Product Description

The stunning debut fantasy novel from author Peter V. Brett. The Painted Man, book one of the Demon trilogy, 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! Arlen lives with his parents on their small farmstead, half a day's ride from the isolated hamlet of Tibbet's Brook. As dusk falls each evening, a mist rises from the ground promising death to any foolish enough to brave the coming darkness. For hungry demons materialize from the vapours to feed, and as the shadows lengthen, all of humanity is forced to take shelter behind magical wards and pray that their protection holds until the dawn. But when Arlen's world is shattered by the demon plague, he realizes that it is fear, rather than the monsters, which truly cripples humanity. Only by conquering their own terror can they ever hope to defeat the demons. Now Arlen must risk leaving the safety of his wards to discover a different path, and offer humanity a last, fleeting chance of survival.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1172 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Review
'I enjoyed The Painted Man immensely. Action and suspense all the way.' Terry Brooks 'An absolute masterpiece... literally unputdownable, and deserves to be the next Big Thing in dark fantasy.' www.ozhorrorscope.com. 'A very accomplished debut fantasy. Recommended.' www.sfrevu.com. Reader Reviews: 'If the next two books in this series live up to this one it will be one day named as a classic fantasy series.' Joanne Horsley, (NSW) 'What a book!!! I am going to go insane waiting for the sequel/s to come out!!' Robert San Remo (NSW) 'Fantastic first book for his trilogy!! This is a name to remember.' Linda Naremburn (NSW) 'Absolutely brilliant! This one will easily slot up there as one of my top 5 or 10 favourites, and will be strongly recommended.' ANZ WA account manager response. 'The first in a fabulous new fantasy series that is likely to become a classic. Excellent fantasy literature; can't wait for the next book. The Cairns Post 'It is impossible to put this book down.' Merryl (Dianella, WA) 'An excellent book. It kept me awake long after I should have gone to bed.' Rachelle (Burnie, TAS) 'A great read and not your average fantasy.' Bonnie, Booktagger Rating: 9/10.

www.ozhorrorscope.com
`An absolute masterpiece... literally unputdownable, and deserves to be the next Big Thing in dark fantasy.'

www.sfrevu.com
'A very accomplished debut fantasy. Recommended.'

Customer Reviews

Superb debut, and one of the best fantasy novels ever!
Superb debut novel from Peter V. Brett. This is the first instalment of the Demon Trilogy, a real thrill ride of a read. The novel places the reader into the world of "Tibbets Brook", where the night is inhabited by seemingly immortal demons, and the inhabitants have to protect themselves and pray for the first light of day. The novel tells the story of Arlen, Leesha and Rojer, each of whom is equipped with very different skills, but together may be able to save civilisation. The book is very character driven, and the deveopment of these characters is done extremely well. There are so many authors writing in the fantasy genre, but Peter Brett offers a completely new take on it. The story moves along at a cracking pace, and never lets up. I read this in one sitting (9am - 6pm), it really is that gripping. I can't wait for the second part of the trilogy! One of the best books I've read this year, and one of the best fantasy novels ever!

Apocalyptic demons
This book hinges on an extremely cool, immagination-capturing central concept - that demons become flesh from dusk till dawn, controlling the land with a feral violence, the human race quaking in isolated towns and cities, protected by 'wards', a kind of defensive magic dimly remembered from a distant human/demon apocalypse.
The story follows three characters from childhood, each one marked by their early experiences with the corelings/demons.
The writing is good, not great, with the three central characters feeling slightly wooden, although they all become more interesting and believable towards the end of the book.
The world-building is again good, but not great, with some clear cultural diversity highlighted by the southern humans, bringing a 'jihad' flavour into Brett's world, which overall has a distinctly 'medieval europe' feel to it, with also a bizare hint of midwest pioneers/settlers thrown in.
The central theme of 'fear' and how it can both bind and set free is cleverly written.
All in all i found it an interesting and entertaining read, although slightly flawed in certain respects by some wooden characterisation and clunky dialogue in parts, but it was certainly good enough to grab my imagination - i'm definitely looking forward to part two.

Need I say it?
Well first things first; look at the amount of positive feedback this book has and I'm sure you'll draw your own conclusions. Regardless of how many reviews there are I felt I owed. No. I had to give my own review.
This book gave me the finest several hours of my Fantasy-reading days. I used to read fantasy books as often as possible, but moved away from the genre over time (for a much needed change). I was given this book as a present and it gave me the thrill, excitement and utter joy that I used to feel when reading this genre.

Peter V. Brett has, let me say clearly, plenty of talent. It's clear he has worked hard on this book, devoted a great deal of energy, and put a lot of heart into it.
This book is a great new fantasy and if you read it, I think you'll love it.

It's clever, well-structured, original, action-packed and an ultimate page turner. I could not stop turning pages and finished this book in 2 days, which is unfortunate because I NEED MORE!
When Peter's next book: The Desert Spear, comes out I'll be first in line to get it.
I definitely consider myself a fan of Peter V. Brett and wish him the utmost success, and pray he continues to write more books such as this.