These books kind of get weirder and weirder...

I almost abandoned this book a bunch of times during the first 400 or so pages. The plot was weak at best and the characters all seemed to have either 1) reached the end of their character arcs with nowhere left to go, 2) turned into caricatures of themselves, or 3) just gotten either boring or annoying.

Then all of a sudden, a plot appeared and the book got better! Until all of a sudden, everything seemed to happen at once, like he realized that he was running up against his page limit or something. And then...the book was over. I actually flipped back to see if I'd missed a page-- it felt that sudden.

I think the whole series would've been well served by some heavy editing and condensing...a trilogy might have been a better option.

This book and the preceding ones are going to be rolled into one review. Firstly this book was quite the let down, while it does move the story along , it only does so slightly. There are new enemies that get fleshed out more which was about the highlight of this book. The interesting chars from the previous books barely make any appearance. Rather the reader is forced to deal with bucket loads of drama. This seems to be drawing on the style of game of thrones and other similiar books but the execution just doesn't come through.

Sadly after this first half of the second book it has been down hill all the way for the series for the exact same points mentioned previously. The second book seems like it was really badly edited so the pacing is way off and the tone changes vastly from the first book.

Personally if I had known this I would have just read the first book and left it at that , there would have been that itch know more of what happens to the other characters but I think an abridged book which spans all that could have easily summarized all that for me without the pointless drama.

The narrator in the the first 3 books was average but quite bad in the last book , there is a graphic audio version of these books which is supposedly way better, if given the option make sure you listen to that version.

Full Review at Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2015/03/21/review-the-skull-throne-by-peter-v-brett/

I found the Skull Throne to be an improved reading experience from what I had with the Daylight War. To be honest, I was not sure if I wanted to continue the series, but my enjoyment of the first two books convinced me to give the series another shot. Thankfully my key complaints in the Daylight War were not carried through to The Skull Throne.

First, while Arlen does still have a bit of an accent, I don’t think it was anything like it was in Daylight War. I was grateful for this (even if it wasn’t a major complaint). Renna also did not seem to annoy me as much in this, perhaps its because we just didn’t get as much of her, especially not as much Renna and Arlen together. And sexual manipulation was not the only tool allotted to women in this book. I was quite thankful for this last one.

I’m still not a fan of Krasian culture. The treatment of women and those outside their religion, or even outside of their warrior class, is just abhorrent. I can find it depressing to read, to be honest. And I feel like everything is taken to such an extreme that the characters and culture itself just seem to be more caricatures than anything relatable. The Krasians are always good for action packed scenes, but my detachment from the characters definitely dulls the experience.

The structure of this book is different than the standard epic fantasy. The first third of the book focuses on Everam’s Bounty and the set of characters there, then the next section is set in the Hollow and then the setting switches one last time (when everything comes to a head). It seems that typically these POVs/settings would be interspersed. The format made it feel almost like several separate stories. While I was not thrilled to start with the Krasians given my experience with The Daylight War, I do think this format worked quite well for this book.

One important thing to note here is that in previous books Arlen and/or Jardir have been primary characters. That was not the case in The Skull Throne. They are important to the overall story line of the series, obviously, but they were featured rarely. In fact, I mentioned Renna not being in this much (as a positive) and I would guess she had twice as many pages as Arlen or Jardir. That’s a guess, maybe I’m wrong. But still, the point is we see very little of Arlen or Jardir. In fact, the bits they were featured didn’t add much to this story, but I suspect it is set up for the next book. The focus of The Skull Throne is really how everyone is coping without either Deliverer there to lead them. It provides the opportunity for some to be opportunistic (*cough*Jayan – Jardir’s annoyance of a son*cough*) and others to come together to provide a solution for survival rather than waiting for someone else to “deliver” them from the evil demons.

I found the section in the Hollows strangely addictive, but not in the standard epic fantasy way. At times I felt it was actually pushing Jerry Springer levels of drama revolving around Leesha’s baby (and who the father may or may not be) as well as Rojer and his wives. Yeah, multiple wives, and those being from enemy land during a time of war, that can create some drama in a small town! So I found myself quite into this section, but was also terribly aware that the reasons I enjoyed it had nothing to do with my typical reading preferences. It had nothing to do with world building, unique story telling, politics, backstabbing, survival or anything else like that. It was all Jerry Springer style drama played out in the Hollow. I was waiting for the chairs to start flying.

I’m left feeling like the bulk of important things that happened in this book happened in the last couple hundred pages. There certainly were key things before then, but wow, there some major events right up to the very end. Lots of action, plotting, quests for power. Pretty much, it was war. And with that can come unpredictability and changes that will impact everything else yet to come. I definitely plan on finishing the series out, if nothing else, there’s probably still some baby drama to come! Just kidding, there are some interesting storylines coming together, and I am quite intrigued to see how they play out.

A whole lot of fighting. Brett seems to have lost focus. It was good, but I don't know if I can take another volume of infighting like this. The story barely moved forward. We didn't learn anything new, other than that everybody is frustrated with each other. Points for well paced action; but the imaginative charm of the first two novels of the series is gone. This felt like what happens when a book is adapted into too many films. Lots of filler with little story impetus.

Story progression was minor. Brett focused way too much on minor characters backstory.

This really felt like a bridging book for the next and final Book. Brett focuses on the side characters in this book. So if your expecting a lot of plot with Arlen & Jardir you won't get it in this installment.

Things are feeling more dangerous, and I'm not sure how this concludes in one more volume. Overall enjoyed the 4th installment of the Demon Cycle.