By Everam’s will; a re-read of the Demon cycle:

[Varysblackfyre321]

It’s been like a year since I read the series as a whole. 

I’ve decided to revisit the series.

So far I’m on Arlen’s POV.

Brett’s dialogue sounds so natural. But at the same time captivating.

[Darth Richard II]

That’s funny, the main reason I quit this series was the dialogue was so atrocious. That and all the rape.

[RedEyedGhost]

I like these books quite a bit.  The magic system is fantastic, especially as the narrative branches out to the different POV characters and we get to see the different ways that they combat the demons.  That first section of Arlen's is so good, ending it with the maiming of the rock demon had me hooked.  Then to see that same demon battering the "impenetrable" walls of Miln for years, and to then follow Arlen to the ends of the known earth. 

Really enjoyed that first meeting between Arlen and Jardir.  I think most people share my dislike for the middle section of book two.  The first part was fine, as we get to see Jardir's troubled childhood, but then we have to read through Arlen and Jardir meeting again.  While Jardir's perspective is obviously different than Arlen's, it still doesn't paint him in a good light, and definitely not so much so as to make us root for him.  Then we get The Daylight War where we get a look into Inevera's POV, as she pushes Jardir into his betrayal of Arlen.  Brett trying again to make Jardir into a more sympathetic character, and have us view him as a hero.  It doesn't work that time either, and just feels like padding as we get less and less story in the current time.  Maybe reading that same thing multiple times would have worked better if there was  advancement elsewhere.  The first three books covered several years, while the final books only a few weeks each which kind of made them feel bloated.

Still need to read Barren, and am looking forward to the next series.  Thankfully the next series will jump to the next generation, and I won't have to read about Arlen and Jardir meeting yet again... unless of course we hear about it as the story is told to Olive or Darin.  Now that I type that out, I could totally see Brett doing that.  That would be truly annoying.

[Varysblackfyre321]

15 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

While Jardir's perspective is obviously different than Arlen's, it still doesn't paint him in a good light, and definitely not so much so as to make us root for him

I don’t think we’re supposed to root for Jardir. He is depicted as caring about doing the right thing(at least in his eyes) for the sake of it being the right thing, he does stick to his ethics with the exception of most dire times(I.e if he doesn’t do it humanity may lose the war with the demons), and is depicted as being more open-minded than many in his society. But I don’t think we’re supposed to see his uniting of humanity through domination as a good thing. Jardir must be stopped. We shouldn’t root for the man when he’s stabbing his friends in the back, or pillaging and allowing his men to rape cities. 

[Varysblackfyre321]

Huh just realized, peasants designate their last name to their occupation. Gaered “Cutter” for example. 

Also just realized in contrast to many Fantasy stories, most of the characters discussed so far in Book one in the beginning, aren’t of noble stock in any way. 

[Werthead]

On 4/8/2019 at 6:28 AM, Darth Richard II said:

That’s funny, the main reason I quit this series was the dialogue was so atrocious. That and all the rape.

I'm hoping the reread will count the number of times that characters are raped, and how it turns women into PTSD-suffering sociopaths but men into badass elite ninja warriors.

[Varysblackfyre321]

43 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I'm hoping the reread will count the number of times that characters are raped, and how it turns women into PTSD-suffering sociopaths but men into badass elite ninja warriors.

 I don’t get Leesha, or Renna being PTSD suffering sociopaths. Flawed as they often can be, they cannot honestly be judged as sociopaths. The other Tanner sisters are just too ashamed/afraid to speak out about the abuse they suffered. And Jadir’s sexual assault  probably didn’t make him anymore of a badass. I get the impression if Nevera hadn’t been there like she was it would have in fact broken his spirit. Like which rape survivor in story are you specifically looking at that gives you these impressions?

[polishgenius]

12 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Huh just realized, peasants designate their last name to their occupation. Gaered “Cutter” for example.  

Hmm I wonder how the author came up with this crazy convention that doesn't exactly mirror real life in any way.
 

[Varysblackfyre321]

Ok about half way through the first book and I have some questions; I’m getting that a certain group of women are responsible for how society is structured. Like the herb gathers have the knowledge of the old world’s science while mothers in general are respected and sought after for their wisdom. They seem to be flexing soft-power but most prestigious roles of ruling your dukes, and the like are still relegated to men and the religion being espoused is still patriarchal. I’m curious as to why that might be. 

[baxus]

I've read this series last year and quite enjoyed it at first. The whole "mindless demons out to kill everyone" and people finally finding a way to fight them showed a lot of potential. And then everyone became so super-powered that not for a second I thought that there's a chance they'd fail or someone will die or anything like that. Add the fact that then A LOT of what made them so powerful just happened off-screen and it just felt off.

It just seems like as a wasted opportunity to create a truly great series.

[Werthead]

22 hours ago, baxus said:

I've read this series last year and quite enjoyed it at first. The whole "mindless demons out to kill everyone" and people finally finding a way to fight them showed a lot of potential. And then everyone became so super-powered that not for a second I thought that there's a chance they'd fail or someone will die or anything like that. Add the fact that then A LOT of what made them so powerful just happened off-screen and it just felt off.

It just seems like as a wasted opportunity to create a truly great series.

The first book had some promise, before the series turned to a rapefest, but each book was significantly worse than the one before. Not only was the premise stupidly undercut (the near-invincible demons of Book 1 have turned into disposable cannon fodder by Book 3) but the amount of plot that happened in each book dropped massively, to a point where the third book was slower than Crossroads of Twilight.

