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The Orcslayers #1
The Eighth God
For thousands of years, five great fortresses have stood sentinel between the Borderlands and the rapacious Orcs. But the Orcs have allies and these allies are about to set a chain of events in motion that will lead to war...
Heroes will rise to answer the call.
Saethryth has just returned from the Orc Lands where he has been killing them for over twenty years. He is one of the last Orcslayers left alive.
Melress is a Half-Elven Battle Mage, recently promoted to Captain and sent to the fortress of Knight's Perch, where there are rumours of a traitor.
Tierra has been sleeping with the enemy and now she wants revenge.
And Bazak-Kul, well he just wants to get home alive.
They, and others, will face the onslaught at Knight's Perch, but battle is the least of anyone's problems, because The Eighth God is on the rise and everything can change when the Gods are playing.
Heroes will rise to answer the call.
Saethryth has just returned from the Orc Lands where he has been killing them for over twenty years. He is one of the last Orcslayers left alive.
Melress is a Half-Elven Battle Mage, recently promoted to Captain and sent to the fortress of Knight's Perch, where there are rumours of a traitor.
Tierra has been sleeping with the enemy and now she wants revenge.
And Bazak-Kul, well he just wants to get home alive.
They, and others, will face the onslaught at Knight's Perch, but battle is the least of anyone's problems, because The Eighth God is on the rise and everything can change when the Gods are playing.
- GenresFantasy
283 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 12, 2016
10 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 22, 2017
This was one of my #SPFBO reads and I have to admit I was a bit unsure about this when I read the premise as I don't tend to really enjoy books with Orcs usually! This is set in a world where Humans, Orcs and Elves have long been warring with one another, but currently it is a time of peace. The Humans and Elves live alongside one another, and the Orcs stay to themselves past the gates and valley of the Human abodes.
We enter the story from various points of view. The main few characters are probably:
Saethryth...Orcslayer.
Melress...Battle Mage, maybe Orcslayer.
Tierra...Orcslayer and ex-Orc lover.
Kelper...Captain of some Guards.
Caw...Raven who flies over all.
Ellowe...tormentor turned protector.
Lucy...a dead girl returned.
These seven characters give us the majority of the plot, and they each have their own viewpoint chapters which shine a light on a different part of the battles and treachery that is brewing. We also have a half Orc half human who is a spy for the Orcs in the early part of this book, and he's responsible for stirring up quite a lot of trouble.
The pros for this book include that this surprised me a lot. I have to admit, I didn't think I would make it to the end of this at first because it had it's issues, but I did and I liked it on the whole.
This is also a very fast-paced read and can easily be read in an afternoon or in short bursts because the chapters are short and quick.
The negatives are sadly a little more obvious, the book itself needs a LOT of editing. There are quite a few typos, formatting errors and mistakes with grammar. I think this would really benefit from a very strong copy edit and proof read, as then it would come together as a much more cohesive storyline.
The other negative for me, and the main one which detracted for me, was the lack of description and world building. I have mentioned that I liked the fast-pacing, but I also wouldn't have been at all unhappy to have a longer book in a much more fleshed out world. This felt like it could probably have been any 'classic' fantasy world, and there's not a lot in the description or the magic which would make this stand out.
I also think the short chapters wasn't a big benefit for the characters as it just made them seem a little too brief and I never fully connected to any of them.
Overall, this just scraped the 3* as I did like it, but I have also read a whole lot of better edited and more cleverly conceived fantasy. It's a likeable read, but I would say it needs a lot of work to become a great read.
We enter the story from various points of view. The main few characters are probably:
Saethryth...Orcslayer.
Melress...Battle Mage, maybe Orcslayer.
Tierra...Orcslayer and ex-Orc lover.
Kelper...Captain of some Guards.
Caw...Raven who flies over all.
Ellowe...tormentor turned protector.
Lucy...a dead girl returned.
These seven characters give us the majority of the plot, and they each have their own viewpoint chapters which shine a light on a different part of the battles and treachery that is brewing. We also have a half Orc half human who is a spy for the Orcs in the early part of this book, and he's responsible for stirring up quite a lot of trouble.
The pros for this book include that this surprised me a lot. I have to admit, I didn't think I would make it to the end of this at first because it had it's issues, but I did and I liked it on the whole.
This is also a very fast-paced read and can easily be read in an afternoon or in short bursts because the chapters are short and quick.
