4.5/5

The tension in this series is building immensely! I was hesitant after the first few books that Wight did not have grand plans and would follow the progression fantasy style very closely. I am so glad I was wrong. There are many plot points that have been hinted at or foreshadowed and I would have never foreseen.

The ending is a major cliff hanger as well, leading me straight into Wintersteel!

The last book, Underlord, was my first 5-Star rating in the series. Now, Uncrowned is the first in the series to get my own personal 10/10 rating. This entry built upon the previous book in every way and I finally can see why so many fans call this series "fantasy, but on crack." The pacing doesn't let up the whole way and there is so much worldbuilding lore that is expounded on that it feels like Will Wight hit the "Zoom Out" button and opened up the scope to give us more of the big picture.

Underlord set up the premise for this book by mentioning the selection of teams for the Uncrowned Tournament. This is the tournament of tournaments with the largest stakes. And then, at the end of the book, the stakes are raised again to lead into the sequel. People we either know or have heard about have participated in it years ago and the promise of many fantastic prizes sure to accelerate advancement is enough to have Lindon's eyes bulge out of his head like a cartoon character. It's the best of the best from around the world for under age 35 Underlords (I wouldn't qualify... *sobs*) and all of my favorites were there.

The catch is, some of the main characters are on opposing teams and there's potential for them to face each other once the field gets whittled down to a small number. This allows for all sorts of juicy matchups between them that the reader may have been itching to see. Fortunately, the field of 128 is quickly brought down with the first two rounds being wisely accelerated to get to the good stuff. They did showcase strategy and some strong action scenes where Eithan (we get to see him fight!), Yerin, Mercy and Lindon get to work as a team, to some surprising results. It is, for the first time, shocking to see our heroes aren't the biggest fish in the pond and some truly formidable enemies will push them to their limits. Gratefully, the Lindon and Yerin training montage is also shortened with Lindon's final exercise being extremely fun to read. Dude is playing chess while the rest are playing Connect 4.

Because all of the contestants are on even ground, it leads to some truly suspenseful moments. Typically, I wouldn't worry as much about our heroes dying. However, the Monarch Northstrider has "blessed" the tournament where, if someone "dies", they essentially respawn fully healed and restored. It very much reads like a video game and actually increases the stakes. Now it's much more believable to see one of the main characters "lose" and be kicked out of the tournament without dying.

That brings me to the final battle for the book, in which I won't say who is involved. Just know that it is intense. It is emotional, and it pays off in a big way with a shocking ending. It was everything I hoped it would be and Will Wight deserves some pats on the back for pulling it off. That includes the very commercial break-like ending where I didn't know who won until I turned the page to the next chapter and it was revealed. Bravo!

Most would probably know, too, that I'm a sucker for the Abidan parts in each book, which typically take place in the Prologue or Epilogue with some scenes peppered in between. Abidan is featured a bit more and finally, after 7 books, Wight is starting to show us how it all relates with the Cradle Iteration. You can see glimpses now of how the puzzle pieces fit and I couldn't be more excited.

Cradle
Unsouled - 7.5/10
Soulsmith - 8/10
Blackflame - 8.5/10
Skysworn - 9/10
Ghostwater - 8/10
Underlord - 9.5/10
Uncrowned - 10/10
Wintersteel - 10/10
Bloodline - 9.5/10
Reaper - 10/10

overall it was good, but that ending was annoying as hell

3.5 out of 5
This was a little frustrating to me.despite the great characters and intense fight scenes it kinda fell short of a great book. the time jump in the middle of the book was jarring.and the gold dragoness powers were a little bit ridiculous. the fight between Lindon and Yerin was great what I didn't like was that they had to fight each other with no notice at all, and Lindon elimination felt anticlimactic and that cliffhanger at the end with Northstrider!what a place to left us hanging.
this wasn't a bad book by any means but it was a little bit unfocused so it wanst a great book either. hope the next one would be better.

Best book in the series so far, some great action, good twist and pacing .. some character development as well.. i enjoyed this one on audiobook its brilliant

I liked it. Action packed and interesting twists in the story.