I bought this book for my brother for Christmas a couple of years ago. He never finished it, he couldn't suspend his disbelief far enough to enjoy it fully. It's one that's been looking at me every time I go to the book shop, begging me to read it... so when I found it in my room at my parents' house I dug right in! 
 The premise for this book is one of the most interesting ideas I've come across in a while. There is no antagonist, but there is an ever present danger. If anything, the antagonist is the darkness, night-time, one that you can never defeat. You cannot stop the sun from setting. 
 The ideas behind the demons were equally inspired. Different demons for different areas: wind demons rule the skies, sand demons live in the desert sands, wood demons in the forests, rock and flame demons roam among the others' territories. The demons don't only attack humans - though humans are their favourite victims and they spend much of their time trying to find weaknesses in the ward nets that will allow them entrance - they also attack each other, praying on their weak or injured, chasing off other demons who do not belong in their habitat. 
 The book starts slowly, playing with character cliches. Arlen is a definite fantasy cliche in the beginning, a young boy from a farming village who breaks from his norm. But he needed this, and all the good, the bad and the downright terrible that happened to him in order to form his character, for him to become who he was destined to become. Leesha is much the same. I really enjoyed her story when she was young, it was one that I could really feel passionate about. When Rojer is first introduced he is only three, about ten years younger than the other two characters, so it takes him a while to really form. Each of the characters has to go through their own trials and tribulations, hitting rock bottom before they can start to evolve again. Brett turns these cliches into a masterpiece. 
 I personally saw parallels in Brett's world with a Catholic faith in the north and a Muslim faith in the south. I'm not sure if this was meant to be so, maybe it's just me. Both were very interesting, though of course I'm already biased against both for their treatment of Arlen. 
 Every time I sat down to read this someone inevitably came and sat next to me, expecting me to converse with them. But I wanted to read! I wanted to devour this book! I'm already planning ahead, how fast I can get my mitts on the second book. 
 This book completely blew me away. I wasn't expecting it to be half as good as it turned out to be from what my brother had told me. I'm glad I chose to ignore his criticisms of it and try it for myself. One of the best fantasy novels (and novels in general) that I've read in a while.