After several months of anticipation for the paperback (I was too cheap to spring for the hardcover, and I don't own a Kindle, so that wasn't an option), Peter V. Brett's latest in what is being styled "The Demon Cycle" arrived in paperback. I bought The Desert Spear two days after it came out, only because the store in which I purchase most of my books receives its book shipments on Thursdays, and that was when it arrived. I started it that night, and finished it fairly quickly.
The Desert Spear continues the narrative established in the first book, The Warded Man, in which the main character of Arlen Bales progresses in his fight against the demons that plague mankind in Brett's fictional world. We begin with an inside look at the rise of Jardir (ostensibly the human villain of the previous book), in a culture someone akin to the Arabic cultures of our own day, a culture based on battle and honor. The Krasians have a brutal way of life, but that is perhaps to be expected for a people who both live in the desert and actively fight the demons. In preparing to write this review, I read a number of comments on Amazon, and I pause at this moment only long enough to point out that while many were disappointed at Brett's decision to expand so much on the Krasian culture and the background of Jardir, which apparently made them dislike the book or something akin to it, I enjoyed it. It was actually the chunk of the book that I read the quickest. It gave needed depth to the character of Jardir, a reminder that even supposed villains have a past. They aren't Bond villains, evil for the sake of evil. Going forward now, we may not sympathize with Jardir and his Krasians, and the reader may even hope that he dies (I hope so, myself), but at least we have a better understanding of their motives.
Even as humanity begins to fight back against the demons now, thanks to the battle wards discovered by Arlen, then Jardir, a new evil arises in the form of the mind demons, monsters that get inside your head and control your very thoughts and actions. Arlen gets a view of the Core in which he realizes the enemy is far more powerful than they had anticipated, and the demons are pushing back. Victory for humanity is by no means assured.
The story was fast paced, with interesting new developments in plot and character, and numerous moments when I laughed out loud at the humor in it. I'll be looking forward to the third installment, which I believe is going to be called The Daylight War. It can't come soon enough.
The Desert Spear continues the narrative established in the first book, The Warded Man, in which the main character of Arlen Bales progresses in his fight against the demons that plague mankind in Brett's fictional world. We begin with an inside look at the rise of Jardir (ostensibly the human villain of the previous book), in a culture someone akin to the Arabic cultures of our own day, a culture based on battle and honor. The Krasians have a brutal way of life, but that is perhaps to be expected for a people who both live in the desert and actively fight the demons. In preparing to write this review, I read a number of comments on Amazon, and I pause at this moment only long enough to point out that while many were disappointed at Brett's decision to expand so much on the Krasian culture and the background of Jardir, which apparently made them dislike the book or something akin to it, I enjoyed it. It was actually the chunk of the book that I read the quickest. It gave needed depth to the character of Jardir, a reminder that even supposed villains have a past. They aren't Bond villains, evil for the sake of evil. Going forward now, we may not sympathize with Jardir and his Krasians, and the reader may even hope that he dies (I hope so, myself), but at least we have a better understanding of their motives.
Even as humanity begins to fight back against the demons now, thanks to the battle wards discovered by Arlen, then Jardir, a new evil arises in the form of the mind demons, monsters that get inside your head and control your very thoughts and actions. Arlen gets a view of the Core in which he realizes the enemy is far more powerful than they had anticipated, and the demons are pushing back. Victory for humanity is by no means assured.
The story was fast paced, with interesting new developments in plot and character, and numerous moments when I laughed out loud at the humor in it. I'll be looking forward to the third installment, which I believe is going to be called The Daylight War. It can't come soon enough.
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