Review: The Painted Man by Peter V Brett

As darkness falls, demon corelings rise — multitudes and giants, from fire, wood, and rock, hungry for human flesh. After centuries, humans dwindle, protective wards forgotten. Three young survivors of demon attacks, Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer, dare to fight back.

Reading Format: Kindle eBook
Year Read: 2013
Star Rating: 5 stars

This is another book with a different title for different countries; The Painted Man is also known as The Warded Man. Not a huge difference and both factually correct but I think I prefer The Warded Man.

When I read this book in 2013, it was my favourite book of the year. It is the first book in Brett's Demon Cycle series. As I am writing this post now, I would have to say that The Demon Cycle series is my all time favourite Fantasy series. I just love all the demons!

There was loads of action in this book making it a very entertaining read which gripped me from the get go.

At night fall, demons rise from the earth burning crops and houses, killing people and animals, but most of all putting fear in to people which keeps them prisoners in the own homes and villages. The only thing that keeps them safe is magic - they ward their houses to stop the demons entering. There are different types of demons; fire, wind, wood, sand, water and stone.

This book tells the story of three people living in these scary times; Arlen, Leesha and Rojer. All three have found themselves in difficult circumstances and all have survived a coreling (demon) attack as a child. They are all three children at the start of the book, coming of age and are middling their twenties as the book closes. I really liked Arlen and Leesha as characters but my favourite of all was Hag Bruna, Leesha's mentor, who had me laugh out loud on several occasions.

The third person narrative moves from one character to the next telling their story until the three characters cross paths.

I honestly can't believe this is Peter V. Brett's first book! I devoured this book and loved everything about it. I have since read the second book, The Desert Spear, which was fantastic and I have the third book, The Daylight War, to read in the next month or so.

The Painted Man: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Review: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .

Reading Format: Paperback
Year Read: 2014
Star Rating: 5 stars

I love Terry Pratchett's books. And I love Neil Gaiman's books. So naturally I was really excited about reading Good Omens, a collaboration between these two fantastic authors. It was so good and I really hope that they consider writing another book together at some point as their individual writing styles really compliment each other.

The humour of Pratchett's writing was present as were the footnotes that can be found in his Discworld series. This combined with Gaiman's penchant for creating dark and disturbing tales made this story utter perfection in my eyes.

In this story, a direct descendent of Agnes Nutter, a Witch and prophet, is in possession of a book which contains all her prophecies which are very accurate indeed. The prophecies (and therefore the book) ends on a Saturday with Armageddon. The end of the world is coming about because the Antichrist has been placed on Earth, a young boy placed in the care of a normal human family, and representatives from Heaven and Hell are placed on Earth to ensure that the Divine Plan is kept on track. Lot's of mishaps and confusion results and everyone (on both sides) is left scrambling around trying to avert the destruction of life as we know it.

I loved all the individual characters and there was quite a cast (luckily at the front of the book there was a list of characters for reference although I only used it at the beginning of the book) and I thought they were all really well developed. I really liked Crowley and Aziriphale and I enjoyed how they interacted with each other.

All in all, a fantastically, humorous time was had by me while reading this book!

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

"Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.

The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. 'He never says please', she sighed, but she gathered up her things. When Brimstone called, she always came."

In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she's a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in 'Elsewhere', she has never understood Brimstone's dark work - buying teeth from hunters and murderers - nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn't whole.

Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.

Reading Format: Paperback
Year Read: 2013
Star Rating: 5 stars

Although I was intrigued by the book before reading it, I had been putting it off as I went through a bit of an "avoiding YA books because I'm an adult" phase. I'm so pleased I got over that!

While it is aimed at young adults, the main character is old for her age so it had a different feel to other books in this genre that I have read.

I fell in love with this book and the characters right from the start. It is about Karou, a blue-haired, 17 year old girl living in Prague who is trying to juggle two lives; one normal in this world where she is an art student and the other where she runs errands for a monstrous creature called Brimstone and is surrounded by fantastical creatures called chimaera. There is a lot about her past and present that she doesn't know so she has a sense of feeling incomplete.

The descriptions of the characters is great and I could really imagine what they looked like - I bet the people who like drawing fan art will have a field day on Laini Taylor's creations! They were all really interesting too and I liked their uniqueness's.

I especially felt drawn into the setting in Prague as only the week before I read the book I had visited there so I was able to really visualise where Karou and the other characters were and what they were seeing and experiencing.

I have since read the two follow up books in the series, Days of Blood & Starlight and Dreams of Gods & Monsters which I will post reviews for at a later date.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads