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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
I want to see what happens next, but the reretelling of the story from other pov's is getting old, what next a demon pov?
Wow.Just.. Wow. That last paragraph literally had me exclaiming a "WTF?". I did NOT see that coming, at all. And now I'm stuck, wanting more, but being confined to waiting for the release of the next part. Mental note to self: STOP reading series where the ending hasn't been written yet!
The ending of The Daylight War just leaves me with my jaw dropped to the floor and a feeling of "Did just happen? o.O". I frickin' loved this book, from the characters to the vocabulary of the Hollowers.
This series should be turned into a television series and/or game asap.
The ending of The Daylight War just leaves me with my jaw dropped to the floor and a feeling of "Did just happen? o.O". I frickin' loved this book, from the characters to the vocabulary of the Hollowers.
This series should be turned into a television series and/or game asap.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Almost as perfect as the last one. But, the pacing was odd, and it detracted a bit from the reading experience, also the reaction of Arlen’s team/friends to his last decision felt odd. Maybe the next one will explain it better.
⭐⭐║The Daylight War marks the end of my journey with The Demon Cycle. What began as a gripping and innovative series in The Warded Man devolved into a bloated, unfocused soap opera with only occasional moments of excitement. Brett drags this third installment down with needless backstory, cringey relationship drama, and gratuitous sexual content I have no interest in. 2.5 stars. Wish I hadn’t bought all five books. Sigh...
I rarely DNF series, but I’m not a masochist. My TBR is packed with more promising reads. The final nail in the coffin? I hit the climactic battle and realized I was completely detached. I didn’t care who lived or died. If anything, I was rooting for the demons.
This book spends an exhausting amount of time delving into Inevera’s rise through Krasian society—an extended backstory that adds little to the main plot. Instead of focusing on the interesting escalations of the demon war, we mostly get melodrama. Arlen and Jardir’s compelling rivalry finally comes to a head, but only after slogging through Leesha’s relentless sex-capades, tedious political drama, Renna’s endless “Love you, Arlen Bales,” and whatever bizarre subplot our fiddle-playing polygamist Rojer is caught up in. It feels like Brett set out to write a scandalous soap opera instead of an epic fantasy with depth and purpose. Why not focus on the demons, resolving the conflict between the competing “chosen ones” and the titular hook of the series, the demon cycle?! This could have been a good trilogy instead of five books if it stuck to its premise.
The characters seem to forget they’re surviving in a demon-infested nightmare. Instead, they focus on seducing, dominating, raping or "spreading their seed." They think about, talk about and frequently practice baby-making, stroking and “sticking” each other with their “stiffened members,” playing with each other’s “seed pods,” and getting hot and dripping wet in their insatiable quests for erotic pleasure. I’m no prude, but come on. I don’t get excited about erotica in my fantasy books. I can only assume fans of this series like it or ignore it, because there is certainly no avoiding it. Throwing this much erotic content into a grimdark post-apocalyptic fantasy world is at its best over-the-top commentary on human depravity, and at its worst gratuitous, perverse, grotesquely self-indulgent, jarring storytelling. It’s also terrible world-building. I just feel like, in this bleak and brutal world full of death and turmoil, people like Leesha wouldn’t be this horny all the time, especially after what she experienced in book 1. It’s ridiculous.
This book's episodic structure and cliffhanger ending left me unsatisfied. While the warded magic, nightmarish demons, and two clashing Deliverers had potential, it’s buried under layers of fluff. If this doesn’t sound like a deal-breaker, give it a shot. Want to buy my copies? I’m moving on.
The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett
Book 1: The Warded Man – 4/5
Book 2: The Desert Spear – 3.5/5
Book 3: The Daylight War – 2.5/5
I rarely DNF series, but I’m not a masochist. My TBR is packed with more promising reads. The final nail in the coffin? I hit the climactic battle and realized I was completely detached. I didn’t care who lived or died. If anything, I was rooting for the demons.
This book spends an exhausting amount of time delving into Inevera’s rise through Krasian society—an extended backstory that adds little to the main plot. Instead of focusing on the interesting escalations of the demon war, we mostly get melodrama. Arlen and Jardir’s compelling rivalry finally comes to a head, but only after slogging through Leesha’s relentless sex-capades, tedious political drama, Renna’s endless “Love you, Arlen Bales,” and whatever bizarre subplot our fiddle-playing polygamist Rojer is caught up in. It feels like Brett set out to write a scandalous soap opera instead of an epic fantasy with depth and purpose. Why not focus on the demons, resolving the conflict between the competing “chosen ones” and the titular hook of the series, the demon cycle?! This could have been a good trilogy instead of five books if it stuck to its premise.
