I have finally gotten back to my giant pile of Books To Be Read (which has now toppled over into two piles, because some friends have recently come to the epiphany that I both like books, and have an amazon wishlist). Not a book that was on my wishlist, but has definitely been on my 'have a look at that' list. In my head. Anyway:

Alren 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 materialise from the vapours to feed, and as the shadows lengthen, 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 realises 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.

The Painted Man is Brett's debut, but reads far more like it comes from a seasoned author. The characters and world are engaging and vivid, the story and pacing spot-on for both a discrete novel, and the first book in a trilogy. Brett avoids constructing a three-volume-novel, and instead gives us a satisfying read that piques out interest for the later books.

The qualms I have about the book are few, though some are a little troubling. One of the societies Brett created had a clear caste system and complete male dominance over women. They were a violent, proud people with a number of faults, and clearly not displayed in an altogether positive light. So far, not a problem - the issue comes, for me, when he introduces burkhas into the equation (though he doesn't say the word, it's bloody obvious what he means - black cloth that covers women completely from head to toe, and while they may wear beautiful silks and jewellery underneath, only their husbands will ever see that.). 

I take issue with this because the burkha is such a strong image of Islam that introducing it to this society does not help enrich its culture, but instead invites the reader to assume that Brett is really writing about his understanding of Islamic culture - and it is not a flattering portrayal that he gives us. Instead of allowing the impression of these people to form from Brett's words, we're inundated by our own ideas of what Islamic cultures are. In the current cultural climate, slapping this Islamic brand on an invented woman-subjegating, violent, proud and easily offended people seems sensationalist, manipulative, and frankly racist. Not only unnecessary, but detrimental to the book.

And it could have so easily been averted. Did the women's wrappings have to be black? What if they were coloured to identify their marital status, or their husband's caste status? Just that slight change to move it away from the Islamic stereotype.

Other than that, it's a strong book. The characters are a little less dimensional than I'd like - but packing three complete and (for the most part) separate character arcs into 540 pages means something has to go. The female characters are the weakest - Leesha seems largely to be a one-note song, while Arlen and Rojer have much more depth. I would also have liked to see more of Arlen's transition - he exits stage left as one character, and essentially re-emerges later as a completely different one. Which is a valid technique, but when he's ostensibly the main character whose every nuance we've been following for the past three hundred pages, I feel a little cheated.

But, that aside, it's a book that I'd highly recommend, if you haven't picked it up already. The other two in the series have already made it onto my wishlist, and I'm looking forward to the other book of his (not from this series) that's sitting (unfortuntely quite a way down) on my Books To Be Read pile.