literary critisism

Critique by Daniel Lin

Danial Lin has an overall positive review of The Core by Peter V Brett and describes it as “a satisfying conclusion to the series” She comments on the way Brett makes sure that every loose end in the story is tied up, while still leaving room for a follow-up series. She says this book was hard to put down, especially toward the end, and she was content upon finishing the book. Lin describes the saga overall as “a stunning fantasy saga” and “an interesting twist on the concept of good versus evil.” stating that this saga deserves a read and she “cannot recommend this series enough.”

Though the review is overall positive, there will always be flaws to be pointed out. The two biggest issues that Lin points out are pacing issues in the middle of the book, and characters left on unsatisfactory endings. For the former, she says the pages were “slow-moving and uninteresting” mentioning that certain characters were brought back that had not served a purpose since the first book and were all but forgotten since their stories seemingly ended. For the latter issue, Lin cites that too much focus was put on the characters prior instead of “more explorations on the characters whom we became familiar” citing that a certain character had much more room for growth but was ended abruptly and unsatisfactory. Overall Lin says the book would be “better if shortened 100 pages” but was “excellent nevertheless.”

Sarah Lockwood reviews the second book The Desert Spear and mainly comments on the insight gained through the development of existing characters as well as the introduction of new ones. She mentions how this book introduces not only a new POV but that of someone who had a major role in the first book, and the betrayer of the main character. Lockwood says this POV is well used by “adding depth” and “giving us insight” into the lifestyle of these less familiar and drastically different characters. She mentions how many side characters in the first book grew into major roles in this book. Overall Lockwood says this book develops characters and allows us to better “understand why he(new POV) betrayed(the main character of the first book)” a major plot point that needed explanation.

Lockwood also comments on the “slew of new, unique individuals” introduced in this second book. Allowing the “realm” to continue to develop. Because much of this book takes place in a place, Krasia, that was a smaller and less explained area of the first book, the many new characters allow for better insight into this new culture and people. Lockwood describes this book as “everything and more” that was expected of a successor to the first book which left her hardly able to wait to read the next book. Overall the new and developing characters are all designed in their unique ways which add to the story and help it develop. 

Critique by Sarah Lockwood

Critique by Superfast Reader

In this review of Brett's first book of the demon cycle series The Warded Man, one of the major aspects that is commented on is the “depth and breadth” of the characters Brett creates. They say “Brett makes these people real” Brett is described as “respecting his characters enough to let them suffer” By doing this he builds the value of his characters and adds heavy emotions to their personality. They say Brett makes “every human life count” in this book and doesn't use side characters deemed less important to guard his main characters from harm, adding heavy stakes to the fights. If you're familiar with other books of the genre the reviewer states that this book most resembles Stephen King's " Wolves Of The Calla”. 

This book is also described as feeling much like a superhero origin story, and it is stated that the “best heroes don’t know their own heroism” which this book is stated as doing very well at even drawing a comparison between Arlen Bales and Neo from the matrix. This book is described as being “an emotional journey for the characters” and hence one for the reader as well. Brett “doesn't make things easy” for his characters allowing for them to become strong and seem more like the superhero story described in the original passage. The major difference between this and others is there is “no “Chosen One” nonsense” allowing for the character to seem more independent and realistic.

This is a review of The Desert Prince, the first book of a new series, The Nightfall Saga. This book is described as feeling more like a “continuation of The Demon Cycle” than a stand-alone series and hence seems more to be “written for existing fans” Peter seemed to have improved from many of his mistakes in the old series though. This book had a “tightly told plot” , an improvement over the wide-reaching and hard-to-track plot of the first series. The original series is often also criticized for having frequent cliffhangers between POV shifts and long periods before you track back to a POV once it is passed. In contrast, this book focuses on 2 POVs with a “good balance between the POVs” It is said it focuses a bit more on one character but that character does seem more influential in the plot of the book. 

This book being written in the same world as The Demon Cycle does inherit some of its “annoying aspects” such as the “excessive melodrama and relationship shenanigans” and “prejudice and merciless attitudes of Krasia.” With that said the fight scenes in this book are described as “ some of the best Brett has ever written” with it retaining the important aspects of “heroic characters, stunning magic, and world-building on a massive scale” from the original series and Brett’s writing. This book is also described as having “additions and an overall expansion to the lore” from the original series. Overall this series had a “fresh yet comfortable” feel for returning readers, and a “seamless shift from old to new” while still being able to be “read on its own without any knowledge of the prior books”  

Critique by Mogsy from BiblioSanctum