The Daylight War by Peter Brett is the third book in The Demon Cycle series. When The Warded Man first came out, it took a lot of people by surprise. It was the author’s debut and I was instantly addicted. I believe many didn’t like the second book as much as the first but me personally, I’m having a hard time deciding which one is better. Having finished with the third book, I can sadly say that it will not be joining in on that contest. The Daylight War in my opinion is definitely the weakest of the three so far. The author didn’t suffer from writer’s fatigue in my opinion but more so a lost of direction. Does that make this book an absolute bore to read? Definitely not. It’s just that the story itself did not evolve as I would have liked it to. That is not going to set well for many readers and I don’t blame them considering this book is almost 675 pages long.

With the first book, we got introduced to Arlen Bales. With the second, we learned of the trial and tribulations of Ahmann Jardir. Now, with the third, we get a much deeper look into Jardir’s first wife, Inevera. While there’s nothing wrong with taking this approach, I just expected for the author to really expand on the story rather than spending more time building yet another character. Again, while this is not necessarily bad, I felt the author spent way too much time with Inevera in the beginning. To add salt to the wound, her story isn’t that particularly exciting to read. It’s your usual “come up from the bottom” type stories where she gets bullied here and there, plots to take control and finally being where she is today. I’m definitely not downplaying Inevera as a character. She plays a very important role and it is here in The Daylight War where we learn of it.

There is no doubt in my mind that some readers will view The Daylight War as some sort of intermission. Better yet, the calm before the storm. I thought that storm was going to be here in this book but I guess I’ll just have to wait for the fourth book. From my recollection, the first 50%-60% of the book is of trivial matters. While it wouldn’t be good for you to skip them over, you’ll just be begging for it to move faster. It is only during the last part of the book that the author does pick up the pace and we actually get to witness some demon killing action! The pacing is obviously a bit off but the action is what readers are so used to with the previous two books. Initially, I’ve thought that characters such as Jardir, Arlen and Rojer was way to overpowered now that they even better control of their abilities. Fortunately, the author has a sense of mind to not make it easy on them during demon fights.

As this point, I’m sure everyone is filled in on the major characters of the story. Leesha is starting to get on my nerves a bit. She plays a big role earlier but here, she can be an emotional wreck at times and not much fun to read about. Arlen Bales continues to do his thing and so does the other Hollow crew members. What I like most about this series is the story behind both Arlen and Jardir. Although both are the main characters, both of them have their own reasons for doing the things they have done so far and it’s up to the readers to decide on how they see things for what it is. At this point though, I find myself much more interested in Jardir then with Arlen just because his side of the story is so much more complicated and intriguing at the same time.

In the end, while I find The Daylight War a bit lacking, it nevertheless brings us one step closer to the end of the series. No doubt the author had every right to expand our knowledge about the Krasian culture for its very important to the story. However, it’s time to really get it on in the next book!