The Desert Spear

By Peter V. Brett
Random House, $26.00, 608 pages

In this sequel to the popular epic fantasy The Warded Man, the legend of the hero Arlen Bales takes a backseat as two other characters capture our imagination. There is Jardir, the pseudo-hero and king who leads violent, stereotypical desert folk against the tranquil “green lands.” The rags-to-fame story of Jardir mirrors Arlen’s, feeling repetitious in content and flow, but the latter half of the novel is different enough from what has come before to set it apart from its predecessor. The second protagonist is Leesha, the young, beautiful, no-nonsense herb gatherer who wants love but has difficulty finding it. She must lead the small village of Deliverer’s Hollow through the most trying times the world has seen in thousands of years. Jardir and Leesha have a future that could make them allies or enemies, and it is around this that the plot of The Desert Spear revolves. Arlen does make an incidental appearance where he confronts some of the mistakes and disappointments of his youth. 

The Desert Spear is an earthy, entertaining, and traditional epic fantasy whose greatest claim to fame is the unique setting – where mankind must hide from demons who rise at night–and a magic system of wards that echoes Tolkien.

Reviewed by John Ottinger