A review by verkisto
Barren by Peter V. Brett

4.0

I didn't think much of Messenger's Legacy, the last novella in the Demon Cycle, but I'll admit that reading it out of order probably affected that feeling. I read Barren the same week it was released, only a few weeks after I had finished The Core, so I was in the right place and the right time to read it. I also found the story to be much more interesting and fulfilling than any of the other novellas.

Barren is more about character building than world building, which could be a big part of what I like about it. It also brings diversity to the world of Thesa, though the way Brett has written it so far, it's not a surprise. It's just the first time (I think) that he's made it explicit. I also liked that it didn't end with all the questions answered, and that it didn't end with the feeling that those questions needed to be answered.