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The stunning debut fantasy novel from author Peter V. Brett. The Painted Man, book one of the Demon Cycle, is a captivating and thrilling fantasy adventure, pulling the reader into a world of demons, darkness and heroes. Voted one of the top ten fantasy novels of 2008 by amazon.co.uk. Sometimes there is very good reason to be afraid of the dark…Eleven-year-old Arlen lives with his parents on their small farmstead, half a day's ride from the isolated hamlet of Tibbet's Brook.
Raised and trained in seclusion at a secret fortress on the edge of the northern wilds of the Kingdom of Ashai, a young warrior called Rezkin is unexpectedly thrust into the outworld when a terrible battle destroys all that he knows. With no understanding of his life’s purpose and armed with masterful weapons mysteriously bestowed upon him by a dead king, Rezkin must travel across Ashai to find the one man who may hold the clues to his very existence.
According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms, but the Voidbringers followed. The Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, the Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won (or so the legends say).
When Soren is plucked from the streets and given a place at the prestigious academy of swordsmanship, he thinks his dream of being a great swordsman has become a possibility. However, with great intrigues unfolding all around him, Soren discovers that he is little more than a pawn to the ambitions of others.
Minalan gave up a promising career as a professional warmage to live the quiet life of a village spellmonger in the remote mountain valley of Boval. It was a peaceful, beautiful little fief, far from the dangerous feudal petty squabbles of the Five Duchies, on the world of Callidore. There were cows. Lots of cows. And cheese. For six months things went well: He found a quaint little shop, he befriended the local lord, the village folk loved him, he found a sharp young apprentice to help out, and, best yet, he met a comely young widow with the prettiest eyes.
A chance encounter with an ancient and mysterious object awakens a latent gift, and Wulfric's life changes course. Against a backdrop of war, tragedy, and an enemy whose hatred for him knows no bounds, Wulfric will be forged from a young boy into the Wolf of the North. This is his tale.
The stunning debut fantasy novel from author Peter V. Brett. The Painted Man, book one of the Demon Cycle, is a captivating and thrilling fantasy adventure, pulling the reader into a world of demons, darkness and heroes. Voted one of the top ten fantasy novels of 2008 by amazon.co.uk. Sometimes there is very good reason to be afraid of the dark…Eleven-year-old Arlen lives with his parents on their small farmstead, half a day's ride from the isolated hamlet of Tibbet's Brook.
Raised and trained in seclusion at a secret fortress on the edge of the northern wilds of the Kingdom of Ashai, a young warrior called Rezkin is unexpectedly thrust into the outworld when a terrible battle destroys all that he knows. With no understanding of his life’s purpose and armed with masterful weapons mysteriously bestowed upon him by a dead king, Rezkin must travel across Ashai to find the one man who may hold the clues to his very existence.
According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms, but the Voidbringers followed. The Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, the Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won (or so the legends say).
When Soren is plucked from the streets and given a place at the prestigious academy of swordsmanship, he thinks his dream of being a great swordsman has become a possibility. However, with great intrigues unfolding all around him, Soren discovers that he is little more than a pawn to the ambitions of others.
Minalan gave up a promising career as a professional warmage to live the quiet life of a village spellmonger in the remote mountain valley of Boval. It was a peaceful, beautiful little fief, far from the dangerous feudal petty squabbles of the Five Duchies, on the world of Callidore. There were cows. Lots of cows. And cheese. For six months things went well: He found a quaint little shop, he befriended the local lord, the village folk loved him, he found a sharp young apprentice to help out, and, best yet, he met a comely young widow with the prettiest eyes.
A chance encounter with an ancient and mysterious object awakens a latent gift, and Wulfric's life changes course. Against a backdrop of war, tragedy, and an enemy whose hatred for him knows no bounds, Wulfric will be forged from a young boy into the Wolf of the North. This is his tale.
Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals. But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.
Prince of Thorns is the first volume in a powerful new epic fantasy trilogy, original, absorbing and challenging. Before the thorns taught me their sharp lessons and bled weakness from me I had but one brother, and I loved him well. But those days are gone and what is left of them lies in my mother's tomb. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword, and as evil as you please. We ride this broken empire and loot its corpse.
DeathWizards have been the scourge of Talohna for over 5000 years; they are executed at birth or hunted to the death. There are no exceptions. Pulled by magic and blood sacrifice into a world he can't possibly begin to understand, Kael Symes soon finds himself the focus of a Talohna-wide manhunt. Desperate and trying to stay ahead of ArchWizard Giddeon Zirakus's execution squad, Kael soon discovers that Talohna's ArchWizard may be the least of his worries.
