Guest Review: The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett
Blurb:
In this third volume in the internationally bestselling Demon Cycle series, humanity has found hope in the battle against demonkind, if only they can avoid going to war with themselves.
The night of the new moon, an army of demons rises in force, seeking the deaths of two men with the potential to become the Deliverer—the man prophesied to reunite the scattered remnants of humanity.
Arlen Bales, the Warded Man, denies he is the Deliverer, but the more he tries to live as one with the common folk, the more fervently they believe.
Among the desert tribes, Ahmann Jardir has proclaimed himself the Deliverer, forging his followers into a mighty demon-killing army. But Jardir’s rise was engineered by his First Wife, Inevera, a cunning and powerful priestess whose motives and past are shrouded in mystery.
Once Arlen and Jardir were as close as brothers. Now they are the bitterest of rivals. As humanity’s enemies rise, the two must first contend with the most deadly demons of all—those lurking in the human heart.
Review:
The story begins just like the other ones where we jump back in time to see the past of one of the side characters. This time we see the history of the Dama’ting Inevera. The story delves into how she was chosen as a Dama’ting and then her training afterwards. During this time you see how brutal this world is through the rigorous training and the abuse that Inevera is put through. You see how it strengthens her and turns into the person she is now. For better and worse. There are some events that are shown through her pov that have already been shown and these don’t bring anything new to those events. However, you see how much she has sacrificed and how obsessed she is to make Ahmann Jardir the Deliverer or Shar'Dama Ka.
As with the previous books this long backstory really makes the book lag. There are long chapters of this without any brakes. Fortunately when we are brought back to current events the story does pick up. We are introduced to new mind demons and they are smart and can adapt. They change the overall dynamic of the story nicely. They are a great addition to add new depth to the story.
Arlen and the rest of the Hollow, are also growing and are developing into deeper characters. The new expanding powers and the way they are shown are really fun and enjoyable to read. The growth of Arlen and how he allows himself to be true to who he is, is very good character arc. The way he finds love in Renna and how this changes him was very well done.
There are some chapters of Renna as she grew up, and these were some very rough reads. There was a point where I was like this needs to pay off in a big way. Otherwise it could have read as just some very pointless brutality towards a character. It pays off, but honestly don’t think it needed to be dark as it was.
Leesha and Rojer going with Jardir and how the two different cultures interacted was done very well. How they each are easily insulted by just their customs was very spot on. The conflicts between all the characters during this point were very enjoyable and the pacing was great. The interactions between Leesha and Inevera were really well done. The story telling during this was great and the new things we find out here a great. The world building and the depth that are created by the interactions of the characters are great. Rojer and his story line is good, he is constantly pushing himself to be better and his growth in this book is great. He learns that he just needs himself and knows that he can attribute and make his own decisions. The new magic he finds he can do and the decisions he makes for himself really pushes the story further.
After Arlen and Jardir both help their own people with holding back the mind demons Arlen realizes that they have to change how they do things. Than he and Jardir are set to have a fight so Jardir can prove he is the Deliverer, and Arlen can prove that the Krasians way is not the right way. The book than ends in a cliff…..hanger.
The pacing in the final two thirds was good. The character development is very good. And the overall story is getting better and better. Look forward to the next one.
Guest Reviewer Bio:
Jon aka JSB started reading fantasy at a young age thanks to his older brother introducing him to Redwall. After Redwall he moved on to Dragon Lance and Drizzt; with these two is where his love of fantasy grew. As a teenager he started reading The Sword of Truth series and this is where the love of epic fantasy and complex characters were forged. Lately has begun to read mostly indie authors. Favorite authors are Brandon Sanderson, Ryan Cahill and Philip C Quaintrell. When not reading you can find Jon in the gym; where lifting heavy things clears his mind.