The negatives are sadly a little more obvious, the book itself needs a LOT of editing. There are quite a few typos, formatting errors and mistakes with grammar. I think this would really benefit from a very strong copy edit and proof read, as then it would come together as a much more cohesive storyline.
The other negative for me, and the main one which detracted for me, was the lack of description and world building. I have mentioned that I liked the fast-pacing, but I also wouldn't have been at all unhappy to have a longer book in a much more fleshed out world. This felt like it could probably have been any 'classic' fantasy world, and there's not a lot in the description or the magic which would make this stand out.
I also think the short chapters wasn't a big benefit for the characters as it just made them seem a little too brief and I never fully connected to any of them.
Overall, this just scraped the 3* as I did like it, but I have also read a whole lot of better edited and more cleverly conceived fantasy. It's a likeable read, but I would say it needs a lot of work to become a great read.
February 7, 2018
Debating between a 3 and a 4 - very fast paced violent and gore filled book!
-------------------
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 cursin – 65 fucks given
NOT for people who want to avoid sexual violence
Final Score: 44.5/60 or 7.4/10
-------------------
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 cursin – 65 fucks given
NOT for people who want to avoid sexual violence
Final Score: 44.5/60 or 7.4/10
March 11, 2018
I struggled very much with the early chapters of this book. There are too many POV characters in the beginning, and their voices are all very similar, which made it hard for me to keep track of them. The text was rife with grammatical errors, changes in tense, and frequent POV changes. Some of the major turning points in characters' arcs were handled very flippantly.
At times, I considered not finishing this, but I was reading it with a group, so I forged ahead. I had heard it was comedic and wanted to see that aspect in it. It did get there, and I am interested in reading more from this author. I think his work has potential and he hasn't quite found his voice. This read is a case of an author publishing something too quickly in an environment where self publishing is easily accessible.
I am very interested to see how his style evolves. This book becomes really cheeky in a grim setting. Sort of a no-fucks-left-to-give attitude. It's quite funny at times, and the author seems to embrace this aspect later in the book, but the opening chapters don't fit the same tone.
A couple of the characters were surprisingly funny. They were minor characters, but I wanted to see more of them, or perhaps just more of that style of humor. With further editing, the work has a lot of promise and the author has the potential for a unique and hilarious style.
At times, I considered not finishing this, but I was reading it with a group, so I forged ahead. I had heard it was comedic and wanted to see that aspect in it. It did get there, and I am interested in reading more from this author. I think his work has potential and he hasn't quite found his voice. This read is a case of an author publishing something too quickly in an environment where self publishing is easily accessible.
I am very interested to see how his style evolves. This book becomes really cheeky in a grim setting. Sort of a no-fucks-left-to-give attitude. It's quite funny at times, and the author seems to embrace this aspect later in the book, but the opening chapters don't fit the same tone.
A couple of the characters were surprisingly funny. They were minor characters, but I wanted to see more of them, or perhaps just more of that style of humor. With further editing, the work has a lot of promise and the author has the potential for a unique and hilarious style.
February 22, 2018
Full review is here, on my blog.
This is an often gory and fantastically violent story. It’s the story of a world where there are orcs and elves (and humans at the very least kind of in the middle) and a very rickety peace between them all. For five thousand years this peace has lasted, but the orcs aren’t having any of it anymore.
On the good side, there are the Orcslayers. They do exactly as their name implies, as the orcs in this particular tale, are uh… pretty slayworthy. They are portrayed as just ridiculously bad, mainly through the use of rape as a ‘rape is bad, and these guys rape everyone, so they’re bad’. The leader of the orcs is usually portrayed as either in the middle of raping someone, or just having finished raping someone. So, there’s a lot of rape in this world (and it’s not confined to just women either, orcs just rape errybody in the world, so hide yo kids and hide yo wife, etc), but it’s not described as much as it is implied. But, that said… uh, if that’s something you’re sensitive about, probably skip this one. The point though, is that orcs are just… bad. They are rapey, and they are bad.
It’s said that the Orcslayers were given their powers by the seven elven gods. They are more or less the avatar of whichever god they represent, so there are normally seven of them. On top of their considerable skill, they get some pretty sweet armor that changes depending on the circumstance, and sweet, sweet sometimes-sentient weapons. At least one of them has a talking sword, anyway, which is kind of badass. It sings when it’s killing orcs. Sings. But, it turns out that there are actually eight gods, and so there are eight possible avatars among the Orcslayers. Dun. Dun. DUUUUUNNNNN.
