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The Painted Man (the Demon Cycle, Book 1)
The Painted Man (the Demon Cycle, Book 1)
Peter V. Brett | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
6
7.4 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
First in "The Demon Cycle", this is very much what I would term a dark fantasy novel: not urban fantasy (like The Dresden Files), not heroic fantasy (David Gemmell) and not high fantasy (Lord of the Rings).

This is set in a world where Demons rise through the ground every night to terrorise/slowly cull the few remaining humans, the novel follows three seperate survivors of such attacks. It's pretty obvious that they are, eventually, going to meet up, which only happens in the latter porion of the book, by which stage one of the survivors has become The Painted Man (i.e. covered in magical wards, which the demons can't stand) of the title.

An enjoyable enough read, but I did find this to be occassionally hard going. I also picked it up when Waterstones had it on sale for about £3: for that price, I'm happy enough, but I also wouldn't be looking for the sequels at full price either.
  
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
2001 | Adventure, Fantasy
The first - and, for my money, best - of Peter Jackson's now 6-film foray into Middle Earth, that (I'm sure) saw a massive boost to the New Zealand economy where it was filmed!

It's hard to talk about this film nowadays without describing the plot - is there anyone who doesn't know it? - but this is the film that (I believe) sticks closest to the original story, and is very much what I would call 'traditional' High Fantasy (as opposed to 'Urban Fantasy'), with do-good Elves, Dwarves, Rangers, Orcs, Goblins, Cave-Trolls, Hobbits (halflings) ,,,,

And finally,

"Fly, you fools!"

still packs a punch!
  
Divergent
Divergent
Veronica Roth | 2012 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
7
8.1 (140 Ratings)
Book Rating
I actually really enjoyed the first book in this series. It’s got decent world building and character development. It suffers a bit from the trend to make absolutely every young adult sci-fi/fantasy novel into a series, which means you’ll be left hanging a bit at the end. Gotta keep you coming back for more.

Overall, the first book gave me high hopes for the series.