The Desert Spear

By: Peter V. Brett

Narrated by: Pete Bradbury

Length: 26 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Peter Brett’s The Desert Spear continues the post-apocalyptic adventure he began in his highly acclaimed debut, The Warded Man.

The world remains under siege by demonkind stalking the land when the sun goes down. But a new hero has risen from the desert. Claiming to be the mythical Deliverer, Ahmann Jardir now rides alongside the allied desert tribes of Krasia. Jardir and his fellows are on an epic quest to vanquish the demons plaguing the world and bring humanity back from the brink of extinction.

Listen to the first book, The Warded Man.

©2010 Peter V. Brett (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Momentum builds

The way the author builds characters makes it feel like they are making choices themselves, and not just unravelling a plot. Don't listen if you aren't willing to buy the next one too!

Think " Wheel of Time" Jordan/Sanderson

Would you listen to The Desert Spear again? Why?

I rarely reread any book but I would consider this one.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Desert Spear?

The faceoff of the wife and girlfriend was a lot of fun to read

What does Pete Bradbury bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Bradbury is one of the best, rarely a sour note.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I tried and lost 3 days of free time.

Any additional comments?

1st book a bit more fun but there are so many great moments in this one.Only major complaint is that for me the ending just was about 1 chapter short. It just did not feel like a clean but promising segue into the next installment. Update: Book 3 opening chapter should have been the final chapter of book 2.

This story keeps getting better!!!!

Please read my review of "The Warded Man".... and double it!!!! When I told my husband the story gets even better, he couldn't believe me. The details regarding multiple cultures, lands, traditions... wonderful. Peter V. Brett is a guy I would LOVE to sit around a campfire with, an interesting mind. What more can you get from BUF?

Great Book!

I know that some people were frustrated with the focus on Jardier, but I thought the story was exceptional!

Great Continuation

I'm not sure why there are a bunch of negative reviews but I thought this was a great second book. It's basically the backstory of Jardir catching up to the present and then continuing with the main trio of the first novel. I only have a few critiques but first the good stuff:

The story moves at a good pace, it's brisk enough to keep interest but the author leaves a ton of detail as well. Great continuation of world building.

The parts in city of the Desert Spear allows us to see the motivations of the main characters much better, and I really enjoyed seeing Jardir's version of events. I really like stories that switches points of view to characters where the same event is happening and the author does that a lot in this book.

More demons and there's just enough to let the reader know something big is coming but not enough to guess the whole plot.

My critiques:

Arlen was really frustrating for most of the book. In the first book, he's mysterious, he's a BA at fighting but he isn't perfect, his interactions with other characters are great and he has a gruff exterior and soft interior. In this one, I feel like he has regressed as a character, everyone guesses who he is with no problems, and he feels like a whiny kid again. His interactions with other characters are mostly the same, and no one from his former life respects what he has become and treats him the same. The author hints at Arlen and the warded man being able to separate but I wish this was made a lot clearer, like he could flip a switch between the two and the other characters could see and respect it. He just wasn't as cool as the first and it took away from "the warded man."

I liked all the women characters, especially Inevera and Renna (I really liked her character arc), but Leesha was disappointing, she has become better at everything that anyone else and though I like that she commands respect and is like Bruna in many ways, I can't relate much anymore because she doesn't really have any weaknesses.

All in all, the story was great, the main characters are a bit of a letdown but I'm hoping Arlen gets his mojo back and commands a little more respect from other main characters. 4/5

Great Book!

Just got through it for the second time. I really love this series. I can't wait for the next one.

4 stars

Not a truly great story bit this book is enjoyable enough to keep reading on to the next book.

I hated when it ended! it's amazing

I wish that it were possible to make a selection that went from book one to the last book of a series nonstop because of how amazing this story is. My favorite story!

it is a good book

This is a good book only problem with it is all the chopping and changing

It Was Missing Something!!!!

This book was good, I have enjoyed it, you get to know the folks at the desert spear and tend to know their back story and their future plans... it does have a different start than the first book.. so you will be a bit confused thinking whats going on here...
More and more things got cleared up and you get to know the enemy more and more... You get to be with the warded man and he get to face his past.

Now lets talk about what i didn't like in this book and in series in general:
- This whole series is based in a time where please speak that fancy old english style like in the wheel of times and so on, but then all the sudden you find modern slangs here and there.. it gets really confusing... too many modern and current time words for it to be based in such a time.

- Those folks from the desert spear... those are the basic description of Arabic folks who live in the desert .. nothing unique about them, no imagination, the women wear Hijab like the desert folks and a man can have more than one wife and so on... other books tend to come up with weird cultures and unique ones, nothing based on real current culture.. I understand that some of you guys would say ohh but its built on a life after the modern current age, thats why the modern terms are there and thats why the cultures are so similar.. I don't buy that, if that was the case then the modern slang would have stayed rather than disappearing, and plenty of constructions would be there rather than disappearing completely.

Again, too many similar things to make this book unique and enjoyable .. love the imagination that authors tend to have, but sadly, it wasn't so vast in this series .