The Warded Man (The Demon Cycle, #1) in PVB

Jan 26, 2013 Shaad Zaman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: the-big-book-challenge, favorites, epic-fantasy, 2013, own, january-2013

All I can say this blew passed the hype and became one of my favorite. Its not genre changing but its traditional fantasy done really well. I didnt find it to be predictable like a lot of traditional fantasy written theses day.

Plot/Theme

So let's begin In the world of the Warded Man everything is driven by FEARs in. Humans live self made isolated prison town, where they just need messengers to get info about the outside world, where during the day its business as usual but when the night strikes All I can say this blew passed the hype and became one of my favorite. Its not genre changing but its traditional fantasy done really well. I didnt find it to be predictable like a lot of traditional fantasy written theses day.

Plot/Theme

So let's begin In the world of the Warded Man everything is driven by FEARs in. Humans live self made isolated prison town, where they just need messengers to get info about the outside world, where during the day its business as usual but when the night strikes that's when life can go terribly wrong. During the night corelings/demons come from inside the earth and cause death and destruction and everyone just cowers in fear by hiding behind their magical WARDS. Mostly everyone has sacrificed Freedom for the illusion of safety. FEAR is the biggest enemy.

Characters

The main characters development was superb in this book. I believe each character made a natural progression and it was really easy to connect and feel each characters wmotional journey. I just found the character fantastic and that's what mad the book really great.

3 main characters

1. Arlen - He's a 10 year old boy who idolizes his father and one evening his mom is rushing back home and is being hounded by corelings and he looks for his dad to help but he just stands there petrified and Arlen realizes that his Father is a coward and not the man he thought he was.. So basically Arlen runs away with a messenger and want to learn how to fight demons. He's driven not to live in fear, like his father and determined to find away to rid the earth of the corelings. He's so determined that he sacrifices his happiness(human relationships) to try to achieve his goal

2. Leesha - She also live in a different small village. She is a very simple girl who is born into the richest father in the village whose wife is a bitch that lives a life of adultery. Leesha mother resents her because she wanted a son and is just trying to get her promised and married as soon as possible so she can have a grandson. So one day her village gets attacked and Bruna the town herbalist recruits her to become her apprentice.

Her character starts off as a little kid who is just scared to disagree with her mom and as the book progresses she becomes very strong,willing to fight and not living in fear of her mom and the world.

3. Rojer - His character basically starts off by witnessing his mother and father getting killed by demons. He escapes with a Jongleur ( a wandering minstrel) . He is raised by this Jongleur and becomes his apprentice. His unique skill is he can play fiddle which lets him control the corelings. (For the first 2/3 of the book he only has a couple chapters.)

Overall Impressions

My overall impression was this was such an AWESOME and AMAZING book. The characters are fantastic the development was just perfect. I also really just enjoyed the world building. There were no information dumps it was developed slowly and perfectly. I found the magical warding system very intriguing and I really looking forward to learning more about in the next books in the series. So I would recommend this book to all fantasy lovers out there its MUST READ! I would also recommend to anybody that just loves a good story with great characters. I am really looking forware to picking up the next 2 books in the series.
I give it a 5/5!
...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Maciel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

3.5
Al final le falto algo...mas epico creo.

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Jan 28, 2013 Becky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, part-of-a-series, first-of-a-series, 2013-reads, favourites, kickass-main-characters, reviewed, interesting-magic-systems, my-top-10-of-2013

First of all, I feel I should clarify. I live in the UK, and here the book is published as The Painted Man, but I know in the US at least (and probably elsewhere) it's published as The Warded Man. I will refer to it as the Painted Man (TPM) but just for clarification purposes I explained why :)

TPM was a gripping and exciting read. I've heard loads of good things about this book and the series so it's been on my to-read list for ages, and I'm glad I've finally gotten around to reading it!

TPM is First of all, I feel I should clarify. I live in the UK, and here the book is published as The Painted Man, but I know in the US at least (and probably elsewhere) it's published as The Warded Man. I will refer to it as the Painted Man (TPM) but just for clarification purposes I explained why :)

TPM was a gripping and exciting read. I've heard loads of good things about this book and the series so it's been on my to-read list for ages, and I'm glad I've finally gotten around to reading it!

TPM is set in a world where demons and monsters, known as Corelings, rise from the ground as the sun sets, killing anyone is not within the safety of their homes. Their homes are protected by magical wards that repel the corelings. Bigger towns have huge warded walls that protect them at night, but smaller rural communities have to make do with warded houses and are totally cut off from the outside world, save for Messengers who travel across the world delivering messages and conducting trade, taking portable warded circles to protect them from the Corelings. In this world, we follow 3 protagonists across the space of about 15 years of their lives as they struggle in this world and have to face such hardships, and change.

