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Peter V. Brett's The Demon Cycle is in full bloom. By the time The Daylight War takes place, Arlen and Jadir have had their confrontation and the Spear of Kaji is now in the hands of Jadir. He has begun his plan to assimilate all the northern lands for the impending holy war. Meanwhile, Arlen Bales is on his way back north to the Greenlands to be reunited with his people in order to make his own preparations for the upcoming war with demonkind. During his travels, Arlen's exploits have further cemented the belief among his people that he is the deliverer. While at the same time, the Krasians are sure that Jadir is the deliverer.

Brett dedicates a substantial portion of the first part of the book to tell the coming of age story of Inevera, (Jadir's wife) as a dama'ting. The dama'ting are Krasian Holy Women who wield demon magic, practice a deadly form of martial arts called sharusahk and also happen to be experts in the art of "pillow dancing." Brett uses this imagery vividly and male readers out there are really going to enjoy learning about the dama'ting and probably going to want one of their own. There are a couple tastefully done erotic scenes that should get the juices flowing while never being distasteful or detracting from the storyline. However, the bulk of Brett's narrative takes turns gravitating back and forth between Arlen and Jadir's point of view which works very well and seems all together appropriate considering that The Warded Man was told from Arlen's point of view and The Desert Spear from that of Jadir. Along with the narrative, the real strength of The Daylight War is in the characters. I assume most readers of this series are going to be as emotionally invested as I was in the Arlen, Leesha, Rojer, Jadir and a host of other supporting characters and Brett plays on that very well. I found The Daylight War to be a very emotional experience. The Demon Cycle does have its flaws. Readers are going to notice a lot of fantasy clichés and borrowed ideas throughout the series, but I felt there were enough original touches mixed in to keep it fresh, but it's going to seem familiar to some readers.

The Daylight War is the third entry in a planned five book series. As was the case for The Warded Man and The Desert Spear, it is a highly entertaining, fast-paced, and action-packed novel that I'm sure is going to please fantasy fans everywhere. As a matter of fact, this is one of those fantasy series that fans of the genre will feel entirely comfortable recommending to their friends or colleagues that normally don't read this type of book. It's that much fun. If you still remain unconvinced about starting to read The Daylight War, consider the fact that The Warded Man is slated to eventually hit the big screen. The film rights have been secured and the project is currently under development with director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil/Mortal Combat) at the helm. I don't know about you, but the idea of a powerful tattooed protagonist using magic and martial arts to beat back hordes of hell-spawned demons seems like it might play out on film just fine. With a myriad of fantasy series to draw upon, only a handful of books (at best) are chosen for film development so if Hollywood is willing to gamble, so should you.

When asked to write a third-person tag line for his reviews, Dominic Cilli farmed the work out to an actual 3rd person, his friend Neal, who in turn turned it over to a second person who then asked his third cousin to help out and this person whom Dom doesn't even know then wrote in 8th person Omniscient mode "Dom's breadth of knowledge in literature runs the gamut and is certainly not bounded by the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. One thing I can say with certainty is that of all the people I don't know who've ever recommended books to read, Dom's recommendations are the best.