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A review by mwplante
The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett
4.0
With The Daylight War, Brett's Demon Cycle continues to make tantalizing reading, with plenty of fine set-up and regularly interspersed pay-offs. The secret to this lies in the attention Brett pays to characterization and backstory. Beware any character you think you have "figured out", because in the Demon Cycle that just means the author hasn't seen fit to pull the rug out from under you yet. For a "dark" fantasy, the Demon Cycle is profoundly humanist and even optimistic in nature. Yes, Brett delves the dark side of the human soul -- ensuring that the demons of the human heart are on the reader's mind just as often as the more literal demons that plague Ala -- but he's always ready with a spot of redemption or contextualization.
Brett's cultures show this streak of universal worth as well. While Krasia can at times start to sound like a neo-con fever dream, and Arlen can begin to look an awful lot like an arrogant 16-year-old who's just discovered atheism and/or politics, Brett often takes care to reign things in. One scene in The Daylight War, for instance, has an incresingly reform-minded but still deeply religious Jardir offering an impassioned and convincing defense of religious dietary restrictions. Brett demonstrates a firm grasp on the worth and remarkable fluidity of human lifeways, keeping both the characters and cultures in his novel vibrant and colorful.
And unlike so much of fantasy writing, it isn't just the men in Brett's novels who learn and grow; Brett has shown an increasing determination over the course of the Demon Cycle that women shouldn't have to play second fiddle to the men in fiction -- perhaps the influence of his daughter. Here in book three, we find a vast array of varied and fully-developed ladies battling and schemeing right alongside the men.
If all this character and world-building wizardry isn't enough, the action scenes of The Daylight War are even more excellent than in previous installments (particularly the rather talky Desert Spear) as the unique magic system continues to unfold and gain in complexity. What started as the rather simple system of wards has flowered into a more complex pantheon of fantastic artifacts and abilities by book three. Brett's demon bestiary has been similarly extrapolated along logical but no less imaginative lines from previous installments, making humanity's adversaries increasingly interesting and menacing.
I would say that this book has some pacing issues, but perhaps these are unavoidable given the ground Brett has to cover with three big cohorts of characters to follow, in addition to tackling a lush backstory for the heretofore mysterious Inevera. In any event, the pacing is improved over The Desert Spear, particularly in the climactic phases, which are markedly more satisfying than the previous book's somewhat abrupt concluding episodes. We've finally returned to (and surpassed) the explosive grandeur of The Warded Man's Battle of Cutter's Hollow.
Overall, I have to say Brett has proven himself a character builder and world craftsman of high caliber, and The Daylight War showcases his most adroit deployments of this skill to date. I can feel the series kicking into high gear, and I can't wait for book four.
Brett's cultures show this streak of universal worth as well. While Krasia can at times start to sound like a neo-con fever dream, and Arlen can begin to look an awful lot like an arrogant 16-year-old who's just discovered atheism and/or politics, Brett often takes care to reign things in. One scene in The Daylight War, for instance, has an incresingly reform-minded but still deeply religious Jardir offering an impassioned and convincing defense of religious dietary restrictions. Brett demonstrates a firm grasp on the worth and remarkable fluidity of human lifeways, keeping both the characters and cultures in his novel vibrant and colorful.
And unlike so much of fantasy writing, it isn't just the men in Brett's novels who learn and grow; Brett has shown an increasing determination over the course of the Demon Cycle that women shouldn't have to play second fiddle to the men in fiction -- perhaps the influence of his daughter. Here in book three, we find a vast array of varied and fully-developed ladies battling and schemeing right alongside the men.
If all this character and world-building wizardry isn't enough, the action scenes of The Daylight War are even more excellent than in previous installments (particularly the rather talky Desert Spear) as the unique magic system continues to unfold and gain in complexity. What started as the rather simple system of wards has flowered into a more complex pantheon of fantastic artifacts and abilities by book three. Brett's demon bestiary has been similarly extrapolated along logical but no less imaginative lines from previous installments, making humanity's adversaries increasingly interesting and menacing.
I would say that this book has some pacing issues, but perhaps these are unavoidable given the ground Brett has to cover with three big cohorts of characters to follow, in addition to tackling a lush backstory for the heretofore mysterious Inevera. In any event, the pacing is improved over The Desert Spear, particularly in the climactic phases, which are markedly more satisfying than the previous book's somewhat abrupt concluding episodes. We've finally returned to (and surpassed) the explosive grandeur of The Warded Man's Battle of Cutter's Hollow.
Overall, I have to say Brett has proven himself a character builder and world craftsman of high caliber, and The Daylight War showcases his most adroit deployments of this skill to date. I can feel the series kicking into high gear, and I can't wait for book four.