Jennifer asked Peter V. Brett:

(continued from prior ?) The women are one-dimensional and un-relatable. They exist mostly to get rescued or raped. They’re certainly not people I’d want to be or be friends with. I would love to read female characters who have character growth, have agency, are relatable, and do smart things. With great power comes great responsibility, Peter! Please don't perpetuate negative tropes. Work toward a less sexist world!

Peter V. Brett Hi Jennifer,

First of all, thank you for giving my work a try. I do appreciate that. You are right in that female characters should be thoughtfully and lovingly rendered, and that we should beware negative stereotypes in storytelling. I agree that it is deeply important that we have female characters with depth, quality and in quantity in stories.

Which is why I find your suggestion that my female characters "exist mostly to be rescued or raped" so very offensive. While of course readers can and do take away their own messages from stories based on their own perspectives and experience, and those takeaways are always valid to them, what you suggest was never the intended message in this or any of my books. I craft all my characters, male, female & nonbinary, with loving care.

Over the course of the series I have women fighters, healers, heads of state, and more, as well as in innumerable supporting roles. Even in the first book, I feel your thesis ignores a great many characters that don't fit your argument, and as the world expands with each installment, it becomes even less so.

The Demon Cycle is a story of survivors, and how people who experience trauma can go on to heal and grow and accomplish great things. Over the course of the 5 novels and 4 novellas, I introduce 13 point of view characters: 6 male, 6 female & 1 demon. Of the dozen human characters, a statistically accurate 3 of them (2 female & 1 male) are survivors of sexual assault. I did this on purpose after research and to reflect my own life experiences. I think by avoiding the topic, authors can do a disservice to the many survivors out there who deserve to see themselves reflected in art.

This should in no way be considered an endorsement of assault, or a suggestion that it was done for entertainment without thought to the hurt these narratives can bring to people who have similar experiences. We can't talk about difficult subjects without first bringing them up, and by creating a fantasy world with the same problems as our real one, it allows me to explore some of those topics.

I appreciate that this didn't work for you, for whatever reason. I really do. There are times when I don't want to read about that sort of thing, either. But I would humbly ask that you consider that every reader's reaction is different. Based on book events and reader interaction, the impression I have is that a majority of my readers and fans are female, and many have written to tell me how much they appreciated my varied portrayals of women. I have had assault survivors moved to tears at book events while thanking me for helping them feel seen and loved in my stories.

The Warded Man is a fairly self-contained book, but it is also the first step in a much larger story, where all the characters grow and evolve based on their experiences. Like every character, Leesha Paper ends up in a very different place by book 5 than where she starts out.

All that said, if you for some reason decide to continue, I will offer a trigger warning for book 2, The Desert Spear, which introduces 6 new POV characters, and is by far the darkest book in the series. It was difficult for me to write, and for some it will be difficult to read, but I felt then and now that it was absolutely necessary to the story of growth and redemption that I wanted to evolve.

Thank you for caring enough to take the time to send this message. I hope this helps clarify things a little. The fantasy genre is broad and beautiful and adding new voices all the time. Please don't let your feelings about my book color your view of the genre as a whole.

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