Book Review: The Core by Peter V. Brett
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 5 of The Demon Cycle
Publisher: Del Rey (October 3, 2017)
Length: 781 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
To be honest, The Demon Cycle and I have something of a love-hate relationship. While I felt the first book was a truly excellent read, every sequel after that has been problematic in one form or another, be they plagued with redundant (and overly long!) flashbacks, infuriating cliffhangers, or obnoxious characters you just want to punch in the face. Still, Peter V. Brett writes very entertaining stories, so I probably put up with a lot more from him that I would from any other author. As much as I like to jokingly call this series “Days of Our Lives in The Hollow”, there’s definitely something to be said for the guilty pleasure derived from following soap opera bait like Rojer’s troubles with his three-way marriage, or Leesha and her mom’s baby daddy drama.
That said, we’re on the final book now. No more messing around. Like I said at the end of my review for The Skull Throne, I fully expected some tight storytelling and fast-paced action from The Core as we make our last big push towards the grand finale.
In retrospect, those high expectations were probably what led to my eventual disappointment. I wanted swift execution of the story and razor sharp timing befitting of a series conclusion. I wanted answers and a narrower field of focus. I wanted to see multiple plot threads come together and to have the major characters play more central roles again. I wanted too much, in other words. I realize now that I’d hyped this book up in my head, with expectations of what I wanted The Core to be, and it ended up being quite different from Brett’s vision. Of course, I don’t blame him at all for any of that; as the author, it’s his prerogative to take his series in whatever direction he wants. What I do want to do is paint a picture of the situation so that others might better understand why I’m in the minority of feeling merely lukewarm about this novel while most others seemed to have enjoyed it immensely.
Granted, I’m probably sounding a lot more negative than I intend to be. The Core really is a decent book, and had this been any other installment, I might even have given it a higher rating. Still, we’re talking the very last book of a series here. Fair or not, it gets evaluated it on a different set of standards to judge whether or not it serves as a satisfying conclusion, and in that sense, I was not exactly overawed. Even if things ended just about as well as they possibly could, I still experienced a ton of issues along the way, especially in the first half of the story, most of which I spent feeling bored. Tedium in a finale? Something’s definitely not right.
Part of the problem stems from all the soapy plotlines that had valiantly managed to keep the Cutter’s Hollow crew interesting throughout much of the series, but unfortunately, what worked for previous two books merely felt contrived and time-wasting in this final volume. We’re supposed to be bracing ourselves for an epic showdown against demonkind, but there’s hardly a sense of urgency or any kind of tension leading up to the big event. I’ve also watched this series grow increasingly bloated since The Daylight War, and things have gotten really out of hand with the staggering number of characters we have to keep track of. I’ve mentioned before how badly this series needs Arlen to remain a big part of the story in order to keep it focused, so I was once again disappointed at his meager presence in The Core. Considering how only a handful of main character POVs—namely Arlen, Jardir, and Leesha—were significantly pushing this story along, it’s not surprising that we got nowhere fast due the relatively limited page time they were given.
The good news is, things pick up significantly in the second half, the novel’s saving grace being its later chapters. As I’ve alluded to before, I’m actually quite happy with the way The Core ended, just not quite so pleased with the uneven road it took to get there. This has resulted in some very mixed feelings, to say the least, hence my middling 3-star rating. Many others have loved it unequivocally though, and ultimately I think how you feel will largely depend on what you hope to get out of an ending volume. If you’re a reader who appreciates getting the full picture—or if you enjoyed how the previous books continued expanding the story, setting, and characters—then I think you will like The Core very much. On the flip side, if you’re feeling worn out by the widening scope, lack of focus, and increasingly shallow plot threads of the series, then I’m afraid you’ll just find more of the same problems with this one.
Still, at the end of the day I’m pretty happy I got to finish The Demon Cycle. This series and I have had our ups and downs, but it was a fun ride throughout it all. I definitely would not hesitate to read anything Peter V. Brett does next.
The BiblioSanctum 
I gave up with book 2, it made me so mad
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Haha, I remember I almost called it quits after book 2, I hated that a third of it was about Jardir.
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Ugh Jardir!
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I don’t know, I’m not sure. I haven’t tried the books by this author
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If you want to try his work, he has a few novellas set in this world, I would definitely start there instead of these tomes 😛
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Book 3 was where I ended my time with Brett. From everything I hear, I’m glad I didn’t stick it out.
