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A review by thomas_edmund
The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett
3.0
Like many other reviewers, it seems, I liked The Painted/Warded Man, enjoyed The Desert Spear less, but was interested to see where the series was heading and ultimately was disappointed by this third installment.
The unusual thing is Daylight War isn't necessarily that bad, it simply possesses positive and negative points in equal abundance. Leaving the reader a feeling of spending time with a treasured friend who has been unusually obnoxious that day.
So where to begin?
I'll start with the good - unlike The Desert Spear, the demons feature more dangerously in this installment, and Brett shows his flair for battle and bloodshed. Most of the story is 'interesting' (said in scare quotes because interesting doesn't always cut it, more on this later) We find out more about the demons and this is exciting, also the consequences of Arlen's ingestion and continuing demonisation become both bad-ass and concerning.
What went wrong?
Unfortunately quite a few things. I don't want to pan the backstory issues too much as many, many other reviewers have done this. What I will say is treating us to Inerva's backstory is 'interesting' but not vital to the plot at all. We already know she succeeds in achieving the position she covets, and her backstory does not bring any tension to the plot that wasn't already there. Her backstory did highlight a general flaw in Brett's writing in that almost all his main characters seem to such inherit a knack for their special skills, and while there is some story in the development of said powers (in book one mostly) often it is more a case of being born able to do cool stuff.
Another problem, which may just be my opinion: Brett seems poor at creating authentic relationships. Without going into spoilerish detail, characters just fall apart and explicitly together again without real character consistency. In terms of details Brett comes across as torn between an x-rated George RR Martin take on love(sex), and a more innocent funny style that jars with the former.
Anyone with a paper copy of this book will likely realise this is a bloated tome. Brett has a talent for violent, dangerous scenes and apocalyptic bad guys. The ultimate problem with the Daylight War is everything else that happens in this story.
The unusual thing is Daylight War isn't necessarily that bad, it simply possesses positive and negative points in equal abundance. Leaving the reader a feeling of spending time with a treasured friend who has been unusually obnoxious that day.
So where to begin?
I'll start with the good - unlike The Desert Spear, the demons feature more dangerously in this installment, and Brett shows his flair for battle and bloodshed. Most of the story is 'interesting' (said in scare quotes because interesting doesn't always cut it, more on this later) We find out more about the demons and this is exciting, also the consequences of Arlen's ingestion and continuing demonisation become both bad-ass and concerning.
What went wrong?
Unfortunately quite a few things. I don't want to pan the backstory issues too much as many, many other reviewers have done this. What I will say is treating us to Inerva's backstory is 'interesting' but not vital to the plot at all. We already know she succeeds in achieving the position she covets, and her backstory does not bring any tension to the plot that wasn't already there. Her backstory did highlight a general flaw in Brett's writing in that almost all his main characters seem to such inherit a knack for their special skills, and while there is some story in the development of said powers (in book one mostly) often it is more a case of being born able to do cool stuff.
Another problem, which may just be my opinion: Brett seems poor at creating authentic relationships. Without going into spoilerish detail, characters just fall apart and explicitly together again without real character consistency. In terms of details Brett comes across as torn between an x-rated George RR Martin take on love(sex), and a more innocent funny style that jars with the former.
Anyone with a paper copy of this book will likely realise this is a bloated tome. Brett has a talent for violent, dangerous scenes and apocalyptic bad guys. The ultimate problem with the Daylight War is everything else that happens in this story.