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A review by sambora
The Desert Prince by Peter V. Brett
3.0
The Desert Prince is the first book in a sequel series to Peter V Brett's The Demon Cycle books.
I suppose this could be read without having read the first series beforehand, but I would strongly advise against it personally.
This book is set to release on the 3rd of August. Thank you to Harper Collins/Voyager for the early proof copy and the chance to give an honest review.
*This will be a spoiler-free review. Quotes found herein may be subject to change.*
A brief synopsis:
The children of the main characters from The Demon Cycle series have grown up having never seen a demon, they have known nothing but the safety of their warded communities and the teachings of their elders to keep them protected.
It has been many years since the demon war, and the demons themselves are starting to become mythological and underestimated in the minds of those that never knew them.
That is until they reappear, and it looks as though they are hunting a few people specifically; Olive Paper - the child of Leesha Paper and Ahmann Jardir, and Darin Bales - the son of Arlen and Renna Bales.
There are a few things about The Desert Prince that potential readers of this series should know ahead of time because this book isn't really like Brett's previous series at all, despite being set in the same place and featuring some of the same characters.
First of all - perspective; it's first person. Which was jarring to me to begin with, and because it has been quite a few years since I read The Core and I honestly couldn't remember if the last series was first person as well or not. I checked... It wasn't.
I am not 100% sure why Brett decided to make this change, maybe it's because there are fewer POV's? Or because the characters are younger and first person lends itself more toward the YA demographic? Again, I don't know, but I felt it lead to a significant change in feeling and tone of the story. This wouldn't have been so bad if the story itself didn't borrow quite so much from the previous series - this brings me onto my next point.
Everything is connected. This was frustrating to me. Time has passed, the world has changed (or so we are told) but nothing really felt different to me and there are so so so so many references to the previous series, it doesn't stop - hence why I really don't see this as a good jumping in spot.
Now, in The Desert Prince, Greathollow is bigger and better - the greatwards protecting it are stronger and more intricate... but we only ever see this through the eyes of a kid who doesn't appreciate it and wants to leave.
Fort Krasia still fights demons in the maze regularly, despite the events at the end of the previous series. I feel like it would have been more interesting to have seen the maze without a purpose, a people having lost part of their identity. But no, I guess demons still attack here because it was far enough away from the core of the planet? I don't know, maybe I'm missing the answer somewhere. It just felt a bit contrived.
That's the two big locations; samey and underutilized.
Now, let's talk characters!
Almost every character is connected to the previous series in some way.
The main characters I can understand, it makes sense, but most of the secondary characters were as well!
Leesha, Renna, Ahmann, Gared... Key cast of the first series - Brett did a pretty good job of phasing them out as the book went on, relying on them less and less, but there really wasn't enough new BIG characters introduced to replace them. Again, this may be because the cast is going to be deliberately smaller with fewer POV's in this series, but it felt like something was missing - maybe that's the point, we shall see.
My physical proof didn't come with a family tree, but I know there are plans to have it in the final release - this will both be very helpful (because it is certainly confusing at times) and it will no doubt highlight how much has been carried over from the previous works.
Everyone is related to a hero of the war somehow, and the extended families as well? It made the world feel smaller than it is.
All of this isn't to say the characters are bad. I quite liked some of them.
Olive Paper is a really interesting character. What starts off as a very tropey personal conflict of wanting to leave her safety bubble and get away from her responsibilities and her over protective and demanding mother, the Dutchess of the Hollow, quickly evolves into something I had not seen before that I really enjoyed and appreciated - no spoilers.
Darin Bales; son of the Deliverer - the Painted Man himself, the savior of the land.
Darin has a tough time trying to live up to others expectations of him, having the father he had.*
He never knew his Da - him having died ending the war, but his legacy lives on and Darin cannot do all that his Da could.
I really liked this idea and it lent itself really well to Darin's growth throughout the book.
(*It wasn't lost on me that this may be a comment aimed towards people, such as myself, that expected the style and tone of this book to better reflect the previous series. But I respect it - wanting to do something different, going in a different direction, I just wish it had gone further, gone to new places with more new people and new conflicts. But I digress.)
Darin is a great character.
Other characters; Selen, Micha, Chadan and Arick specifically, I really enjoyed and thought were handled very well.
On the flip side, there is a relatively large group of characters in the Krasian portion of the book that I felt I should really have cared more about but didn't. This was frustrating to me because the POV character cared, the one who's head we were in - they cared very much, but I just didn't connect with them at all.
So yes, overall this book was a big mixed bag for me.
Some elements I enjoyed, others I didn't. In some ways I wish it was more like the previous series, but because it wasn't I wish it had gone further and not been shackled so tightly to what came before.
3 stars
Despite my luke-warm reaction, I will definitely be reading the next book when it releases, I'm invested in this world and series enough to be intrigued about it's future.
Again, The Desert Prince will release on the 3rd of August, and another thank you to Harper Collins and Voyager for the early proof copy.
I hope you are all enjoying your current reads!
Do let me know if you plan to read this and feel free share with me your opinions when you do! It'd be great to discuss!
I suppose this could be read without having read the first series beforehand, but I would strongly advise against it personally.
