56 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dissapointing, but still good, July 8, 2010
This review is from: The Desert Spear (Hardcover)
To start with, like many of the other reviewers, I loved the first book. I *bought* the first book, and, as a college student who moves frequently (so money and space are both at a premium), that's saying quite a bit.
That being said, I found this book a rather disappointing sequel. While the first book focused on three characters, building them up slowly, developing them a little and then moving to another, this one spends the entire first half on a single character, Jadir, who we have no reason to like, and not a lot of reason to care about.
I will grant you, the backstory for him is kind of cool, but I can't even give it the praise of being well-written, because the transitions in time (from present day to backstory and back again), were frequently poorly handled, leaving me confused as to why something was happening because I was in the wrong time period.
Even coming in knowing that the first half was about him, I found myself wishing early on that we could just get back to the characters I liked, and their much more promising development. That, however, disappointed as well.
Arlen: Arlen was, and remains, my favorite character in this series. Most of the parts about Arlen involved him beating it into our heads that he isn't human any more, and is such an abomination that he ought to just give up and die. However, his travels alone, and interactions with the people from his past were very well written and fascinating, and his reunion with his adopted parents was poignant.
The Jongular (who's name I forget): That probably says most of what needs to be said about him. He felt like an adjunct character in the first book, and he doesn't seem to be much more here. His sole points of note are his abilities to charm demons with music, his pining for Leesha, and oh, by the way, his ability to charm demons with music.
Leesha: Why, hello there, Leesha, do you mind if I call you Mary Sue, instead? That is, rather sadly, what she's become in this book. Not only can she ward better than anyone, even those who have practiced their whole lives, and who's survival depends (more) upon it *cough*Arlen*cough*, but she is the most beautiful woman on the face of the planet, claims to be able to heal an illness which has stymied all other gathers (a man's inability to have children), and, by the way, can pick up an entire new language in a week or so, in her 20s. Her sole complaint is that her mother remains spiteful and controlling, despite Leesha's ability to control everyone else, and her mother seems to be stuck there solely to annoy the reader.
In fact, I rather hated the way he handled all of the women in this book. They're all beautiful, and are, without fail, either domineering, controlling women, or helpless victims to be abused. This was true in the first book, too, but here it seemed much worse. I won't say more on that issue, because others have said it better than I could, but it would be worth a rant all on its own.
That all being said, it was still a good book. The humor and ingenuity that made me fall in love with the first one was still there, and the plot kept going strong. I loved the inclusion of the demon princes and the way they interacted with and influenced the world around them, making them perhaps my favorite characters this time around.
I probably won't buy this book. I almost definitely won't buy the sequel, especially if he doesn't start wrapping up more loose ends than he creates. I feel a little like I've been down this road with the Wheel of Time books, and I have no desire to keep reading this one until it reaches the point of plotlessness as well.
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30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dissapointed in how he completly neutered the demons, May 24, 2010
This review is from: The Desert Spear (Hardcover)
Let me begin by saying the first book in this series
The Warded Man is easily one of my favorite books of all time. Brett did a brilliant job setting up a world (possibly in our future) where the total human population had been reduced from billions at its peak to a few hundred thousand struggling to survive. In this world, indestructible demons ruled the night and people huddled behind fences that were tested every time the sun went down and where the slighted mistake in setting them up meant that everyone inside would die a violent death. At the end of the first book, the discovery of the combat wards allowed the humans to start to fight back and removed "indestructible" from the demon description. They were still at least the equivalent of a horde of hungry grizzly bears though -- a Krasian in his prime who had trained his entire life should be able to defeat it 3 times out of 4, but they were hardly a push over.
By the end of the second book though, Brett had reduced the demons a little more than a nuisance. The point in the book where he completely lost my support was when Arlen went to the village and told the elders that if they did not take up a spear and go demon hunting he would leave them. So this 80 yr old granny who walks with a cane grabs a spear and goes out and kills a wood demon. Really? Do you think a untrained senior citizen could kill a bear with nothing but a sharp spear and a Taser?
Other reviewers have complained about all the time spent on the Jardir/Krasian back story. Personally I was fine with Brett giving more depth to the culture. After all, this is a civilization who's entire way of life was based around fighting demons and making sure the best fighters had lots of children. They should get top billing in the human's fight against the demons. The training, dedication and sacrifice the Krasians had to go through to be able to fight them was perfectly balanced with the destructive power of those demons. Where the story fell apart was where ordinary farmers, mothers and grannies were just as effective as the Krasians after a few weeks of training. That completely destroyed the mood of fear and danger Brett had cultivated during the first book.
I'm still hopeful Brett will be able to pull it out in the next book. If he had not reduced the demons to a pack of rabid poodles and kept the palpable sense of fear that permeated the first book, this would have been another 5 star review. As it is, this is still a great series and if this book was standing by itself, I'm sure it would have rated higher. It only pales in comparison to the first book.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable sequel, but has its flaws, January 1, 2011
***1/2
I found the second book in Brett's series to be almost as entertaining as the first, though the flaws in his writing seemed more evident this time around. As before, the story is pretty character-driven, and this book fills in the backstory of the Krasian warrior Jardir, revealing him to be a more sympathetic figure than he seemed in the first book. The reader learns a lot about the desert culture of Krasia, which resembles a mix of the Middle East and ancient Sparta. While this digression away from the events and characters of The Warded Man takes up about a third of the book, I much enjoyed the detailed exploration of a world quite different from the "western"-style lands of the north.
Eventually, the novel gets back to Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer. At this point, the story flounders a bit as the characters get sucked into endless personal drama and some dull and repetitive coreling-fighting sequences, after they discover weapons and hitherto hidden combat skills that make the formerly scary demons ridiculously easy to kill. While Brett is by no means lacking insight into human behavior, some of his plot choices feel cheesy and contrived. "How can I make this story more interesting?", the author seems to be thinking, "I know -- I'll make Leesha and Jardir fall for each other." Never mind that one abhors violence, and the other commands the troops sacking her country -- some soap opera-style mooning quickly overcomes these little differences. Also, my second Peter Brett reading experience made me painfully conscious of his tendency to use the same verbs and phrases over and over. Not a page goes by without someone shrugging or scowling, and "he embraced the pain and let it pass through him" becomes a familiar mantra. And characters sometimes say and do things that seem a little anachronistic for their world, such as suddenly developing a fixation on the scientific method.
All in all, though, I was in mood for escapist fantasy, and this book was a satisfying if not altogether stunning continuation of its predecessor. The invasion of the north by Krasia and the differences between the two "Deliverers", not to mention Arlen's steady shift towards the dark side, should offer the forthcoming third book plenty of plot fodder, though, hopefully, the editor will be a little more empowered on that one. If you're a fan of the modern fantasy genre, this series is a solid entry, though it falls a bit short of better works, like George R.R. Martin's.
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