Soulsmith

Executive Summary: It started a bit slow, but ended strong. This continues to be a fun series.Full ReviewI enjoyed [b:Unsouled 30558257 Unsouled (Cradle, #1) Will Wight https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465881128s/30558257.jpg 51106215] a lot, and went right into this book. Then life got busy and I put it down for nearly 2 weeks. I think if the start had been a bit better, I'd have made the time to read it anyways.I said in my review of the first book that this series reminds me a lot of shonen fighting anime and that theme definitely continues here. One of the main issues with those series is “Power creep”. The protagonist gets stronger and stronger so of course his opponents have to get stronger as a result. This one takes a slightly different approach. Mr. Wight ratchets up the power creep almost immediately without leveling our hero up. So instead Lindon finds himself in a world where everyone is not only far more powerful than himself, but everyone he's ever known in his life. A lot of the cleverness of this series revolves around how he still makes his way through conflict despite the huge power gap.However I still feel like the power creep is far worse than normal for a series like this, so I'm hoping the huge spike was mostly a one time thing and that it doesn't hit ridiculous levels in the next book.I will say that once I had more time to read I made steady progress again. The ending of this book got a lot more interesting than the start did. We're introduced to a fairly mysterious new character, and once we start to learn more about them, it really sucked me back into the series like I was in the first book.I want to start the next book right away, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time. I have a hold in for another book for my book club and I have no idea when that will come in.As this is an ongoing series, I'm no rush to catch up to the newest book, because then I'll just be stuck waiting. That said, I do really want to know what happens next, so I may end up reading it right away.