Review - The Daylight War (The Demon Cycle, Book 3) by Peter V. Brett (2.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Size: 656 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: February 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0345503824
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Demon Cycle
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 2.5/5 stars


This is the third book in the Demon Cycle by Brett. The fourth book will be titled, The Skull Throne, and is scheduled for a 2014 release. I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley. Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the chance to review this book. Like the previous book, this book was incredibly slow moving until the last 100 pages or so. There is a lot that I didn’t really enjoy about this book.

The story starts out following Arlen and Renna as they journey back to Cutter’s Hollow. Then it flashes back to Inevera’s past. From then on we bounce between Inevera’s past and present; while occasionally hearing from Arlen or Leesha in the present.

The story about Inevera’s past recounts a lot of events we have already been present for, but this time we see them from Inevera’s perspective. These parts are lengthy...but still seem rushed...like Brett is trying to give a quick outline of a whole series full of events from Inevera’s perspective. The book would have been better without this back story...it just bogged things down so much.

Much of the book is spent basically getting everyone back to Cutter’s Hollow. We hear from Arlen and Renna as they travel back. We hear from Leesha and Rojur as they travel back from Jardir’s conquered city. Then we spend a ton of time listening as Cutter’s Hollow is expanded and fortified.

Additionally we visit Jardir’s new capital and listen as he deals with bickering between his sons and people, and as he tries to make plans to conquer the rest of the Northern lands. Mostly it’s fairly boring and slow moving stuff.

Having Arlen and Renna proclaim their love for each other was cute in the first couple chapters. Having them repeat “Love you Arlen”, “love you Renna” continuously is just silly and obnoxious. Seriously it felt like half of these two characters’ dialogue through the entire book was “Love you Arlen” “Love you Renna”. Ugh...it got to be too much.

There is also way too much in here about Leesha’s love life and her struggle to find men to have sex with. Also I am not impressed with how our chosen few characters keep gaining more and more unbelievable powers (Arlen, Reena, Rojur). Arlen, Reena, and Rojur are gaining seriously crazy powers at a very rapid rate.

Additionally new types of demons pop up randomly with no previous explanation or structure. It’s like “Oh look there is lightening...hey let’s make that a lightning demon”...it’s never even been mentioned before but they must exist!...so whatever.

As with the previous book the last part of this book features a huge epic battle with mind demons and mimics. This part is very engaging. There are a couple of surprises right at the end that will really grab and engage the reader.

Just be warned this story ends on an absolutely horrible cliffhanger. After spending forever wading through this excruciatingly slow story and finally getting to the good part at the end....then to be left how Brett left his readers....well...it really pissed me off. I hate it when authors depend on cliffhangers to engage their readers. They should really just work on making the story tighter and more engaging.

Overall not my favorite installment in this series. I am so sick of unnecessary flashbacks into random characters’ pasts. It just drags out the story forever. The characters that were so heartfelt and complex in earlier installments are turning into superpowered caricatures of themselves. The pace is excruciatingly slow...after nearly 700 pages we aren’t all that much further along in the story than we were in The Desert Spear. Then there is the horrible cliffhanger that the book ends up. Seriously, I am done with this series. Just absolutely done.

Check out Brandon Sanderson’s books, Robert Jordan, Brent Weeks, or Michale J. Sullivan for excellent epic fantasy that is entertaining and actually goes somewhere. I would personally skip this series...it started out pretty good...but has just degraded from the first book on.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Reading Challenge

Audiobook Review - The Desert Spear (The Demon Cycle, Book 2) by Peter V. Brett (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Size: 672 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0345524140
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Demon Cycle
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars


This is the second book in the Demon Cycle trilogy. I didn’t enjoy it as much as The Warded Man, the first part of the book was really a drag . The second portion of the book really sucked me in though and convinced me to keep reading the series.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. The narrator does an excellent job of distinguishing between character voices and conveying the emotions of the characters. I definitely recommend listening to this on audiobook.

The first part of the book goes back and forth in time following the story of Jardir, who leads the Krasians. He was a villain in the first book, but here we learn how he rose to power. About a third of the way through the book we go back to Kylar, Rojur and Leesha and what they are doing at Cutter’s Hollow. Some of the story also focuses on Renna (the girl Kylar was promised to when he was young) and her struggles. All of the events are leading to war between the Krasian and the Northern folks.

All of the characters go through quite a bit of character development. I will bluntly say I do not like Jardir and I did not like reading about him. It is fine to want the readers to understand the villain a bit better, but I didn’t need to spend half the book reading his back story...seriously I just didn’t care all that much.

Because of the long digression through Jardir’s back story, the story progresses at a crawl. We really don’t get much past the point where we ended in book one. Yes there are some battles and the story progresses some, but really half of this book didn’t need to be here.

The second half of this book is very well done. The characters and world are intricate and fascinating. I loved the addition of Renna to the story as well, she really brings something special to the story. The Warded Man continues to gain interesting and new powers.

