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A review by mikavon
The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett
1.0
Alright.
Where do I begin...
-The entire first 3/4 of the book was backstory. It wasn't until the titular "warded man" appeared and the characters had finally grown up that things got exciting. Seriously, the book should have started there. We did not need to know the characters' backstories in that much fucking detail. It felt like the wheel of time, if Robert Jordan had spent the entire first book talking about Emond's Field. Generic peasant/farmers with generic peasant/farmer lives. Children matched for marriage, townspeople gossiping about mundane things, the gleemen coming to town (though gleemen are called "jonglers" or something that sounds like a variation of "jugglers"). SO BORING, omg. Okay, demons come out at night, but that doesn't suddenly make the mundane details more interesting.
-I'm annoyed that we spent so much time with Arlen when he was young, and then didn't hear from him at all once he became awesome. Really, his childhood was important backstory, but the parts about him tattooing wards on his body and fighting demons all over the world was not? The best part of this book was probably when he found that spear and brought it to the desert people.
-The women in this story irritated me. Or rather, the women in this world. And the men, to be honest. Every man Reesha encountered wanted to fuck her. Literally every man, now that I think about it. I really just hated the world the author created. Arlen went to the desert people and commented on the fact that the women there were treated like objects, which made absolutely no sense if they were the ones who were educated and took care of everything while the men were responsible only for fighting. The "multiple wives" thing made sense, but it seems to me like women in that society would have had a TON more power than they did. The women in the rest of the world were similarly underappreciated, falling into boring gender roles that we've seen in our own world in the past (as well as a ton of cliche fantasy settings...). It's a tired and infuriating cliche at this point. I don't want to read about a world where all men think about is sex and all women think about is who they'll marry and make kids with.
Gah.
It really bugged me. It's a fantasy novel--you can make any society you want, and you choose to make one that is pretty much the same as the real world a thousand years ago. Come on.
-I am curious about the fiddler's ability to ward off demons with music. But am I curious enough to keep reading this series...? Not sure.
-Oh, and wtf, suddenly Reesha is awesome at the end, dissecting demons and making fire potions...she certainly didn't act awesome at any point prior to that.
-ALSO, there is no fucking way a woman who put such an emphasis on preserving her virginity would suddenly fall into lust with a complete stranger after just being violently gang raped. No way.
-also...in a world where demons come out at night and the only way to keep them from killing you is to draw wards all over, every person would learn these wards. There's no excuse not to learn them. Sure, they do say that they're kind of complicated to draw, but come on, people wouldn't just live in ignorance of the one thing that might save them from dying a violent death.
Gah.
I didn't like this book. Some parts were fun, but I hated most of it.
*edit*
I've been rethinking it. I think the reason I disliked this book so much was because it offended me. How the women behaved in society, and how so many of the male non-pov characters were sex-driven misogynists. It really bothered me, and I think it coloured my perception of the entire book.
Where do I begin...
-The entire first 3/4 of the book was backstory. It wasn't until the titular "warded man" appeared and the characters had finally grown up that things got exciting. Seriously, the book should have started there. We did not need to know the characters' backstories in that much fucking detail. It felt like the wheel of time, if Robert Jordan had spent the entire first book talking about Emond's Field. Generic peasant/farmers with generic peasant/farmer lives. Children matched for marriage, townspeople gossiping about mundane things, the gleemen coming to town (though gleemen are called "jonglers" or something that sounds like a variation of "jugglers"). SO BORING, omg. Okay, demons come out at night, but that doesn't suddenly make the mundane details more interesting.
-I'm annoyed that we spent so much time with Arlen when he was young, and then didn't hear from him at all once he became awesome. Really, his childhood was important backstory, but the parts about him tattooing wards on his body and fighting demons all over the world was not? The best part of this book was probably when he found that spear and brought it to the desert people.
-The women in this story irritated me. Or rather, the women in this world. And the men, to be honest. Every man Reesha encountered wanted to fuck her. Literally every man, now that I think about it. I really just hated the world the author created. Arlen went to the desert people and commented on the fact that the women there were treated like objects, which made absolutely no sense if they were the ones who were educated and took care of everything while the men were responsible only for fighting. The "multiple wives" thing made sense, but it seems to me like women in that society would have had a TON more power than they did. The women in the rest of the world were similarly underappreciated, falling into boring gender roles that we've seen in our own world in the past (as well as a ton of cliche fantasy settings...). It's a tired and infuriating cliche at this point. I don't want to read about a world where all men think about is sex and all women think about is who they'll marry and make kids with.
Gah.
It really bugged me. It's a fantasy novel--you can make any society you want, and you choose to make one that is pretty much the same as the real world a thousand years ago. Come on.
-I am curious about the fiddler's ability to ward off demons with music. But am I curious enough to keep reading this series...? Not sure.
-Oh, and wtf, suddenly Reesha is awesome at the end, dissecting demons and making fire potions...she certainly didn't act awesome at any point prior to that.
-ALSO, there is no fucking way a woman who put such an emphasis on preserving her virginity would suddenly fall into lust with a complete stranger after just being violently gang raped. No way.
-also...in a world where demons come out at night and the only way to keep them from killing you is to draw wards all over, every person would learn these wards. There's no excuse not to learn them. Sure, they do say that they're kind of complicated to draw, but come on, people wouldn't just live in ignorance of the one thing that might save them from dying a violent death.
Gah.
I didn't like this book. Some parts were fun, but I hated most of it.
*edit*
I've been rethinking it. I think the reason I disliked this book so much was because it offended me. How the women behaved in society, and how so many of the male non-pov characters were sex-driven misogynists. It really bothered me, and I think it coloured my perception of the entire book.