A quest for bloody vengeance forces Derla, a skilled veteran of the Varinshold underworld, into the service of arch schemer King Janus. Charged with protecting the renowned drunkard and cardsharp Sentes Mustor, Derla finds herself drawn into a high stakes game with the notorious criminal overlord known as One Eye.
Five years ago Corin Cadence's brother entered the Serpent Spire - a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire's trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire's goddess. He never returned. Now it's Corin's turn. He's headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.
Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons, goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Land and begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land, with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter's destruction. Can Richter forge allegiances to survive this harsh and unforgiving world or will he fall to the dark denizens of this ancient and unforgiving realm? A tale to shake "The Land" itself, measuring 10/10 on the Richter scale, how will Richter's choices shape the future of The Land and all who reside in it? Can he grow his power to meet the deadliest of beings of the land? When choices are often a shade of grey, how will Richter ensure he does not become what he seeks to destroy?
The Vagrant is his name. He has no other. Years have passed since humanity's destruction emerged from the Breach. Friendless and alone he walks across a desolate, war-torn landscape. A s each day passes the world tumbles further into depravity, bent and twisted by the new order, corrupted by the Usurper, the enemy, and his infernal horde. His purpose is to reach the Shining City, last bastion of the human race, and deliver the only weapon that may make a difference in the ongoing war.
It has been 20 years since the end of the war. The dictatorial Augurs - once thought of almost as gods - were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. Those who had ruled under them, men and women with a lesser ability known as the Gift, avoided the Augurs' fate only by submitting themselves to the rebellion's Four Tenets.
Legends aren't born. They're forged. Dug Sealskinner is a down-on-his-luck mercenary travelling south to join up with King Zadar's army. But he keeps rescuing the wrong people. First, Spring, a child he finds scavenging on the battlefield, and then Lowa, one of Zadar's most fearsome warriors, who's vowed revenge on the king for her sister's execution. Now Dug's on the wrong side of that thousands-strong army he hoped to join - and worse, Zadar has bloodthirsty druid magic on his side.
The Wizard's Council of Tarador was supposed to tell young Koren Bladewell that he is a wizard. They were supposed to tell everyone that he is not a jinx, that all the bad things that happen around him are because he can't control the power inside him, power he doesn't know about. The people of his village, even his parents, are afraid of him, afraid he is cursed. That he is a dangerous, evil jinx.
A thousand years ago evil came to the land and has ruled with an iron hand ever since. The sun shines fitfully under clouds of ash that float down endlessly from the constant eruption of volcanoes. A dark lord rules through the aristocratic families and ordinary folk are condemned to lives in servitude, sold as goods, labouring in the ash fields. But now a troublemaker has arrived and there is rumour of revolt.
A quiet child, Moriko is forced into a monastic system she despises. Torn from her family and the forest she grew up in, she must fight to learn the skills she'll need to survive her tutelage under the realm's most dangerous assassin. Young, beautiful, and broke, Takako is sold to pay for her father's debts. Thrust into a world she doesn't understand and battles she didn't ask for, she must decide where her loyalties lie. When their lives crash together in a kingdom on the brink of war, the decisions they make will change both their lives and their kingdom forever.
In the grand tradition of George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan, Sunday Times best-selling author Peter V. Brett continues his critically acclaimed Demon Cycle with the next dramatic instalment: The Skull Throne.
The Skull Throne of Krasia stands empty. Built from the skulls of fallen generals and demon princes, it is a seat of honour and ancient, powerful magic, keeping the demon corelings at bay. From atop the throne, Ahmann Jardir was meant to conquer the known world, forging its isolated peoples into a unified army to rise up and end the demon war once and for all.
But Arlen Bales, the Painted Man, stood against this course, challenging Jardir to a duel he could not in honour refuse. Rather than risk defeat, Arlen cast them both from a precipice, leaving the world without a saviour and opening a struggle for succession that threatens to tear the Free Cities of Thesa apart.
In the south, Inevera, Jardir's first wife, must find a way to keep their sons from killing one another and plunging their people into civil war as they strive for enough glory to make a claim on the throne. In the north, Leesha Paper and Rojer Inn struggle to forge an alliance between the duchies of Angiers and Miln against the Krasians before it is too late.
Caught in the crossfire is the duchy of Lakton - rich and unprotected, ripe for conquest. All the while the corelings have been growing stronger, and without Arlen and Jardir there may be none strong enough to stop them.
Only Renna Bales may know more about the fate of the missing men, but she, too, has disappeared....
