The Desert Spear

"Books with Bad Sequels" and for part of the book due to the absolute ridicious plot threads and characters the Terribly Written Books category.I absolutely loved the first book -- I thought it was a vividly realised world with a lot of potential. The magic system was quite interesting and the basic premise (demons control the night and hunt humans that are not bound behind protective and magical wards) was fascinating, horrific, and so entertaining to read about. There were a lot of flaws in the novel, but overall it was a great debut with a lot of potential.However, the sequel really dropped the ball. I liked part of it (the part that follows the life of Jedir, growing up in a sort of darker, more gritty fantasy version of Arabian Nights). However, part way through the novel, Brett completely went bonkers and started to tie plot threads together that had no business being tied together.After finishing the book, I literally wanted to pick up that same Desert Spear and drive it through the eye of one of the main characters, Lesha. Please oh god of Books, kill her off and about half the rest of the characters too.SPOILERS ABOUND HERE (DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FIRST OR SECOND BOOK)Some of the plot threads were completely nonsensical. Lesha who becomes the perfectly annoying Mary Sue decides she's going to talk the main villian back to his home city where she pretends to consider his offer of marriage, all the while spreading her own vein of Mary Sue feminism far and wide accross the city. Let's not forget this same villain and his men just finished raping a bunch of women.While the actual interesting character of the novel, the Warded Man, is completely ignored for most of the book, the other character spends his time pining over him, and eventually ends up having hardcore sex with him over and over while refusing to accept his proposal of becoming his second wife and sharing him with his actual wife. Makes a lot of sense.The Warded Man comes back into play, having spent most of the short time he's been present in the novel hanging out with, then eventually sleeping with an old character that was suddenly introduced in the book (seemingly from nowhere). Everyone gets together for the perfect demon-bashing party near the end of the novel to defend the town, including a bunch of ignorant villagers who go from cowering from demons to pheno demon slayers (including 70+ year old men who wield spears like heroes from a Greek saga.I'll stop there. Let's just say that Brett was smoking something pretty strong half way through the novel. I really don't know if there is a way to save the narrative at this point, other than to kill off a few of the main characters and return the story to what it should have been. Book 3 is coming out next year, so we'll see if Brett can come up with something magical. I think the demons win this one and another story ends up in the trash.