The Warded Man

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!"

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.