Whingeblade

by Nicholas J. Ordinans

Soonar is the last of the lion-eagles and Nowan, the prince who must save her. But he doesn't really want to. He hates responsibility and his demonsword ‘Whingeblade’ would rather soak in hot oil than do any actual work. But, there is no-one else. This tale is about growing up, loyalty to friends and facing life’s challenges. Nothing new, but the true things about life do not change just because the times do. Every generation must pass on its tales to the next to try and ensure that the chain of good things is never completely broken.

Genres: Fantasy

297 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 21, 2010

About the author

Nicholas J. Ordinans was born in Staffordshire, England and worked as a zoo keeper specialising in the care of wild cats, birds of prey and reptiles. He now lives in the Yarra Valley in Victoria, Australia with his wife, also a former zoo keeper, and writes multi-genre fiction in various formats.

Nicholas is also working on an account of his three decades as a zoo keeper in both England and Australia, which is to be entitled 'Whose Zoo?'.

Reviews

[Janine Southard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disclosure: The author sent me a copy of this book after I referred to a previous edition in a review for some other book. It makes me feel slightly guilty that I liked the older version better.

Whingeblade is a send-up of questing fantasies. We have the usual cast of characters, and they stumble humorously from situation to situation.

Unfortunately, some of their stumbling needs work. Chock-full of backstory, populated by characters who flat out tell you their motivations, and rife with uninspired dialogue -- this book needs an editor.

And that brings us to my real problem with this edition of Whingeblade. Where's the title character? Previous editions had whole pages of the sentient, sarcastic sword being his marvelously irascible self. I have, in fact, held up Whingeblade (the character) as being the seminal sentient blade. But that's missing from this version. If he's going to title the book, you've gotta let him be a major player! (Besides, he had all of the best dialogue. We could use that.)

I do think there's a good book in there after editing. However, its premise would be a bit more concrete than simply "parody of fantasy". It would be more like:
"Sarcastic sword and human wielder struggle to save the world from amoral artifact collector."

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whingeblade is a book that has a familiar, but good premise. A young man from a family of means is forced to the life of a roving mercenary and is given an epic quest from the gods.

There are some aspects of the book that I really enjoyed. The inclusion of a demon blade was pretty cool and it's personality added a bit to the party. Also the griffin like character Soo-Nar was a great addition to the party. The main thing that didn't really do it for me in the book was the static nature of the characters. It didn't really seem like any of them changed or grew through the story. Nicholas Ordinans shows promise as an author and I hope to see some more development as he continues to write.

[Shannon Mcgill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The story was quick witted and fast paced. I'm so amused by a talking sword that I could simply not put this book down.
Written with a definite satirical flair which is right up my alley!
The characters are well written and are easy to identify with. The sword makes you cringe just thinking of all the whinging he does and the 'extras' also play a very important part of the story.
I love the idea of the hero's horse projecting her thoughts into his mind, only to be so often ignored. Poor Giselle.
Cannot wait for the second part of this series. Can't wait to see where they go from here. Well done Nicholas! :)

[bex · Rating 2 out of 5]

The interesting characters and story kept me reading, but it needs a serious edit to clarify POV and clean up usage issues. Also proofreading for extra and missing spaces and the annoying hyphens instead of proper em dashes. And don't forget someone who knows horses to clean up the appalling errors with Giselle!