First there's Arlen, who was born in the small rural community of Tibbet's Brook, hiding behind wards. Until one day tragedy strikes and Corelings ravage the community and kill his mother, and Arlen refuses to give in to fear and leaves to become a Messenger, and hopes to find a way to stop the Corelings for good. Then there's Leesha, a young woman born in the rural village of Cutter's Hollow. A somewhat quiet girl whose life is controlled by her vindictive and cruel mother, and is promised to marry the town bully. Until one day, in the wake of a Coreling attack, she helps the elderly town Herb Gatherer (healer) Bruna and discovers that there may be another fate in store for her, and grows in to a brave and determined young woman. Finally there's Rojer, who starts off as any other 3 year old child until a Coreling attack takes his family away and he is raised by an alcoholic Jongleur (Entertainer/clown) and trained to become one himself. He might not be the bravest, but he soon discovers another way to stop the Corelings...

I loved this book. Brett is a great storyteller and world builder. He's obviously thought out the world thoroughly and it shows in his storytelling. He also lets the world grow naturally and feeds up information naturally, he doesn't do any info dumps which is good. It took a couple chapters to get into the world and the story but this wasn't too bad.

The characters were all really good and interesting and developed, and I liked how we followed them over several years of their lives and saw them grow up and change, which you don't usually do with many fantasy heroes. While obviously some characters are less likeable as well, there were no characters I truly hated. Every character was well developed and well rounded and realistic.

The story was good and interesting and I was gripped throughout. Arlen's story in particular was interesting throughout and he always changes a lot. I did find it hard to believe though that the revelations the characters discover, that no one has thought of them or discovered them before... (view spoiler) But at the same time, it was a minor niggle and I could let it go for the sake of the story.

Overall, it was a really exciting and gripping story, and this was only the first book! I can't wait to see where the series goes from here. ...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Jules rated it it was amazing

Shelves: re-reading

After finishing the most difficult but worthy reading I have ever done (Malazan book of the Fallen) I started looking for a new fantasy series and decided to give Mr. Brett a chance.
My expectations were none, just waiting for an entertaining story with nice characters and an innovative magic system (no wands and such, sorry Harry Potter).
I completely underestimate "The Warded Man". Characters are deep and not static, it's great to see them evolve internal and externally to become what they want ...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Mike Walsh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Great premise. Great magic. Great world.

Not 100% sure I love what has happened to sweet little Arlen but the hints were always there whether I was choosing to see them or not.

Will read books 2 and 3 in this series as quickly as I possibly can.

Pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this - liked it more than "Name of the Wind" and "Wise Man's Fear"... best book I've read since "Lies of Locke Lamora." ...more

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Jan 14, 2011 Craig rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, own

I found this book in March 2009 on the shelves at the library. The cover grabbed my attention, but it was the quote from Terry Brooks that made me pick it up. Brooks was and still is my favorite author and if he suggested this book, then I wanted to read it. I couldn't put it down! The story grabbed me from the beginning and I devoured it.

Since them, I've read the book four times. I enjoy re-reading stories that I like and was so glad to enter this world again. I was re-reading it because the th ...more

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Apr 08, 2013 marcin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Pretty good start for series, but has some problems with pacing, or omissions.

It seems book skips a few things. E.g. in we can witness progressive development of Arlan into Warded Man, and then we skip to another character, and we learn that he already made quite a name for himself.

It's a bit annoying, as sometimes we see certain things develop in progression, and sometimes books throws "so this happened, while our narration shifted point of view".

Still, not a bad read and i hope the following b ...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Brianne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, favorites

Possibly a slow start. The Warded Man is the best book I've read in a while. Maybe my new favorite... naw... it's not my new favorite. But it is extremely good. Following the story of three different characters, if you like that sort of thing, it's a complex, but obviously well planned out story.

Loved, mostly, every second. It's a little intense at some points. One of the chapters has as much gore as the entire Hunger Games.

Can't wait to get my hands on the second, and for Brett to release the ...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Lucas and Meghann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

For a long while in the book I was comparing the author writing style to Puzo. He stuffed so much detail in so few pages but made it interesting at the same time. 5 stars might be to much but easily more than 4 stars. This was peters debut book I hope he keeps up the good work and not get lazy and down right stupid like so many others before him

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Mar 12, 2013 Beverly rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, dark-rm-fantasy-reading-challenge

I am not a fan of long, explanatory child to adult stories and this book had 3 of them! I prefer the 'let's get into it' adult action right from the start with glimpses into the past if it is needed explaining how the characters evolved.

Once I plowed through the childhoods of the 3 characters and the real story began, I loved it. ...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Sam Horseman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

this is the best book I have ever read and will always tell anyone to read it and always find myself bringing it to the front shelf in shops for people to notice it, in a kind of protest for people to read it lol!

thank you peat this book is flawless! and sorry I didn't review it earlier! ...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Alexandros rated it it was amazing

This book follows the coming-of-age stories of several people and how they meet. Has a bit of Magic, fighting, adventure, love. There is a part involving ancient libraries! (<3)

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