The Warded Man

My wife actually started reading it first and liked it and so I started it too. It's nice and I liked it. I liked the POV characters and I got so excited when they finally met. The story is fine, but it doesn't overly excite me. I am kind of curious as to how it will continue and what else will be revealed. But having seen that the series is still ongoing I don't think I'll enjoy picking up the next book. It feels like too big of an undertaking and the conflict between the two leaders that I can guess will continue doesn't interest me.

I picked this up on the advice of a fellow grimdark reader, and I’m not sure what I was expecting but The Warded Man both exceeded and fell short.

Let’s start with the positives: the world building is absolutely fantastic, and we are shown how society acts when the night belongs to these demons. Kingdoms are isolated, roads are short and very unsafe, and the class of Messengers is a very interesting result. The ‘wards’ that comprise the magic system of the Demon Cycle is a simple system that is both constraining and trivial to expand. Finally, the plots of the main characters let us live in this grimdark fantasy world — and every time I thought something good would come of the plot, the characters are cut down and shoved onto the ground.

So what’s bad? It’s a bit of a slow burn and takes forever to build up to any sort of true epic. I also found, aside from the main plotline, that the other two subplots were difficult to enjoy. I avoid Young Adult novels because I don’t care for children as main characters, and this pushed my limits. I skimmed a few of the early chapters when drama was primarily between parent and child.

All that said, the build up resulted in a fantastic climax as well as the setup for the future of the Demon Cycle. I look forward to the Desert Spear.

I am now reading the fourth book in the series. I'm just taking a short break to write this review.

I like a lot of things about it! After the first few pages you have your setting. It is a simple thing. Every night demons come out of the ground and start killing everything. Humans, at least those that are alive, know "wards" that they can paint or engrave, and which demons cannot pass.

There are a few different civilizations, past mysteries, prophecies, what not. But absolutely everything is concerned with demons and wards. For example the primary difference between civilizations, and even individual characters, is how they deal with demons.

I love this focus. The immense complexity and consistency around this core topic results in an engineering-like perspective. Sure, it's magic and not spaceships and robots, but still the books have a lot of fun with building clever things out of basic blocks. I think this is what has me hooked.

I like the writing. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it surprises me sometimes. Like a character is just walking somewhere, or lying sick, or riding a horse, and this simple activity is described in a paragraph with the addition of an unexpectedly profound thought.

A lot of fantasy novels create their own unique phrases. The Warded Man & Co do a great job of that. E.g. "It's a fallen tree. No point climbing it." says the woodcutter to wave away a past offense.

The books visit some social themes, like homelessness, misogyny, social pressures, etc. It's not bad, but these are not the focus at all, and I do not think the author has anything important to say about them. "Don't be a jerk," I guess.

The books have a very consistent quality. I almost always find the first book in a series to be way better than the rest. (I think it makes sense statistically! If the first and second books are of independently randomly chosen quality, and I read mostly popular books, I will mostly find the first book to be way higher quality than the second. If it is the other way, this series will not become popular.)

I wonder if there are some ideas held within these books. What are they really about? I think there is most likely no such deeper meaning. They are just good fun. They are very much like video games, actually! You can practically hear the fanfare when a hero "levels up". In later books there is very much a "mana bar" visible to the characters themselves. (Also might explain why I'm hooked.)

But after reading so much of it, I am starting to find deeper meaning anyway. I think an interesting theme is the theme of power. Different characters get different forms of power in different ways and use them differently. But a lot of them have immense power and how it bears on them is an interesting topic. Imagine you could just personally beat up armies. Great! But it is not trivial what your next step is.

Okay, the thing I don't like is that the characters and scenes are all slave to the pre-determined story. Characters will do silly things, just to fulfill the story. There are no accidents, nothing unexpected ever happens. All clever plans succeed. There is never a case where two clever plans would conflict and one of them would have to fail.

Actually there are a few cases when something unexpected happens. This is when the story needs something and it is just pulled out of thin air. "Check out this new alloy we randomly found!"

I think these could be fixed with a considerable amount of work. I think it is too much to expect one person to write a book. Video games, TV series, and movies are made by large teams. With more than one person working, there would be resources left for addressing these weaknesses. Or make it open-source and let fans fix these for version 2.0 of the books.

"Corespawn it, Renna!"

The Warded Man is a fantastic fantasy novel, and an excellent introduction to the world the Brett has crafted that feels similar to our own world, and yet very different. From early in the novel you can feel a strong connection with all of the POV Characters, and get a feeling for the bleakness of the world as it stands.

My only reluctance towards to book is that if feels like the majority of the story is all a prologue for the last 20% of the book. While I am looking forward to reading the other novels in the series, I think I would be less satisfied if I wasn't able to dive into the subsequent volumes immediately.

Those of you who are familiar with Joseph Campbell and the concept of the monomyth are going to spot some very familiar structures in The Warded Man. While this may only be the first part of the Demon Cycle, Peter V. Brett makes liberal use of the Hero’s Journey for each of the three protagonists in the novel.

None of them get all 17 steps, but there’s plenty of familiarity in the basic structure here. In many ways it is extremely familiar territory for a fantasy novel. And by the end of the book all three of the viewpoint characters have reached a point of fundamental change. which leads to a satisfying conclusion even with further books to follow.

While the tropes may be familiar the setting is rather refreshing. Instead of being set in a medieval styled world, this is actually a futuristic setting that has been decimated by demons (themselves quite distinctive) and effectively reverted to something closer to the dark ages in mindset and technology. There are also hints of a Western feel to the setting.The Warded Man Book Review: The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

Brett’s big issue is fear. Throughout the story he looks at what fear does to people. Either giving in to it, or fighting it. Everyone in the book is affected by fear. Whether of the demons, or family or themselves.

