Better than the last book, but what's that saying, really? Good: Character development including plenty of queer relationships (explicit working polyamory among them), people with relationship troubles, stubborn politicians, clever politicians, and the previously known (and loved, maybe) characters smack in the middle of it. The action is mostly split between two groups, with one dominating the first half and the other the second, which didn't always feel smooth – but both action and character development is well-rounded, and the established world building is expanded where necessary. But still with the fantasy racism and sexual violence …

I truly loved this book. The characters work well and stayed with me, the world is consistent and required no effort or conscious suspension of disbelief on my part, and the pacing and storytelling in general was absolutely well-done and enjoyable. I'm really looking forward to the other parts of the series. Also, yay for books with several POV characters.

Pretty okay successor. We see more of Arlen (and later, Renna, who has a wonderful story), Rojen (who was neglected), Leesha, and a fancy new character! Also, more insight into politics and the demons. Everything was very cool, especially how people had all sorts of agency. I felt that character development ran low in this book, but that's a common theme for second volumes, so let's hope the next one picks it up.

Ugh. The start of the series seems to have raised a bar the other books can't quite meet. While my criticism of the second volume (too little character development) is met and answered beautifully on all counts, the story drags along a lot. While showing known scenes from a second viewpoint was cute in the second volume, it grew tedious here, and I felt that the pacing between story development and flashbacks was uneven.

The Core concludes the Demon Cycle series by Peter Brett, and it was a disappointment to me. While we still get a couple of cool side characters, the main cast has grown unrelatable to me. The story often felt like a mix of fanfiction and a detailed narration of a video game: hack, slash, get your dreams, feel mandatory doubt and off you go to your heroic journey, filled with never-too-difficult enemies. The bit of relevant character development itself (Renna, mostly) seemed to have taken place between books.