So we follow several points of view here but the main ones are:
Saethryth, who is an elven Orcslayer. He’s one of the very last of them, and the orcs have pretty much killed his whole family and he’s pretty much going to revenge them all. With his singing, sentient badass orcslaying sword.
Melress, who is a half-elven battlemage, who, because of his heritage (half-elves are not really liked), has been bullied most of his life, but he’s still turned out to be not an asshole because of it. He’s also Sethryth’s half-brother, and he has a talking raven named Caw as a familiar.
Bazak is a half-orc (and half-human) who is sent by his father, who hates him because of the half-human thing, to start shit and spy in the human/elven lands. He’s a piece of shit. Most orcs hate him because he’s half-human. It doesn’t really stop him from being as orc as he can be. There’s more than one instance of him somehow magicking himself into an elf, seducing a girl, and then (at the very least making a fine attempt at) killing her. More than one instance. This audiobook is only 6 hours long, lol.
Tierra is an elven battlemage who got tricked into sleeping with Bazak for like a month without realizing what he is, because of the whole magic-into-an-elf thing. She’s aghast that she got tricked like this and so she’s out for revenge. She ends up joining the Orcslayers and teams up with Saethryth to do some revenging. Also other unrelated things. With their genitals, obviously.
I have to admit that the Orcslayers and their related powers were pretty frigging cool sounding. The singing/talking sword was pretty awesome on its own, but Saethryth, for example, also has a latent power where he is immune to metal. You can stab the dude and nothing happens. Tierra can fling coins hard enough to pass through stuff like a bullet. It’s vaguely Mistborn-esque, but utilized in a neat way all the same. Melress is like a necromancer. He can heal people and raise zombies, though he doesn’t always know how to control that particular power. This results in some mildly funny zombies.
Sometimes this book was a little overly ridiculous for my taste, but it uses its ridiculousness and grimness to good purpose most of the time. The story is quick and the plot rolls at a good pace. I personally could do without some things like ‘necromancy affects sperm somehow’ but I’ll give that one a pass only because that shit made me snortle (chortle-snort) out loud in the middle of my workplace. So loud a coworker checked in on what was so funny. ‘Pregnant zombie, lol.’ ;D This was only exacerbated by one of the characters falling into random instalove with the pregnant zombie whose zombie baby is heavily hinted at being a very important zombie baby, lol. There are more sex scenes than I was expecting, most of which were… meh… >.>; they weren’t the main focus of the story, and weren’t the absolute worst. Still, they mostly seemed unnecessary in the first place.
The narrator was… well, he’s not the worst narrator I’ve ever heard, but nowhere near the best. He has a strange cadence at times, and… perhaps not slurs exactly but sort of… mumbles some words? Trips over some words perhaps? It almost sounds like the book skips when this happens, so for all I know it’s an audio editing thing, but there are instances of other words which were randomly mispronounced like they were just stumbled over. For instance, occasionally, the word across has a very noticeable ‘T’ at the end of it, for some reason. One of my co-workers pronounces it this same way sometimes, so perhaps it’s some sort of regional thing? Some of the accents were really quite bad, too. Others were less bad but sounded really forced.
But, that all said, it evens out a little bit, because this guy drops f-bombs like he *means* it. He says fuck like it’s a word that he’s not quite sure about, and so goes whole hog just in case. Like he’s not quite sure of the level of emphasis needed, so it gets maximum emphasis every time, lol. It was hilarious, if I’m honest, because this book has a veritable fuckton of fucks in it. This is something I point out not in a ruined-the-book-at-all way, but just something that I noticed, lol. It lightened up the whole thing, and made what I would have called a bad narration…. not actually as bad as I initially thought it would be (though still not great, honestly =\). I hope he continues to narrate though. I think he’ll be great at it with more practice. The potential is there, because his voice has a nice tone, it’s just the diction that needs work.
I got a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.
This is an often gory and fantastically violent story. It’s the story of a world where there are orcs and elves (and humans at the very least kind of in the middle) and a very rickety peace between them all. For five thousand years this peace has lasted, but the orcs aren’t having any of it anymore.
