L'Homme rune

Executive Summary: I really enjoyed this, and apparently I should have picked up this series a lot sooner than I did.Audiobook: Pete Bradbury narrates [a:Django Wexler 639491 Django Wexler https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1357865518p2/639491.jpg]'s Shadow Campaign series, which I absolutely love. I thought he was a pretty good fit for that series, I probably like him for this series even more. He doesn't do voices or anything, I just like the sound of his reading voice. My only complaint is he can sometimes be on the quiet side, which isn't great for audio. I think I'm used to him by now though, so I plan to continue on this series in audio.Full ReviewThis book/series has been on my radar for years. I'm not typically one to wait for the final book in the series to come out before giving something a try, but I just felt like I already have too many series in progress and kept putting it off.Well now the final book is out, and the vast majority of my friends who have been reading it all along seem to have really enjoyed it. Getting a cheap copy of the audio didn't hurt either. I don't read as much as I was a few years ago, but I still listen to a ton of audio.The book focuses on three characters, and I'd say about 75% of it serves as an origin story. The main focus is a young boy named Arlen. However we get a fair bit of time with Leesha and later on Rojer.Arlen's chapters were good, but probably the most predictable of the three. I still found his journey to be fascinating as the world Mr. Brett has created is excellent. I also found it refreshing to have a badass monk, instead of your typical sword wielding hero.The demons are different from your typical antagonist too. We don't really know why they are coming, or if anything can be done to stop them, but the Warded Man seems determined to find a way.Leesha's chapters were easily my favorite. I especially loved Bruna, the town herb gatherer. I thought Leesha got a lot of great character development, and I was most interested in seeing where her plot would go. I will say there was one part of her story I didn't care for, and largely felt unnecessary to the plot/her character development. Maybe I'm being unfair to Mr. Weeks, but I saw it coming a mile away and that didn't make it any less frustrating when it happened.Rojer was the least interesting of the three to me, but by the end of the book he had grown into something far more interested than expected. I love a good Bard, and this book is full of several. Unfortunately they all seem like awful arrogant, selfish people. Except for Rojer. He's maybe a little too naive as a result, but I found it refreshing after how awful many of the other characters turned out to be.I'm curious to see where this series goes, this book set things up nicely. The ward magic seems really interesting, and it makes for a really excellent plot device. I've already jumped into the next book. I suspect that despite my late start to this series, it won't be very long until I've bought and read the entire series.

Je weet wanneer je een goed verhaal aan het lezen bent wanneer je niet wilt dat het perspectief veranderd naar een ander personage, omdat je echt wil weten hoe het verder gaat met het huidige personage. Maar als dan het perspectief terug veranderd naar het eerste personage, wil je ook nu weer niet dat het veranderd en wil je bij het tweede perspectief blijven.
Dit had ik constant voor bij het lezen van dit boek! Het is extreem vlot en boeiend geschreven. Je leeft echt mee met de personages.

De wereld is heel intrigerend en uniek, iets dat ik nog niet eerder was tegen gekomen.
Alleen gebeurde er iets naar het einde van het verhaal toe dat ik ietwat ongepast vond bij de personages en bij wat we eerder over hen hadden geleerd. Anderzijds had ik wel iets in die aard verwacht.
Ook de grote vechtscène vond ik precies niet zo spannend...
Maar los daarvan, was dit een heel goed geschreven en interessant verhaal. Op naar deel 2!

This book was the weirdest rollercoaster I've ever been on.

The first part where every character was introduced was great and interesting. I liked that we got solid long chapters from everyone's POV, while simultaneously getting to know the world a little.
Though I don't personally agree that this is a character-driven book (as it's often described as). Though quite a bit of time is spent on the story of these characters, they are nothing to write home about. The plot and whatever needs to happen for it still takes center stage.

Even if some of the chapters were long, they were easy to get through and so this book was quite an easy read. The way it is set up means you're not immediately thrown into the thick of things, which is nice! I prefer getting to know the world bit by bit instead of spending the first half of a book super confused.

Now let's talk about when my rollercoaster started going downhill.

With the entire world being in danger from demons, and people frequently dying, offspring and children are important. So there is a lot of focus on babies and sex and how you only mean something as a woman if you're also a mother. So girls that are old enough to do these things are cast off to a man so they can make some babies.
That of itself is a bit what we've come to expect from your average fantasy world, and while it's not something I like, it's something I can be alright with as long as the characters (and especially the female ones) get to rise above that.

WELL.

There is, as far as I could count, exactly ONE woman whose story isn't focused on sex and motherhood. And she was also the most enjoyable character of the bunch - Bruna.

Leesha, although plagued with bullying from her mother and her ex and her town, seemed to rise above it. She found it weird, didn't want to take part in that, just wanted to focus on healing people. Never even has sex.

And then the narrative punishes her for it. She gets gang-raped while being robbed.This isn't even the worst part.She spends maybe a few days being traumatized by it. Up until she meets The Warded Man and oh, she's in love and they have sex and she is absolutely fine with all of that even if she was raped only a few days before. All is fine and dandy!Why did the rape even have to happen in the first place?? I legitimately got mad while reading lmao.On a sidenote, I read a few reviews from the next few books, and apparently this becomes a common thing? Virgin characters getting raped?

Yeah let's just say, don't think I'll be checking out the sequels.

RATINGS ARE TOUGH. First 3/4 was a solid 4 stars, maybe 3. Last 1/4 is either 2 or 1.
Overall this deserves 3 stars, which for me would imply “it was fine”, but I also wouldn't ever recommend this book to anyone or think it's worth checking out based on rating alone, so I don't know. It's harsh but I think I'm going with 2 stars and maybe upgrade it sometime in the future after I've had a while to think about it.