The Great Bazaar and Other Stories

The Painted Man (also known as The Warded Man for those who like their books American-Made) is one of the best fantasy epics of recent years. Period, exclamation point, throw whatever other punctuation you want at it, doesn’t matter; the book seriously kicked it, bringing it like Beckham (That Posh has skillz!) The novel’s protagonist, the demon-fighting Arlen Bales, easily captures the mantle of greatest Arlen ever, (trouncing Senator Arlen Specter who doesn’t fight demons, he just works with them.) Peter V. Brett’s debut was such the tasty fantasy goodness I’ve taken to stalking Barnes & Noble delivery trucks hoping a copy of the upcoming sequel, The Desert Spear, happens to fall off one. And into my greedy little mitts. show more

Pathetic, I know, but The Painted Man was that damn fantastic. Like half-blind, bikini-clad Scandinavian supermodel who owns a liquor store and golf course munching on a chocolate chip ice cream cone on a hot summer day kind of fantastic. But then you discover—Oh Horror—she’s rocking a purity ring and thinks MTV is high art, and suddenly, you’re left wanting more; it makes you greedy.

But like Gordon Gekko says, Greed is good, so embrace it, want more. Maybe even plant a big, sloppy smootch on its kisser. Because sometimes you get what you want—and what you need.

If The Painted Man was a Director’s Cut DVD, The Great Bazaar and Other Stories would be the second disc filled with all the Extras. More story, deleted scenes, a ward grimoire; it’s all here. Even Brett offering context and insight into the scenes. Love The Painted Man? Then you’re going to love this collection, since it features more of what made that book so great.

The majority of the collection is devoted to the short story “The Great Bazaar”, a fantastic piece that works incredibly well as a standalone introduction to The Painted Man universe. The story follows Arlen Bales, now settled down, and proprietor of the Bales Motel. Arlen lives with his mother in a nearby house overlooking the motel. One night a blond demon, escaping from her past, checks into the motel…Alright, I’m lying. Really, did you think I was going to give it away; the story’s short, go read it. Abban, a merchant in the Great Bazaar”, is the rockstar in the story. Forget Team Jacob or Team Edward, Abban will have the love-struck pre-pubescents shrilling like wind demons after they catch his deeds in “The Great Bazaar.”

If I hadn’t read Brett’s debut, this story would have forced me to; it’s such a wonderful scene. Much better than you’d imagine, and not what you’d expect from material that didn’t make the original volume. Often, one hears the phrase deleted scenes, and thinks, This is the stuff that wasn’t good enough to make it in. That’s far from the case in The Great Bazaar and Other Stories; all the material here has the same high level of quality found in the novel. There’s not as much as I would have liked, but hopefully it’s enough to get me through to The Desert Spear without getting slapped with a restraining order from Barnes & Noble.

Fans of The Painted Man will love The Great Bazaar and Other Stories. People not familiar with Brett’s work will find this a great introduction. Being a fan of the novel, I can only view the collection in that context. Which means I’m biased. Which means I’m going to score this similarly to The Painted Man. Which means that bikini-clad, liquor store-owning Scandinavian supermodel might have just welded that purity ring onto her finger. Because already I want more.

Final Grade: 9.25 out of 10 show less

This one fills in a big portion of the pre-warding Arlen right before he goes in search of the first Deliverer.

Pretty perfect for those of us who wish we had all that early-days Arlen after his filled-out childhood after he goes off on his own but before he gets screwed. Honestly, we get all the same information in the Warded Man, but this is quite a bit more fleshed out, almost as if it was cut for pacing issues from the original.

Which I understand, of course, but like the other novella, I kinda wish I could have the Warded Man (Director's Cut). :)

Die beiden längeren Geschichten sind gute und spannende Ergänzung zum Erzählbogen um Arlen, treiben die Saga aber kein Stück voran. Der Rest des Buches hat Lückenfüllerqualität. Auch wenn ich grundsätzlich die Sinnhaftigkeit solcher Häppchen-Veröffentlichungen anzweifle, habe ich mich gut unterhalten gefühlt.

This book is part of the The Demon War trilogy, but moreso as a fill-in/short side stories way. The first story is The Great Bazaar, which recounts Arlen's time as a Messenger, his relationship with Abban, and leads into how he finds the lost city of Anoch Sun. This was a nice tie-in to the trilogy, and basically only provides minimal needed information to the trilogy. I have enjoyed the character Arlen, that I found this to be a nice read.

The second story is Brayan's Gold, and it actually takes place before The Great Bazaar. It is a story about Arlen's early Messenger days, and his first 'solo' run to the Brayan's Mine. This was a great character development short story, and gives a little more insight to Arlen's way of thinking and show more beliefs. Also, it introduces a different kind of demon that had not been mentioned in the trilogy (at least the first two books). show less

Shame on me for not having read Peter V. Brett�??s The Warded Man and The Desert Spear yet. I have them on audio and I look forward to reading them ƒ?? I just keep thinking that Iƒ??ll let Mr. Brett get further along in the series before I jump in (the series has been progressing slowly, but book 3, The Daylight War, comes out next February). Yet Iƒ??m attracted to Brettƒ??s world and after reading his novella Brayanƒ??s Gold, I wanted more, so I picked up the audio version of The Great Bazaar, another novella set in this land thatƒ??s overrun by various types of demons every time it gets dark.

Peter V. Brett explains in his introduction to the print version of The Great Bazaar and Other Stories that The Great Bazaar is show more chapter 16.5 of The Warded Man. Similar to Brayanƒ??s Gold, itƒ??s one of the short tales detailing Arlenƒ??s work as a messenger. The stories were cut out of the novel to save space and make the story move faster. Brett explains that heƒ??s got plenty of tales to tell about Arlen during this period of his life, so I expect weƒ??ll be seeing more of these tales. Some can already be read in the print version of The Great Bazaar and Other Stories (available on Kindle for $5) and other deleted scenes can be found at Peter V. Brettƒ??s website.

In The Great Bazaar, Arlen is travelling through the desert of Krasia with a map provided by Abban, a dealer in the bazaar. Heƒ??s looking for Baha kadƒ??Everam, a deserted city famous for its expensive pottery. Nobody had been there for years because the place has been overrun by demons (including a type that Arlen has never heard of before), but Arlen hopes to find some pottery that will make him rich. Besides these new demons, Arlen also has to deal with the immortal rock demon he calls ƒ??One-Armƒ? who holds a The Great Bazaar by Peter V. Brettgrudge against Arlen and has been pursuing him for years. At the end of the story, Arlen sets out on another interesting quest. Will it be successful? Iƒ??ll have to read The Warded Man and The Desert Spear to find out.

I listened to the audio version of The Great Bazaar which was produced earlier this year by Recorded Books. The recording is 1?« hours long and is expertly read by Pete Bradbury who also reads the Brett novels. He does a really nice job and Iƒ??m definitely looking forward to beginning The Warded Man. show less

Good little addition to the Demon Cycle series. Nothing spectacular, but still worth reading if you enjoyed the other books in the series. I'd recommend reading it after Warded/Painted Man and before Desert Spear though, as all of the stories and deleted scenes are from Warded/Painted Man.

Any story about Arlen is great! I also enjoyed the author's notes at the end, about how he came up with the idea, and the short story that started it all!