Karissa E. (ophelia99) reviewed on 2/5/2013 + 2527 more book reviews

This is the second book in the Demon Cycle trilogy. I didnt enjoy it as much as The Warded Man, the first part of the book was really a drag . The second portion of the book really sucked me in though and convinced me to keep reading the series.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. The narrator does an excellent job of distinguishing between character voices and conveying the emotions of the characters. I definitely recommend listening to this on audiobook.

The first part of the book goes back and forth in time following the story of Jardir, who leads the Krasians. He was a villain in the first book, but here we learn how he rose to power. About a third of the way through the book we go back to Kylar, Rojur and Leesha and what they are doing at Cutters Hollow. Some of the story also focuses on Renna (the girl Kylar was promised to when he was young) and her struggles. All of the events are leading to war between the Krasian and the Northern folks.

All of the characters go through quite a bit of character development. I will bluntly say I do not like Jardir and I did not like reading about him. It is fine to want the readers to understand the villain a bit better, but I didnt need to spend half the book reading his back story...seriously I just didnt care all that much.

Because of the long digression through Jardirs back story, the story progresses at a crawl. We really dont get much past the point where we ended in book one. Yes there are some battles and the story progresses some, but really half of this book didnt need to be here.

The second half of this book is very well done. The characters and world are intricate and fascinating. I loved the addition of Renna to the story as well, she really brings something special to the story. The Warded Man continues to gain interesting and new powers.

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Why is it that all the featured female characters have to be raped in the story? It is a right of passage or something? Is there a reason why we cant have a strong female lead that hasnt been raped, beaten, and abused? Just curious why this seems to be a prerequisite for all the females in this book...
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The book is well written and the second half of the book redeems the first half. Seriously though this is a really, really long book...and it feels really, really long. It wasnt a fun kind of long either, the first half was a truly epic struggle for me to get through. I can only hope that future books move the story along a bit faster and dont digress into side stories that are unnecessary.

Overall a decent read. I enjoyed the second half of the book immensely but throught that the first half that was dedicated to Jardirs back story was an epic waste of time. I have The Daylight War to review, so hopefully that will be a quicker moving read. I tentatively recommend this series to fans of epic fantasy. The characters and world are very well done; the book just needs to be cleaned up and have a more concise plot.

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