Messenger's Legacy (Demon Cycle)

Book is only 139 pages long. Took me about 6 hours to read it. While it was well-written, it certainly was not worth the price.
It is really just an introduction of a new character who will be appearing in a future novel.

Messenger’s Legacy is a nice little story that leads into The Skull Throne. It focuses on two characters, Arlen’s old messenger mentor Ragen, and a new character named Briar. They bridge the old novels with the new. Whether you’ve read The Skull Throne already or not, this is one novella you’ll definitely want to pick up.

The story opens with Briar, a young boy out in the sticks. He has a Krasian father and a her gatherer mother. He gets teased by his older siblings and receives guidances from his dad. Readers get a glimpse of his life before he’s touched by the demons.

Breaking off, the story touches base with Ragen on his last trip to Lakton and back before retiring. He comes home to his wife, Arlen, and a life of leisure from the road. As the story flashes forward, we see what becomes of him and his fate ties back to Briar. One last adventure takes him back out into the night. Face-to-face with the demons, Ragen learns first hand what changes Arlen has brought to the world. Unlike his previous messenger days, he now has combat wards.

The story leads into the events of The Skull Throne two fold. One one hand, it reflects the Krasian’s push north. On the other hand, it tells Briar’s tale, a character who pops up in The Skull Throne.

In retrospect, it might be better to read this story before The Skull Throne, but it works either way. Peter V. Brett shows his talent by weaving great characters in a tightly focused story. It packs punch with just 137 pages. For fans of The Demon Cycle series, I highly recommend checking out Messenger’s Legacy. This one is well worth your time and money. I give it a five out of five.

I bought this as an ebook after reading the reviews, and I'm glad I did. If I had paid hardcover prices for this glorified short story, I would be outraged.

It's short, shallow, and perfunctory. There's no character development or themes being explored - to paraphrase The Simpsons, "It's just a bunch of stuff that happens." It reads like it might have been written by a ghost writer, not Brett himself, because Brett is a very good writer and the Demon Cycle, which this is spun off from, is very good. This doesn't feel much like a Demon Cycle book, though. It feels more like a story that was written for some other purpose, and then someone went through it and changed some of the words to crowbar it into the Demon Cycle.

It's a pretty transparent attempt to rip off the fans by putting as close to zero effort into something as possible, bringing it to the bare edge of what could be considered a complete book and then charging as much money as they can get away with for it.

Do NOT pay full price for this. If you feel that you absolutely have to read it as a Demon Cycle completist, then get it on Kindle.

This was an unnecessary interruption to the Demon Cycle which should have been only a trilogy in the first place. Isn't there a Law of Diminishing Returns on book series? Instead of eagerly awaiting the next book, I'm asking myself if I care.

This book was a great short read to hold one over until the release of Skull Throne but at this price it didn't seem entirely worth it. Don't get me wrong I'm still glad I got the chance to see the ever evolving world of the Demon Cycle expand, I just would like to see how this would fit into this unique world.

I really enjoy character backstories so this was nice to learn about Briar before he comes into play in The Skull Throne. However I felt like this could have had some more detail about him surviving for years on his own. It was an enjoyable addition to the Demon Cycle world though.

An excellent introduction to a new character. A bit pricey, perhaps, given the length, but I enjoyed the read. Upon reading the novel that follows this, I found this to be quite useful in building up an understanding of a character, and found myself invested in them more than I would have been given only the material found in the novel.

Had the contents of this been shoe-horned into the novel itself, it would have been quite hard to keep the same pacing or feel. I am pleased with this in every regard but price, and tolerate it on that point, as it was quite the enjoyable read.

Engaging story in the Demon series. Might be confusing if the reader was not familiar with the series. An appropriate addition to be myth. Very well written.

Great short story that introduces a new character to the series. Just a heads up this story is just about the new character and does not have any main characters. This story is interesting because the new character is similar to the Wardedman.

Brief, but entertaining.