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The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett
Mar. 28th, 2015 07:10 amThe Blurb On The Back:
As darkness falls, the demons rise.
For hundreds of years these creatures have terrorised the night, slowly culling the human population. It was not always this way. Men and women did not always cower behind protective magical wards and hope to see the dawn. Once, they battled the demons on equal terms, but those days and skills, are gone.
Arlen Bales lives with his parents on their isolated farmstead until a demon attack shatters their world. He learns a savage lesson that day: that people, as well as magic, can let you down.
Rejecting the fear that kills as efficiently as the creatures, Arlen risks another path in order to offer humanity a last, fleeting chance of survival.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Peter V. Brett’s fantasy novel – the first in a trilogy – takes the hoary old cliché of the farmboy saving the world and plunges him into a world filled with demons while teaming him up with a small town boy and a smaller town girl. I enjoyed the depiction of the demons, who fall into different types (each with their own abilities and vulnerabilities) and a lot of thought has been put into the history of this world (which is a vaguely post-apocalyptic Earth). However much of the book falls into stock territory with Arlen, Rojer and Leesha all having predictable storylines within the book while the cod-medieval setting gives plenty of scope to trot out taverns and horse riding. Brett does have a stab at subverting the patriarchal sexism common to this type of book through the establishment of a Council of Mothers that supposedly advises one of the Dukes (although we never really see that) but otherwise women are confined to the crone/virgin/wife/whore stereotypes and we get bonus rape as a means of driving two characters into each other’s arms. There’s also a thinly disguised Arab-style world filled with sexist, racist and double-crossing thugs, which I found distasteful. Ultimately the writing is fine and I kept turning the pages but there wasn’t enough here that was new for me and I found the sexism and racism depressing, so ultimately I won’t rush to check out the remaining books.
Thanks to Harper Voyager for the review copy of this book.
For hundreds of years these creatures have terrorised the night, slowly culling the human population. It was not always this way. Men and women did not always cower behind protective magical wards and hope to see the dawn. Once, they battled the demons on equal terms, but those days and skills, are gone.
Arlen Bales lives with his parents on their isolated farmstead until a demon attack shatters their world. He learns a savage lesson that day: that people, as well as magic, can let you down.
Rejecting the fear that kills as efficiently as the creatures, Arlen risks another path in order to offer humanity a last, fleeting chance of survival.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Peter V. Brett’s fantasy novel – the first in a trilogy – takes the hoary old cliché of the farmboy saving the world and plunges him into a world filled with demons while teaming him up with a small town boy and a smaller town girl. I enjoyed the depiction of the demons, who fall into different types (each with their own abilities and vulnerabilities) and a lot of thought has been put into the history of this world (which is a vaguely post-apocalyptic Earth). However much of the book falls into stock territory with Arlen, Rojer and Leesha all having predictable storylines within the book while the cod-medieval setting gives plenty of scope to trot out taverns and horse riding. Brett does have a stab at subverting the patriarchal sexism common to this type of book through the establishment of a Council of Mothers that supposedly advises one of the Dukes (although we never really see that) but otherwise women are confined to the crone/virgin/wife/whore stereotypes and we get bonus rape as a means of driving two characters into each other’s arms. There’s also a thinly disguised Arab-style world filled with sexist, racist and double-crossing thugs, which I found distasteful. Ultimately the writing is fine and I kept turning the pages but there wasn’t enough here that was new for me and I found the sexism and racism depressing, so ultimately I won’t rush to check out the remaining books.
Thanks to Harper Voyager for the review copy of this book.