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I honestly don’t know why I did. I blame the soap opera shenanigans 😛
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I think Brett has enough of a fan base that he can now write what he wants. I’m hoping whatever he tries next is more to my taste…
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I feel the same way. Like I said, I loved the first book, and I definitely wouldn’t mind more like that. It’s just too bad he decided to take things in a different direction in book two and onwards.
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I loved the first book and I think he’s a good author but I gave up after book 2 – I can’t help thinking that the decision to move this from 3 books to 5 has given the whole thing a drawn out feel which is really a shame.
Lynn 😀
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I didn’t even know this was originally supposed to be a trilogy. Huh, would explain a lot! 😀
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After giving up on this series after book 3 – where the unnecessary bloat and unwanted focus on the “soap” aspects of the story made me fall out of love with the Demon Cycle – I’m not surprised that even the end proved unsatisfactory, although I commend you for holding on until the (bittersweet?) end. You are perfectly right in saying that an author can take the story wherever they want (it’s their baby, after all!), but still I can’t help feeling that some articles of the unwritten “contract” between author and reader might have been breached here…
I’m glad, however, that you were able to to find some positive sides in this final book 🙂
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I definitely sense a pattern here – those who really loved the books and kept going ended up really enjoying this one, and I notice that those who were “meh” about the earlier books have mostly dropped out. 😛
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I gave up after book 2 with this. I was really frustrated with the characters and I totally agree with those that think this was a bit soap-y.
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Haha, I think most people dropped out after books 2 or 3. I admit that book 2 really tried my patience as well.
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One day ( and by “one day” I mean in the far far far future) I will pick up this series. I don’t know much about it except that I hear people argue over whether or not it takes place on Earth and Peter won’t confirm or dent it. Oh yeah! And that each book is a massive tomb XD
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I’d be interested to see what you think! It’s appears folks either love the series or they drop off after book 2. The second book seems to be the deciding factor on whether or not you will enjoy the rest of the series 🙂
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Awww. It’s honestly one of the worst things, when the conclusion novel is lackluster. It’s too bad you didn’t really care for this one or the other sequels. I’d not even heard of this series or author before! Based on the other comments, I’m not missing out on much. 😀 Still, great review, Mogsy!
Have a wonderful week. =)
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!
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In retrospect, I probably should have quit a few books ago but I just kept going and well, I can’t very well not read the last book! Lesson learned though 😀
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Ahoy there matey! Excellent review of this novel. I say this having not read it because I knew ye would not give spoilers but give me an idea of whether I should finish this series. I be one of the readers who has read them all so far and have gotten more disgruntled with how each book expands everything. I knew I had problems when I didn’t bother checkin’ when the last book was coming out and when I unloaded the parts of the series that I did own out of the hold to clear space for new plunder. I would like to finish the series but am not up for a slog to do so. I think for the moment this series be on hold indefinitely. I will however read something else by the author if it is not set in this world.
x The Captain
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I was the same way, growing more disgruntled with each book but still I stayed on, and looking back, I really don’t know why I did that! I guess I kept hoping for the series to turn around. I had such high hopes for this conclusion, but it turned out to be more of the same. It wasn’t bad, but I definitely expected more from an ending volume.
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I feel the 3 star is well deserved. I have contradictory feelings. On one hand, I enjoy the multiple scopes and world building that Peter had done throughout his books but simultaneously I feel like he was losing his way with the multiple story threads as it got vaster. For example, in book two the multiple story threads reach a point where they converge and many of the characters have a chance to meet and because of that I think it was worth expanding their backgrounds. But then there are moments where characters like Leesha and Renna get al these powers throughout the series and it doesn’t make sense based on where they started. Other characters like Inevera, raised as a Dama’ting and whatnot, I could get behind but I felt that these other characters were just leveling up ridiculously and Arlen was falling to the wayside. The ending was in a way eventful in that it brought meaning to the demon cycle world but it felt like a cop out at the same time.
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I agree with all your points. Seems like all the readers who were tired of the diverging storylines and multiple plot threads stopped reading the series, and the few of us who continued despite our issues with it ended up experiencing more of the same problems. A shame how the ending strayed so far from how strongly the series started!
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