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  • The Skull Throne

  • The Demon Cycle, Book 4
  • By: Peter V. Brett
  • Narrated by: Colin Mace
  • Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (2,177 ratings)
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The Skull Throne cover art

The Skull Throne

By: Peter V. Brett
Narrated by: Colin Mace
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Editor reviews

The explosive fourth book in The Demon Cycle series: The Skull Throne is written by Sunday Times best-selling author Peter V. Brett and narrated by Colin Mace in this complete and unabridged audiobook. Devotees of this series will not be disappointed and Mace’s performance is phenomenally engrossing. Powerful new characters and feared new worlds are introduced. Demons, dark magic and unified armies– all are battling for the glory and power of a seat at the Skull Throne. The demon army grows ever-stronger and the war against their rise must begin.

Summary

In the grand tradition of George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan, Sunday Times best-selling author Peter V. Brett continues his critically acclaimed Demon Cycle with the next dramatic instalment: The Skull Throne.

The Skull Throne of Krasia stands empty. Built from the skulls of fallen generals and demon princes, it is a seat of honour and ancient, powerful magic, keeping the demon corelings at bay. From atop the throne, Ahmann Jardir was meant to conquer the known world, forging its isolated peoples into a unified army to rise up and end the demon war once and for all.

But Arlen Bales, the Painted Man, stood against this course, challenging Jardir to a duel he could not in honour refuse. Rather than risk defeat, Arlen cast them both from a precipice, leaving the world without a saviour and opening a struggle for succession that threatens to tear the Free Cities of Thesa apart.

In the south, Inevera, Jardir's first wife, must find a way to keep their sons from killing one another and plunging their people into civil war as they strive for enough glory to make a claim on the throne. In the north, Leesha Paper and Rojer Inn struggle to forge an alliance between the duchies of Angiers and Miln against the Krasians before it is too late.

Caught in the crossfire is the duchy of Lakton - rich and unprotected, ripe for conquest. All the while the corelings have been growing stronger, and without Arlen and Jardir there may be none strong enough to stop them.

Only Renna Bales may know more about the fate of the missing men, but she, too, has disappeared....

©2015 Peter V Brett (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Critic reviews

Praise for The Demon Cycle:
"Peter V. Brett is one of my favourite new authors." (Patrick Rothfuss)
"I enjoyed The Painted Man immensely. There is much to admire in Peter Brett's writing, and his concept is brilliant. There's action and suspense all the way." (Terry Brooks)
"The Painted Man works not only as a great adventure novel but also as a reflection on the nature of heroism.' (Charlaine Harris)
"[Peter V. Brett is] at the top of his game. I give this my highest recommendation." (Tor.com) "[Brett] confirms his place among epic fantasy's pantheon of greats amid the likes of George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, and Robert Jordan." (Fantasy Book Critic)
"The most significant and cinematic fantasy epic since The Lord of the Rings. Inspired, compelling, and totally addictive!" (Director Paul W. S. Anderson)

What listeners say about The Skull Throne

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

The stuffing in the middle?

I listened to books 1-3 again before listening to this one. Am not sure what it is about this 4thbook that left me feeling almost a little bored, possibly the lack of time given to Arlen? Or maybe that the majority of this book is given over to introducing and giving the back story to yet more characters. Leesha seems to have more time devoted to her than any other character in this book, and I think I may be getting a tad bored with her character.

I found the different pronunciation of main characters names rather annoying in this version.

Either the author is building to an outstanding final instalment, or this was stuffing in the middle, which is my pet peeve when it comes to any book series.

That said, I did enjoy it, and I look forward to the final instalment.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Honestly thought it was a different narrator

Overall I like the Demon books. I usually listen/read much larger books (Peter F Hamilton/Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson) so having some shorter titles is nice.

One thing that struck me this time though is that some of the odd things I've notice in the narrator's pronunciation disappeared in book 4. For instance Coreling was pronounced Coh-Rel-Ing previously is now pronounced as the more intuitive Core-Ling. However, other strange things have popped up. A lot of the voices that were used for the characters sound different to me this time around, one of the main characters is now having his name said differently (Rojer was pronounced in a more nordic way, with the J as a Y sound (so it was Royer) but now switching to basically Roger) and pronunciation of some established words changed (Eveja went from eh-ve-ja to Ee-vee-ja), and some pronunciation of perfectly normal words is off (Incidious being the one that's struck me a few times). The word is always close, but not quite right, and always jars me out of my listening as I'm thinking "is that a mispronunciation or just a word I don't know?"

