I recently finished reading “The Warded Man” by Peter V. Brett. This was an Advanced Reader Copy sent to me by the publisher via my membership at LibraryThing.Com. “The Warded Man” is the first book of the Demon Trilogy, and is titled “The Painted Man” in the UK. It will be available in North America on March 10, 2009.
For a description, I am using the one the author has up on his web site, and probably the key one the publisher is using.
Mankind has ceded the night to the corelings, demons that rise up out of the ground each day at dusk, killing and destroying at will until dawn, when the sun banishes them back to the Core. As darkness falls, the world’s few surviving humans hide behind magical wards, praying the magic can see them through another night. As years pass, the distances between each tiny village seem longer and longer. It seems nothing can harm the corelings, or bring humanity back together.
Born into these isolated hamlets are three children. A Messenger teaches young Arlen that fear, more than the demons, has crippled humanity. Leesha finds her perfect life destroyed by a simple lie, and is reduced to gathering herbs for an old woman more fearsome than the demons at night. And Rojer’s life is changed forever when a traveling minstrel comes to his town and plays his fiddle.
But these three children all have something in common. They are all stubborn, and know that there is more to the world than what they’ve been told, if only they can risk leaving their safe wards to find it.
It may not be the best, but it doesn’t give away more then the others, yet still gets the point across.
Honestly, had I known this was the first book of a trilogy, I wouldn’t have requested it. I prefer to read completed series. The member at LibraryThing that runs this program puts the books available for the month on a page and lets the members put their name on a list for each one requesting a copy. From what I normally see, there is usually about 15 to 40 copies of each book available, and each book sees about 100 requests at least. This program has been going on a while, and I had only received one book. So the last couple of times out, I would scan the description quickly, and if something seemed decent, I would request it. I figured the more I requested, the more my chances of actually getting one. But I either didn’t read the description thoroughly enough, or it wasn’t stated as being the first book of a trilogy. Since I got it, with a nice letter from the publisher, and was hoping to gain an opportunity like this, I sucked it up and read the book. Now I am upset that I did. Why? Because I liked it, and have to wait for book two and three. (But that’s a good thing, too.)
Honestly (again), the idea of having demons like this kind of turned me off. I kept thinking to myself at the start of the book, “But it’s better then vampires!” And the more I read the more I realized that it was in no way turning out like I expected it. To me the basic concept is rather cheesy, for lack of a better term. Mr. Brett proved his story writing talents by making it the opposite though. He found a way to make it work, give it credibility, even make it cool. There isn’t a lot of background or information on why the demons exist. There is only speculation, religious speculation from some characters on why the demons continue to rule the night. Some fantasy purists would pound their fist into a table because of this lack of background, but it lends well to the style of writing. It’s about the story of the three main characters, not the world building. This, too, is a good thing, even though I enjoy good world building.
At times the character seem a bit clichéd. This could have been bad, obviously. But there is enough depth in other areas of the characters psyches to tarnish that polish. There is enough depth of scars and fears, longings and wrong-doings to make them understandable, make them more real. Though I did have an issue with one of the characters quick recovering to a personal tragedy. They do something very soon after it that, even for someone who has a strong personality, just seems way too soon. There are some great supporting characters within this story, too. Especially Bruna, the old herb gatherer that teaches Leesha. Though at times over-the-top, given the setting and her position in life, totally believable and incredibly endearing.
Peter V. Brett
Now, the story, though I found very compelling, was pretty straight forward. You can see some things as generic about it. I can agree with some of the reviews on Amazon’s UK site (the book has already been released abroad) saying that. Three young people find a power that can help them and others. But some of the paths he takes isn’t the same. It’s not one evil empire attacking the good empire for love/money/power/all. It’s an unexplained enemy and it can’t be easily gleaned by the characters on why they are the victims. There is another fight, too, and that is against their own emotions. Fear. Arlen is the catalyst is showing that this is a key to the story. The difference between letting it happen and trying to survive, or trying to live. (For those of you that saw the movie “WALL-E”, just think of the Captain’s speech to Auto regarding something similar.) Whatever it was that Brett did with even what would seem generic or clichéd traits, he made it work enough to keep me very well interested throughout the book.
There are many things on both sides of the argument for this book. The more I think about it, I can see why some would not gush over it. I wouldn’t say that I am gushing about it. But I think I found more in it then some others. Where it is generic, it still has more to give. And combining with Brett’s writing style make for a very good read, with characters that I found myself caring about, and that moved along at a very good pace, with just enough background to give you what you need, without bogging down the story.
No, this was not the perfect debut novel. Not the best fantasy story I have ever read. Not even close. But surely a good addition to the genre, and giving me, and possibly many other readers, something to look forward to. Not only the next two books in the series, but Mr. Brett’s writing beyond that.
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