A Book Review: The Core by Peter V. Brett (The Demon Cycle #5)

At 856 pages, The Core is the finale to Peter V. Brett's epic fantasy saga, The Demon Cycle. I love this series, and I was expecting great things from this whopping tome. Did this book deliver? I would say for the most parts, The Core is excellent, but the book also has some small problems which prevent it from being a perfect book.

Synopsis:

Arlen Bale and Ahamn Jadir, these two men were once enemies, but now they are uniting their strengths to bring Sharak Ka, the final war, to the demons. Arlen and Jadir hatched a desperate plan, in which they would capture a demon prince and force him to reveal the location for the Mother of Demons. But they are racing against time, because their actions triggered the swarm, an event where demons are launching an all-out assault against the human forces.

Meanwhile, Leesha, Innerva, Ragen and Elissa must rally and persuade their people to letting go of their petty differences and working together against the swarm. This is because they need to buy themselves previous times while Arlen and Jadir are reaching for the Core.

The stakes are high, and with the final war reaching the boiling point, both Arlen and Jadir are not expecting to return from the mission alive, but will their sacrifice be enough to save humanity from the demons' claws?

My thoughts on this book:

The Core delivered a satisfying conclusion to the series, but there are a few bumps and mishaps along the way. At this point, the story has quite a few characters, and Peter V. Brett was trying to tie up every story threads. While Mr. Brett was able to attend to every character and every story arc, but it also made the book very long. This book suffered some pacing issues, especially in the book's mid section.

For example, this book brought back Ragen and Elissa and then started their own story thread. Ragen and Elissa were Arlen's foster parents from the first book, and I liked them. However, between book 2 and 4 we never heard from them again, and so I was not invested in these two characters. This is why, when The Core suddenly brought back Ragen and Elissa, I just didn't care about them. Most of Ragen and Elissa's story took place in the book's mid-section, and those pages were slow moving and uninteresting. I would have preferred more explorations on the characters whom we became familiar with in the last two or three books, such as Ashia, Asome, and Innvera. Make no mistake, Ashia and Innverva received a lot of spotlights in this book, but it wasn't enough.

Speaking of Ashia, who was introduced in The Skull Throne, she remains one of my favorite characters in this book. Her part of the story was fun and exciting, but the conclusion to her story also felt a bit rushed, as if there should be more in her story but it was left untold. Meanwhile, characters such as Abban also received a healthy dose of attention in this book, but while Abbam started off as a very interesting character in The Desert Spear, but his story's conclusion rendered his character a wasted opportunity; Mr. Brett could have done so much more with Abban's character, but it was not so.

The focus in this book is on Arlen, Jadir, and Renna, as the three of them ventured into the Core and slaying The mother of Demons. It suffices to say, out of all the story threads in this book, this trio's story arc is the most interesting. Once the trio arrived at the Core, the story finally revealed all the answers to our questions; the truth about The Deliverer and the prophecy, the origin of life, and how the "demons" came to be. Without spoilers, let me just say this is where the story took a twisted turn from "epic fantasy" to "science fiction". I mean, I have written a review for each of the previous installment, and throughout it all I have been saying that the "demons" in this saga reminded me of the xenomorphs from the movie, Alien; these creatures are not evil, but just predatory animals hunting human for food. Apparently, my take on the nature of these monsters are confirmed by Arlen, the main protagonist in this book. How? Well, I leave the would-be readers to enjoy the story and find out for themselves.

The Core is a satisfying conclusion to a stunning fantasy saga. The book does suffer from some pacing issues, and it could have been better if it was shortened by 100 pages. Yet, this book is excellent nevertheless. When I reached the last 200 pages of this book, I could not put it down, instead I kept reading it until I reached the very last page, where I let out a sigh of content. This book tied up every story thread, while leaving rooms for another series. But for now, The Demon Cycle is one of the best fantasy series of the modern days, it is an interesting twist to the concept of good versus evil, and it deserves to be read. I cannot recommend this series enough.