Clare L. Deming

The Core by Peter V. Brett is the last book of five in The Demon Cycle series (paid links). This is a pretty long review. I enjoyed this series a lot and would consider re-reading it in the future.

I did not formally review The Warded Man (book 1) or The Desert Spear (book 2) on this blog. These are my reviews of the other books (paid links):

• The Daylight War (book 3) – review can be found here.
• The Skull Throne (book 4) – review can be found here.

Here is the blurb:

For time out of mind, bloodthirsty demons have stalked the night, culling the human race to scattered remnants dependent on half-forgotten magics to protect them. Then two heroes arose—men as close as brothers, yet divided by bitter betrayal. Arlen Bales became known as the Warded Man, tattooed head to toe with powerful magic symbols that enable him to fight demons in hand-to-hand combat—and emerge victorious. Jardir, armed with magically warded weapons, called himself the Deliverer, a figure prophesied to unite humanity and lead them to triumph in Sharak Ka—the final war against demonkind.

But in their efforts to bring the war to the demons, Arlen and Jardir have set something in motion that may prove the end of everything they hold dear—a Swarm. Now the war is at hand and humanity cannot hope to win it unless Arlen and Jardir, with the help of Arlen’s wife, Renna, can bend a captured demon prince to their will and force the devious creature to lead them to the Core, where the Mother of Demons breeds an inexhaustible army.

Trusting their closest confidantes, Leesha, Inevera, Ragen and Elissa, to rally the fractious people of the Free Cities and lead them against the Swarm, Arlen, Renna, and Jardir set out on a desperate quest into the darkest depths of evil—from which none of them expects to return alive.

This book picks up in the immediate aftermath of the devastating events of book 4. Demons are no longer following their usual patterns of behavior as mind demons coordinate the demon forces. The story follows the characters we already know as they try to prepare humanity to stand against the increased threat. Meanwhile, Arlen launches his crazy plan to obtain intelligence on the demon hive so that he can try to take out the source of the demons. The plan is risky and he goes into it with Jardir, Renna, and others, knowing that they will all inevitably be betrayed. This adds tension as the book proceeds and their situation becomes more perilous.

One of the main themes of this series is that of prophecy. The first Deliverer, Kaji, defeated the demons many generations in the past. But humanity’s reprieve was only temporary. With the current rising threat, The Deliverer has been foretold to return to once again destroy the demons. The interesting part of this story is that it isn’t clear who that person will be. In the first book, it seems obvious that it will be Arlen. However, Jardir becomes known as this prophesied hero by the Krasian people in the second book. At one point, I thought that Leesha (herbalist, healer, sorcerer) would end up as the Deliverer. The characters themselves start to wonder about the prophecy and how it relates to their religion and the origin of magic in this world. I enjoy these types of twists on prophecy and the classic hero’s journey type of story, although I don’t think any book can ever top the ending of Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series in To Green Angel Tower in this respect (paid links).

This book was about 800 pages long, but even 100 pages from the end, I had to wonder how the author would manage to wrap everything up. He did accomplish this, as the point-of-view switched between specific characters to briefly show events that were spread across the world. My favorite scene near the ending occurred when Leesha led a small force to sneak into Fort Angiers and retake it from the demons.

I had forgotten about Ragen and Elissa because the last couple of books had not directly featured them. It took me a moment to reorient myself when the events of this book returned to Fort Miln. I think that I was not as invested in their part of the story because of this, but this was only a minor detraction from the excitement of the final events of this book.

This book also had an unusual number of births compared to other fantasy series I’ve read. Some of the children were primarily plot devices to increase political tensions, but their births also set up a new generation for future stories (see below).

I don’t want to put any spoilers in here for the ending. All I will say is that I cried a little. It was satisfying and answers the question of the central prophecy of the series.

Peter V. Brett does have another series set in the same world fifteen years after The Demon Cycle ends, called Nightfall Saga. I plan to read it, but I’m not going to start it yet. The second book was just published in March 2024, so I don’t expect the final book to be available until late 2025 or maybe 2026.

Have you read any of the books in the Demon Cycle series? Do you enjoy books that contain prophecies? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.