Publishers: Del
Rey
Pages: 579
Main Characters:
Ahmann Jardir, Arlen,
Leesha, Rojer
The Desert Spear is
the second book in Peter V. Brett's Demon
Cycle series. The novel can be basically split into three parts. The first
is the tale of Ahmann Jardir- the Sha’Dama Ka (roughly meaning The Deliverer).
Ahmann’s story tells of his rise from a dirty street urchin to the best fighter
in the desert kingdom of Krasia. During his short and violent days ‘running the
maze’ and battling the daemons of the night, Ahmann meets his wife-to-be Inevera.
Inevera is a Dama’ting and is blessed with magical dice that can tell the
future. The dice tell Inevera that she can mould Ahmann into the Deliverer and that
he could unite Krasia into one kingdom, leading his people in a great war
against the Daemons. Inevera uses all of her power to direct, manipulate and help
him achieve this goal.
The second part of the book focuses on Arlen, Leesha and
Rojer, picking up after the first novel The Painted Man. After returning the battle wards to humanity and being betrayed
by his closest friend Jardir, Arlen focuses solely on sharing his new wards
with the world. Along with Leesha and Rojer, Arlen helps form the Cutters of
Cutter’s Hollow into and elite daemon killing army.
With the Hollow defended against daemons, Arlen sets out on
a solitary life, as he comes to terms with what daemon magic has done to his
body and soul. On his wanderings Arlen returns to his home village of Tibbet’s
Brook. There he is reunited with his childhood sweetheart Renna Tanner, who convinces
Arlen to let her accompany him on his travels.
Like The Painted Man
I listened to this book as an audiobook. I have to say that I thought the
quality of the audio was much better in
The Desert Spear than it was with The
Painted Man. Plus, I really enjoyed listening to the voices of the characters
I hadn’t heard from in over two years (since I last listened to The Painted Man).
Fan art of Ahmann Jardir |
I know some people weren’t a massive fan of it, but I really
enjoyed reading about Jardir’s upbringing and learning more about the customs
of Krasia. Some people complained that it took too long to get back to Arlen’s story;
however I actually like the bravado and intensity of Jardir. Much like other
great characters from literature (such as Boromir), Jardir’s flawed personality
and his dilemma of choosing his people or his friend appealed to me, and I
found him the most interesting character in the novel.
However, one character I couldn’t stand was Reena Tanner.
The farm girl-turn-daemon hunter continually got on my nerves throughout the
book and whenever she got in trouble, she would pretty much just sleep with
someone to try and get away with it. This keeps leading me to think; how can
this idiotic, annoying farmer’s daughter really manage to keep up with Arlen
Bails? I hope her development over the next few novels makes her a bit more
grown up and likeable because in this book I just mostly wanted to skip her
parts!
This was a really enjoyable read and is a bit different to
the standard fantasy novels out there at the minute. I think the series has a
lot of potential and I’m very excited to start the next book; The Daylight War.
For author’s official website click here.
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