99 problems, and a book ain't one

   The Daylight War is book 3 in The Demon Cycle series. I love this series. It is truly epic fantasy at it's best. Mr. Brett is am amazingly talented story teller. Beyond even the incredible fantasy element, the characters he writes are so multidimensional. He has proven to be a master at manipulation. I have seen some of the characters commit atrocities and loathe them with a fiery passion, just to have Brett turn things around and make me sympathize with these same people I believed beyond it.  He gets me EVERY TIME.

   These stories are hefty. They are usually 600+ pages, but he typically uses them all wisely. I say typically only because The Daylight Wars was the first book thus far that I actually found myself tiring of hearing about Krasian politics. It was almost overwhelming at times. The foreign words alone are a lot to keep up with (thank goodness for the Krasian Dictionary at the end of the book), add to that the seemingly never ending political scheming and traditions of ALL the royal courts in this book, and it was daunting at times. I was honestly just praying for some demons to start some shit just to have a break from it all.

  Now as you know if you've read the other books in this series, Brett doesn't solely focus on just one character in each book, it's usually told from multiple perspectives. Even so, it's rather safe to say that The Warded Man felt mostly focused on Arlen, and the Desert Spear about Ahmann Jardir, and I would say that The Daylight War mostly Inevera's. Even more than that though, it felt like the women's tales, Inevera, Renna, and Leesha's, as well as a handful of other strong women that are spotlighted.

   Brett ultimately pulled off humanizing Inevera to me, which at the end of The Desert Spear I thought would impossible. I'm not in love with her by any means, but I much better understand her and her motivations now.

    I still remain a big Leesha fan, and am dying to know what will happen with her next. She has gotten herself in quite the situation and I really have no clue how it is all going to play out. Renna I have to say is one of the only characters that I just can't seem to bring myself to care much about. She's tough as nails and brave too, which is mostly admirable when it's not her acting with more muscle than brains.

I guess I really just never saw Arlen and her being together. I totally understand why they work, but I really thought Arlen better suited with Leesha. I think the most unsavory part about her to me though is the way she talks. It became so annoying to me. She sounded like such an idiot a lot of the time.

  Even though the women were predominately featured here, naturally the men that we've come to know and love/hate were here too, with their many facets. Rojer, Arlen and Jardir were all their usual enchanting selves, always progressing and growing into more. I loved the changes in each of them. Jardir at times humbled by mere women was priceless, Arlen and a more human side brought out by Renna was great, as well as the surprising choices by Rojer. I really liked Rojer in this book. He was decisive, brave and more interesting in this book than I thought him to be in others.

 Maybe it was partly that he stopped being a whiney, pouty puppy dog following behind Leesha's heel. I enjoyed watching him turn into more of a man in this story. Rojer's interactions with Amanvah and Sikvah were superb. I actually quite like Amanvah, even though like most damaji'tings you never really know where exactly her loyalties lie and what she's thinking.

   Getting to see some more of the mind demons was awesome. It was interesting learning more about them and the hierarchy of the demons. The fighting scenes in this book were by far some of my favorite parts. Unfortunately you don't get a lot of them until the last 20%. But that last 20% is FANTASTIC. I would gladly read another 300 pages of Krasian politics just to get to that last 20%, and that's really saying something. I am still reeling from that ending! That last paragragh was a KILLER and it will make the wait until the next book (not releasing until March 2015) a VERY LONG one. I can't stress enough how brilliant I think this series is, this may not have been my favorite book in it, but it was still great, and a don't miss for high fantasy fans!

     ****I found most of this art @ http://dominikbroniek.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0

I think it's breathtaking, and loved seeing this story brought to live! Well worth a click to check out more of this talented artist's work.***