The Warded Man: Book One of The Demon Cycle

This is a slow burn with interesting world building and has great character interactions, and a very different fantasy read than most are used to. Now to address the elephant in the room. I am aware of the content people have issues with in this book (if you know, you know). While I do not agree with or condone the author adding that content into the book (honestly, very rarely is that kind of content needed in stories to begin with), from what I can tell it is added more or less to hilight something that Stephen King once wrote, 'Adults [People] are the real monsters.' While I understand, I do believe there are other ways of demonstrating this point without adding those graphic controversial scenes and I do not recommend this to anyone sensitive to these topics. Another issue I see is the pacing can give the reader whiplash especially the time skips but are essentially there to allow readers to follow character's growth over a span of 14 years Otherwise this is a good book.

This was a really good book. It does the whole chosen one thing, good v. Evil etc; but flips it on its head. The Chosen One is a child for half the book, and he spends almost the whole other half hanging out in the forest. Oh, and it involves a lot of sex. Seriously, this book coats everything in sexual innuendo and subtext. Also the author seems to have a thing for rape. Not that those things are necessarily problems, but a warning is advised.

The first book in the series is not without its issues however the book does create an interesting world. However by the time you get to the second book you very quickly realize that the author is clearly a racist and a bigot. The thinly veiled tones of the first book are fully realized by the second entry. The author crudely preaches hate against the Muslim faith. I call it the evil magical Muslims. If that sounds terrible to you, it's even worse to read. Save your time and skip the series.