Brief book review.

[matt_doyle]

Yesterday I read a fantasy novel - the start of a series - called The Warded Man. It was excellent, readable, and enjoyable, though as usual I was irritated by the cliche of having the one main female character as the Healer, when the main male character got to be the Badass Warrior. There's a secondary male character who is much less badass than the Healer, so that was sort of okay until the Healer, who'd been saving herself for marriage, was gang-raped by bandits offscreen, not as a means of character development for anyone, but to put her in a position where the Badass Warrior needed to rescue her.


I mean, FUCKING A, SERIOUSLY?

Has anybody read this book, and would you care to discuss it? I will NOT be getting over that plot point, but up until that stage it had a great many virtues and cool ideas worth talking about. I honestly don't know if I'll continue with the series when the next book comes out.

Comments

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Okay, sexism, BTDT. But it's also a sign of a lazy storyteller--and that's why I won't be bothering. Seriously, in a world with all these fantastic books I don't have time to read? Why should I bother with less than the best?

[matt_doyle]

Exactly. If I'd known about that scene, I wouldn't have picked up the book.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

So who wrote it? (Now that I've just spent a year's worth of book money. Heh.)

[matt_doyle]

It's the first novel of Peter V. Brett.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[lesstraveled.livejournal.com]

Your HTML is screwy in the OP. Can't say about the novel but you've piqued my curiosity enough to place a hold at the library... oddly enough they've shelved it under the Horror genre?

[matt_doyle]

Fixed!

Hunh. I mean, it does have demons eatiing people, but it's in no way horror.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Hmm, doesn't sound like a book I'd much want to read, but I might have a look to see if it's shown up at a local library.

In a perverse sort of way, I'm now contemplating writing a book where the Badass Warrior is gang-raped by bandits offscreen, simply as an excuse for the Healer to rescue him.

Not that I'll do it, but I'm contemplating it. ;-)

[matt_doyle]

Yeah, when I read the scene I reflected it would have been much better if the Secondary Hero would have been raped. It would even kind of have fit; his life has repeatedly been made to suck in new and interesting ways throughout the book...

[muffytaj.livejournal.com]

WTF?! Urgh urgh urgh.

[matt_doyle]

Precisely.

[sunnyskywalker]

...buh? Why do authors feel the need to do these things? I mean... *flails* surely they'd call shenanigans if a Badass Warrior character got gratuitously castrated or something solely so a loving Healer could show off amazing healing skills and then the subject was never, ever addressed again and the wounded character's trauma totally ignored. Gah.

I haven't read the book yet, but have seen it in the library. Not sure I'll take the time to read it, but you say it has some virtues too - any in particular that might make it worth a read?

[matt_doyle]

It's got a tremendously original and engaging world. And up until that point in the book, seems to treat its women characters well and seem to be aware of the sexism inherent in medieval settings. But thinking back there's also a group of pseudo-Muslim characters that are unfortunate caricatures in some places and beautifully handled in others. So maybe mishandling of issues is just a halmark for this author.

[sunnyskywalker]

seem to be aware of the sexism inherent in medieval settings

That does sound interesting (that gets ignored a lot, or handwaved as "oh but this character is exceptional and the rest of the girls are just too silly and vain to take the same opportunities!", which, no), as does original worldbuilding. Hm. And if the pseudo-Muslims are handled well even some of the time, that's more than many books can do. Is this the author's first or at least an early book? If so, maybe the writing will get less uneven as the series continues. *hopes*

[matt_doyle]

First book. It's the only reason I'm thinking about reading the next in the series when it comes out.