Just wrapped up The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett which starts really interesting but sadly grows a bit trope-y by the end. A brief review.
The Good
I love the premise and there’s definitely a thought put into the Corelings, Core, and where/how they came about, and I am really curious to find out. It was also interesting to see glimpse into the medieval-esque, fear-ruled society and how (realistically) messed up it is with violence or rape (hello Witcher or Game of Thrones), if tending too much towards sexism.
The Bad
HOWEVER, what starts quite interesting end very predictably trope-y by the end. The characters all grow from the typical “messed up kids” to archetypal “heroes” (tho it’s kinda funny how it matches game tropes with the tank, healer/mage and bard heh). Worst is the warded man itself who goes from a little kid to superhuman powers in literally blink of an eye; I know the book skips like a decade but still, the transition was pretty jarring (I didn’t think the brief episode in the desert was sufficient to explain it).
The End
Will I continue on book two? Kinda want to. Still curious about the coreling mythos, warded man’s link to the creatures, and the mentions of ancient technology, but I also fear the books will just get more and more predictably tropy which is kinda boring to me personally.
Score: 3.5 warded spears out of 5