The Core: Demon Cycle, Book 5

The Core (4.5 stars)One word review: Wow. What a great book and a worthy conclusion to the Demon Cycle, a series of books that began long ago with the classic The Warded Man. After the disappointment that was The Skull Throne, Brett has rebounded nicely, producing an ending worthy of praise and for that I’m thankful. Honestly, I was sorely disappointed by the Skull Throne, a book that while good was such a disappointment that I’d pretty much given up on the series. As a result, I came in The Core with low expectations, putting this normally must read series on the back burner for some time. That being said, I couldn’t be happier that Brett exceeded my expectations, making me once again fall in love with the world and characters he’s meticulously created.For the uninitiated The Core is book five of the Demon cycle series, concluding a series begun years ago with the novel The Warded Man. The crux of the series is that after a millennia of attacks by monsters, called demons, emanating the core of the Planet, humanity is on its last legs. Once an advanced civilization, humanity has been basically thrown back into the dark ages , hiding behind magical wards at night that can protect them from the onslaught of the creatures who hunt them. In the first book Arlen Bales discovers the ancient combat wards allowing humanity for the first time in millennia to actually fight back against their demonic oppressors giving them hope. Fast forward four books later, humanity’s prowess in taking back the night so to speak has not gone unnoticed and the demon overlords are preparing one final push to essentially enslave humanity, feeding the remaining humans to their newborn queens. Humanity though stronger cannot withstand the coming swarm and their survival lies in two former rivals Ahmann Jardir the leader of the Krasian people and Arlen Bales, essentially joining forces, invading the Core and wiping out the demon queens before they can enslave what’s left of humanity.Whereas The Skull Throne felt bogged down with simply to many side characters, uninteresting palace intrigue and politics, the Core is a return to what the Demon cycle series one of my favorite of all time, Bret namely returned the series to its demons. Admittedly, with the discovery of the combat wards in The Warded Man, the primary antagonists of the series were neutered, relieving the series of the fear and tension that pervaded that much of the first book. Even though every book afterwards, with the exception of The Core featured an extended flashback to the time before the discovery of said wards, the damage was done. The reader knew that eventually the combat wards would be discovered, allowing humanity to not only fight back but win, robbing the series of much needed conflict. This all culminated in The Skull Throne, arguably the nadir in the series, focusing to much on personal, dare I say it soap opera-ish internecine conflict, political machinations and power struggles between all of the principals in Brett’s fictional world, all in an effort to insert some tension and much needed conflict to the series. It failed miserably in my opinion.Admittedly an element of this remains in The Core, but this book is a return to basics for the series focusing once again on the raw, primal fear pervading the original novel The Warded Man. In short the Demons have returned. Admittedly they never left, in spurts the series would show glimpses of their power and fierceness but never did you fear the night like you did while reading the Warded Man. That all changes in The Core. The Demons are back and they are scarier than ever. They are ruthless, calculating and manipulative, exploiting the many divisions of humanity to achieve their own ends. The demons showcase an ability to plan and strategize upping their threat level adding another level of menace to an already powerful foe. As a result, you actually feel the fear in the characters, the desperation as they fight against a wilier more coordinated and ferocious enemy. Brett in his plot wisely refocused the threat from the so called Daylight War, (the Krasians vs. everyone else) and focused it back on the Demons to great effect. As a result of this, when the characters fight in the Sharak Ka, the great war against Demonkind, the battles are filled with a tension and dread sorely lacking from before. This was a huge difference and made the book actually seem like there was a lot to lose. Personally, I never cared who sat on the Skull throne, who ruled Thesa, whose baby was who’s or any of that other nonsense and foolishness. No I read the Demon Cycle series for the demons and they not only are they back but they prove once again to be more than worthy foes.The characterization in the novel is solid as well, the demons providing a great foil to the great choice facing humanity, either they overcome their racial, political and military differences or they will be wiped out, simple. It’s an open question throughout the novel and an open theme explored by Brett in every relationship, the idea of reconciliation, can the characters with so much on the line be willing to forgive, maybe not forget, past transgressions, joining up to fight the common foe the alagai, or Demons. Each character in the novel, both minor and major are forced to decide on this matter to great affect. It’s theme underlying many of the institutions in the world as well, most notably the Krasians. Are you willing to cling to old ideas and institutions or are you willing to embrace something new in order to achieve victory?Of all the characters in the novel struggling with this decision, none come to symbolize this more than Briar, the son of a Greenland mother and Krasian father. Briar is literally stuck between two worlds, too brown for the Greenlanders and to Greenland for the Krasians. Briar has seen horrible discrimination and injustice, labeled mudboy for the color of his skin, taunted for his smell and has a tragic backstory that makes it hard for him to trust and relate to others. Like many in this fictional world, he is also layered and thoughtful, eventually forced to come to grips with the horror of his own past and what he’s lost to the demons, memories brought to him when he reconnects with a Krasian who’s suffered almost as much as he has. Eventually it’s the shared humanity between Briar and a Krasian woman that reconnects him with his past, giving him an identity that allows him to atone for the pain, the guilt and shame that had been eating at him his whole life. I enjoyed Briar’s arc in the novel, probably more