Cradle by Will Wight is a popular magic and sci-fi fantasy series that carries eleven books. This series takes place in a world where people have energy inside themselves called Mudra, and each person has an affinity to what they call Paths. Paths let you learn different abilities like one path can focus on strength-related attacks, and another can focus on illusions. They test children to see what they have an affinity for, and they train them accordingly.
Our protagonist, Lindon, is tested, and it turns out he has an affinity for nothing, so he is what they call unsold. It is a terrible thing because the whole society is very pragmatic, and it’s all based on advancing on your path. They have ranks like copper, iron, jade, and gold, so people level up. But if you don’t have any affinity, they don’t waste any resources on you.
So, Lindon is allowed to exist, but he’s supposed to stay out of everyone’s way. However, he is extremely dedicated and determined to learn Paths. So throughout the book, you follow his journey and figure out a path for himself. Also, the number one group of people are like gamers, especially if you love RPG games.
The whole thing feels very much like a game. You can find a special item, and it helps you level up. There are pretty clear distinctions, like a jade level is far superior to an iron level. The positive part is that it makes things easier to follow. It gives characters a clear goal. However, it doesn’t feel meaningful. If you love the Cradle series and want to read more like Cradle, then this article is for you.
7 Books Like Cradle
Cradle shows us the magic system with a science fiction plot. So this series goes crazy and keeps advancing. The protagonist of this book is extremely hardworking and dedicated. But the idea of this book is you should work hard to find your path. The limitations society puts on you depend on.
You can improve your understanding of the world and hence improve yourself. That’s the main theme of this book. If that resonates with you, you will like this book. I know that you love this series. That’s why you are here. So I will review 7 magical sci-fi books like Cradle. Let’s begin!
1. Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension)
The main characters are fairly young. In many ways, it is a coming of age, not your typical coming of age, but it’s the bracket of self-discovery. Our main character’s Corin Cadence, and his brother, entered a tower five years ago. When this tower is a place of ever-changing rooms, each room has different obstacles and monsters to face. If you get to the top of the tower, you get a specific blessing from the goddess. Corin Cadence’s brother entered five years ago and never came out.
So Corin is going in, and he’s on a mission to reach the goddess to learn how to save his brother if his brother is still alive. In Cradle, we saw Lindon as a struggler as Corin. This author’s writing style is super accessible and easy to fly through the book.
Also, it is one of the fastest fantasy books I have ever read. Usually, I read fantasy books fairly slowly because I’m wrapping my head around a new world and magic system. There’s a lot to wrap your head around, and this is probably the fastest. Even though the magic is fairly complex, a lot is going on in this book. The plot is very straightforward, well-written, and easy to dive into.
Author: Andrew Rowe
Average Customer Review: (4.4 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Epic Fantasy
Number Of Pages: 621
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Kindle
2. The Black Prism (Lightbringer)
We follow several main characters, but one of those main characters is a teenage boy (Kip). So it’s an adult book, but one of the perspectives is a kid. Kip is insecure, and he has a coming-of-age arc. He is in a school setting for certain parts of the books. The series as a whole has some pretty mixed reviews. Many people don’t like certain things that the book does, which is sexism.
There’s a lot of discussion on if it’s misogynistic if it’s sexist, and if it’s not. I don’t want to go into that here, but many people say that it is, and they don’t like it for that purpose. Many readers don’t think it’s a valid criticism. Like the Cradle series, the book has one of the coolest magic systems I’ve ever read. It is the type of story in which there will be a lot of questions and a lot of open threads, and you’re not going to get answers anytime soon. So if that’s cool by you, go for it.
Author: Brent Weeks
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Historical Fantasy
Number Of Pages: 629
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
3. The Rage of Dragons (The Burning)
This takes place in a world where one and every thousand women can call down dragons. They can transform into this fighting, killing machine. They live in a kingdom, in an area where they are constantly at war, and they’re constantly being attacked. So these battle things are pretty necessary. We follow Tau, who is lesser. Due to a set of circumstances, he is in a different position in his life. He’s out for revenge. That’s what’s going on with him.
We get some wonderful dynamics between the sword brothers. There are a lot of training battle scenes, and Tau is an incredibly driven, focused person on doing whatever it takes to get to his end goal, which is revenge. Evan Winter’s writing style is very accessible.
So the plot itself is familiar enough revenge plot battle sequences similar to Cradle. It’s familiar enough that it will not be difficult for people. There are such great relationships that will make it easy to latch onto. But it also does a lot of stuff that’s familiar enough that it’ll be easy to fall into a rhythm with it.
Author: Evan Winter
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Dragon & Mythical Creatures Fantasy
Number Of Pages: 544
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
4. All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries)
This is the first novella in a bundle of novellas that lead up to a novel called The Murderbot Diaries. It follows a robot who is a Murderbot. Also, it doesn’t care about its job. All day, it wants to sit around and watch operas. The murder part is sarcastic, dry, witty, ambivalent, layered, and emotional. This robot is incredibly relatable, funny, and easy to love. Also, it’s super short, so you’re fine.
This novella series focuses on who the murdered robot is and getting attached to it. Then the following novellas will be more focused on world-building, side characters that still with murder plot as the main focus. But then we start focusing on other things. So you get a chance to fall in love with the main lead before you are assaulted with a bunch of scientific terminologies. You get to see many similar themes as Cradle and compare Lindon with Muderbot.
Author: Martha Wells
Average Customer Review: (4.5 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Hard Science Fiction
Number Of Pages: 144
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
5. Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park is the book that the first movie was based on. The movie is very similar to the book, so you’re not going to be in for a whole new story. But in my opinion, the book was better because it’s a very slow start. You need to start a lot of the scientific stuff without being an info dump or overly complex.
This book is very engaging because the author takes his time when things start escalating. Moreover, this is an immersive book and a great starting point for sci-fi whose struggling vibe is similar to Cradle.
Author: Michael Crichton
Average Customer Review: (4.8 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Action Thriller & Suspense Fiction
Number Of Pages: 466
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Mass Market Paperback
6. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls)
This is a first contact story following a girl (Andy) who happens to be in the right place at the right time. Here a giant statue like a robot has been placed near her, and she takes a video in front of it, and it goes viral. It turns out that this thing is extraterrestrial, and there are these things worldwide. Much like Cradle’s Lindon, Andy is important in discovering what’s going on.
Author Hank did an amazing job of making his lead character feel real and very human. Andy has very distinct flaws, and those flaws are so honest. Her instant fame was reflective of his instant fame. Also, her flaws reflect many of his flaws when he was first going through his instant fame, which shows that she feels genuine. While reading it, you forget that you’re reading because you feel like you’re there.
Author: Hank Green
Average Customer Review: (4.6 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Coming of Age Fantasy
Number Of Pages: 343
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
7. Axiom’s End (Noumena)
We’re following a character named Cora, who’s trying to live her life. She’s trying to stay out of the spotlight, and she wants people to leave her alone. An alien has decided to make her a communication device. The first half of the story is standard first contact, government conspiracy type, and then the second half does veer off and do its own thing.
Lindsay’s work in the alien hierarchy and social systems describes how far society truly will go, all interesting and very philosophical. Cora is a more passive character and less active as far as like. She’s jerked around by the plot. She doesn’t want to do anything that’s happening. So she goes with it, and she doesn’t forge her path, and you can relate her with Cradle’s Lindon. Overall, this book is getting pretty mixed reviews so far, so go with it however you want.
Author: Lindsay Ellis
Average Customer Review: (4.4 out of 5, on Amazon)
Category: Alternate History Science Fiction
Number Of Pages: 384
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
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