Posted by This was part of Kitty G’s grouping and has since been eliminated.
I usually take notes when I read, even when I audiobook – but this time I was playing Civilizations while audio-booking and totally spaced out and took 0 notes. So, this review will be off the cuff, and I hope it doesn’t suck.
Plot:
The Orcs are coming, there has been a long-standing peace pact with the Orcs that is being breached, but people are slow to catch on because it’s been so long since they’ve attacked.
The story follows 3 or 4 main characters and several side characters through a story of siege and defenses.
You also get both sides of the story, one of the POV’s is an orc raider who’s extremely brutal, if you are a person who avoids books with sexual violence, steer clear of this one. I wouldn’t say this is a female violence book, the Orcs rape and kill everyone, man or woman, it makes no difference to them. So Bazak is part of the invasion force that’s going through human and elven villages just fucking shit up everywhere. He leaves a pile of dead bodies behind him and he gives 0 fucks, he gets off on it. There was a scene where he rapes a girl and smothers her with a pillow while doing it. Fuck this guy. His father hates him, and he doesn’t get along well with the other Orcs because he’s only half Orc. He’s a human-orc hybrid and can pass off as human, sort of.
So then there’s Tierra, who was tricked into sleeping with Bazak and almost dies for her passions, dude stabs her. She teams up with Saethryth, the orc slayer, to go get some fucking revenge.
Saethryth is an orc slayer, and he’s one of the only ones left. He’s got a serious bone to pick with the Orcs because they killed his entire family, again with the raping and throat slitting – there’s nothing redeeming about these orcs. He has a talking sword which is neat, it becomes really chatty when slaying orcs.
Melress is a battle mage who has some serious power, he can raise people from the dead and lots of cool shit. He’s also the half brother of Saethryth and probably an orc slayer as well (complicated).
Lucy is a victim of Bazak, the girl smothered by the pillow, and she’s raised by Melress – and her family are also raised as zombies. Her mother was raped to death by the horde of Orcs and after she’s raised she takes on a totally different personality. Honestly, her chapters were kind of funny in a really black way, she makes quips about eating the “cocks that raped her” and giggles about it (zombie eating orc remains they killed). The zombie mom gets her own little arc going around and slaughtering orcs and eating them. She and her husband are also adjusting to being zombies and the wife asks the husband:
“Why are you walking that way”
“I dunno, I’m dead”
“It makes you look like a zombie”
“I am a fucking zombie”
Not verbatim, but the gist of their chapters.
Final Score: 7.5/10
Characters:
Bazak – as bad as it gets, one of the blackest villain POV’s I’ve read in a while. I think one of the more interesting things about him was his relationship with his father, which was really bleak and strained.
Lucy – just a poor kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time
Seathryth – hates orcs with a passion and is dead set on his mission to kill as many of them as possible, even hunting down half orc hybrids.
Melress – battle mage and one of the more powerful and interesting characters, also one of the more likeable.
Tierra – orc slayer in training, fierce, she was already a captain of the guard when she was introduced so swinging around a sword didn’t just come about because of her unfortunate encounter with Bazak
Final Score: 7.5/10
World Building
Elves are a thing, Melress and Seathryth both have elven blood – i’m blanking on which one is half human, I think Melress. They live a long, long time with some of the elven characters being 300 years or older
Orcs are intelligent, they aren’t just rampaging bestial things, they speak fluently they don’t grunt a lot or speak in broken sentences, they’re just savage.
The Elves have seven acknowledged gods, and an eighth that no one talks about. Each of the Gods can have an “avatar”, and being a gods avatar gives you extra powers.
Seathryth is immune to metal injuries, you can stab him in the neck with a dagger and nothing will happen.
There are bizarre shape shifting demon/monster like things, and no one knows where they came from. At first, people thought they had come with the orcs as twisted sort of pets, but they hunt orc and human alike.
Final Score: 7/10
Pacing/Prose/Tone:
This was an extremely fast paced book, there were fight scenes and battles everywhere – there was so much blood and gore in this book it’s not funny.
The tone was very, very black at points, reading what the Orcs did to people when they ransacked their villages made me squirm.
Pacing Final Score: 8/10
Writing Final Score: 7.5/10
Originality:
I’ve seen a fair amount of invasion force, whether it’s orcs or monsters or whatever – so this read somewhat similar to other things, I sort of wish there was more world building going on to help set it apart. The Orc POV added a different element to the story, so it gets points for that.
Final Score: 7/10
Audience:
- For people who like violent, darker books
- For people who like multi pov
- For people who like orc/monster invasions
- For people who like faster paced books
- NOT for people who don’t like cursing – 65 fucks given
- NOT for people who want to avoid sexual violence
Final Score: 44.5/60 or 7.41/10
One comment