Warded Man and general badassery with Peter V. Brett by Austen

The age-old fantasy formula – unlikely hero-child kicks out to change the world, meets a few of the same suspiciously gifted types along the way, and of course evil is starkly contrasted against the good. Tired of this kind of story? I understand. Me too. That’s why I’m going to tell you to read a book that does exactly that.

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett redeems this overused, undercooked story line, in great fashion. The writing does the job, but it is the story is just spectacularly done: great world building and characters that you care so much about that putting down the book becomes so difficult that you should just go to the doc before starting it to get a catheter installed. Brett never gets bogged down in trivialities, yet you are given a thoroughly detailed imagining of everything. Think Robert Jordan at his very best, without any of the boring meandering, and more realistic toward the darker parts of life. A lot more gritty. Sort of like Jordan and Joe Abercrombie mixed.

The world: When the sun falls demons rise from the center of the earth as mists that coalesce into various elemental forms of species – fire demons, rock, wind, tree, etc. These creatures rip people, animals, structures etc. apart without any lack savagery. When the dawn comes these “corelings” mist back down into the core, if not they burn up in the sun. As sword and spear do little or no harm to the creatures, the only things the people have to resist the demon spawn are wards the ancients left them. These wards are drawn and arranged to set a parameter around cities and houses, though since they are done so on wood, rock, and earth, they must be checked and tended to endlessly to make sure they have not been obscured or damaged, which would mean a bloody death when night comes. This means the humans prepare all day to not be killed during the night, every day. So, our unlikely hero wants to find a way to kill the demons, of course.

The characters: Arlen (the main POV), Leesha, and Rojer. Arlen is the farm boy that runs away, Leesha is the girl with an overbearing abusive mother, and Rojer is the orphaned at 3yrsold character. There are messangers, warders, herb gatherers, jongleurs, and Krasians. Krasians aren’t those dried out cranberry raisin things. They are the desert people that you hate because of their backward culture but love because of their badassery.

The Warded Man is the first book in the Demon Cycle series. Book two, The Desert Spear, and book three, The Daylight War, are also available now, which are just as great as the first.

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