Reviews

The Core: Book Five of the Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett

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lanica's review against another edition

5.0

Final chapter (maybe?) in this series. I loved this series from beginning to end. There were a lot of characters and storylines, but they remained mostly clear in my head. I want to reread the entire series without the loss of momentum that I felt while waiting for each book to be released. I think I would love this series even more if I could read it all in order as a single story. Loved it!

This individual books did its job tying everything up. There were a few places that were too glossed over - perhaps leaving room for more books? And a couple areas I don’t think were as well planned as I would have liked, but overall I feel good about this book and the end of Arlen’s and Jahdir’s story.

School librarian review: Not for kids.

najomo's review against another edition

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3.0

Why is it so hard for these authors who write otherwise amazing stories and build incredible worlds to stick the landing? Lightbringer, Mistborn Era 2 and this series have stuck with me, not for being bad, but for being great and then disappointing me in the final run-in. Amazing, unique characters and worlds let down in the last half of the last book with lackluster endings that scream out that the author didn't know where they were going and threw together something to meet a deadline or try to wrap up all the remaining plot points and questions in neat package; even though the beauty of their books is often that the stories are a bit grimy and don't have neat, tidy characters and motivations that can be explained with a simple 'and they all lived happily ever after'. Now this isn't quite as egregious as the literal deus ex machina of Weeks, or the 'look, it's the cosmere, aren't I clever?' of Sanderson but it's still a bit of a letdown after five books and many years of exciting tension and character growth.

cornosaurus's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

fridge4's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

bramboomen's review against another edition

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2.0

I kind of forgot about this series when I saw the release of The Core, but I remembered to have liked the previous books a lot. This one dissapointed though. The Demon Cycle was like a hollywood film series, a lot of action and flash and not much else, which is perfectly fine and they sometimes are just a lot of fun. But they do need an identifying feature, for this series it was a kind of fresh look on the fantasy genre. Only, when that is the only thing setting the book apart, it needs momentum to surprise the reader with increasingly cool flashy ideas and Brett succeeded in doing this right until the previous book. This last one was a proper ending to the series, there was just no "newness", which was the main thing I enjoyed in the series.

Also, the slang that Arlen and Renna utter "Ent this, Ent that..." REALLY started to bug me to the point that I shouted at my book for them to start talking normally.

itkovian_books's review against another edition

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4.0

I think that, comparatively, this is my least favorite book in the series. But I don't feel as though it was necessarily underwhelming, just that I tend to prefer moments that linger on character relationships rather than action, and with the war coming to an end in this book, there was a lot of the latter. That said, a lot of the characters had good ends to their arcs, and the very end was cathartic.

This series has its issues with the handling of sexual assault, as I've mentioned in reviews of the previous books. If that isn't something you want to read, this isn't the series for you. As to everyone else, I think it's important to go into this with an open mind and know that it's very much character-driven, and focuses on a much broader spectrum than the "main character". If you want the plot to remain tight and focused, this also isn't the series for you--it wanders a lot. But I happened to like those elements quite a bit, and think that there's a lot for others to enjoy, so long as you enter with the right expectations.

Rating: 7/10
Series Rating: 8-8.5/10