In summary– ehhhh this series isn’t exactly a classic and will be largely forgettable, but isn’t without enjoyable spots. Humans, in contrast, come off as mostly evil, stupid and fanatical. They aren’t creatures of evil, rather a decent enough bunch who have been enslaved into service to previously mentioned evil Queen. They are intelligent (enough), possess a sense of honor, love to fight, but aren’t stupid about it. For instance, if I had a dollar for every time racist dwarf-hatin’ Haskir picks a fight with angry Dwarf Jupp, only to be broken up by a loud “SHUT IT!” from Stryke, well. The dialogue is exquisitely repetitious and unoriginal– author Nicholls goes back to the trough again and again to the same dialogue to bookend scenes. The characters are stereotypes– from the evil sexually sadistic queen, to the manly soldierly Stryke, the sarcastic Coella, the Bluff and Stupid Haskir, the mystical Aelfred, and the Pugnacious Jupp the Dwarf, who has problems of his own being a dwarf in an orc band. These are scattered all over the landscape in the keeping of various fantasy archetypes– I counte d Orcs, Goblins, Centaurs, Neirads, Merfolk, Brownies, Dragons, Elves, Trolls, and Dwarves in the first novel, and Zombies and animated Vampire Skeletons in the second.Īll this stuff would be a delightful romp indeed, were the writing a bit above the juvenile level. A quest ensues, to get the 5 boojums (actually they are called instrumentalities). They are sent on a mission that initially succeeds but later encounters disaster, which causes the band to abruptly leave Jenesta’s service in search of the big boojum that has been stolen.
An Orc band, led by gruff Stryke, is in the service of one classic evil Queen Jenesta. The world of the ORCS series is classic Basic Dungeons and Dragons, circa 1980s. I read ORCS (the Origin story) and ORCS: BAD BLOOD, which follows up some years after the first story. The novel is part of a longer series which apparently is bundled together in various collections, so you will find them under a variety of names. These books are oddly nostalgic of the kind of fantasy I read when I was 14, and for that reason, I enjoyed it, for the most part.
0 kommentar(er)
