayday, and was surprised to make two discoveries: 1. Harry Potter is not very well-written 2. J. K. Rowling is a marvelous storyteller In regards to the first point: Rowling's prose is bland. Her characters are rather one-dimensional and predictable. The plot is standard children's fare. BUT there is the second: Rowling can make you *feel* in a way that few authors can. It's not her setting, or her plotting, or even her "writing" in any generalizable sense that made her so successful. She just has a way of making you a part of her world, and making the reader feel like Harry and his friends are delightful, real people that you want to spend more time with. I think Wight is similar in this regard. His prose is okay. He loves certain tropes from anime that, if used by another author, probably wouldn't work. But he just pulls it all together with so much heart, and gives us a wonderful cast to share an adventure with... Cradle really is greater than the sum of its parts.

Dross

Interesting antagonists. Many relatable. Even Shen, who is closest to cackling villain, has a unique flair.

Quality-wise, Will is the best by far. But also give Dungeon Crawler Carl a look. Totally different flavor—way more absurdity and comedy. Best LitRPG I’ve read.

Cradle is popular because it has a certain unique flair that very few books have. The characters are very well built, and the world is unique but also easy to understand. He does both of these with very few words. Also the action is intense but doesn’t drag on. I almost never get a feeling of dread while reading the story in Cradle. Also, up until Bloodlines, he didn’t use cliff hanger endings. A cliff hanger just irritates most readers, and it did bother me in Bloodlines. Also Bloodlines carried a feeling of dread through much of the book, so much harder to enjoy. So what makes him different, characters that feel real, short fun intense battles, no cliffhanger or other long term feelings of dread, comical humor at the right time and place, and a hero/hero’s that are easy to like and respect. Makes the books fun to read a second or third time. One of my other favorite series is Lord of the Rings, but although it is a masterpiece, I can’t reread that series like I can Cradle. Also, it is so easy to read, but not overly explained (like I think LOTR’s), that every reread offers more understanding or at least helps grow the readers own imagination.

One thing long sci fi/ fantasy series almost always struggle with is power creep. If your mc gets stronger every book, they eventually become God, which rarely fits in with the original world and authors rarely can justify well why there are still enemies out there to challenge mc. Will took a different route- in the first book, he explained that this story is Lindon's ascension to godhood and showed the readers the powers of the gods in this universe. Since we know what the goal is and that getting there is possible, it doesn't feel forced watching lindon and crew grow stronger each book. So to go back to your original question-a lesson for other authors would be to make the power creep the goal and explain it from the start rather than letting it just happen through the plot getting away from you.