This book is set to release on the 3rd of August. Thank you to Harper Collins/Voyager for the early proof copy and the chance to give an honest review.
*This will be a spoiler-free review. Quotes found herein may be subject to change.*
A brief synopsis:
The children of the main characters from The Demon Cycle series have grown up having never seen a demon, they have known nothing but the safety of their warded communities and the teachings of their elders to keep them protected.
It has been many years since the demon war, and the demons themselves are starting to become mythological and underestimated in the minds of those that never knew them.
That is until they reappear, and it looks as though they are hunting a few people specifically; Olive Paper - the child of Leesha Paper and Ahmann Jardir, and Darin Bales - the son of Arlen and Renna Bales.
"We are in the wilds, far from home, sister. We will have a reckoning, you and I, but for now, you will obey."
There are a few things about The Desert Prince that potential readers of this series should know ahead of time because this book isn't really like Brett's previous series at all, despite being set in the same place and featuring some of the same characters.
First of all - perspective; it's first person. Which was jarring to me to begin with, and because it has been quite a few years since I read The Core and I honestly couldn't remember if the last series was first person as well or not. I checked... It wasn't.
I am not 100% sure why Brett decided to make this change, maybe it's because there are fewer POV's? Or because the characters are younger and first person lends itself more toward the YA demographic? Again, I don't know, but I felt it lead to a significant change in feeling and tone of the story. This wouldn't have been so bad if the story itself didn't borrow quite so much from the previous series - this brings me onto my next point.
Everything is connected. This was frustrating to me. Time has passed, the world has changed (or so we are told) but nothing really felt different to me and there are so so so so many references to the previous series, it doesn't stop - hence why I really don't see this as a good jumping in spot.
Now, in The Desert Prince, Greathollow is bigger and better - the greatwards protecting it are stronger and more intricate... but we only ever see this through the eyes of a kid who doesn't appreciate it and wants to leave.
Fort Krasia still fights demons in the maze regularly, despite the events at the end of the previous series. I feel like it would have been more interesting to have seen the maze without a purpose, a people having lost part of their identity. But no, I guess demons still attack here because it was far enough away from the core of the planet? I don't know, maybe I'm missing the answer somewhere. It just felt a bit contrived.
That's the two big locations; samey and underutilized.
Now, let's talk characters!
Almost every character is connected to the previous series in some way.
The main characters I can understand, it makes sense, but most of the secondary characters were as well!
Leesha, Renna, Ahmann, Gared... Key cast of the first series - Brett did a pretty good job of phasing them out as the book went on, relying on them less and less, but there really wasn't enough new BIG characters introduced to replace them. Again, this may be because the cast is going to be deliberately smaller with fewer POV's in this series, but it felt like something was missing - maybe that's the point, we shall see.
My physical proof didn't come with a family tree, but I know there are plans to have it in the final release - this will both be very helpful (because it is certainly confusing at times) and it will no doubt highlight how much has been carried over from the previous works.
Everyone is related to a hero of the war somehow, and the extended families as well? It made the world feel smaller than it is.
All of this isn't to say the characters are bad. I quite liked some of them.
Olive Paper is a really interesting character. What starts off as a very tropey personal conflict of wanting to leave her safety bubble and get away from her responsibilities and her over protective and demanding mother, the Dutchess of the Hollow, quickly evolves into something I had not seen before that I really enjoyed and appreciated - no spoilers.
"The first day, fight. Every day, fight. When you lose, fight. When you win, fight."
Darin Bales; son of the Deliverer - the Painted Man himself, the savior of the land.
Darin has a tough time trying to live up to others expectations of him, having the father he had.*
He never knew his Da - him having died ending the war, but his legacy lives on and Darin cannot do all that his Da could.
I really liked this idea and it lent itself really well to Darin's growth throughout the book.
(*It wasn't lost on me that this may be a comment aimed towards people, such as myself, that expected the style and tone of this book to better reflect the previous series. But I respect it - wanting to do something different, going in a different direction, I just wish it had gone further, gone to new places with more new people and new conflicts. But I digress.)
Darin is a great character.
"Saving the world is the kind of reputation that can stick to a family. Folks I've never met give me gifts and let me get away with just about anything. But sometimes I catch them staring, like they're expecting me to do something amazing.
And when I don't, I can smell their disappointment."
Other characters; Selen, Micha, Chadan and Arick specifically, I really enjoyed and thought were handled very well.
On the flip side, there is a relatively large group of characters in the Krasian portion of the book that I felt I should really have cared more about but didn't. This was frustrating to me because the POV character cared, the one who's head we were in - they cared very much, but I just didn't connect with them at all.
So yes, overall this book was a big mixed bag for me.
Some elements I enjoyed, others I didn't. In some ways I wish it was more like the previous series, but because it wasn't I wish it had gone further and not been shackled so tightly to what came before.
3 stars
Despite my luke-warm reaction, I will definitely be reading the next book when it releases, I'm invested in this world and series enough to be intrigued about it's future.
Again, The Desert Prince will release on the 3rd of August, and another thank you to Harper Collins and Voyager for the early proof copy.
I hope you are all enjoying your current reads!
Do let me know if you plan to read this and feel free share with me your opinions when you do! It'd be great to discuss!