Have finished reading The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett, which was released on March 10th.  Those of you who were conscious last week will recall that the good folks at Del Rey sent me an ARC, which I immediately put on the top of my reading pile.

I have to admit that I didn't think I would enjoy it.  The premise of the book - a post-apocalyptic world in which demons rise every night - seemed overdone, and my most recent mass-market experiences with similar books hadn't been good (names reserved to protect the guilty).  Despite favorable comments and reviews, I was certain it wouldn't be my thing.

I was wrong.  This is one heck of a book.  Why?  Simply because it is so well written that the characters become important to you in a way that doesn't happen all that often.  This probably stems from the fact that we follow them from childhood and understand exactly why each of them does what they do at the moment of truth.  It may sound boring, but the characters' back-story truly is a gripping read, especially that of the Warded Man himself.

The world in which the action occurs is a truly dire place - walking outside at night is a death-sentence. The chracters seem to bring a measure of hope to a society that has accepted that it will never again be master of the planet.

My one criticism would be that the whole explanation of how the situation came to be seems a bit far-fetched.  But this really didn't interfere with the pleasure I derived from this book.  Brett's writing makes you want to forgive him, and you do.

I will be anxiously looking forward to the next installment.
 

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Other musings:
Hats off to peadarog.  He was right about The Warded Man.

Goodies in the mail:  I recived my first copy of Ad-Astra in the mail today.  This is my loot for winning the Return to Luna contest sponsored by the National Space Society.  Will let everyone know what I think of it as soon as I get to it.

Also got some writing done: 800 words into the story for Cern Zoo, and 300 into Siege (the new SF novel).