----------SPOILER START-----------------
Why is it that all the featured female characters have to be raped in the story? It is a right of passage or something? Is there a reason why we can’t have a strong female lead that hasn’t been raped, beaten, and abused? Just curious why this seems to be a prerequisite for all the females in this book...
----------SPOILER END-------------------

The book is well written and the second half of the book redeems the first half. Seriously though this is a really, really long book...and it feels really, really long. It wasn’t a fun kind of long either, the first half was a truly epic struggle for me to get through. I can only hope that future books move the story along a bit faster and don’t digress into side stories that are unnecessary.

Overall a decent read. I enjoyed the second half of the book immensely but throught that the first half that was dedicated to Jardir’s back story was an epic waste of time. I have The Daylight War to review, so hopefully that will be a quicker moving read. I tentatively recommend this series to fans of epic fantasy. The characters and world are very well done; the book just needs to be cleaned up and have a more concise plot.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- Audio Book Challenge
- 150+ Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Audiobook Review - The Warded Man (The Demon Cycle, Book 1) by Peter V. Brett (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 480 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: March 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-0345518705
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Demon Cycle
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 5/5 stars


This is the first book in The Demon Cycle by Brett. The series is supposed to have five books; the third will be titled The Daylight Wars and is scheduled for a Feb 2013 release. The fourth and fifth books are tentatively titled The Forest Fortress and The Core. I really enjoyed this book it has excellent world building, characters that are easy to engage with and an epic story.

I listened to this on audiobook and I really enjoyed it. The narrator did an excellent job of distinguishing between character voices and capturing the characters’ personalities.

This follows the story of Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer. Arlen leaves his small village to learn how to be a messenger and ends up apprenticing as a warder. Leesha dodges marrying the town bully and apprentices as a healer. Rojer, loses his parents but becomes a jongleur. They all live in a world where the night is plagued by demons known as Corelings.

This is a very well done fantasy. There are a lot of characters but they are presented in such a way that they are easy to keep track of and relate to. The world is well done and creative. The characters are likable and easy to engage with. This is one of the few epic fantasies that has an engaging female lead that offsets the male leads very nicely.

Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer have both dark and light aspects to their characters, but unlike some fantasies they are clearly the good characters in this story.

The Corelings are clearly the evil that needs to be vanquished in this world. In the beginning of the story they are kind of just a massive evil that everyone fears. As the story continues though we are slowly starting to learn that there is more to the Corelings than we first knew.

The story does move slowly but the characters are well done and easy to engage with. I love the magic of warding and enjoyed this detailed world plagued by demons. The story covers a broad span of time and switches POV between the three main characters. The POVs worked perfectly for this story.

The book is very easy to read and very well written. I can’t wait to see what future books in this series hold.

The only thing that really bothered me about this book is the notion that no one had ever thought to ward weapons or themselves before Arlen thought of it. Right from the first section where they are talking about ward posts I wondered why no one wore warded jewelry or wrote wards on themselves...but I guess if you can get past that point you’ll really enjoy this story.

Overall an excellent epic fantasy read. If you enjoy Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, or Michael Sullivan I think you will enjoy this book as well. The characters are easy to engage with and there are both strong female and male characters. The story is violent but not as bleak as Brent Week’s Night Angel series for example. The world is well done and intriguing. Highly recommended to fans of epic fantasy.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge

Guest Review - The Warded Man (Demon Trilogy, Book 1) by Peter V. Brett (4/5 stars)

Another guest review from my husband! Enjoy :-)

Reading level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 480 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: March 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-0345518705
Stand Alone or Series: 1st in the Demon Trilogy
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the story is about how a boy becomes the Warded Man. The book also follows the story of two other characters that end up helping him at the end. This is a typical boy grows up to be a man story and about how he becomes cooler than the rest of the people around him. The interesting twist to this story is that every night demons rise from the ground and attack anyone who is not behind a ward of some sort. A lot of people die in this book, because the wards aren’t a very efficient way of keeping the demons at bay.

This book was well written and I enjoyed it. The book was a little bit more predictable than I would have liked, but I think any time you are going to do a story about a child growing up, you are going to have to be a little bit predictable. There were a couple of twists that were nice to see but I wasn’t really surprised by any of them.

I thought the characters as a whole were pretty well thought out and they really drew me in. I did found the book very hard to put down at points; that is always a compliment. The story line could be a little confusing at points because as you are following three different characters, the story jumps ahead in time with each one, and they aren’t on the same timeline. So it was hard to get a really good mental picture about where everyone was at that particular point in time that you are reading about. Overall, if you just kind of accept that, it wasn’t too annoying.

I think this is a good book, and I will continue the series as I get them. This is very much a fantasy book, my personal favorite, and really the only type I tend to read. Though the book was also marked in the horror genre, I really didn’t think that was the case.