The Painted Man by Peter V Brett

Tyler from United States

The "Warded Man" as it is known in the U.S. takes most of the book to unite the 3 main characters. The demon fighting should take place a lot sooner and spend half the time building the characters! By the time they start fighting the demons, the book is over! Seems like I spent the whole time waiting for the description on the back to materialize and then it's over! Thank god I already had the 2nd book! Unfortunately, the beginning of the 2nd book (which I just started) sounds like the "jihad" of modern day...if you don't "believe" we must kill and rape fellow humans? Krasians are modern day terrorists? Hiding women under veils, holy wars, 'chin' (unbelievers), must ALL die? What's REALLY being said here?

Lance from New Zealand

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The setting, characters and disconsolate world served to draw me in and immerse me very well (save perhaps for a few jarring and implausible events). As I flipped through the pages it was as if I wasn't reading at all, but observing a story unfolding in a real, living world. I will admit to skipping over entire chapters, eventually returning to them, just so I could continue to read about the adventures of Arlen! I wasn't nearly as drawn in by the others, and found myself frankly annoyed at the distraction.

Al from Ireland

I loved this book; it got me back to reading after 6 years of finding nothing I liked. But this book is great, one I just had to finish once I picked up the book. I spent a whole day and most of the night reading; this a must read.

Tarje from On the streets

One of the best fantasy books i have ever read, it's new thinking and really sucks you inn and keep you there untill the end.

Jenny from London

The Painted man was definitely a very good book. My mum got it for my brother but I read it first as he was in school. This is not usually my type of genre but I certainly enjoyed the book thoroughly! Now awaiting the third book!!

Miles from Liverpool, UK

This book was lent to me by a freind and took me a while to actually pick. When I did eventually pick up The Painted Man I couldn't bring myself to put it down. I became so engrossed in the story and development of the characters that I found it being the first thing I would think of in the morning and actually planning when I could next get a chapter in. This book was well written from start to finish, an engrossing tale of characters you become attached to and everyone can relate to at least one situation the characters get into. Overall I would recommend fans of the genre to read this book and people new to the genre also. Absolute quality!!

Ricky from London

I don't usually read fantasy novels as I can feel some of them take too long building characters and go on way too long. However, this is the first I have read since The Lord of the Rings and Northern Lights and it's safe to say has captured my attention and certainly brought to light my love of the fantasy books market (hence stumbling upon this site). For any readers who don't or haven't read alot of fantasy and wondering whether it is worth the effort the thing I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's a page turner and I couldn't put it down and am thoroughly looking forward to the third installment of this wonderful trilogy. Based on my review if anyone knows of similar type books I'd love to hear.

Jahant from London

One of the best books I have ever read. I loved how the book is all about fear, and the magic system, which at first I was sceptical about, ended up working brilliantly. It was my first fantasy book of the adult theme that I have read and I loved it!

Matt from UK

Just finished reading this and was fairly impressed and that was off the back of reading "The Magician" by Raymond E Feist. I thought the characters stood up well and less not forget that there is more books in the Demon Cycle series, so characters will build even more. I noticed that people thought that the rape scene wasn't explained and have got bogged down on this very small part of the book. I feel he did attempt to address this by explaining that Leesha regretted not losing her virginity earlier, as she had her virginity taken by a bunch of rapist scumbags. It goes on to say that she felt by having Sex with Arlen (Painted Man) this would be her true first time and erase the memories of her traumatic experience. Also don't forget that Arlen was probably a virgin too and she also felt very safe in his company because of his skills. Needless to say in our world that wouldn't probably be the natural reaction but in this world life is cheap and short lived. The only negartive thing I have to write about Brett is the fact that he appears to have sold the film rights to a Director that produces crap movies (Resident Evil). That is a real big shame. Peter Jackson would have made this book epic. I would have given this 7.5 but you can't half mark so an 8 it is. A real page turner for all the right reasons. The reason being I cared what happened to the characters.

Natalia from Australia

I found this novel hard to stick with overall. Brett writes fairly well and the journey of the characters and their trials was somewhat enough to keep me engaged - but I found the world building very cliched and the characters very one dimensional. The overall synopsis of the novel appealed to me greatly but although suspenseful at times, I found the style of writing quite hard to digest. I struggled with the tone of the work as well and felt it didn't fit with the the world or the characters. That said, I admire Brett for putting forward a good attempt at a first novel.

John C. from London

A disappointing read, overall. I'm afraid this book was too simplistic, both in its story and its writing style, for my own taste. It might suit those looking for a fast paced book which doesn't involve much depth or development and for a lot of gory demons and yokels doing each other in amid scenes of soft-core swelling bosoms and manly thews. The central concept had a lot of wobbles in it, despite being sold as "highly innovative" it really seemed quite boringly predictable. This might hold true as well for the various character arcs of its main protagonists. Characters lean towards caricatures all too often, especially those in supporting roles and the writing is utilitarian at best, dull and mechanical at worst. A few characters shine out of the mud, namely the two flawed jongleurs, but they are not the central focus of the novel. The plot clearly rode the characters, rather than the other way around, leaving sections of the book at the mercy of utterly implausible events which come off as transparently enacted only to make things happen quickly and keep this short book ticking along. As already noted, no woman hours past being gang-raped and left for dead, after being a prim virgin for 27 years in a world where most are becoming mothers at 17, is going to throw herself at some hulking almost inhuman stranger, wet and ready, and beg to get it on. This is one of many such mistakes that further shatter the illusion of the story. Over all, the whole thing felt rushed. I'd say it had promise, but never really delivered. Not the worst book by a long mile, but I found it odd to see so many positive reviews. A page turner perhaps, in the most literal sense of the word, but come the light of the morning, like the demons of the mysterious core, one which seemed to evaporate leaving nothing of substance behind.

Julia from Sussex

This wasn't too bad, up to a point. A bit unweildy, the characters a little flat (and I guessed the ending pretty much by the end of chapter one, but hey, sometimes it's the journey) but the worldbuilding was fairly solid and it wasn't a bad read. Right up to the point that one character, a couple of days after being brutally raped as a virgin (and presumably therefore still pretty banged up) doesn't have it affect her after the first day except when she decides that the best way to get over it is to jump on a guy that, not only is she afraid of, she describes as a monster just before hand. I just sat there and thought 'What the...!'. Completely unbelievable. Now I could, possibly, accept this if a) her motivations had been actually well shown in the book, but beyond one line they aren't and b) if she needed to bed a guy to get over it - she didn't pick a guy she was petrified of and thought a monster. Her best friend's right there , if she wanted comfort... why chose a 'monster'? Why not someone she knows will be gentle? That's not even mentioning the discomfort factor of all the bruising... However, as the character's motivations for this bizarre act were so glossed over as to be invisible, I just completely lost any chance of getting back into the characters. So the lack of any reasonable motivation completely threw me out of the book, and frankly, turned me right off this author. If you're going to have people do odd things (and people do, and I LOVE to see them do odd things as long we get to find out why) then at the very, very least, show me why in the book!

Jo Grifin from UK

Thoroughly enjoyed 'The Painted Man' from start to finish. As an avid reader of not only fantasy fiction, I found it refreshing. Gripped me like 'The Dragonbone Chair' - Tad Williams, and 'The Pillars of the Earth'- Ken Follett and of course Katherine Kerr and Terry Goodkind books. Keep it up - looking forward to more just like it.