All together, it added up to the point that until I checked before writing this, I thought it was actually a different narrator and this review was going to be called "Different narrator, similar problem".

Its not enough to actually make it bad narration, but it is a bit jarring in a purely audio format that things like mispronounced words and inconsistent pronunciation are allowed through. I can't help but compare it to Kate Reading/Michael Kramer doing Wheel of Time/Stormlight Archives. Those are much larger books, with many more terms, some of which are painfully close in pronunciation. In wheel of time's case, they were produced over more than a decade, and in stormlight's case, the two were produced over 3 years apart, yet there was very little shift in pronunciation of setting specific words, and I can't think of a single normal word mispronounced. Its why I use Reading/Kramer as my benchmark for narration.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

This may well be the case of a book too far, however it was not helped by the change in narrator who pronounced a lot of names differently. Also, as mentioned by other reviewers, there were strange pauses throughout the narration. I am not sure if I will bother with the next one as not a lot seems to have happened in this and it was almost as if the author ran out of steam - or perhaps has split a longer book into two parts. It will be interesting to see if the next installment takes as long to be released as this one did..

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A disappointing pot boiler

The Demon Cycle started with such promise. I enjoyed the first two books immensely, especially for the fast pace, character driven story line. The third book in the series, while good, finished with a cliff hanger ending (a warning sign that a series is about to go soap opera). Now with this fourth book I am losing my patients. This feels more like padding in order to make the most out of a successful series rather than a progression from previous books.

Disappointingly pointless.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

It was good


Story – 4/5

I enjoyed this well enough, probably as much as the 3rd book, The Daylight War. I just can’t help but think that the story is really drawn out. I wouldn’t mind this quite so much if the characterisation was as good as the first book, but it isn’t. That’s not to say the backstory and character development is completely amiss, some of it is excellent still, it is just not to the overall standard I keep hoping Brett will return to.

I loved the action packed last 3 hours of this book, which made my impression of the overall story rise a huge amount. The epilogue was also very intriguing. If you have enjoyed it to this point, and loved book 3, you will enjoy this one equally.


Performance – 4/5

Another good performance from Colin Mace; who although a bit duller in parts than Peter Joyce was with the first 2 books, is quite similar; and almost as good. Audible were kind enough to swap the older versions of the audiobooks for the new ones with Mace’s narration, so I was able to re-listen and get used to his voice with the characters before approaching books 3 & 4. I would recommend doing the same thing if you struggle with any changes of pronunciation – but I barely noticed.


Overall – 4/5

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

To much filler

Glad this is my second time listening to this book so I could skip some of the boring unnecessary chapters. Going into back story of character that don't need a back story and because a lot of the names sound similar it get confusing

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Weakest in a series of great stories.

Easy to get lost in who is fighting whome on the many scuffles between tertiary characters, resulting in a lack of investment in the story as a whole.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Annoying

Listening to Colin Mace drinking whist he reads isn't just annoying, it's vomit inducing !8

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Boring

Colin Mace’s characterisation is good and believable but his narration is poor with many grammatical mistakes and just one step away from a monotone. Big events that should be going off like a bomb end up more like a soggy firework. Sadly Colin is not aided by the storyline. Mr Brett has made this book a mainly political story that stands apart from the rest of the series and everything of note seems to happen in the last few chapters. If I wasn’t such a fan of the concept I’d have given up less than half way in... I proceed now to ‘The Core’ hoping for a fitting end to this series which should probably have been kept to a more exciting trilogy.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

The series has lost it's way

Peter V Brett has said in an interview he was pressed for time. he had a backup of a 3 book series which would of glossed over the events with the krasians and focus on Arlen if he was not able to do the 5 book series. This is what exactly needed to happen this installment fell flat and got plain boring after a handful of chapters

I expect the next book to be the same such a shame because the first 2 bppls were excellent.

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