Thursday, September 7, 2017

The Core

The Core (The Demon Cycle, #5)The Core by Peter V. Brett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Warded Man Arlen Bales and the Shar'Dama Ka Ahmann Jardir in their passion to rid the world of demons have unintentionally triggered a swarm which threatens to devour mankind. All hope is not yet lost as Arlen has a plan to exterminate the Mother of Demons by going to the Core.

Peter V. Brett saved his best for last as The Core is an exceptional novel and ending to the Demon Cycle series. All the characters from the series seem to have a part to play or a mention from Rusco Hog to Arlen's old sweetheart Mery. The tensions are high and every character displayed their true selves by the end...for better or worse.

The fear of the night returned in The Core. Humanity thought the night was terrifying before the return of the combat wards, but they didn't know what terror truly was yet. The mindless demons were never far from a Mimic to lead them when the Mind's were away. The Mind demons made their former battles look like a warm-up act as the true show was displayed in The Core. I didn't imagine just how devastating or sadistic the Mind's could be.

The true strength of The Core and the series as a whole was it's characters. The main stars lovingly grew from page to page and book to book until they were warriors worthy of the great demon war. My pulse raced as I devoured the book and anxiously sought to know what happened to everyone especially Arlen and Jardir.

The Demon Cycle couldn't have ended in any finer way than it did in The Core. This book is now one of my all-time favorites. In fact I think I'll flip to page one and start reading it again.

5 out of 5 stars

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Cloak and Dagger

Cloak and Dagger (The IMA, #1)Cloak and Dagger by Nenia Campbell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

An organization of mercenaries called the IMA had their mainframe hacked. One of their operatives Michael Boutilier follows his leads to a man named Rubens Parker. He plans to apprehend the man, but when he arrives at his house he only finds Parker's daughter, Christina, who he takes as a hostage.

I'm not sure what I expected when I picked up Cloak and Dagger, but I didn't expect what I read. There are so many things that irritated me about this book. The utter lack of sense from the majority of the characters was alarming. Christina for instance had quite possibly the worst parents of all time. I mean how can people be scared enough of an organization that they flee the country yet they don't consider taking their child or having her hidden away. Nope just leave a note on the fridge saying to get out of the house. The note should have read, "if you're reading this, your father and I have completely screwed you. Sorry hun. Love Mom. PS: don't forget to diet, no one likes a fat hostage."

If the parents were the only thing that bothered me in the story, then I could have read it without being annoyed. Unfortunately there is more. Christina has practically no sense of self preservation. The girl gets kidnapped and she can't stop giving her kidnapper attitude. What does a kidnapper have to do to instill fear? Michael hit her repeatedly, pistol whipped, and attempted to rape her. Only the rape attempt slowed Christina's mouth down at all. Where is the girls common sense? I don't know the answer because it certainly isn't on display in the book.

In all honesty I felt like Christina wasn't the only hostage in Cloak and Dagger. As a reader I felt like the story held me hostage in hopes of a coherent enjoyable story that didn't arrive. In it's place the story was long and meandering with lots of kidnappings, imprisonments, and out of nowhere emotions. The storytelling as a whole fell flat throughout the entire book.

1.5 out of 5 stars

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