than I should have. Well done.As always, Brett’s actions scenes are second to none. I’d argue that no one choreographs a fantasy fight scene as well as Peter Brett and that is on display here. Each scene is meticulously thought out and planned, imaginative when the situation calls for it and appropriately brutal. A common problem with a lot of authors is that often times they’ll throw in an action scene to pick up the pace of a novel, with nothing really at stake plot wise for the characters involved. That isn’t the case in this novel, every action scene has a point, either to showcase the new lethality of the demon horde, schisms within humanity itself or simply a life or death struggle. Well done, Mr. Brett.Now to the minuses. This book although good, is by no means perfect. The book is almost 800 pages long, but rarely have I read a book that felt as rushed as The Core. Yes the action scenes in the novel are exciting and well done, but to get to that point, Brett had to close out a myriad of relatively boring, political soap operas that carried on from the previous novels. As a result, the book starts off painfully slow, dare I say it lethargic as our characters find their footing. I even contemplated putting it down, it was that bad, the book repeating many of the same mistakes and problems I had with The Skull throne, focusing to much on boring political machinations, soap operas, pointless internecine squabbles, who’s sleeping with who, whose baby is whose etc. It was mind numbing to say the least.As a result of this, not enough time was spent focusing on the main event, the demons and Sharak Ka. Even plots that related to Sharak Ka, plots not headlined by Arlen and Jardin felt rushed and sometimes anticlimactic. A great example of this is Abban’s arc in the novel. Abban’s role in the series is well documented, the forever grey, selfish, and self-seeking trader who only looks out for himself. He is a khaffit, the lowest station in the Krasian Hierarchy, yet even as an outcast Abban has a climactic scene in this book that makes his greatest strength an asset in the war, a strength cast aside by a society that deems his kind worthless. I would have loved to have more fallout or meaning from that scene but Brett moves on too quickly. There is also a notable death in the novel, that’s glossed over very quickly giving the novel a rushed feeling and robbing one of the better characters in the novel a great send off. I would have much preferred more fallout from this death rather than some of the scenes we got between Elona, Leesha, Gared and his betrothed.In spite of its length, the ending although cool, is really abrupt. I would have preferred a more drawn out final conflict rather than what we got. I was in the last ten percent of the novel (sorry read it on an e-reader) and it appeared that some of the characters were still getting in position for the final attack. When the final battle does occur, it is action packed, vivid, creative and all around amazing, but it felt rushed. I hope I’m not spoiling much by saying that our two deliverers Ahmann and Arlen are at their best, the two of them symbolizing what humanity can achieve against long odds if they put together past gripes and animosity for the greater good. Yet the deus ex machina ending of the final battle was disappointing, yet in hindsight, predictable. Some interesting world building and character development occurs in the last few pages of the novel, but like the ending, it all felt rushed and I would have preferred more follow-through. Adding to the ending woes, I’d argue the book could have also used a longer epilogue as when the book ends it just ends. As mentioned before, every loose end is tied up but the author also manages to leave the door open just enough to continue the series going forward. This is ok, but I would have loved to see a longer send off for our characters.I’d also be remiss if I forgot to mention that the book has some seriously gratuitous sex scenes and some really dark violence that I felt were just over the top. For the character involved it made sense, and I got it that he’s a sadistic pig, but I could have lived without the line about said character biting off another’s penis. I’m sorry, I didn’t need that and things like this threatened to take me out of the world Brett was crafting.A small but noticeable point that I have to make is that in order to fully enjoy this book, you need to be pretty conversant with almost every character, side story and plot that’s shown its face in the previous works. Kudos to Brett that he has created a sandbox of characters and while I applaud his efforts to close out said character arcs, yet the results are mixed at best . The good thing is that about every conflict in the series is resolved, yet in doing so Brett arguably takes the focus from the more important storylines in the book making the plot feel rushed as a result. Likewise, it’s hard to get much satisfaction if you can’t remember why this minor character from the first book in the series is beefing with a major character. That being said, if you have the time, reread the previous novels as with a reread I can easily see this becoming a mild annoyance rather than a minus.It also would’ve helped if the publisher had placed a glossary at the end of the book. I’m sorry, Sharak Kai, dal’tin, Kai’sharum are not everyday words and yes, I’ve read every book in the series, but that was over a year ago. I had to seek out said glossary on the internet so that I could catch the full meaning of what every character was talking about, which though doable was slightly annoying.I know my review sounds more negative than positive, but even as I was silently ticking these minuses off in my head, I found myself absolutely engrossed by the novel. After it got started I could not put it down, staying up way too late to finish. Despite its faults, The Core, is a well written triumph. I wanted to see how these characters I’ve spent the better part of the last five years getting to know would end up. I wanted to see humanity come together and triumph over their foe. I wanted a storybook ending for Arlen, Jardir,Leesha and many of the other characters I’ve grown to love throughout the years. Despite its faults, the end of the book marks this work as more of a new beginning than a permanent end, Brett’s way of saying that he has more stories to tell in this vibrant world he’s created. Even though it’s not perfect, I will say that Brett sticks the landing, producing a wonderful ending to a great series. Authors take note, this is how you end a series.