On the good side, there are the Orcslayers. They do exactly as their name implies, as the orcs in this particular tale, are uh… pretty slayworthy. They are portrayed as just ridiculously bad, mainly through the use of rape as a ‘rape is bad, and these guys rape everyone, so they’re bad’. The leader of the orcs is usually portrayed as either in the middle of raping someone, or just having finished raping someone. So, there’s a lot of rape in this world (and it’s not confined to just women either, orcs just rape errybody in the world, so hide yo kids and hide yo wife, etc), but it’s not described as much as it is implied. But, that said… uh, if that’s something you’re sensitive about, probably skip this one. The point though, is that orcs are just… bad. They are rapey, and they are bad.
It’s said that the Orcslayers were given their powers by the seven elven gods. They are more or less the avatar of whichever god they represent, so there are normally seven of them. On top of their considerable skill, they get some pretty sweet armor that changes depending on the circumstance, and sweet, sweet sometimes-sentient weapons. At least one of them has a talking sword, anyway, which is kind of badass. It sings when it’s killing orcs. Sings. But, it turns out that there are actually eight gods, and so there are eight possible avatars among the Orcslayers. Dun. Dun. DUUUUUNNNNN.
So we follow several points of view here but the main ones are:
Saethryth, who is an elven Orcslayer. He’s one of the very last of them, and the orcs have pretty much killed his whole family and he’s pretty much going to revenge them all. With his singing, sentient badass orcslaying sword.
Melress, who is a half-elven battlemage, who, because of his heritage (half-elves are not really liked), has been bullied most of his life, but he’s still turned out to be not an asshole because of it. He’s also Sethryth’s half-brother, and he has a talking raven named Caw as a familiar.
Bazak is a half-orc (and half-human) who is sent by his father, who hates him because of the half-human thing, to start shit and spy in the human/elven lands. He’s a piece of shit. Most orcs hate him because he’s half-human. It doesn’t really stop him from being as orc as he can be. There’s more than one instance of him somehow magicking himself into an elf, seducing a girl, and then (at the very least making a fine attempt at) killing her. More than one instance. This audiobook is only 6 hours long, lol.
Tierra is an elven battlemage who got tricked into sleeping with Bazak for like a month without realizing what he is, because of the whole magic-into-an-elf thing. She’s aghast that she got tricked like this and so she’s out for revenge. She ends up joining the Orcslayers and teams up with Saethryth to do some revenging. Also other unrelated things. With their genitals, obviously.
I have to admit that the Orcslayers and their related powers were pretty frigging cool sounding. The singing/talking sword was pretty awesome on its own, but Saethryth, for example, also has a latent power where he is immune to metal. You can stab the dude and nothing happens. Tierra can fling coins hard enough to pass through stuff like a bullet. It’s vaguely Mistborn-esque, but utilized in a neat way all the same. Melress is like a necromancer. He can heal people and raise zombies, though he doesn’t always know how to control that particular power. This results in some mildly funny zombies.
Sometimes this book was a little overly ridiculous for my taste, but it uses its ridiculousness and grimness to good purpose most of the time. The story is quick and the plot rolls at a good pace. I personally could do without some things like ‘necromancy affects sperm somehow’ but I’ll give that one a pass only because that shit made me snortle (chortle-snort) out loud in the middle of my workplace. So loud a coworker checked in on what was so funny. ‘Pregnant zombie, lol.’ ;D This was only exacerbated by one of the characters falling into random instalove with the pregnant zombie whose zombie baby is heavily hinted at being a very important zombie baby, lol. There are more sex scenes than I was expecting, most of which were… meh… >.>; they weren’t the main focus of the story, and weren’t the absolute worst. Still, they mostly seemed unnecessary in the first place.
The narrator was… well, he’s not the worst narrator I’ve ever heard, but nowhere near the best. He has a strange cadence at times, and… perhaps not slurs exactly but sort of… mumbles some words? Trips over some words perhaps? It almost sounds like the book skips when this happens, so for all I know it’s an audio editing thing, but there are instances of other words which were randomly mispronounced like they were just stumbled over. For instance, occasionally, the word across has a very noticeable ‘T’ at the end of it, for some reason. One of my co-workers pronounces it this same way sometimes, so perhaps it’s some sort of regional thing? Some of the accents were really quite bad, too. Others were less bad but sounded really forced.
