Maybe there are people out there for whom writing the perfect ending to a story is the easiest thing in the world, something that comes so naturally that they barely even have to think about it when they get to that point in the writing, but I can’t imagine there are many of them. Ending a story well is amongst the most challenging tasks in writing, and it only gets more difficult the longer the story gets (up to a point). Even if you don’t have my particular problems with endings, it’s a difficult part of the story to navigate. There are so many things that must be accomplished for the plot and the characters, and so many potential reader emotions that you have to manage.
That makes it all the more remarkable how well Will Wight concluded his twelve-book Cradle series in Waybound. As short and fast as these books are to read, twelve books is still a long time to follow a set of characters and be immersed in a world, more than long enough for readers to be invested in the outcomes, in the characters, and in need of a satisfying ending. The ending for such a series needs to wrap up the plots and characters in a logical, surprising, inevitable, and, well, satisfying way, ideally that still leaves some room for the story to continue in the reader’s mind after the reading is finished. Many series I’ve read don’t manage to do this well, becoming too trite, too ambiguous, too open-ended, or too complete at the end.
Not Waybound. It might sound cruel, but I was honestly surprised. Will Wight’s writing has improved dramatically over the course of the series, but endings are a separate skill, and I thought there were at least two more books of content needed to finish Cradle’s plots. When he announced that Waybound would be the end of the series, I worried that it would be rushed, dissatisfying, incomplete, or some combination thereof. It ended up being none of those things, in part because I was wrong about where Wight wanted to end the series. If you recall from previous reviews, there is a parallel plot to the main one, which I thought wouldn’t be resolved until after the main plot, since the main plot would resolve by joining into the parallel plot. Instead, the parallel plot reached its climax long before the main plot, and the main plot merged with it for the parallel plot’s denouement. If that doesn’t make sense, well, I suggest that you read the book, because then you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Doubtless Sanderson would have tried to converge all of the climaxes, but I thought this worked well. It didn’t make the main ending any less satisfying, and it kept anything from feeling contrived. However, I am not entirely pleased with how the parallel plot resolved; it felt like all of the stakes were removed from the battle after it concluded and made everything following that involved the parallel plot lesser in impact. Despite that, the eventual resolution of the main plot was not diluted along with it, and we get to see what is ahead for the characters without feeling like there’s too much or too little for it to be an ending.
In previous reviews for Cradle books I’ve mentioned wishing that Will Wight would slow down his books just a bit, to give more time for character and worldbuilding. I still wish that in Waybound, but I’ve mostly come to terms with the fact that it simply isn’t Wight’s style for this series (or, it seems, for his writing in general). Waybound made for an excellent end to the Cradle journey, and I look forward to reading what Wight comes out with next. We’ll have to see if his new space opera is as enjoyable. Look for the series review for Cradle to come out next week. In the meantime, I hope you give Waybound a read soon. Assuming you’ve read the other eleven books in the series.
IGC Publishing 
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