RATING: THREE STARS
Peter V. Brett continues The Demon Cycle and the story Mudboy (which was first published in Unfettered in 2013). Messenger's Legacy is set just after the events of The Daylight War and introduces a new character to the series, Briar Damaj. Born as a son of two people's, Briar Damaj is only a child when a tragic accident sees his family killed in a vicious Coreling attack. But rather than accept the help of his village, Briar flees into the wilderness and makes his home amidst a refuse dump where he must hone his physical and mental skills if he hopes to survive the demons that hunt there . . .
The Good
Messenger's Legacy provides an interesting insight into one of the series new characters and develops his background well, using the fact he personally knows Ragan, Arlen's mentor, to help develop his history in the story, rather than just introducing him as a random person. As well as this, Brett uses the story to reveal more about demon behaviour and introduces some new ways of fighting them in circumstances where warded weapons are not available.
The Bad
Sadly, Messenger's Legacy isn't quite as exciting as the other intermediary novellas Brett has written for The Demon Cycle and I would have liked to have read more about Arlen's past than anything (as in The Great Bazaar and Brayan's Gold). The story is lacking the same excitement seen in the others and, since many of the characters are new, it's hard to engage with them in the same way because the story isn't long enough for them to be developed fully.
My Thoughts
Messenger's Legacy is an interesting introduction for who is clearly going to be a prominent character in the later books of The Demon Cycle. It's definitely worth a read for any fan of the series and has really wet my appetite for The Skull Throne, which is due to be released on 9th April 2015 in the UK!
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