But, that all said, it evens out a little bit, because this guy drops f-bombs like he *means* it. He says fuck like it’s a word that he’s not quite sure about, and so goes whole hog just in case. Like he’s not quite sure of the level of emphasis needed, so it gets maximum emphasis every time, lol. It was hilarious, if I’m honest, because this book has a veritable fuckton of fucks in it. This is something I point out not in a ruined-the-book-at-all way, but just something that I noticed, lol. It lightened up the whole thing, and made what I would have called a bad narration…. not actually as bad as I initially thought it would be (though still not great, honestly =\). I hope he continues to narrate though. I think he’ll be great at it with more practice. The potential is there, because his voice has a nice tone, it’s just the diction that needs work.
I got a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.
July 22, 2017
The Eighth God is about an orc invasion and the human/elven /half elven defenders who try to stave off the invasion. The story is told through many points of view (even a talking bird’s!) so the reader gets the full spectrum of motives, intentions and consequences. The main story arc follows the Orcslayers who attempt to defend their people from the horde of murderous orcs. Two are half brothers, one elven, the other half-elven. The other is a female elf battle mage who can sprout wings and fly.
I found The Eighth God to be a fast and entertaining read. It is packed with blood, gore, sex, cursing, and loads of action. A lot of questions are raised, and the plot moves barreling forward with lots of twists and turns. There is not a chance of the reader growing bored. It fulfills all the promises it makes as a grimdark tome.
I do have a couple of gripes. My biggest problem was the editing. The “good” characters seem a little flat; to me, it seemed the orcs had much more depth. Nevertheless, I can recommend this as a fun read, especially for those who enjoy their orc invasions lewd and gritty. I applaud the author in that absolutely nothing is off-limits, and he doesn’t ever attempt to soften a blow.
I found The Eighth God to be a fast and entertaining read. It is packed with blood, gore, sex, cursing, and loads of action. A lot of questions are raised, and the plot moves barreling forward with lots of twists and turns. There is not a chance of the reader growing bored. It fulfills all the promises it makes as a grimdark tome.
I do have a couple of gripes. My biggest problem was the editing. The “good” characters seem a little flat; to me, it seemed the orcs had much more depth. Nevertheless, I can recommend this as a fun read, especially for those who enjoy their orc invasions lewd and gritty. I applaud the author in that absolutely nothing is off-limits, and he doesn’t ever attempt to soften a blow.
March 19, 2018
Putting aside the standard human protagonists, The Eighth God revolves primarily around amoral orcs and elf orc-slayers as the main cast, offering up a world that's somewhat like a darker version of Azeroth.
The Eighth God is a quick read, as the chapters are quite short, which is both a pro and a con. A serious lack of description plagues the story, so events that could have been gripping scenes that reinforce what type of orc or elf a character really is get glossed over in quick explanations. This is really prevalent and noticeable in the early chapters, when for instance we learn that a half-orc spy treats his sex slaves well (while his war chief father basically rapes anything that moves) and that he had to kill an elderly human as part of a ritual to reach adulthood.
Either of these events could have been whole chapters giving insight into the character's frame of mind and how he behaves, but instead are sort flippantly thrown out at the reader as random facts to know before moving on. Scenarios that could offer a chance for some nail biting horror or a closer look at the world's magic system -- like an orc war party being resurrected one by one as a bunch of captured adventurers are sacrificed via beheading -- also get glossed over and presented in extremely simplified and matter-of-fact format. Many of the short chapters also feature back and forth dialog with next to no prose padding them, so it frequently feels like events are sort of happening in a vacuum.
The lack of description becomes a bigger problem as the novel progresses because The Eighth God as a whole is in major need of editing from a technical standpoint (rather than a storyline one). Nearly every book is going to have some sort typo or grammar problem that slips past, no matter how many people have their eyes on it, but here the constant issues become distracting and really took me out of the story. Awkward, tortured sentences with repeating words, random shifts between tenses mid-sentence, and a clear lack of proofreading all made it a chore to reach the end.
The editing problems are a shame, because the story and characters have strong appeal for anyone into grittier fantasy. With an editor's touch and some re-writes The Eighth God could be something special, but as it stands I'd only recommend if you aren't bothered by constant grammar mistakes from indie authors.
The Eighth God is a quick read, as the chapters are quite short, which is both a pro and a con. A serious lack of description plagues the story, so events that could have been gripping scenes that reinforce what type of orc or elf a character really is get glossed over in quick explanations. This is really prevalent and noticeable in the early chapters, when for instance we learn that a half-orc spy treats his sex slaves well (while his war chief father basically rapes anything that moves) and that he had to kill an elderly human as part of a ritual to reach adulthood.
