As darkness falls after sunset, the corelings rise—demons who possess supernatural powers and burn with a consuming hatred of humanity. For hundreds of years the demons have terrorized the night, slowly culling the human herd that shelters behind magical wards—symbols of power whose origins are lost in myth and whose protection is terrifyingly fragile. It was not always this way. Once, men and women battled the corelings on equal terms, but those days are gone. Night by night the demons grow stronger, while human numbers dwindle under their relentless assault. Now, with hope for the future fading, three young survivors of vicious demon attacks will dare the impossible, stepping beyond the crumbling safety of the wards to risk everything in a desperate quest to regain the secrets of the past. Together, they will stand against the night.
The Warded Man: Book One of The Demon Cycle (Demon Trilogy)
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Brett's debut builds slowly and grimly on a classic high fantasy framework of black-and-white morality and bloodshed. Young Arlen battles demons to save his mother while his father watches in terror; when his mother dies, Arlen runs away. Leesha leaves her village to work in the city hospital of Angiers after her betrothed claims to have taken her virginity. Jongleur Arrick Sweetsong saved himself from demons at the expense of a female friend, but he honors her last request and raises her son, Rojer, as his apprentice. Only near the end do the three strands of the story begin to intertwine. With its nameless enemies that exist only to kill, Brett's gritty tale will appeal to those who tire of sympathetic villains and long for old-school orc massacres. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School—In his debut novel, Brett catapults readers into a world in which demons rise at night and the human population lives in fear and seclusion. Only those who brave the unsheltered night and survive see what lies beyond their birth town or city. The setting itself is spare and underdeveloped with the focus instead being on the flawed heroes of the tale. Brett spends a majority of the novel—the first of a series—establishing the backstories of the main characters, three humans who come from different towns and backgrounds and are thrown into the battle at a young age. Readers are held in suspense until the three finally meet. Brett uses the demons and magic to examine issues prevalent in our own society, such as religion versus science. The book is captivating and well written, quickly drawing readers in. The Warded Man is a must-read for anyone looking for a new fantasy world to explore.—Kelliann Bogan, Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
132 of 144 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Not since Mistborn have I been so captivated by a story and charmed by its setting. The Warded Man is an impressive debut and probably my favorite book of 2009 in any genre. If Peter Brett continues to write this way, he will need to clear space on his mantle for awards.
The Warded Man is about Arlen, a villager who must survive in a grim fantasy world ravaged by demons at night. His character arc propels the narrative once he realizes that survival is not enough. Two other characters eventually join him in his exploits against the demons: Rojer and Leesha. I like how they are regular people--too many fantasies deal with long-lost princes, wizards, queens, and knights. The best thing I can say about the three main characters is that I cared about them. Since the author takes his time developing them from children to adults, you almos feel like you are growing up alongside them. When they suffer, you will cringe, but when they excel, you will cheer.
The author's depiction of village age is authentic and folksy. Everything feels right--the gossip, the neighborliness, the barter, the sense of feeling apart from the other villages and cities. The world is dangerous, and not everyone gets along, but people set aside their differences when the demons strike. Later in the novel, the author describes city life just as well as village life, especially once Arlen reaches Krasia, a hub of a warrior society with Arabic influences.
The novel packs action, adventure, romance, and substance. I like how it considers the nature of heroism, the futility of passivity, and even the plight of women. The scenes of combat between man and demon are gratifying, and the one romantic scene is heady with tenderness and passion.... Read more ›
The Warded Man is about Arlen, a villager who must survive in a grim fantasy world ravaged by demons at night. His character arc propels the narrative once he realizes that survival is not enough. Two other characters eventually join him in his exploits against the demons: Rojer and Leesha. I like how they are regular people--too many fantasies deal with long-lost princes, wizards, queens, and knights. The best thing I can say about the three main characters is that I cared about them. Since the author takes his time developing them from children to adults, you almos feel like you are growing up alongside them. When they suffer, you will cringe, but when they excel, you will cheer.
