The Warded Man

By: Peter V. Brett

Narrated by: Pete Bradbury

Length: 18 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Peter V. Brett has won accolades from critics, fans and fellow authors alike for this riveting debut novel. The Warded Man features a world where demons stalk the night, hunting humans who have long forgotten the magic of their ancestors. But all is not lost, as some hold out hope that a savior will release humanity from the demons' terrifying reign.

©2009 Peter V. Brett (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Brilliant, with action and suspense all the way." (Best-selling author, Terry Brooks)

Good book

I enjoyed this book. I don't know if I will move on in the series. But I did like this book.

The narration was very good too.

Great world building

What a beautiful and interesting world. Very diverse and interesting cultures with an interesting magic system. 5/5

entertaining escapism

If you're looking for entertaining, competently-written escapist fantasy, you could do worse than the Warded Man. As might be expected in a book where bestial demons rise out of the ground every night to terrorize human beings protected by fragile magic wards, there's not a whole lot of subtlety to either the characters or the writing, but I found the story engrossing nonetheless. Brett confidently draws the reader into the fine details of his three protagonists' lives, gradually adding twists and internal conflicts as they grow from childhood, and I found myself staying awake "just one more chapter". The world reminded me a bit of Stephen King's The Wizard and the Glass, with its part medieval, part Wild West, and part post-apocalypse setting, though the mix here leans more towards the former.

Yeah, the book has its flaws. The prose can be adverb-heavy, the side characters are a little exaggerated, and the demons themselves have all the personality of monsters from the computer game DOOM. (On a side note, some readers have also complained about the rape scenes, but I didn't find the author's choice to include them objectionable -- I thought they fit in with the harshness of the novel's world.)

But, overall, I found The Warded Man an enjoyable read and got sucked into the book's world. I liked the conflicted central characters and the portrayal of human society in uneasy coexistence with an ever-present (if mindless) supernatural threat. Usually, I don't mention the audiobook experience, but, in this case, the narrator, whose voice was perfect for this kind of tale, probably added something. Give it a shot. I immediately downloaded the sequel upon finishing.

From out of the blue, I find the warded man.

If you could sum up The Warded Man in three words, what would they be?

Exciting, Well written, Priceless

Who was your favorite character and why?

I really liked Arlin and the journey he has to take to become the warded man. I was so sorry to hear this book end. First thing I did was to see if there were more. Luckily there are two more whooohoooo! I love how well this is written, and how ever day it is. I can't wait to hear the other two.

What about Pete Bradbury’s performance did you like?

He did a great job of keeping the characters seperate. I found that his narration didn't impede the story. He did a great job!

Who was the most memorable character of The Warded Man and why?

They are all really memorable. You really start to invest in them and by so doing into the story. You can't do that with a one dimensional characters.

Any additional comments?

This book is well worth getting and listenting to. It will grab and keep your attention. You find yourself caring about the chacters and what they are going through. Definatly worth trying.

I loved this book.

I was searching for a new book to listen to when The Warded Man popped up as a recommendation while looking at another book. I had never heard of Peter V. Brett or the book itself. The description of the book sounded exciting, so I gave it a try.

At first I thought I had made a mistake. The story starts out with the life of a young boy who lives in a town tortured by demons who come at night. The story starts out a little slow, and I wasn't sure I had made a good choice. Just as I was thinking I had made a mistake, the story began pull me in. The boy goes through many tribulations on his way to becoming the hero of the story, and as the book goes on, and other charterers enter the picture, The Warded Man grew to be one of my favorite books.

Considering I didn't expect much from a book I had never heard of, what a great surprise it was to find such a gem. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Good read, interesting premise

I really liked this story. Good likeable characters, good story line, good narrator. This book is the first of two chronologically (in relation to the story line), but it is unclear which was written first. You can listen to them in any order, as they both overlap each other's time frame. Missing chunks of time from one story are filled in by the other, and they dovetail nicely. Well written pair of books. Keep em coming from this author/series. I await the third book, and the tale of how the score is settled between the warded man and his nemesis.

READ OR LISTEN TO THIS BOOK!!!!!

This is one of my all time faviorate series! I love to read but the book on tape may be even better the narrator made the story come so alive. I can not wait for the next part of the series to come out. You are truly missing out if this is not already part of your collection.

Honestly...I'm conflicted

Would you consider the audio edition of The Warded Man to be better than the print version?

Perhaps when something is printed, you are less likely to notice the repetitive nature of the character being called "The Warded Man" in every sentence toward the end of the novel. When you hear it, it grates on your ear a bit. The Warded Man walked five steps to the left. The Warded Man looked at her side-ways. She regarded THE WARDED MAN thoughtfully. The Warded Man said, " Good luck." She responded "And to you as well, Warded Man." Ok that's not how it goes but it starts to sound that way. This issue isn't unique to this particular book. I hear it in some of the most popular writing today. It's just so much more obvious when you hear it out loud.

Would you be willing to try another book from Peter V. Brett? Why or why not?

I might. Writing any book is Hard. The first book in a series involves a lot of establishing the characters. He does this well. I hate to critique a writer because it's not like I'm an expert. I've never written anything. But, there's over 18 hours to listen to in this book. The major characters come together after 16-17 hours. When they do, suddenly, it seems as though the author said "well I'm tired. Let's just wrap this up, shall we?!" That's a LOT of groundwork and time invested for very little pay off. I'm telling you this as a person who listened to the *Entire* Wheel of Time series by Jordan/Sanderson. I'm conflicted because what Brett does in more than 3/4 of the book is good. He just drops the ball in terms of writing a really good, descriptive and engaging fight scene or giving much detail once the characters are FINALLY in each other's presence. And... I don't want to throw any spoilers in here but he might want to chat with a few women when he writes about how one typically responds to specific physical experiences. Unless these responses are all part of his world-building and women in his world have different physiology and psychology than women on Earth. This criticism, by no means, indicates that his work is without merit. He just needed an outside opinion about a couple of things to improve the book.

Which scene was your favorite?

I thought all of his descriptions of various family dynamics were great. He has several rich characters. His origin stories of the 3 major characters are very good. All of the various training scenes, exploration scenes, moments when these characters took risks---all of those were rewarding to read. One particularly well written moment is when a character is conflicted about someone who raised them for years but initially was a major jerk that cost him the lives of those closest to him... That was so very true to life. It's hard to compartmentalize such equal and opposite emotions about 1 person. I also appreciated that the author chose to write a person who could be seen as disabled actually having plenty to offer regardless of physics limitations.

If you could rename The Warded Man, what would you call it?

The Mark of Demons

Any additional comments?

I didn't give this full stars for 1 reason only: The last 1-2 hours. Those were rushed. It's as though someone suggested he edit for length so he went back to the last few chapters and stripped out the details to meet some sort of requirement. Bottom line when writing: Don't skimp out at the end. Don't fast forward and try to make readers fill in the missing bit of character development under the guise of being mysterious. The readers of this genre are tired of that plot device now. After investing so much time, I feel a bit ripped off at the end. It's not a Total disappointment but it could have been SO MUCH Better.

among the greats of the decade.

I have not seen gritty epic fantasy done better, or with such tight style. The story and characters building with solid layers from stunningly simple to vast and complex. this is my 8th plus return to the series , and I'm nowhere near tired of it. the narration matches perfectly with commanding style.
I reeeaally like these books, and I am very picky.

Entertaining

Good enough start, that to me is intriguing enough to continue on.
Hope I haven't been fooled again.