The demons are magical in nature we are told. And certainly they appear to be largely elemental (rock, fire, wood, sand). They can be warded off using special combinations of runes that have to be drawn with incredible precision and must remain uncovered in order to work.

There were a couple of times when I felt like there may be some holes in the logic behind the runes but the action kept coming so fast I never really dug into whether that was the case or not. It may simply be that the nature of them is not fully explained in this book.

The world that Arlen, Leesha and Rojer inhabit is a brutal one. It’s made pretty (unpleasantly at times) clear that at least out in the country women have the worst end of the deal. There is an interesting contrast in fact to be drawn between town and country in that respect though the book does not focus on it. That said the men’s lot in life is not a happy one either. Pain, beatings and the likelihood of death appear to be the norm in this world.

We watch these three characters grow from a young (pre-teen) age through to adulthood and they do grow. Their attitudes change and mature as life and it’s challenges molds them into what they become.

Interestingly Brett keeps the characters apart until very close to the end of the story and while each character goes through fundamentally life altering events none of them really address the central mysteries of the world.

What are these demons? Where did they come from? How will they be defeated?

We get a few teasing hints. The idea that they may be insect like in nature. The notion that Arlen may in fact be able to phase back to the core with them. But all of that is to come in future books.

What we actually get here is a much simpler story about three people becoming heroes, finding each other and saving a small town.

And just on that level it’s certainly well worth reading. But now I’m really eager to find out the answers to some of those bigger questions.

Guess the book was ok. I liked the setup with the 3 characters: Arlen, Leesha and Rojen. They are likeable and believable. Learning about their childhoods and what made them what they are. I also liked the idea with the demons and the wards. On the other hand none of that was very special or new. Maybe I've read too many fantasy books, this one is a good read, but doesn't stand out. Stylistically it is better than many other debuts I've read, so that's a definite plus. However I found myself hesitating to start the sequel. Not a good sign. (2 days later I have started on the sequel, but it's slow going).

On one hand The Warded Man seems like a YA book, there is pure evil to fight, characters fall into familiar stereotypes, the reader is told most things upfront and not much is left to the imagination.
However not much is left to the imagination when it comes to sex rape and incest, so I'm not sure this was intended to be YA.

I found myself caring about the main characters as they grew up, and the book is hard to put down.

However except for the fact that demons and magic are real, not much in this world is fictional. It is simply a medieval world, with witches, bards, villages walled cities and merchants that dare the dangerous roads,with the stereotypical Arabs of Spear-Point being the worst example.

There is very little imagination in the way humanity reacts to the presence of demons.
The premise is that the arrival of the demons plunged humanity into a dark age and our protagonists are starting on a journey to bring a new Renaissance.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed reading the Warde Man Very much, and I've already bought the next book in the series despite the fact that it is called [b:The Desert Spear|6736971|The Desert Spear (Demon Cycle, #2)|Peter V. Brett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320389818s/6736971.jpg|6527274].

Before I left for my trip to Stockholm, week before last, I put out a call for new SF/F author suggestions on Twitter, and a twiend said check out Peter V. Brett. I'm glad I did, because The Warded Man is a winner.

Brett's universe is a medieval land where "corelings" -demons of the night-rise in the evening, killing all in their path. The book offers some vague background on the origins of the corelings, and the world's history, but the story is really a coming-of-age tale. Brett follows three young people, Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer, from tween to adolescent to young adult. The social development of the duchy where these three live is a reflection of life battling night demons. Settlements, towns, and outposts that are within a day's ride of each other propsper; those further apart languish and struggle for survival. Villages and towns are linked together via the services of "messengers," a guild of men who can be hired to transport not only messages, but goods of various kinds. Some members of the messenger guild have regular jobs, working for nobles, others are totally freelance. Messengers are usually accompanied by "jongleurs ," who are traveling minstrels. Messengers are skilled in "warding," creating the magical defenses necessary to protect themselves from the corelings at night during their travels. The communities are protected by defenses set up by "warders," who are members of their own guilds in towns. In villages and outposts, the folk of the community contribute their own wardings.

While many modern coming-of-age stories are full of "emo" and teen angst, there's no time for that in Brett's universe. With humankind constantly at war against the corelings, kids grow up faster than fast. They live with a constant flow of death and tragedy, which pressures them to not only assume adult roles very early, but to marry and procreate as adolescents. Still, kids are kids, and teens having sex is always complicated, even in a world that prizes healthy babies as much as this one.

Arlen is the book's main character. Struck by the hard reality of the coreling war very early, he makes his way to a town with the notion of becoming a messenger. He signs on for a seven-year apprenticeship with a warder, since his natural warding skills must be developed and focused before it would be safe for him to travel as a messenger. Once his apprenticeship is complete, he's able to ply his trade as a messenger. Leesha is a pretty girl who runs afoul of her mother's matchmaking and town gossip. To escape, she apprentices with her village's "herb gatherer," the crone who is the community's healer and midwife. Rojer's talents and skills develop as he apprentices under a master jongleur.

It is Arlen who undergoes the most dramatic changes. His overwhelming desire to not just defend against the corelings, but to kill them and win the war takes him into the desert, traveling to the southern land of Kraisia. He learns much from the Arab-like society there, and in the midst of one of his desert journeys, he discovers that he can paint and tattoo wards directly on his body, transforming himself into the "warded man" of the book's title. As the Warded Man, Arlen's story arc converges with those of Leesha and Rojer, setting the stage for the sequel, where their generation takes the war to the corelings.

The tale is incredibly readable and enjoyable. Brett's universe is solid, his depiction of day to day life is excellent. There are no high magical lords, wizards, etc., in this world, it's just ordineary humans, some with more magical skills than others, trying to survive and help improve the world for their children.