I don’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed a series this much. The world building is fantastic, the characters are diverse and real. The conflict is intense and desperate and there’s great action throughout.

There are some serious caveats to this review.A review of the good, bad and the ugly. Spoilers ahead!On the whole the book is longer than it needs to be, and is allowed to wander in terms of story and pacing I feel like if the whole series were tightly edited, down to the standards of the first book, the whole thing would make a fantastic three book series. However I'm kind of a completion-ist, and I hate having unfinished stories in my head so I gave it an extra star for that, and another star for some surprisingly decent moments even if they were largely not capitalized on.The goodFirst the good. We actually spend some real time with our main characters as they progress on the main plot line, and while the perspective does flip back and forth, we don't have to read the same territory twice through different eyes. eg: Skull Throne showing Desert Spears territory all over again. ugh. I'm going to say the reduced sex life of our characters is a net plus. (don't worry, there is still a bit in there anyway) There is some reasonable character development as the main characters accept their roles, and there are more than a few cool 'set piece scenes that have some surprises I wasn't expecting. The tension and stakes ratchet up higher and there are enough examples of things not going the way the (side) characters want that you're not always sure how they'll resolve. The whole thing builds to a pretty fair crescendo... which leads me to..The bad.You probably noticed that good list wasn't too long there, didn't you? Settle in, the bad and ugly sections are a bit longer. First, he waits till the final book to introduce more side stories and characters. Not entirely bad, but they've been missing for essentially two whole books. He wastes about half his book on an extended 'good bye' montage with his main characters super-powering around to tie up loose ends. Some of which are just left loose anyway.You will learn that while mimics can heal almost instantly they can't replace lost limbs. Its really, really important that you know that apparently because you get told about it... a lot. magic water and couscous. An army of bacon eating eunuchs that builds up to... nothing more than a few jokes about how riding horses is easier. Super Babies. just... what?Ever single group of the Krasians has some sort of magical super-training, but every single NEW group has even more impressively magical better training. Come on guys... We get it they're Warrior Fremen Clerics, but if they were that good at killing demons, the whole series would have been irrelevant. One person can easily kill 7 plus varieties with unwarded equipment by the last book. Others can do almost as well unarmed using Krasian kung fu.People learn their super powers way too fast, and rather than being an epic adventure that spans decades like the first books started... it turns into an action movie.The ugly.Where to start? Ok, I'll start with a pet peeve of mine. Geniuses. Seriously, I want you, the person reading this to *BE* 150 IQ points smarter than you are right now. You can't, right? You can only presume what it must be like, which is fine because nobody writes books for the 300 IQ crowd. Probably. So if you're trying to describe a character that is super smart, conniving, or whatever there are really two ways to do it. First, you can have the character unattainable, complex, and or experienced then use them to explain things to people less brainy; us the readers. Its pretty common and a good way to breakdown the handwavium to the reader in a way that handles exposition. The second way is to make everybody else an idiot. Care to guess which direction the author went here? The demon portions are just incredibly painful to read, it does not make you feel like you're dealing with a malevolent ancient being. Just, at all. We kind of have the same problem with all the characters in a position of leadership, or lifetime responsibility outside of Ragen and Elissa, which honestly shouldn't have been in the book at all.I mentioned the mimics ability to heal almost instantly, while being unable to replace limbs? Sorry to say, that you're going to have to also deal with quite a bit of repetition from the battles too. Characters that go nowhere? Check. Super powered solutions to everything? Check. Five sentence touchy feely solutions to problems supposedly decades in the making? Check. Plotlines that are meaningless and go nowhere? Check.The whole thing wraps with deus ex machina, a few throwaway lines and an epilogue that made me groan at its absurdity.

Amazing book. It ended the series very well. The characters continue to develop and change as the books go on, and their is enough action to keep anyone entertained.

Although I liked the previous book I felt I was drifting a bit because the story was going all over the place. But this book did well to tie most, if not all of the threads back. I'm still a bit salty about a few of the deaths and the way they were handled by I guess you can't have everything. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, loved the characters and their growth and I mourned a few deaths too. Lovely read.

Finally finished. Hardly necessary a review for those who read the other four books are already caught in their greatnet, but if one must know, the cycle has the fitting ending it deserved. One of the greatest series of all time, side with Dune, Lord of the Rings and their ilk.

me encanta

This series was a bit too long, with repetitions induced by the author continuously using several points of views. Moreover, some of the characters were lacking in depth, which made them quite annoying after a while. Albeit easy to remember from one book to the next. But since this is the final volume, it is nice to see the end of the series solved in a mostly satisfactory way. I would not start reading it again, though!

The whole Demon Cycle absolutely deserves the time it takes to read it. Period.Peter Brett, together with Tad Williams, George Martin and Patrick Rothfuss, stands as one of the best modern Fantasy authors.