In The Daylight War, Brett continues the story of humanity's struggle against the vicious demons that rise from the Core in night in epic detail. Even as Ahmann am’Jardir am'Kaji, now hailed as the Second Deliverer, increases his stranglehold on the lives and minds of his territories in the north, Arlen Bales begins to realise that the free-folk of Cutter’s Hollow will never view him as anything except their own Deliverer.
But while each man struggles to organise their own bloating armies, the demons are not idle. The demon princes have finally begun to see the organisation of humans around the deliverers as a threat. Worse still, they have learnt that the ancient fighting wards of Kaji have been found. The first of their brothers to have risen from the Core have not returned and more demons are dying since the time of the first Daylight War. They know that they must strike now - if they can kill the deliverers, then the unity of humanity will crumble once again…
The Good
For the most part The Daylight War is exciting, being packed with sprays of blood and demon ichor. Brett continues telling the current story in graphic detail, while delving into the originals of Inevera; revealing how she rose from the shackles of a common birth to becoming leader of the Damaji'ting and the First Wife of Ahmann. Her story is every bit as interesting to read about as the current events of those struggling against the demons and really brings her character to life.
Brett also begins to show that the demons are organising themselves to resist the newfound strength of humans. This leads to much more brutal, epic battles than what we have read about in the previous books and begins to show that demons are still dangerous. I think that this was something Brett had begun to lose since the battle wards were discovered, as Arlen and those with the weapons could kill them too easily – an author’s heroes are only as good as their villains, so it’s nice to read about the demons stepping up to become feared again.
The Bad
Sex. The middle section of the book was full of it and it was really, really boring. I’ll admit that I understand why Brett has included it, since he’s mainly using it to develop certain characters, but he’s just overdone it. The sex is not graphically described like in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire or smut books, but there are enough ‘scenes’ to really distract from the story and Brett really hasn't done them well. Furthermore, Brett gets carried away with his PoV characters love life, which I understand is important to them in the story, but it just sounds cheesy and faked in the book. Many authors manage to pull relationships and love off well in their writing, with Patrick Rothfuss writing about Kvothe’s love for Denna being an obvious example, but, sadly, Brett isn't one of them and he should have just left most of it out.
Secondly, I thought the pace of the book was grossly out. The first third was okay and read well, but after that Brett kind of lost it a bit. There were pages and pages in which nothing at all really happened expect for his characters’ having sex or whining about their respective relationship issues, before the ending of the book suddenly rushed in from nowhere. Obviously I won’t spoil the book’s ending, but I think Brett should have spent more time developing the events underlying it and really should have made more of an effort to link some of the choices made to the personalities of his main characters.
My Thoughts
Despite my qualms with The Daylight War, I still really enjoyed it. Brett has continued the Demon Cycle with his most epic story yet and has really set the scene for his next book. Once again, I recommend that Brett’s books are a must read for any fan of fantasy.
