Demons Never Give You a Moment of Peace
It’s as if Peter V. Brett keeps getting better as a writer with each successive book in the Demon Cycle series. You definitely get that feeling with The Daylight War. And it’s not just because the stakes dramatically increase in this installment, which is true, but rather because Brett uses his characters much more effectively.
At first, the demons that seep to the surface from the depths of the earth during the night seem quite elusive and faceless. However, as the series progresses, you get to know these hellish creatures better and better.
What starts as a seemingly conventional world in The Warded Man, becomes increasingly complex here. And the demons lurking below ground realize that their dinner is becoming tougher and tougher.
In the Demon Cycle, everything and everyone comes in pairs: day and night, humans and demons, the northern duchies of Thesa and Krasia located in the south, the Creator and Everam, Ahmann Jardir and Arlen Bales. This duality is even more pronounced in Krasia, where men and women are separated just as distinctly as the full-fledged Sharum and the lower, despised Khaffit caste.
However, The Daylight War is about unification. Humanity must unite under the banner of the Deliverer if they are to defeat their common enemy. The problem is that there are two Deliverers. And each one is convinced that he is the true one. And with good reason…
The Daylight War is Just Around the Corner
But what happens in the meantime?
Well, Peter V. Brett has written a book that’s nearly impossible to put down, even though nothing truly monumental happens until the double climax at the end of The Daylight War. Yet, the book is still a fantastic read.
Meanwhile, both leaders, Jardir and Arlen, are preparing. Conflicts arise in both camps, positions shift, and various intrigues unfold (with Abban being particularly adept at this, firmly securing his place among my favorite characters). Rojer, who proved to be the most unnecessary character in the previous book, comes back to life again. (Of course, he requires a few chicks for that.)
And naturally, the romantic lives of the main characters are very prominently featured. But not in the way you would expect.
Everyday Loves
Brett writes the romantic relationships in the Demon Cycle in a way that makes them entirely ordinary. All of this could happen to you just as easily. Two people everyone expects to get together don’t end up together. It happens. And of course, you can love two people at the same time. Though, that can be quite a mess.
It’s already known from the previous installment that Arlen Bales chooses his old fiancée Renna Tanner over Leesha. Why? It’s a mystery. However, Renna rises to become one of the book’s best characters with lightning speed, and the dynamic between her and Arlen works wonderfully, which somehow never came across as strongly with Leesha and Arlen.
Moreover, Brett, after the overly modest first book, gains confidence and gives much more space to his characters’ sexual lives, especially the women’s. This is complemented by female self-realization. Thus, after the love triangles, we get love quadrangles, or even pentagons. However, these fit organically into the events of Daylight War and do not overshadow more important matters. Especially since many of them pine for their chosen ones from a distance.
Inevera shows off her hoo-ha
It’s a fact that Krasia’s people save Peter V. Brett’s series from decent mediocrity. Sure, the battles with the demons work great, but the medieval European-like setting isn’t the most interesting. Moreover, most of the inhabitants of the main location, Cutter’s Hollow, are quite dull. They’re just villagers, that’s just the way it is…
Not so in Krasia: Ambition, striving, intrigue, fanaticism, intense emotions, dedication, a sense of chosenness, and alongside all this, strict military training. Plus, combinations of all these—and here you have guaranteed lasting excitement. While the previous book followed Jardir, this time you can track the rise of his wife, Inevera.
This formula works so well that you don’t even mind that these chapters in The Daylight War tell essentially the same story in the same way as The Desert Spear. Naturally, this is complemented by Inevera’s own perspective, with a personality like that of a “tunnel asp”.
However, Peter V. Brett manages the trick a second time: by the time Inevera becomes the wife of Shar’Dama Ka, you’ve long grown to like her. And it’s not just because she drives half of Krasia’s elite mad with her naked body, unlike her female compatriots who have to hide theirs. (Anyone who looks at her dies, of course.) But because she’s determined, persistent, and unwavering.
Oh my God, what a woman! Absolutely my type!
Demonic Chess Game
The Daylight War culminates in two massive battles. Brett successfully surprises again and again by transforming these clashes into much larger-scale conflicts than you initially expect. You might think The Warded Man is indestructible, but, of course, you could be wrong.
With the emergence of mind demons, the previously routine nightly monster slayings turn into twisted, strategic, and unpredictable operations where no main character is safe.
Brett tops it all off by ending The Daylight War with a brutal cliffhanger. What excitement!
Summary
Peter V. Brett’s The Daylight War is the best installment of the series so far. It’s twisty, full of surprises, and overwhelming. The demon princes emerging from the Core break all the all the established rules. Brett spends the time leading up to the monumental showdown by deepening his characters, revealing their pasts, and altering the dynamics between them. And by the time you reach the halfway point of this hefty volume, you already start to lament that there are only two parts left.
Rating: 8.2/10
The Daylight War (Demon Cycle, #3) by Peter V. Brett
639 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2013 by Random House Del Ray
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Review of previous volumes:
1. The Warded Man
2. The Desert Spear