Review: The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett

Jun 8, 2010 by shanyn

Title: The Desert Spear
Hardcover, 496 pages
Author: Peter V. Brett
Publisher: Del Ray
Publication Date: April 13, 2010

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Book Summary:
The sun is setting on humanity. The night now belongs to voracious demons that arise as the sun sets, preying upon a dwindling population forced to cower behind ancient and half-forgotten symbols of power. These wards alone can keep the demons at bay, but legends tell of a Deliverer: a general—some would say prophet—who once bound all mankind into a single force that defeated the demons. Those times, if they ever existed, are long past. The demons are back, and the return of the Deliverer is just another myth . . . or is it?

Out of the desert rides Ahmann Jardir, who has forged the warlike desert tribes of Krasia into a demon-killing army. He has proclaimed himself Shar’Dama Ka, the Deliverer, and he carries ancient weapons—a spear and a crown—that give credence to his claim. Sworn to follow the path of the first Deliverer, he has come north to bring the scattered city-states of the green lands together in a war against demonkind—whether they like it or not.

But the northerners claim their own Deliverer. His name was Arlen, but all know him now as the Warded Man: a dark, forbidding figure whose skin is tattooed with wards so powerful they make him a match for any demon. The Warded Man denies that he is the Deliverer, but his actions speak louder than words, for he teaches men and women to face their fears and stand fast against the creatures that have tormented them for centuries.

Once the Shar’Dama Ka and the Warded Man were friends, brothers in arms. Now they are fierce adversaries. Caught between them are Renna, a young woman pushed to the edge of human endurance; Leesha, a proud and beautiful healer whose skill in warding surpasses that of the Warded Man himself; and Rojer, a traveling fiddler whose uncanny music can soothe the demons—or stir them into such frenzy that they attack one another.

Yet as old allegiances are tested and fresh alliances forged, all are blissfully unaware of the appearance of a new breed of demon, more intelligent—and deadly—than any that have come before.

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Steve Review:
Woooo. This book was truly a great one. Once again, I know this isn’t most of y’all’s cup of tea, and once again, I ask that you let me read non-YA every now and then. Please and thank you :p . This adult fantasy novel ranks towards the top of my favorite books of all time. Really, let me repeat that, this book is one of my all-time favorites!!

The summary up above is almost too detailed for my taste but it definitely does a great job of setting up The Desert Spear. My huge bone to pick with the book is that I was misled. Shanyn and I were shopping at Barnes & Noble, and every once in a while she says, “Steve, love of my life, go pick out a book that you want to read. You deserve it, baby.” Hm. lol, well maybe she doesn’t say those exact words, but she lets me pick out a book from a non-YA section and I’m like yayyy! So I browsed around and settled on TDS, there was praise for another novel from Mr. Brett on the cover and the summary of the book/cover made me fall instantly in lust with it. So far, it doesn’t appear that I was misled does it? Well, here it is, this book is actually the SECOND book in a trilogy (The Demon Trilogy); it fails to mention that fact anywhere inside the book, on the cover, or in the summary!!! I figured it out on my own when a character called “The Warded Man” appears (this is the name of the first book in the series and the novel receiving praise on the back cover of TDS) around halfway through the book. Sigh.

That large deceiving bone aside, I didn’t feel like I missed a ton of backstory, I felt like I learned a lot about Jardir, whom the story mainly focuses on. I cannot wait to go back to the first book and learn more about the Warded Man and Leesha. The writing was awesome, it really brought to life all the characters and I adore both Jardir and Rojer. Even the characters that I didn’t necessarily care about at the beginning began to grow on me. The demons didn’t make up a huge point of view in the story telling, but when they did it was certainly dramatic and foreboding.

Hands down a great read, but not an easy one. The subjects in the book are very adult and it honestly is not a light, pick up and go book. The many words in a made up language make the beginning challenging, but it almost feels rewarding as you get past the learning curve and really let the book come into its own. Points scale plz?

Book Cover: 5/5 – A man’s man cover, makes me want to read it again.
Book Title: 4/5 – Gets my attention and quite relevant.
Plot: 10/10 – Dark fantasy at its best, freal.
Characters: 9/10 – I like all of them, even the ones I didn’t care as much about eventually won me over.
Writing: 8/10 – COME ON, you couldn’t have made it known at all that this was the SECOND book in a series?! Besides that, the writing was beautiful, very adult, and filled with words from a language unique to this book (and apparently the book in the series that came before this but was not really mentioned at all on the cover, insets, or anywhere else ( ).
Ending: 8/10 – A bit cliff-hangery, but with a 3rd book coming out, I wouldn’t expect much else. I can cope dealing with the ending because there is more story cominggggg.

Overall: 44/50 – Simply loved it, can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

Related Posts:

• Review: The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
• Steve Review: The Dragon’s Tooth by ND Wilson
• Review: Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
• Review: The Lighter Side of Life and Death by CK Kelly Martin
• Steve Review: The Conqueror’s Shadow by Ari Marmell