diff --git a/pykafka/exceptions.py b/pykafka/exceptions.py
index c4d583916..934085e5d 100644
--- a/pykafka/exceptions.py
+++ b/pykafka/exceptions.py
@@ -51,6 +51,11 @@ class NoMessagesConsumedError(KafkaException):
     pass
 
 
+class MessageSetDecodeFailure(KafkaException):
+    """Indicates a generic failure in the decoding of a MessageSet from the broker"""
+    pass
+
+
 class ProducerQueueFullError(KafkaException):
     """Indicates that one or more of the AsyncProducer's internal queues contain at least max_queued_messages messages"""
     pass
diff --git a/pykafka/protocol.py b/pykafka/protocol.py
index 1dc31e5b6..fa2ce0bdb 100644
--- a/pykafka/protocol.py
+++ b/pykafka/protocol.py
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@
 
 
 from .common import CompressionType, Message
-from .exceptions import ERROR_CODES, MessageSizeTooLarge
+from .exceptions import ERROR_CODES, MessageSetDecodeFailure
 from .utils import Serializable, compression, struct_helpers
 from .utils.compat import iteritems, itervalues, buffer
 
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ def decode(cls, buff, partition_id=-1):
             messages.append(message)
             offset += size
         if len(messages) == 0 and attempted:
-            raise MessageSizeTooLarge(size)
+            raise MessageSetDecodeFailure(size)
         return MessageSet(messages=messages)
 
     def pack_into(self, buff, offset):