The author's depiction of village age is authentic and folksy. Everything feels right--the gossip, the neighborliness, the barter, the sense of feeling apart from the other villages and cities. The world is dangerous, and not everyone gets along, but people set aside their differences when the demons strike. Later in the novel, the author describes city life just as well as village life, especially once Arlen reaches Krasia, a hub of a warrior society with Arabic influences.
The novel packs action, adventure, romance, and substance. I like how it considers the nature of heroism, the futility of passivity, and even the plight of women. The scenes of combat between man and demon are gratifying, and the one romantic scene is heady with tenderness and passion.... Read more ›
55 of 60 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
With so many reviews typed up, I'm not sure that mine will be even read - and I normally don't write reviews at all, but this book was something else. I loved it for the first 2/3's of the book, and like other readers I wanted to give it a 5 star up to that point and I was probably driving my family crazy by talking about it too.
Pro's
- I love how the book was put together for the most part. There are three very different main characters that the author shares with the readers. And we get to see how they all grow up and how they develop.
- The writing style was really neat. Brett brought in so many different cultures, ideas, topics and perspectives with enough detail that readers could appreciate and understand them all, but not too much detail that readers got lost in the background.
- The plot (for the first 2/3's) was AMAZING!
Con's
- The last 1/3 of the the book - the characters that the author had spent most of the book developing did a 90 degree flip if not a 180. You didn't recognize the characters that you grew to love
- Almost every scene where there was a woman, sex or child bearing was the topic of conversation. Brett made it seem like a woman's only interest/purpose was creating babies or making men happy. I totally get why (in a world where human population is decreasing, you want to have more children) but, really, there is no point in kicking a dead horse.
- Leesha - one of the main characters. (SPOILER) She really emphasized the above point and I don't like how she "saved" herself for 27 years, then completely falls in love the another character, and gives herself to him, at the end of the story after having met him for all of 1 week. Her character was honestly really unrealistic.... Read more ›
Pro's
- I love how the book was put together for the most part. There are three very different main characters that the author shares with the readers. And we get to see how they all grow up and how they develop.
- The writing style was really neat. Brett brought in so many different cultures, ideas, topics and perspectives with enough detail that readers could appreciate and understand them all, but not too much detail that readers got lost in the background.
- The plot (for the first 2/3's) was AMAZING!
Con's
- The last 1/3 of the the book - the characters that the author had spent most of the book developing did a 90 degree flip if not a 180. You didn't recognize the characters that you grew to love
- Almost every scene where there was a woman, sex or child bearing was the topic of conversation. Brett made it seem like a woman's only interest/purpose was creating babies or making men happy. I totally get why (in a world where human population is decreasing, you want to have more children) but, really, there is no point in kicking a dead horse.
- Leesha - one of the main characters. (SPOILER) She really emphasized the above point and I don't like how she "saved" herself for 27 years, then completely falls in love the another character, and gives herself to him, at the end of the story after having met him for all of 1 week. Her character was honestly really unrealistic.... Read more ›
56 of 70 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Brett's debut novel is well-told, action-packed, and as addictive as any book I've ever picked up. The main characters are introduced to us in separate vignettes detailing the momentous turning points in their youths that spur them to become the heroes they will later prove to be. In the world created by Peter Brett humans fear the night, and seek protection from the demons that rise from the ground at sunset to wreak havok (which mostly involves eating human flesh).
The storytelling and snippets of humor keep the narrative lively and fresh, and while Brett's main character turns out to be rather humorless, the other people in the story are more than colorful enough to make up for that failing.
This book has similiarities to Elantris (the wards of power) by Brandon Sanderson, Mystborn (creatures arise by night) also by Sanderson, Robert Jordan's earliest books of the Wheel of Time, and a speck of George R.R. Martin. There is more humor in Brett's novels than those of the other authors, and the action is taut and frantic.
If you enjoyed any of those authors' books, or the writing of Patrick Rothfuss, you're going to love The Warded Man.
The storytelling and snippets of humor keep the narrative lively and fresh, and while Brett's main character turns out to be rather humorless, the other people in the story are more than colorful enough to make up for that failing.
