I thought we would be done with Sacred Valley after the events of the last book, but it turns out that those were just set up for this one. The gang is back in Sacred Valley, this time delving into the Labyrinth beneath, a dangerous place full of ancient powers and relics. The lure of the Soulsmith knowledge buried within is enough to convince Lindon and Eithan to take the risk, but the fact that Reigan Shen is already in there makes it a priority for everyone. Shen is there hoping to become immortal by turning himself into a Dreadgod and he must be stopped before it happens. At the same time, the Abidan are waging war in the heavens also trying to save Cradle, and the time finally comes for both series of events to finally come together in a big reveal.

The murder of an Imperial diplomat takes Din and Ana into the heart of the Empire's Apothetik division where dissecting Leviathans has led to mental corruption that's no less deadly than the physical corruption Leviathan's spread in their wake. Their case appears to be a simple locked room mystery, except the man seems to have robbed a bank vault containing Apothetik secrets after the time of death. Ana has no trouble figuring out the murder, but untangling the vault theft leads Ana and Din deeper and deeper into the secrets of the Apothetik order responsible for the alterations of Imperial servants that keeps the Empire safe. Local politicians, diplomats, and even the Apothetiks themselves have embraced forbidden practices, all in the name of the greater good. To save everyone in the city and the Empire's pipeline of alterations, Ana must make full use of her own alteration and in the process reveal what she really is to Din.

Way back in the first book of the Cradle series, Unsouled, Lindon's death was reversed by one of the Abidan and he was shown an event from his future - the destruction of his home, Sacred Valley, by a Dreadgod. Now here in the 9th book of the series, it is finally time for that foretelling to come to fruition. Advanced knowledge that this event was going to happen has been motivation for Lindon to advance through the Sacred Arts as fast as possible, but now he is out of time. He must return to his childhood home and stand against a Dreadgod if he wants to save his family, and his abilities are woefully inadequate for that task. Lucky for him he is not alone, but even the combined might and resources of all the main characters and the Akura clan are not enough to stop a Dreadgod, so their only choice is to evacuate as many as possible. Many will still die, so in a circumstance like this, what does victory even look like?

Every wet season the Leviathans emerge from the seabed and attempt to enter the Empire. Defending the people from the Leviathans is, in fact, why the Khanum started altering themselves using what they could extract from the Leviathans. The brilliant Khanum are long gone, except for the Emperor kept in stasis, but the bureaucracy and military live on thanks to those willing who volunteer for various alterations and serve their people despite the side effects, sterility, and shorter lifespans. Like most who sign up, Dinios Kol is doing it to support his family and he survived the difficult Engraving alteration which gives him perfect recall. But Din has a problem, he's Dyslexic in a world that doesn't know it exists, and can't find a position until Ana Dolabra takes him as her assistant. He's elated until he realizes she's insane. Ana is a brilliant investigator but also a total shut in who needs a talented Engraver to attend crime scenes and then regurgitate everything about it for her. It makes for an interesting symbiosis and their first murder case is a real doozy. An Engineer died when some kind of trees grew out of his chest in a wild burst twenty feet high. It looks like the contagion that springs up near a Leviathan's path but there should be other cases. Is it possible to poison someone with a contagion? As the wet season begins and the Leviathans challenge the sea wall, their case will take them to the Wall itself as a terrorist goes on a killing spree at the worst possible time. Who could possibly want to sabotage the Wall they all depend on?

Koli is like any other kid in the village of Mythen Rood - trying to find his place in a harsh world where the trees themselves will attack you. He is the son of a woodsmith, so dealing with the dangerous trees and the wood they provide is something he is familiar with, but that life is not what he dreams of. The onliest thing Koli wants is to become a Rampart. The village is run by the Ramparts, those capable of wielding the old tech, and Koli is fascinated by their abilities. Of course, when he comes of age he will be tested to see if he is able to wake the old tech, and if he does, he will be named Koli Rampart. Each Rampart wields a specific piece of technology that keeps the village safe from the dangerous world outside, and Koli dreams of joining them one day. Little does he know that the system of becoming a Rampart is not what it appears to be, and learning the truth of it will change his life forever.

"If any beast were an exception to the laws of space or time, it would be cats" Agnes tells us, although there isn't actually anything mystical about about the homeless cats she cares for despite the latest rumors. Sadly Agnes is surrounded by unenlightened barbarians who perceive cats as vermin so she's having no luck finding a new store front for the shelter after the current one is badly damaged in a magical duel. The only place willing to rent to her must be haunted or something because the last two tenants both left suddenly and without saying anything to anyone. It's not long before she suspects that someone is running an illegal artifact business out of her basement, but it never occurs to her that her mysterious landlord is Havelock himself, the mage who created a spell intended to destroy the world.

After the unbelievable cliffhanger of the prior book, we finally get to experience the final battles of the Uncrowned King tournament. Obviously Yerin and Lindon will now be taking different paths to their progression, but a lot of meaningful battles remain. Battles that will not only dictate the outcome of the tournament, but also impact the impending war. To spice things up even more, the Abidan have added an additional prize for the tournament winner, the legendary artifact known as Penance. Penance is an ancient weapon of pure destruction capable of instantly killing any one person, and since it will go the tournament winner, so both sides of the war now know they are at risk of losing one of their leaders. This makes all of the Monarchs feel a little more vulnerable than usual, and thus they all now care much more about the outcome of the tournament. So does this book make up for the unfinished feeling of the last book?

Beast Business is a novella taking place some years after the original Hidden Legacy trilogy about the illusion Prime Augustine Montgomery and animal Prime Diana Harrison. While Augustine had a recurring role in those books we learned almost nothing about his power or private life and what little we learned of Diana came from the perspective of her brother, so I was looking forward to learning more about her abilities. The cub of Diana's strange tiger-like animal summoned from the Arcane realm has been stolen and she needs the help of an investigator like Augustine to find it before it dies. The companion short story with the cringe worthy title "Arabella saves the day" covers the same day from Arabella's PoV as she works on a different case.

The Uncrowned King tournament is a prestigious gathering of sacred artists unlike any other. All of the Monarchs of the most powerful families attend in person, each fielding teams of their strongest young Underlords. The tournament itself spans several months and has a multiple round structure, with each round presenting a different challenge designed to whittle down the playing field. All four of Cradle's main characters have qualified as competitors in the tournament, but not all of them are representing the same team, which means that they could wind up fighting against each other at some point. Eventually, the top eight competitors will earn the title of Uncrowned, and with it receive personalized training from a Sage before the next round. The final four each receive gifts from the other families and promise of future ascension to Sage and beyond. Because this tournament takes place in the shadow of a looming war, the stakes are higher than ever, and both sides plan to push the rules to their limits.

"The needs of the many will always be loud. But in the end, it is only the strength of the few that matters." By the end of the first book, Vis was a character I cared about and I wanted to better understand what the impact would be of his successful run of The Labyrinth. The impact to him as a person, to those characters around him that I grew to care about, and to the Hierarchy itself. And while The Strength of the Few does provide those answers, that is only one third of what it provides, because now the story is split across 3 PoV characters. Even though I should care about all 3 the same, I just didn't, and that was also true for the worlds they each inhabited. So did Islington's ambitious plan to triple the scope of his story work out, or is this yet another example of an author not telling his readers the story we were hoping for?