The Desert Spear

The Desert Spear is the story of Jardir, a brand new main character into the world of the Demon Cycle. As excited I was to continue Arlen's narration, I was drawn into Jardir's backstory that was finely interwoven with events that were told in the Warded Man.

I don't feel this is a spoiler, but it's worth warning fans that the story starts anew instead of continuing from the cliffhanger of the previous novel. I hated this at first, but grew to love Jardir and I think you will too. The rich world-building and escalation of the scale of the story, as well as the changes to human society are your rewards in this fine novel once we pick up the 'present day' storyline.

Unfortunately, Peter Brett is still terrible at writing romance and family drama, and yet he keeps inserting these as subplots that deter from more thrilling and enjoyable elements of Arlen and Jardir's lives. I detested those subplots in the Warded Man, and they aren't written any better (nor more enjoyable) in The Desert Spear.

As such, this is a case of less is more. An editor that shortened those sequences and streamlined the story would have resulted in a perfect 5 star novel. Instead, I urge you to skim-read the secondary characters and shamelessly skip background (or Leesha's mother doing anything). You'll enjoy this a lot more.

I do find that Peter Brett's non-traditional story structure to be really challenging - we're very far from the Three Act pattern. The sudden climax at the end was exactly that: sudden. It was abrupt with little build up, with neither Arlen or Jardir even aware of the Calling Princes until they were fighting them.

I don't mind that the Calling Princes got the drop on our heroes, but I would have preferred the narration to build up to the attacks. For the majority of the book (in the present day), the Calling Princes were just spies. They added flavour and a sense of impending doom, but the sudden switch to active antagonists was too abrupt.

That said, their attacks also saved the book for me. The last act of both storylines showcased the author's weakest skill: writing romance. I could not care less for the relationship Jardir wanted to build with Leesha, or the new character Reina (whose backstory was unwelcome and insertion into the story sudden and jarring). I was close to giving this book 3 stars, despite a fantastic start, but the battles at the end upped the stakes appropriately.

The pacing is weird in the first book. I had a constant feeling of "okay, the story is getting interesting here — let's switch to another character!" Well, the second book starts with the childhood of the most hated character in the first book. And keeps describing it for what felt like half the book, full of unnecessary detail.

But somehow it grows on you. I eventually succumbed to it, and just read it as another story set in the same world. The Krasian culture is introduced in minute detail. It is not a very nice culture. I thought, okay, this author hates Middle Eastern cultures. It can still be a good book if I ignore this aspect. This works. But also books #3 and #4 show that Brett is making a bigger play. He shows this oppressive culture and its effects on people, but then gradually (over multiple books) starts to redeem it.

As you read you also start to realize, that everything in the first book happened in the middle of nowhere. On the periphery. Krasia is not a remote city in the desert. It is what the history is about, and the rest of the world is a remote area outside of the desert. It is an interesting feeling of reversal, and quite an original story-telling technique.

The second half of the book gets us back to the present. We revisit familiar places from the first book and get some closure here and there. The characters still sometimes make unexpected, uncharacteristic moves, where they seem to be moved against their will by the forces of the greater story arc the author wants to tell. If you made it this far, you have learned to accept these and just enjoy the show :). I mean Arlen hooking up with Renna, Leesha hooking up with Jardir...

The most entertaining part still is all the technical details of warding and demon killing. The demons get some agenda now, which I was wary of at first. I think it was really interesting that humanity was fighting and losing against unintelligent beings. A fight between two intelligent factions I thought would take away from the originality. But I think it is done well. The war still remains very asymmetrical even with a degree of intelligence added on the demon side.