Continuing the impressive debut fantasy series from author Peter V. Brett, The DAYLIGHT WAR is book three of the Demon cycle, pulling the reader into a world of demons, darkness and heroes.
Humanity is fighting back. Although the night still belongs to the demons that arise as the sun sets, new wards and weapons are giving those willing to fight in the darkness a chance to retaliate against their core-spawned enemies.
But, as humanity is about to learn, not all monsters are confined to the dark.
Civil war ravages the north and south, battles fought between those who should be working together. It is up to Arlen – the Painted Man – and Jardir – the self-proclaimed Shar’Dama Ka, the Deliverer – to put aside their differences and bring their people to terms if they are to have any chance of saving their civilisation from demon-rule.
Not a lot to go on, especially for fans of the series who’re familiar with where the story left off at the end of The Desert Spear, but it’s encouraging nonetheless. There are a lot of eager people waiting for this novel. It should be interesting to see Jardir and Arlen forced work together as they had wonderful chemistry in The Desert Spear. Because of the common misconception, it’s also worth noting that this is the third volume in the cycle, but it’s not the final book. As far as I know, we’re looking at five volumes at the low end and likely more, given the success of the series and Brett’s comments about the potential length:
I have a rough outline planned for book three, which will be titled The Daylight War, and will focus further on humanity’s tendency to fight amongst ourselves even when demons are clawing at the door. I have many, many pages of notes for what comes next, but I haven’t yet arranged them into the final story arcs.
Given my feelings that The Desert Spear was meandering and somewhat self-absorbed, I wouldn’t be surprised if, down the road, The Daylight Road winds up being an early-to-middle volume of a long story (of potentially interconnecting stories featuring a large cast of characters.) I just hope that The Daylight War has more in common with The Painted Man and the first third of The Desert Spear than it does with the majority of the second novel. One thing is certain, though, and that’s great cover art.
That cover art is definitely superb, as usual for this series. The synopsis lacks a little bit of a punch, but it has certainly made me want to finally get around to reading Book 2!