The Desert Spear

As fantastic as the first one!

Wow! I am impressed. A great sequel to book one - and totally different from it at the same time.The first part of the book is set in Krasia, telling the story of Ahmann Jardir. The tone is quite different from the first one, the people of Krasia fight the demons every night instead of warding themselves in their homes. In flashbacks we learn about the youth of Jardir, how he became the man he now is, his connection to Arlen and the way he became Shar’Dama Ka, uniting his people into an army marching north.The second part of the book is a real clash of cultures. Jardir and his army try to conquer the north, to make them part of their own empire, fighting against the demons. But their different points of view cause severe problems. In this part of the book we meet the protagonists of the first book again.I loved this book. The story became more epic than in the first book, the protagonists (and some of the other characters as well) developed a lot and the stage is set for a war against the demons, if the humans manage to overcome their differences. I am looking forward to book three.

And again difficult to rate this one. I kinda loved/ liked it. Read the whole book in 2 days. So long as I ignore a lot of details... I love the general writing style, the man knows how to write a book that is for sure. It still flows and is easy to read and follow, you get caught in its spell. Some complained about the first 1/3-1/2 of the book being in Jardirs view. And I kinda agree? It was too long and I wanted to read about some of the other characters, I missed them. Why not make flashbacks instead? It felt like a new novel again introducing us to this world. Which if you get into that mindset makes the pages flow better. So Jardir: still don't like him just cause I generally don't like fanatic idiots who cant think for themselves and claim "XY-God" is the reason for all and everything and that is a good reason to do shitty things.. Nope you are responsible for being an ass all your own dude. If he had not betrayed Arlen for power I could have grown to like this character, but again a very good look into the human mind and their shitty behaviour. I kinda feel like these books are just generally warning you about what shitty shitty people humans are.Always think the worst of everyone and they will never disappoint. @author: do you need some help there? Some therapy? Some just nice friends? Then finally we return to old characters. Took me a couple secs to remember Renna. And here we go again with the hateful male view. Seriously get a female second-read on all your books man! Let your mother read this and ask her if she would act similar in this situation. I am sure she will give you good pointers on realistic female behaviour. Let's not even mention Leesha anymore, she is just a joke by now. The violence increases as does the unnecessary rape , incest and detailed gore. Do you really need all that to give us the dark feeling of this world? No fear of demons left anymore, even though the bigger, badder demons are starting to come out to play. The main characters are just too overpowered now. That whole "deliverer"/"god" bowing is making me really barf soon. But again good look on the human mind, why bother fighting for yourselves if there is some godlike saviour there to do all the work and decisions for you... Not so sure about where these books are going, will read the third one to know more. Still love the general world and idea, but the characters are starting to get tiresome and the over the top stupidity and male view on woman is really grating...