The Skull Throne (The Demon Cycle #4)
by
Peter V. Brett
To start with, allow me to simply say “HOLY SHIT!!”
This is the most explosive fun this series has been since the first book.
It’s impossible to review this in detail without doing some major spoiling but I will attempt a quick cut with as few spoilers as possible:
This picks up almost immediately after the cliffhanger finale of The Daylight War and is a damned good example of a book hitting the ground running.
First, we get to spend time with the Krasianswho are dealing with the fallout of their Shar-Dama-Ka, their heir to the Deliverer, being missing and/or dead and a whole royal court of self-serving power-mongers clambering to ascend to the Skull Throne, the two primary sons of the missing Ahmann Jardir being first on that list. Their mother, the Damajah Inevera, is struggling to maintain her place while also working both on the stage and behind the scenes to keep the fragile empire and union that she and her husband spent years and years bringing together, from collapsing in on itself. Second, we have Leesha, Rojer, Gared and company dealing with the missing Arlen Bales (a.k.a., also a Deliverer) and being annoyed by his wife Renna whom Leesha is convinced knows more than she’s letting on about the fate of the two men.
The narrative of this book takes us from Everams Bounty (formerly Rizon) to The Hollow to Angiers and Docktown and apart from a few beats here and there, the pace of the book never lets up. There is an abundance of seemingly slow-moving intrigue in the annals of power on both sides of the Human kingdoms while the ever-present danger of the Demons from the Core looms in the background – making it both fascinating and frustrating as a reader to see how pettiness, power, politics, religion and the like get in the way of humanity uniting to face a common threat that could literally bring extinction with it.
Our valiant heroes try their best to listen to their better spirits but it is a struggle for many as they have to deal with their own weaknesses and challenges on top of the personal interests of many players around them. Characters like Thamos, Amanvah, Sikvah, Garod and Ashia all continue to grow and as with each series, we can see Bretts’ skill as a writer who knows his characters improve with each book.
Meanwhile, the fate of Arlen and Jardir is placed before us as a whole new front in the war to come, the Sharak-Ka begins to form. Their part of this novel also brings a philosophical debate into the forefront that really highlights their differences and similarities as well as touches on a great many areas – spotlighting one of the things I like about this series and the writer, that unlike many series today, it nicely balances concepts and ideas as allegory and rarely wastes its or my time trying to shove any particular agenda into my face. It highlights aspects of things without overtly taking a side (so far) and lets the mind of the reader consider for themselves while always bearing in mind the other side enough that nothing comes across as simple black and white morality, etc.
And of course, how can one leave out the action. Oh the action!
If there is one thing that I will always hold to with this author is that he knows how to write action. Be it a one-on-one fight or full on battle and war scenes, he knows how to keep you gripped. It has been a huge strength from Book 1 and this book has enough action scattered through it that you really get to enjoy it this time around, right up until a hell of crescendo of events that come together fast and hard in the last chapters.
For me, the 2nd and 3rd books respectively were highly entertaining but had some slower moments and as you might have seen in my review of #3, start to feel a bit of dragging – more so as it spends perhaps a tad too much time in the flashbacks/past. As I said in that review, Brett has skill enough as a writer and seems to choose his flashbacks and side-story moments such that they never really feel superfluous and all (while many could be excised/shortened) do bring something a little more to either the story or to the characters when seen in the whole picture.
However, this book is ramping up to the grand finale in Book #5 and I must say that not only is it a return to form for the author, but it feels like his last two books had some experimentation as a writer – but that seems to have coalesced nicely in this book and it shows as everything flows well and youw WANT to binge-read it and by the end are both very pleased and want to kill the author for the fact that it ends as it does and then you have to wait for the next book before you know what comes next!
OTHERS BOOKS IN THE SERIES:
Book 5: The Core (COMING SOON!)
One Happy Monk 
Leave a comment