Either of these events could have been whole chapters giving insight into the character's frame of mind and how he behaves, but instead are sort flippantly thrown out at the reader as random facts to know before moving on. Scenarios that could offer a chance for some nail biting horror or a closer look at the world's magic system -- like an orc war party being resurrected one by one as a bunch of captured adventurers are sacrificed via beheading -- also get glossed over and presented in extremely simplified and matter-of-fact format. Many of the short chapters also feature back and forth dialog with next to no prose padding them, so it frequently feels like events are sort of happening in a vacuum.
The lack of description becomes a bigger problem as the novel progresses because The Eighth God as a whole is in major need of editing from a technical standpoint (rather than a storyline one). Nearly every book is going to have some sort typo or grammar problem that slips past, no matter how many people have their eyes on it, but here the constant issues become distracting and really took me out of the story. Awkward, tortured sentences with repeating words, random shifts between tenses mid-sentence, and a clear lack of proofreading all made it a chore to reach the end.
The editing problems are a shame, because the story and characters have strong appeal for anyone into grittier fantasy. With an editor's touch and some re-writes The Eighth God could be something special, but as it stands I'd only recommend if you aren't bothered by constant grammar mistakes from indie authors.
January 26, 2022
For me personally this book is a 3-3,5*. As at least one star of those missing is purely due to personal taste, I'll give it a rating of four.
So what taste is that? I don't like romance or descriptive sex in my books. Not because it bothers me, but simply because it bores me out of my mind. In a book as short as this, I wouldn't have expected as many sex scenes or mentions as there were. Also while they usually were short, they also were detailed and told in a way that made me think of "instructions for use".
Examples of what was completely unnecessary for me:
"They liked to pleasure each other with tongues before he penetrated her"
"That's it bitch, swallow the lot" when he connects to his father via some stone and hearing him moan thinking he's being tortured.
"Using his tongue on her first then sliding into her ... climax again and again as he thrust in and out ... he shrunk inside her ... occasional pulse as more semen pumped into her.... "
So yes, I don't need that sort of detail at all, and there were enough such scenes to really take away from the story for me, as I was constantly annoyed and rolling my eyes and waiting for the plot to go on.
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Apart from that I enjoyed most of the book, the characters were fun to follow, though at times they switched so fast it didn't feel like natural character growth, but like someone turned the switch and they just change their whole personality, and there was a bit much crying for my taste (though at least once it was a male crying, not just females). All in all I did enjoy them anyway.
The prose was smooth enough, the humor a bit hit and miss for me - some parts worked well and had me actually giggling, others just brought forth more of the eye rolling (my poor eyes), but humorou is different to every person, so that's not a minus.
I did like the plot, and the world was interesting, but I won't continue the series, as I've had enough of cringy sex scenes for a good long while, having just DNFed an urban fantasy that went by from urban fantasy in book one to half assed erotica in the second book...
So what taste is that? I don't like romance or descriptive sex in my books. Not because it bothers me, but simply because it bores me out of my mind. In a book as short as this, I wouldn't have expected as many sex scenes or mentions as there were. Also while they usually were short, they also were detailed and told in a way that made me think of "instructions for use".
Examples of what was completely unnecessary for me:
"They liked to pleasure each other with tongues before he penetrated her"
"That's it bitch, swallow the lot" when he connects to his father via some stone and hearing him moan thinking he's being tortured.
"Using his tongue on her first then sliding into her ... climax again and again as he thrust in and out ... he shrunk inside her ... occasional pulse as more semen pumped into her.... "
So yes, I don't need that sort of detail at all, and there were enough such scenes to really take away from the story for me, as I was constantly annoyed and rolling my eyes and waiting for the plot to go on.
--------
Apart from that I enjoyed most of the book, the characters were fun to follow, though at times they switched so fast it didn't feel like natural character growth, but like someone turned the switch and they just change their whole personality, and there was a bit much crying for my taste (though at least once it was a male crying, not just females). All in all I did enjoy them anyway.
The prose was smooth enough, the humor a bit hit and miss for me - some parts worked well and had me actually giggling, others just brought forth more of the eye rolling (my poor eyes), but humorou is different to every person, so that's not a minus.
