Book Review: 'Messengers Legacy' by Peter V Brett

'Messenger's Legacy' is only novella length, so it's not fair of me to review it as I would a novel.  Unlike 'Brayan's Gold', I'm not sure if this story would stand on it's own, and it certainly contains a significant spoiler for the third book of the Demon Cycle, so be warned.
There are some things I really like about this story, and I really love Peter Brett's world.  One of the things that he does really well is the inclusion of religion in his world.  Just as in the real world, there are a variety of religious views, and a wide range of piety.  It's one of the things I've noticed again and again while I read his books, and that I really like.
There is a relative completeness to his world that I really like, and a variety to both the ecology and culture that I find astonishing, since this is the only world he's written in. On the whole, I think Brett is still growing into his talents, and I look forward to seeing what he'll be like at the top of his game.
You can hear the giant BUT that I'm about to add in here aren't you?
Peter Brett is a big fan of switching viewpoints, and in a novel, it can add a great deal to the story.  I'm not sure if this novella is enough story to need two viewpoints. I feel like the momentum and power of the story is actually difused by switching viewpoints in the middle of it. Which is a shame, as it's a great story in a lot of ways. Briar is a fascinating character, and his section of the story is powerful and heartbreakingly told. If hte whole story had been told from that viewpoint, I think it would have been a more vital story.
So the good and bad aside, I think this is a story that fans of the Demon Cycle books will not want to miss, but it's not the place I'd recommend for the unfamiliar to start. 'Brayan's Gold' or 'The Warded Man' are both much better entry points for newcomers (and both I recommend highly, 'The Warded Man' is still one of my favorite debut novels of the last decade).
As far as did it follow through on what it promises?  I would say mostly, it does. Though it acts much more like the first act of a larger story than the whole story itself. And since it's timed for release just a couple of months in advance of the fourth Demon Cycle novel, I think it does a great job of making me want to read the next book right now.