Throughout Brett's works, big fight scenes are fewer than one would expect for a story of a pair of fabled warriors, or their children, saving the world. Most encounters are either diverted around by placing them outside of the line or the story or diverted by the main characters. This style makes the large fights where the good of the characters and their lives seem all the more important as they stand out. It shows that these characters only fight, no matter how powerful they are or how heavily the odds may be in their favor, when they absolutely have to. This reinforces a theme of only fighting when you must. And allows for memorable and intense fights like when arlen, a character who swore only to help people, challenges another man to a fight to the death, or when he buys his time for months waiting for a plan only to make a psychotic plan because nobody has a better one. 

When Brett starts the series he begins at the very start of the story, the first event for each character that changed their life and sent them down the path they walk. Whenever Brett introduces a new character in a book, that book starts with many mixed in chapters of the characters history, their path in life that took them up to the present point of the story. This means the reader knows every important character intimately, and that Brett is able to give each a personality shaped and honed throughout their upbringing to make very individual characters. There are only 2 notable places where this recipe is not followed: for one instance it is because the group of characters' notable divergence was an event portrayed from a different perspective. For The other expectation, the only subtle look we get about his history is used to emphasize the mysterious and odd personality of the character. These two exceptions still lead to the same end result, a deep character that the reader can see on their own with their own personality when compared to everyone else. 

Brett has a unique way of opening a new scene or detailing a fight, let's say for instance your main group of characters enter the throne-room of another duke. Most authors would have what may be described as a pause or slow time moment as the characters enter the throne room and walk to the base of the steps. During this pause all necessary bits of information about the placement of the throne and guards, possible locations of hidden soldiers prepared to do the main group harm and other important bits of information before time goes back to normal and the scene plays out with little or not more description of the setting until something changes drastically. Brett does this very differently; if the main group entered the throne room in one of Brett's novels the reader would receive the details as the scene plays out. Large details important to the groups are mentioned while striding in, placement of doors to throne locations of the largest groups of guards and their weapons. Possible doors and ways of entrance or exit. During the conversation with the duke characters may take note of nooks in the wall with archers, the material of the floor and traction. Escape route if needed. As the scene plays out the reader gets a clearer and clearer view of the scene. Just as if you were in the group walking into the surveying the throne room with them. The reader has a foggy picture early in the scene and a crystal clear lens moments before things change.