This book has similiarities to Elantris (the wards of power) by Brandon Sanderson, Mystborn (creatures arise by night) also by Sanderson, Robert Jordan's earliest books of the Wheel of Time, and a speck of George R.R. Martin. There is more humor in Brett's novels than those of the other authors, and the action is taut and frantic.
If you enjoyed any of those authors' books, or the writing of Patrick Rothfuss, you're going to love The Warded Man.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By Lauren Cross
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed the Warded Man; definitely a good start to a series that I will continue to look forward to. I think it's worth a solid 4 stars, not the most amazing or original fantasy I've ever read, but it certainly kept me fascinated and entertained throughout its length. There's such a definition of character traits in the novel that it lacks a certain depth achieved by other authors. In this world, you're either a coward or a fighter, good or evil, knowledgeable or ignorant. There's no room for the shades of gray that one would find in more realistic writing styles. But still very interesting nonetheless. And certainly the fact that we watch the main characters grow from children into adults is a very strong foundation for the audience to understand their personalities and motivations as the series continues. It was an original move for Brett to start the story with Arlen, Leesha and Rojer at such young ages and I think it will pay off well for him in the end in terms of character development.
I agree that the romantic chemistry between Arlen and Leesha felt very forced and I don't think he should've tried to push them together as early as he did. But I did enjoy the 3 main characters chemistry with each other overall, I felt like they were a good match for each other and will make good companions as time goes on.
One huge warning I have: I bought this book on the Kindle and was highly, HIGHLY disappointed with its formatting. It was missing capitalization and punctuation, paragraph separation-- basically anything you can think of that could be wrong with the format, was wrong. It made for a horrible read, and even though I prefer my Kindle books to trekking to the bookstore, I would recommend not wasting your money for the Kindle version.... Read more ›
I agree that the romantic chemistry between Arlen and Leesha felt very forced and I don't think he should've tried to push them together as early as he did. But I did enjoy the 3 main characters chemistry with each other overall, I felt like they were a good match for each other and will make good companions as time goes on.
One huge warning I have: I bought this book on the Kindle and was highly, HIGHLY disappointed with its formatting. It was missing capitalization and punctuation, paragraph separation-- basically anything you can think of that could be wrong with the format, was wrong. It made for a horrible read, and even though I prefer my Kindle books to trekking to the bookstore, I would recommend not wasting your money for the Kindle version.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it
Like many of my spontaneous book decisions, I picked this one based entirely on cover art. However, while I may be a sucker for hooded heroes, it's the storyline that makes or... Read more
Published 5 days ago by tryongirl
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome book
Loved this book and cant wait to read the next one. Just bought my kindle fire and this was the first book I bought on it and can't help but think that it was the best investment I... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Daniel Reynolds
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
This is a great book. I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy.
Published 10 days ago by Daniel Hunke
5.0 out of 5 stars
HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER!
WOW! Just WOW! What an amazing story! The flow, the plot(s), twists, characters, scenes, the story itself, is all just AMAZING! There is never a lull in the story. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Stephanie
5.0 out of 5 stars
My New Favorite Epic Fantasy Novel
The Warded Man is my new favorite epic fantasy novel. I have yet to read the next two books in the trilogy, but if they're half as good as this one was I know I'll enjoy them... Read more
Published 15 days ago by Daniel J. Absalonson
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book
book was great and came to me in great condition. this is one of my favorites for this past months read
Published 25 days ago by justin
2.0 out of 5 stars
Vastly Overrated,
The premise and set-up of this book is fantastic. The demons and whole humanity on the brink of collapse and extinction thing is something I find interesting. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Mike I.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Sadly one star is as low as I can go...
This is yet another book with a great premise that was ruined by horrible writing. Not only is the writing bad bit it is filled with cookie cutter characters and every fantasy... Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. Areli
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun read, fun magic system
I enjoyed reading this book. I thought the world was really interesting and the magic system has a lot of potential. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Raege
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic story
If your looking for a tense fantasy book then this is your choice.
The setting of the story if great and the characters are really well placed.
The setting of the story if great and the characters are really well placed.
Published 1 month ago by Vermeulen peter
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