With the 2 books I'm analyzing, The Warden Man and The Hidden Queen, betting Brett's first book and latest book 15 years of feedback between 2009 and 2024 has done much to shape the way Brett writes his books. One thing Brett didn't change is his formula for making deep characters, it always starts with  coming of age or maturity and develops into personal growth in order to show the impact of a person's past on their choices and development leading into their future. In the warded man we meet Arlen Bales as a farmer's book in a demon-stricken town, we learn how he stands up to his bullies even when he knows he's entirely outmatched, and we see the demons take everything from him, his mother and his respect for his father. This story starts Arlen's coming of age and is the events that took him from childhood to maturity. This story was reflected throughout the warded man and drove Arlen’s dedication to making a difference in ridding the world of demons. Arlen's dedication made him stand out as he was one of few men who thought the demons not only could be fought but that they were worth fighting. 

15 years later The Hidden Queen follows Darin bails as he struggles to live up to the world's expectation for him to fill in for father Arlen who died saving the world. Throughout the book Darin is constantly reminded of who his father is and how he doesnt fit people's expectations. Throughout the book Darin feels stuck in the shadow of his fathers statue. Darin is a complex character who went through 2 separate moments of maturity, the first when he pulled strings in order to allow his cousins to help him save his mother and Aunt Leasha, and the second when he fought with all his power to have a few more seconds with his dying mother. This second moment of Maturity is when darin's power is realized and he grows into his fathers shoes maybe more, but does it his own way he is not his father but he is as good as or better. Throughout his coming of age Darin struggles with expectations and identity as well as wanting to be left alone while everyone wants to meet the son of the man who saves the world. This makes darin into an elusive and sneaky person hard to find and even harder to grow close to, but immensely protective of those who see him as his own person.

Both father and son had an imperfect childhood that through a similar traumatic event shaped them into the people of power they become. They both had their own reasons and are their own reasons but the basis of Bretts character development remains the same from his fair to his latest book. Knowing a character's history is the most complete way to know a character and coming of age stories convey the most weight. All of the major characters in Brett's books follow this same recipe to a more or lesser extent seemingly based on importance.

Both books The Warded Man and The Hidden Queen take place in the same world. The main difference is the time period, The Warded Man takes place in an apocalyptic setting where the world is under siege by nightly waves of demons. On the other hand The Hidden Queen takes place more than 15 years after the final events of The Demon Cycle series. This allows for Peter to put a strong impact in both books about how the answers to he future problems can often be found in the past. 

The center of plot of The Warded Man revolves around the wards of old, or the combat wards. Arlen spends years of his life searching for these wards in order to be able to fight the demons once again, and after finding them and regaining his humanity, spends months spreading them far and wide so they cannot be lost again. In this case Arlen looks to the past for the answer for the problems directly in front of him. And then learns from the mistakes of the past, and makes sure those mistakes will not be repeated. This shows that not only must the past not be forgotten but the lessons must be reflected upon, because they could be of great use in the near or distant future.

The Hidden Queen Takes place over 15 years after the events of The Core, the last book of the series The Warded Man started. And has constant reflections to the events of The Warded Man and the Demon Cycle series as a whole. For example Darin is often compared to his father and Olive is considered to be growing into the same deliverer status as her father. There are constant allusions and steps these two take in order to follow in their parents footsteps. From Darin getting better and more controlled with his powers, or Olive stepping into her mothers role as leader of hollow county, the recent history has an immense impact on the events of the characters in The Hidden Queen, not to mention the demon fighting lessons learned in the first series. These characters have been taught by Arlen that the past should be looked to, and have used that to solve the problems at hand

Overall both books have a similar plot with an overarching idea that the past holds the answers to the future's problems as can be seen as both books look to the distant past respectively in order to find solutions to the problems they find themself in front of.

Brett employs multiple POV in both books, and in both books he used these POV in the same way. Each POV separately has their own history, character development, and back story. Once the reader gets to know each character the use of the POV’s change slightly. Further into the book Brett uses the POV in order to give the reader information from many places so the reader knows everything all the characters know, but each character is blind to the others in order to build dramatic irony and tension throughout the book. The characters are usually brought together for major plot events and so is this information shared. 

In The Warded Man each of the 3 main characters Leesha, Arlen, and Roger have their own coming of age story, their own history, and their own personality. The reader is able to individually connect to all of these characters before they are ever intertwined together before the battle of cutters hollow. Arlen knows how to kill the demons, Leesha can heal the sick and wounded, and Rojer can use his music to keep the sick’s spirits up and as a last line of defense to control the demon hoard in an enclosed space. Before they meet only the reader knew all of these were possible, but after, it all changes. This is possibly the best example of how Brett uses the multiple POV to expand the reader's information and create dramatic irony throughout the novels.

In The Hidden Queen, the major characters Olive and Darin slip up in order to accomplish 2 major goals. Olive goes west with an army to the mouth of the abyss in order to secure the demon hive from a possible reoccupation Darin goes East with 3 of his trusted friends on a stealth mission to save his mother and Aunt Leesha, Olive mother, as well as anyone else the is alive with them. Throughout these missions the reader knows what is happening for both, but the characters are completely oblivious to the situation of the other. This leads to a significant amount of tension and pressure on both characters in order to ensure that they give the other the best shot, and spending time worrying about the other, but the reader knows exactly what is happening.

The biggest difference in the structure of the new book vs the old book is the number of POV’s the original series The Demon Cycle started with 3 POV and added more throughout the books without every dropping many, at some point there would be 5 or more POV’s with drastically different events and long times before that POV cycles back. In the New series The Nightfall saga there are only 2 POV and they are from a 1st person perspective instead of the first series 3rd person. This ultimately gives a much smoother read and a closer connection to the main character while still achieving the same effect of withholding important information from certain characters while giving it to the reader.

The Speaker of the books is the biggest change in Peter’s writing style that was the most developed between The Warded Man and The Hidden Queen. The first book was written in 3rd person, the reader could see into even the POV characters head or any others and was basically a fly on the fall for the story of saving the world. The Hidden Queen on the other hand is written in first person directly for the perspective of one of the two POV characters. Which allows the reader to know what the POV character is feeling thinking and most importantly for Darin sensing, give the reader a much more personal view of the characters and more insight into Brett’s world.

In The Warded Man Brett uses a third person perspective which follows the POV character or the group of characters that was the focus. This allowed Brett to do some things like give the reader a bit of information the POV character doesn't know yet, such as details or hidden objects the POV haven't spotted yet. This allows for Brett to introduce short term dramatic irony or tension such as telling the reader an ambush is coming or making a situation feel moments before things go wrong and the POV character finds out building tension and making for a better read. 

The Hidden Queen takes a very different approach, both of this books POV characters POV characters start off with heightened senses, in the case of Darin bales his senses are so heightened it would make 3rd person perspective in order to withhold information obsolete. As per such this book was written in first person, giving the reader all of the information the POV character gets. This is especially important for Darin's POV because his senses are so heightened he can see through things that should be opaque or even solid, and smell a person's emotions as well as senses we don't have names for. Ultimately a first person perspective gives the reader more information that 3rd person could. Brett also uses first person to draw a tighter connection between the POV characters and the reader, making fight scenes and arguments feel more realistic and they hit closer to home, being more relatable. 

Brett's growth in the speaker department shows his willingness to take feedback from his audience, as well as adapt his writing style in order to make the most of his characters and the story he develops. Patterns are hard to place because these two books are so drastically different but one thing is clear, Brett adapts his speaker in order to give the reader as much information as possible and a better understanding of the world he has created.