Brett's not a completely unpromising writer, but the series just fell apart as it went along. I suspect if he'd dropped the flashbacks, most of which were an utter waste of time, and reduced the series from five books to a trilogy, it could have been salvaged. Baffling.

[Varysblackfyre321]

Well finished book one. Thoughourly satisfied. now on two. Question, though Arlen mentions most of the Kraisten men are of the warrior class. That seems unrealistic. Given the actual harshness of training most recruits shouldn't make the cut even if they aren't killed. 

it appears Jadir kept Hasik around and even married his sister to Hasik on his own volition. Odd.   Hasik continued proximity to Jadirnever really made sense to me. Neither of these men should trust eachother given what they've inflicted upon the eachother. 

 

[polishgenius]

On 4/15/2019 at 1:29 PM, baxus said:

I've read this series last year and quite enjoyed it at first. The whole "mindless demons out to kill everyone" and people finally finding a way to fight them showed a lot of potential. And then everyone became so super-powered that not for a second I thought that there's a chance they'd fail or someone will die or anything like that. Add the fact that then A LOT of what made them so powerful just happened off-screen and it just felt off.

It just seems like as a wasted opportunity to create a truly great series.

For some reason I've not quite gotten myself sat down properly with the second book yet, but it feels like the Vagrant trilogy by Peter Newman is what this series could have been. Though the demons aren't mindless in that one.

[Varysblackfyre321]

On 4/9/2019 at 8:07 AM, RedEyedGhost said:

Still need to read Barren, and am looking forward to the next series.  Thankfully the next series will jump to the next generation, and I won't have to read about Arlen and Jardir meeting yet again... unless of course we hear about it as the story is told to Olive or Darin.  Now that I type that out, I could totally see Brett doing that.  That would be truly annoying.

You know re-reading the series I’ve come to recognize  just how similar Jardir and Arlen are to to the Legends their people have of the Deliverer. Inerva seems to have sense the same deliverer power in Olive so I wonder how she’d fit the ideals people have a Deliverer.

Also, highly recommend Barren. Selia was imo a really interesting character that deserved her own story.

Also next story will feature Arlen’s arrival from Jadir’s mother POV because why the hell not lol? Kidding. 

[Varysblackfyre321]

On 4/14/2019 at 9:17 AM, polishgenius said:

Hmm I wonder how the author came up with this crazy convention that doesn't exactly mirror real life in any way.
 

Are you being sarcastic? If not It’s not really divorced from reality man. There  are plenty of  families around today who have a real occupation as their surname because some of their ancestors had said occupation : https://www.google.com/amp/s/blogs.ancestry.com/cm/there-are-7-types-of-english-surnames-which-one-is-yours/amp/ Examples include;Miller, Smith, Potter, Herald hunter, Skinner,cutter Shepard, etc.  It makes sense for an English peasant family to do this when deciding upon a surname. They’re  known for their occupation and their occupation most closely relates to their identity.  Is it really such a stretch for Gaered to be have his last name be Cutter(his family profession)? 

9 hours ago, polishgenius said:

For some reason I've not quite gotten myself sat down properly with the second book yet, but it feels like the Vagrant trilogy by Peter Newman is what this series could have been. Though the demons aren't mindless in that one.

To be fair not all demons in the Demon cycle are mindless. It’s revealed fairly on towards the end of the story that most of the demons humanity faces day to day are automatons; no better than a soldier ant; but there are other intelligent demons directing these creatures. Also I have to make time for the Vagrant. 

[Mazzack]

4 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

Are you being sarcastic? If not It’s not really divorced from reality man.

I'll eat my hat if they aren't being sarcastic!

With the series itself, I really enjoyed the first book when I read it as a teenager, but the warning signs were already present in that book. I remember being weirded out by the really strange mixture of prudishness and prurience that characterised the everyone in the Leesha sections. And then, as Wert said, it went downhill from then on.

[baxus]

14 hours ago, polishgenius said:

For some reason I've not quite gotten myself sat down properly with the second book yet, but it feels like the Vagrant trilogy by Peter Newman is what this series could have been. Though the demons aren't mindless in that one.

Haven't read Vagrant trilogy and might have to put it on the list.

Didn't mean to spoil the mindless demons thing but since it's already been mentioned, I'll say that the series starts with demons appearing to be mindless in their actions which was a welcome break from the usual "evil ruler controls everything" approach and painted them more like animals hunting to eat (though in excessively violent manner, they are demons after all). Then it shifts in later books and I think that shift could've been done better.

Also, I think Brett should've stuck a bit more with the difficulties he put in heroes' way. What seems like an insurmountable obstacle in one book is a mere annoyance in the next one, or even a couple of hundred of pages later in the same book. And that would not be a problem if something happened to make it so, instead of just "ah, we've dealt with this already let's move on to the next thing".

[D_P]

On 4/16/2019 at 5:48 AM, Werthead said:

The first book had some promise, before the series turned to a rapefest, but each book was significantly worse than the one before. Not only was the premise stupidly undercut (the near-invincible demons of Book 1 have turned into disposable cannon fodder by Book 3) but the amount of plot that happened in each book dropped massively, to a point where the third book was slower than Crossroads of Twilight.

 

jeebus...slower, you say?  CoT was glacial at its best.  that's quite an indictment, wert.  i'm still laughing here...you owe me a 20 oz. mountain dew and a new keyboard, btw.

[IlyaP]

On 4/8/2019 at 3:28 PM, Darth Richard II said:

That and all the rape.

*sigh*

Fucking really?

[Varysblackfyre321]

Just now, IlyaP said:

*sigh*

Fucking really?

Problem?