The characters seem to forget they’re surviving in a demon-infested nightmare. Instead, they focus on seducing, dominating, raping or "spreading their seed." They think about, talk about and frequently practice baby-making, stroking and “sticking” each other with their “stiffened members,” playing with each other’s “seed pods,” and getting hot and dripping wet in their insatiable quests for erotic pleasure. I’m no prude, but come on. I don’t get excited about erotica in my fantasy books. I can only assume fans of this series like it or ignore it, because there is certainly no avoiding it. Throwing this much erotic content into a grimdark post-apocalyptic fantasy world is at its best over-the-top commentary on human depravity, and at its worst gratuitous, perverse, grotesquely self-indulgent, jarring storytelling. It’s also terrible world-building. I just feel like, in this bleak and brutal world full of death and turmoil, people like Leesha wouldn’t be this horny all the time, especially after what she experienced in book 1. It’s ridiculous.
This book's episodic structure and cliffhanger ending left me unsatisfied. While the warded magic, nightmarish demons, and two clashing Deliverers had potential, it’s buried under layers of fluff. If this doesn’t sound like a deal-breaker, give it a shot. Want to buy my copies? I’m moving on.
The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett
Book 1: The Warded Man – 4/5
Book 2: The Desert Spear – 3.5/5
Book 3: The Daylight War – 2.5/5
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
My experience of this series is just... weird. On occasion it can actually be a compelling read, and it does get the macro things right (big open world, demons to fight, political machinations stewing). But where it falls short for me is the constant shift in characters, tone and focus, not to mention some serious issues around female characters, sexual violence, and editorial decisions that are apparently more interested in the commercial spinning out of the series rather than good storytelling.
It is, to me at least, a book of two halves and what seems like a dozen different authors/editors. The writing is far better than the first two books in general, though it can seem clunkier during the first half (some odd repetitions still happen though - count the use of "cranium"). The fact that the first half is dominated by overly long flashbacks of Inevera's POV, seemingly randomly inserted rather than logically structured (barring the explanation of the "zahven" concept) make the story drag. It also serves are awkward retrospective character and world building that fills in some gaps that would have made more sense to have been filled in earlier. She could be interesting in one of those grimdark coming of age stories (though it's rather similar to Jardir's - the female characters don't seem very... female?), but not at this point where we're all just waiting for something big and demon-battle-y to happen.
The structure feels a little "pantsed" rather than plotted out, especially when characters start talking differently from previous books, adding in new "well-known" phrases or details about themselves that they haven't seen fit to mention before (Leesha's migraines for instance - if they'd been purely circumstantial I would have got it, but it seems she's "always" had them when stressed. And she hasn't been stressed out in the whole 1000+ previous pages of her life?!)
Characters don't seem consistent from chapter to chapter, let alone book to book.
I just don't get these guys. Arlen's gone all chilled out; Leesha's more shrill and irrational than ever despite being the "clever" one; Roger can't decide if he's nice or a horrible petulant child... They just don't seem their ages (or themselves) at all. Renna comes across as a horrible ball or jealousy and rage. That said, Abban, Inevara and Jardir did actually get some decent character growth and stopped being so one-dimensional and obvious. Jardir's Leesha obsession was still uncomfortable (she said no, dude, and you were weirdly fine with it until you weren't?), and his supposed love for Inevera didn't make sense considering how they treated/thought about each other throughout.
I still think character relationships just happen or are stated rather than growing. The romances came across emotionless and dominated by statements or repeated phrase actions that wouldn't be out of place in romance novels (characters get "kissed deeply" a lot). There's part of me that wants to say this is a boy version of the Throne of Glass series because of the sexual obsession and flip-floppy romances that just fall out of nowhere because one (totally irritable) character says so. I just don't feel any believable emotional connection between any of them no matter how many times they may declare "love you". There's far too much time devoted to the soap opera of bad romances and in your face sexual encounters (there's one graphic oral sex session that I felt was unnecessarily so - clinical and anatomical where it was supposed to be consentual and... loving?)
I ended up skim-reading quite often to avoid the more dull moments where the plot didn't seem to advance because of these romances, or on occasion the over-powered battles that seemed to get inspiration from Jet Li movies as much as D&AD novels. Again, like the books of SJM there's a tendency towards power-creep where our Gary Stu/Mary Sue just keeps getting moar awesome because Reasons.
I found it disturbing how female characters were usually described in an uncomfortably sexualized way, especially if they're "still good looking for their age". Even when from a female character's perspective, the state of other female character's breasts is picked up on. Also it seemed creepy to me that characters who have been terribly abusive towards women are somehow absolved (Gared? Yikes).
What it did do well was much later on in the last 50 or so pages where the political scheming of the Krasians gets interesting in a Game of Thrones-clone sort of way, and finally(!) Arlen and Jardir get their showdown.
I found out that lots of little references to unknown events are due to chapters being held back for the novellas and short stories. To me this diminished the storytelling by cutting out important scenes (such as Arlen's first meeting of Jardir and Abban) and withholding them for commercial purposes rather than because they were just nice little extras.
