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Heart-wrenching, smart, and modern…The Desert Prince has set a new standard for fantasy.” – Bestselling author Wesley Chu. Unfortunately there were quite a few negatives for me, most prominently being this story is young adult through and through. This was hard for me as I loved the Demon Cycle, so seeing things be handed over to the children was challenging. Still after finishing the book, it's hard to imagine the heroes of the prior series even needing the help of the children to succeed. While the characters learning who they are is a good thing, it's also a significant aspect of young adult stories.
On their own, none of these issues are anywhere near dealbreakers. The book does feel overlong, and as noted various aspects begin to become repetitive, but in isolation The Desert Prince is an enjoyable fantasy, with an interesting setting and conflict, some deep characterization, several moving moments, and good fight scenes. Her friend Darin on the other hand faces a different kind of problem. As the son of the legendary Arlen Bales, the world expects greatness from him, but it’s a different world now without any corelings to fight. All Darin really wants is to be left alone to find his own path, and that way, maybe he won’t be a disappointment to everyone around him. But then one night, Olive and Darin cross the protective wards around the village to find out that the demons are not all gone. The threat is serious enough that the Hollow elders decide to investigate, hoping it is not a sign of a new corbeling resurgence. But soon afterwards, Olive’s heritage catches up with her as the Krasian enemies of her father come calling, capturing her for their own designs. But somewhere in this strange turn of events may be an opportunity for Olive to discover more about herself, and for Darin, who will stop at nothing to rescue his friend, this could be his chance to save the world from the demons.But if you are worrying that you will be lost if you have not read the previous Demon Cycle books, set that aside. The author has done a great job of reintroducing his world and the magic system. I think this volume is a great entry point for new readers as well as a wonderful continuation for those who have traveled here before. When her plans go awry, Cassie finds herself living on the streets in a distant city. But despite the passing years, she hasn’t given up on her dream. Kingdom-shaking danger is brewing in these lands, and if she can save them—and the Four Kingdoms with them—Aurora will have to offer her a position in her network. Cassie won’t let anything stand in her way—not the biting heat of the desert, not the prince who keeps showing up at inconvenient moments, not the layers of secrets hiding beneath the surface of her new home. Peephole in my Skull - Desert Prince Cover Reveal and Sample Chapter by PeatB March 9, 2021 at 11:41 am I like to end the review on positives. I did like Cassandra as the main character. Her ability to remember things and construct a map in her head was pretty impressive. I wanted to see those skills in the Cave of Wonders, but it seems all that stuff is going to be in the second half. I would've also liked to see her do more spy work. All that she seemed to do was follow people around and listen in on conversations. That is part of it, but it's also about lying and getting into disguises to find information. Cassandra just spends too much time doing nothing. I was a bit disappointed in her attitude towards Celeste after all the hero worshiping she originally had for her and how she seemed to downgrade her old home just because she married Zaid, calling her desert kingdom "the right side". They should have been equal to her, but alas, that's how she feels. At least everyone is still friends 😊
Fifteen years have passed since the end of the war with demons, creatures of darkness who have hunted the night and plagued humanity since time out of mind. The heroes of humanity’s hour of need have become legend, and those who remain struggle to escape their shadows. I also found it a little odd how the author padded things out for so long by withholding the prince's identity until halfway through the book-- and acted like it was a big surprise. It was almost an insult to the audience. We're here for an Aladdin retelling and we know there's going to be a member of royalty in disguise/running around with the urchins. And how the narrative kept saying he was magnetic, had this natural leadership skill, and there was just "some undefinable quality" that made him stand out. It made it super obvious that he was really the prince, and I just had to wait for Cassandra to catch up. This spin-off of the Demon Cycle should come with a fairly strong warning: Read the original Cycle first. My opinion, of course.In a Q&A with Goodreads, Peter V. Brett said the first book, The Desert Prince, was expected to release in Spring 2021, [6], but got pushed to late Summer 2021. [7] [8] I really enjoyed both Olive and Darin’s POVs. They both have their own challenges to overcome and Brett manages to write both very well. Olive is a hermaphrodite in the true sense of the Greek myth. She has been raised a girl by her mother but he is seen as a man by his Krasian relatives so a large part of Olive’s story is coming to terms with identity, especially when Olive is neither male nor female, but both. It’s a more literal interpretation of a teenager coming to terms with who they are and I liked the way Brett wrote it. Darin’s story is one of having to overcome the legacy of his father, especially when he feels that he cannot live up to Arlen and what he did. The main characters were interesting and nice people. Cassie wanted to be a spy and trained herself to blend in and how to remember things. She lost her confidence in her decisions as a series of bad choices lead to her situation getting worse. Unfortunately, Cassie's desire to prove her skill as a spy didn't seem good enough to explain some of her impulsive decisions. I felt like the author forced these decisions against all common sense so that, for example, Cassie ended up in the desert kingdom. Both Olive and Darin were very likeable characters. Olive has the stubbornness of her mother but not any of her annoying Mary Sue traits. Darin is rather adorable and I found him to be very sweet. The supporting characters are also enjoyable to read, I especially liked Selen and all the characters had their own distinct voices which makes them all feel like separate characters. It has become a predictable trope for all of Melanie Cellier's fairy tale books to begin with a caravan raid that sends the main character somewhere far from her home and forces her to unmask the ne'er-do-well behind the devilish deeds, especially in the newest Return to the Four Kingdoms series. Oftentimes, the princess or princess-to-be has little interest in uncovering a royal conspiracy and gets hurled into the middle of it by sheer misfortune. That is not the case for The Desert Princess. Cassie is determined from the very beginning to become an intelligencer for Aurora, the codename for the spymaster princess from an earlier book, The Princess Game. A noble maiden who dreams of becoming a spy is an interesting prospect on its own, but in this setting, which is overloaded with princesses of espionage, it's a little too on the nose to have a protagonist who is desperate to cover a conspiracy and then immediately fall into one.
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