The Demon King is the third and last installment of Peter V. Brett’s Dusk saga, closing the saga of Olive Paper and Darin Bales, in addition to the world launched in The Warded Man, the primary Demon Cycle novel. For now, a minimum of. The second installment, The Hidden Queen left readers in a lurch, with Olive and Drin’s destiny hanging within the steadiness. Brett’s no stranger to those sorts of center e-book cliffhangers, one thing he did with the tip of the story in The Daylight Warfare, the third e-book of the unique collection.
He is called The Prince of Lies. The Father of Demons. He’s Alagai Ka, the Demon King.
Although humanity gained a hard-fought victory in its battle in opposition to demonkind, the Demon King has escaped searching for a brand new queen to restart his darkish hive, and has discovered indicators of 1 on a distant shore.
However pursuing him are humanity’s greatest hopes: Olive Paper and Darin Bales, whose legendary dad and mom introduced demonkind low as soon as earlier than. Olive and Darin won’t relaxation till the demons are defeated, and so relentless is their hunt that they’ve adopted Alagai Ka throughout the ocean to a wierd new land.
There they uncover a tradition in contrast to any they’ve by no means recognized, the place demons reside alongside people as servants and companions. And there they meet the demon’s masters–together with a seductive prince who’s drawn to Olive–who appear unable or unwilling to know the hazard they’re in.
As a result of no human is protected from the Demon King’s thirst for battle–and each human should be part of the battle in opposition to his kingdom of dying.
Selecting up nearly instantly after The Hidden Queen, Darin and Olive discover themselves throughout the huge sea on a beforehand unexplored continent on this world. They discover people and demons, with the demons in thrall to the people serving as a supply of energy and magic. These individuals have harnessed the demons and constructed a shining metropolis on account of the highly effective magic. Their views on Alagai or the Demons differs fairly considerably from Thesa/Krasia. Killing demons, even calling them Alagai is taken into account a serious social blunder. It simply isn’t achieved.
Darin and Olive have quite a lot of adjusting on this new land as they proceed their hunt for the Demon King, Alagai Ka. Regardless of their pleas, these new individuals don’t fairly see the menace posed by a brand new demon. They suppose him one other demon they’ll shackle and use as an influence supply. These new individuals; nevertheless, have by no means encountered a freed, highly effective demon king in all its craftiness and magical skills.
One doesn’t count on the ultimate novel in a collection to divert so removed from the trail specified by the prior 7 installments. Nevertheless, that’s precisely what Brett did on this last novel. Taking the motion away from the characters and a part of the world readers knew is a daring transfer. Readers have solely Darin and Olive as their factors of familiarity so in some methods, assembly a gaggle new individuals – particularly after being with largely one group or area for 7 books prior – felt a bit distinctive for me.
That stated, I favored the tradition conflict that was on the entrance of a lot of the story, with Darin and Olive aghast at how these individuals handled and interacted with demons. Many individuals on this overseas tradition and land had been equally disgusted by Darin as a result of his dad and mom ate Demons, a observe thought of a criminal offense on this land. There’s additionally an acceptance Olive by no means had again dwelling – her intersexuality set her aside in some ways, however on this new (to them) land, it’s seen as one thing denoting energy and honor. This veneration Olive receives contrasts along with her close to disgust at these individuals’s observe of maintaining demons as leashed pets gave her. Along with this inside battle, battle, Olive was additionally afforded the chance to attach with one other particular person identical to herself, one thing new and welcome.
Darin continues his doubts and despair, understandably since his mom perished on the finish of the earlier quantity. He’s so centered on searching the Demon King, regardless of the nonchalant angle of those new individuals, he doesn’t have a lot room to course of his emotions of grief. I like Darin and respect the care Brett put into developing a hero with doubt and despair.
This e-book total, although…. I’m very conflicted. I loved seeing one other perspective on how you can cope with demons, I favored seeing Darin and Olive in a brand new gentle, and but… the story felt like a facet quest from what got here earlier than and the place it appeared the story was heading. The ultimate battle with the Demon King was at all times going to be part of this novel and trilogy, however getting there definitely felt like a distraction from the mainline story and world of what was specified by the earlier 2 novels of this trilogy and the 5 novels of the preliminary Demon Cycle saga in addition to the brief novels set on the earth.
Did I get pleasure from The Demon King? Positive, I favored it and Brett honed a few of his character work even additional with this installment. I just like the world-building fairly a bit and discover the Demons to be frequently fascinating. Nevertheless, with the route the this concluding quantity took, I really feel just like the story as introduced right here would have match within the better story if it had been interspersed in the course of the saga moderately than the tip. As an alternative, I felt this novel was a bit of disconnected from what got here earlier than.
There’s a time period in TV storytelling known as “backdoor pilot,” (beware, that hyperlinks to the time sink that’s TV Tropes) the place one episode for a (normally) long-running collection strongly highlights a brand new character or group of characters beforehand not met. That episode, if obtained nicely, can function a launching level for a brand new present with that simply launched group of characters. That’s what The Demon King felt wish to me. In some methods, as if Brett was establishing the following part of this world/milieu moderately than closing out what’s finally an 8-book saga. Heck, that occurs very often in lengthy working collection the place the ultimate e-book can sow seeds for the following bigger chapter. Right here… it felt out of sync with the collection as an entire for me.
Ultimately, I loved the novel – I used to be largely enthralled from starting to finish, I used to be emotionally tied to the characters. I discover Brett’s world intriguing and interesting. Whereas I respect that not all questions had been answered the ever-curious a part of me needs to have some form of definitive reply about this world… is it our world, however in a distant time after a serious battle like Shannara or The Darkish Tower or had been the Demons some form of invading drive? Did humanity do one thing to make the Demons conscious of our world? It’s enjoyable to play that “What if?” sport. However I can’t fairly kick the aforementioned disconnected/side-quest feeling concerning the novel. I’ll miss the characters and their odd (particularly for Epic Fantasy) nearly nation/southern inflections.
Kudos to Brett for finishing a mega collection, I respect the gumption it took to finish it the best way he did and I’ll definitely be on board for the following saga and world Brett shares with readers.
© 2026 Rob H. Bedford
Hardcover | Del Rey
April 2026 | 451 Pages (Plus Appendix)
https://www.petervbrett.com/
Evaluation copy courtesy of the writer, Del Rey
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