The Warded Man
core novel 2009 The Demon Cycle
Record
| First published | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.24 (133,879 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| Page count | 416 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780345503800 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Warded Man is set in a world where demonic creatures known as Corelings rise from the earth's core every night to hunt humans, and where a once-advanced society has regressed into a darker age, surviving only behind protective magical symbols called wards. The novel follows three characters as they come of age amid this constant threat: Arlen Bales, a young man from an isolated hamlet who grows frustrated with his community's fear and passivity and sets out to learn more about the wards himself; Leesha Paper, a young woman who turns to herbal healing after being unfairly shunned by her village following a broken engagement; and Rojer Inn, an orphan with a crippled hand who is taken in by a traveling jongleur and learns to use music to ward off Corelings.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Demon Cycle
- Series: The Demon Cycle core; position 1 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Peter V. Brett
Notes
- From the series record (The Demon Cycle): Published in the UK in 2008 as The Painted Man; The Warded Man is the US title of the same book.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Demon Cycle: position 1 of 5: next The Desert Spear (2010)
Sources
← The Demon Cycle dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.