To me, it seems this series started as a plot-centric boy-vs-demons story and morphed awkwardly into that GoT clone/fantasy politics territory via grimdark soap opera romances. My experience was that this instalment could drag something terrible with it's bizarre choices of narrative flashbacks and hopping around between writing themes and styles. The ending actually showed the most promise, but built as it is on the unsound foundations of books 1 and 2 (and arguably the first half of book 3, considering how much time it spent trying to retrospectively rebuild those foundations) it doesn't make a lot of sense to me the direction in which it was going. I do really want to see what comes of the whole demon war aspect, but I can understand the appeal of dropping out due to the character psychodramas that dominate the more interesting things about the world of the Demon Cycle.
It is, to me at least, a book of two halves and what seems like a dozen different authors/editors. The writing is far better than the first two books in general, though it can seem clunkier during the first half (some odd repetitions still happen though - count the use of "cranium"). The fact that the first half is dominated by overly long flashbacks of Inevera's POV, seemingly randomly inserted rather than logically structured (barring the explanation of the "zahven" concept) make the story drag. It also serves are awkward retrospective character and world building that fills in some gaps that would have made more sense to have been filled in earlier. She could be interesting in one of those grimdark coming of age stories (though it's rather similar to Jardir's - the female characters don't seem very... female?), but not at this point where we're all just waiting for something big and demon-battle-y to happen.
The structure feels a little "pantsed" rather than plotted out, especially when characters start talking differently from previous books, adding in new "well-known" phrases or details about themselves that they haven't seen fit to mention before (Leesha's migraines for instance - if they'd been purely circumstantial
Spoiler
like menstrual migraines that went away after her teens but came back because she was pregnantCharacters don't seem consistent from chapter to chapter, let alone book to book.
I just don't get these guys. Arlen's gone all chilled out
Spoiler
(now Renna's "sticking" him? Though that sounds anatomically the wrong way round)I still think character relationships just happen or are stated rather than growing. The romances came across emotionless and dominated by statements or repeated phrase actions that wouldn't be out of place in romance novels (characters get "kissed deeply" a lot). There's part of me that wants to say this is a boy version of the Throne of Glass series because of the sexual obsession and flip-floppy romances that just fall out of nowhere because one (totally irritable) character says so. I just don't feel any believable emotional connection between any of them no matter how many times they may declare "love you". There's far too much time devoted to the soap opera of bad romances and in your face sexual encounters (there's one graphic oral sex session that I felt was unnecessarily so - clinical and anatomical where it was supposed to be consentual and... loving?)
I ended up skim-reading quite often to avoid the more dull moments where the plot didn't seem to advance because of these romances, or on occasion the over-powered battles that seemed to get inspiration from Jet Li movies as much as D&AD novels. Again, like the books of SJM there's a tendency towards power-creep where our Gary Stu/Mary Sue just keeps getting moar awesome because Reasons.
Spoiler
Arlen discovers amazing powers after the mind demon in book 2, but doesn't tell us until way late on in the book about them and acts like he's been doing them all along even though he kinda... hasn't? How does he just know stuff? Surely it'd have been more powerful for us to see his discover these powers and receive the knowledge rather than have him info-dump to us later?I found it disturbing how female characters were usually described in an uncomfortably sexualized way, especially if they're "still good looking for their age". Even when from a female character's perspective, the state of other female character's breasts is picked up on. Also it seemed creepy to me that characters who have been terribly abusive towards women are somehow absolved (Gared? Yikes).
What it did do well was much later on in the last 50 or so pages where the political scheming of the Krasians gets interesting in a Game of Thrones-clone sort of way, and finally(!) Arlen and Jardir get their showdown.
I found out that lots of little references to unknown events are due to chapters being held back for the novellas and short stories. To me this diminished the storytelling by cutting out important scenes (such as Arlen's first meeting of Jardir and Abban) and withholding them for commercial purposes rather than because they were just nice little extras.
To me, it seems this series started as a plot-centric boy-vs-demons story and morphed awkwardly into that GoT clone/fantasy politics territory via grimdark soap opera romances. My experience was that this instalment could drag something terrible with it's bizarre choices of narrative flashbacks and hopping around between writing themes and styles. The ending actually showed the most promise, but built as it is on the unsound foundations of books 1 and 2 (and arguably the first half of book 3, considering how much time it spent trying to retrospectively rebuild those foundations) it doesn't make a lot of sense to me the direction in which it was going. I do really want to see what comes of the whole demon war aspect, but I can understand the appeal of dropping out due to the character psychodramas that dominate the more interesting things about the world of the Demon Cycle.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Eh. This one was interesting, but gotta say, not in love with this series any more. Characters shifted.
One of the best series I have read in a long time. Lots of excitement, twists, and great character development.