I listened to books 1-3 again before listening to this one. Am not sure what it is about this 4thbook that left me feeling almost a little bored, possibly the lack of time given to Arlen? Or maybe that the majority of this book is given over to introducing and giving the back story to yet more characters. Leesha seems to have more time devoted to her than any other character in this book, and I think I may be getting a tad bored with her character.
I found the different pronunciation of main characters names rather annoying in this version.
Either the author is building to an outstanding final instalment, or this was stuffing in the middle, which is my pet peeve when it comes to any book series.
That said, I did enjoy it, and I look forward to the final instalment.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful
This may well be the case of a book too far, however it was not helped by the change in narrator who pronounced a lot of names differently. Also, as mentioned by other reviewers, there were strange pauses throughout the narration. I am not sure if I will bother with the next one as not a lot seems to have happened in this and it was almost as if the author ran out of steam - or perhaps has split a longer book into two parts. It will be interesting to see if the next installment takes as long to be released as this one did..
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Story – 4/5
I enjoyed this well enough, probably as much as the 3rd book, The Daylight War. I just can’t help but think that the story is really drawn out. I wouldn’t mind this quite so much if the characterisation was as good as the first book, but it isn’t. That’s not to say the backstory and character development is completely amiss, some of it is excellent still, it is just not to the overall standard I keep hoping Brett will return to.
I loved the action packed last 3 hours of this book, which made my impression of the overall story rise a huge amount. The epilogue was also very intriguing. If you have enjoyed it to this point, and loved book 3, you will enjoy this one equally.
Performance – 4/5
Another good performance from Colin Mace; who although a bit duller in parts than Peter Joyce was with the first 2 books, is quite similar; and almost as good. Audible were kind enough to swap the older versions of the audiobooks for the new ones with Mace’s narration, so I was able to re-listen and get used to his voice with the characters before approaching books 3 & 4. I would recommend doing the same thing if you struggle with any changes of pronunciation – but I barely noticed.
Overall – 4/5
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
Overall I like the Demon books. I usually listen/read much larger books (Peter F Hamilton/Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson) so having some shorter titles is nice.
One thing that struck me this time though is that some of the odd things I've notice in the narrator's pronunciation disappeared in book 4. For instance Coreling was pronounced Coh-Rel-Ing previously is now pronounced as the more intuitive Core-Ling. However, other strange things have popped up. A lot of the voices that were used for the characters sound different to me this time around, one of the main characters is now having his name said differently (Rojer was pronounced in a more nordic way, with the J as a Y sound (so it was Royer) but now switching to basically Roger) and pronunciation of some established words changed (Eveja went from eh-ve-ja to Ee-vee-ja), and some pronunciation of perfectly normal words is off (Incidious being the one that's struck me a few times). The word is always close, but not quite right, and always jars me out of my listening as I'm thinking "is that a mispronunciation or just a word I don't know?"
All together, it added up to the point that until I checked before writing this, I thought it was actually a different narrator and this review was going to be called "Different narrator, similar problem".
Its not enough to actually make it bad narration, but it is a bit jarring in a purely audio format that things like mispronounced words and inconsistent pronunciation are allowed through. I can't help but compare it to Kate Reading/Michael Kramer doing Wheel of Time/Stormlight Archives. Those are much larger books, with many more terms, some of which are painfully close in pronunciation. In wheel of time's case, they were produced over more than a decade, and in stormlight's case, the two were produced over 3 years apart, yet there was very little shift in pronunciation of setting specific words, and I can't think of a single normal word mispronounced. Its why I use Reading/Kramer as my benchmark for narration.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful
The Demon Cycle started with such promise. I enjoyed the first two books immensely, especially for the fast pace, character driven story line. The third book in the series, while good, finished with a cliff hanger ending (a warning sign that a series is about to go soap opera). Now with this fourth book I am losing my patients. This feels more like padding in order to make the most out of a successful series rather than a progression from previous books.
Disappointingly pointless.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful
Easy to get lost in who is fighting whome on the many scuffles between tertiary characters, resulting in a lack of investment in the story as a whole.
Peter V Brett has said in an interview he was pressed for time. he had a backup of a 3 book series which would of glossed over the events with the krasians and focus on Arlen if he was not able to do the 5 book series. This is what exactly needed to happen this installment fell flat and got plain boring after a handful of chapters
I expect the next book to be the same such a shame because the first 2 bppls were excellent.
absolutely loving the four books I have already listen too . can't wait to start the next.
So I waited until the last book was out before reading this one and I am so glad I did. Great cliff hanger!
Think it's as good as the first book. Can't wait for the core. Stunning example
Gave up half way through. The fleeting glimpses of interesting action and development were drowned out by annoying intrigue and squabbling.