It’s true that the focus upon flashbacks might alienate some, but I personally loved learning Jardir’s past, with these sequences standing as some of my favourite in the book. The Desert Spear doesn’t really forward the plot a huge amount from the much faster paced The Painted Man, although I don’t know if this is nearly as much a problem as some critics have suggested. We gain a few new hints about the very interesting sounding ancient past of this setting, not much, but tantalising nonetheless, and I certainly hope to learn more in future novels. Still, the world of the ‘Demon Cycle’ is really all about atmosphere, the atmosphere of fear created by the nightly rise of the corelings.
I had been concerned as to how much Brett could really achieve in the world building in this series, with the world failing to quite come alive for me in The Painted Man, but this depth rather than breadth approach serves the series well. The martial cruelty of Fort Krasia and the parochial small-mindedness of Tibbett’s Brook stand out in particular. This is actually very well handled as interesting, but poorly developed, locations from the first novel become much better fleshed out in this book. Another minor character from The Painted Man plays an increased role in The Desert Spear Renna of Tibbett’s Brook, Arlen’s betrothed before he fled his hometown to become a Messanger, finds herself left alone with her bestial rapist father Harl.īrett doesn’t expand his setting at all in The Desert Spear, instead giving us more detailed depictions of places already seen. Jardir has led a Krasian army to the north, seeking to subjugate the northern kingdoms of Thesa to prepare for the final conflict with the Demons. don’t show up until about 250 pages of the novel, with the opening telling the story of Jardir, the Krasian Shar’Dama’Ka who betrayed Arlen in The Painted Man, stealing the Spear of Kaji and naming himself the Deliverer.
The Desert Spear continues the stories of The Painted Man’s main POV characters, Arlen, Leesha and Rojer following the battle of Cutter’s Hollow, now renamed Deliverer’s Hollow with many believing Arlen, the Painted Man, to be the Deliverer of legend. It’s certainly a more assured release than the original, and I enjoyed it more, but there are many elements which hold it back from greatness. I enjoyed the first novel, but it didn’t blow me away, and although The Desert Spear has built my interest in this series, I’m still not quite convinced. The Desert Spear is the second in Peter Brett’s ‘Demon Cycle’, and the sequel to the enjoyable The Painted Man.
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