I did like the plot, and the world was interesting, but I won't continue the series, as I've had enough of cringy sex scenes for a good long while, having just DNFed an urban fantasy that went by from urban fantasy in book one to half assed erotica in the second book...
May 26, 2018
review coming soon
April 25, 2018
3.5 stars!
This grimdark fantasy audiobook was a good listen. It tells the story of a world full of elves, humans, orcs that has enjoyed an uneasy peace for thousands of years, after a mighty battle where seven elves were granted the power of seven Gods to decimate an orc army. Since that time the orcs have kept to their lands and the humans and elves to theirs. But the orcs are twitchy, and spurred on by mysterious allies, they decide to invade.
There are only two of the original seven elves left. Known as Orcslayers, we follow the narrative of Saethryth as he returns to the city of Ashen Falls after many years away to discover deaths in his family and new, unknown family members. He uncovers a half-orc spy in the city posing as an elf and realises that the peace is about to be shattered.
We also hear from other character point of views including that of the half-orc spy Bazak-Kul, his father the Orc Chieftain, as well as a female elf battle mage Ashalone who becomes Tierra. There is also Melress a half-elf, half-human battle mage, a farmer’s daughter Lucy, who is unknowingly very important to the orcs, and other POV characters.
The story has a good pace as we move from the orc’s dwelling, to the elven / human city of Ashen Falls to a journey on the road, to a battle at one of the border fortresses. There’s plenty of action scenes and orcs being bastards, as well as some creepy half-dead orc-hating beings and mysterious shapeshifters. There’s also some dark humour.
As the title suggests, there’s an eighth god, one which no one knows about and one which, I assume, is sparking all this trouble. I think that will be revealed in the next book…
I didn’t quite get on with the writing style, or rather the writing style read aloud. The narrator did a fine job, although some of the accents were slightly odd. It was because there was a lot of word repetition (which is one of my pet peeves, see other reviews lol) and also, I felt quite far removed from the action. There was plenty of ‘it begun to…’, ‘she started to…’, ‘he seemed to…’ instead of it rained, she flew, he ran etc, so the immediacy of the action was, for me, slowed down. I found myself unconsciously listening for these and it broke the flow of the story for me when I heard one!
Otherwise I would’ve liked more depth to the characters, a bit more description about the locations and more detailed worldbuilding. This was an enjoyable listen, especially if you are into orcs, elves and humans and the strained relationships between these classic fantasy races. And definitely if you like your fantasy on the darker side.
* I received a free audiobook copy from the author in return for an honest review
This review and more on my blog www.rosalynkelly.co.uk/blog
This grimdark fantasy audiobook was a good listen. It tells the story of a world full of elves, humans, orcs that has enjoyed an uneasy peace for thousands of years, after a mighty battle where seven elves were granted the power of seven Gods to decimate an orc army. Since that time the orcs have kept to their lands and the humans and elves to theirs. But the orcs are twitchy, and spurred on by mysterious allies, they decide to invade.
There are only two of the original seven elves left. Known as Orcslayers, we follow the narrative of Saethryth as he returns to the city of Ashen Falls after many years away to discover deaths in his family and new, unknown family members. He uncovers a half-orc spy in the city posing as an elf and realises that the peace is about to be shattered.
We also hear from other character point of views including that of the half-orc spy Bazak-Kul, his father the Orc Chieftain, as well as a female elf battle mage Ashalone who becomes Tierra. There is also Melress a half-elf, half-human battle mage, a farmer’s daughter Lucy, who is unknowingly very important to the orcs, and other POV characters.
The story has a good pace as we move from the orc’s dwelling, to the elven / human city of Ashen Falls to a journey on the road, to a battle at one of the border fortresses. There’s plenty of action scenes and orcs being bastards, as well as some creepy half-dead orc-hating beings and mysterious shapeshifters. There’s also some dark humour.
As the title suggests, there’s an eighth god, one which no one knows about and one which, I assume, is sparking all this trouble. I think that will be revealed in the next book…
I didn’t quite get on with the writing style, or rather the writing style read aloud. The narrator did a fine job, although some of the accents were slightly odd. It was because there was a lot of word repetition (which is one of my pet peeves, see other reviews lol) and also, I felt quite far removed from the action. There was plenty of ‘it begun to…’, ‘she started to…’, ‘he seemed to…’ instead of it rained, she flew, he ran etc, so the immediacy of the action was, for me, slowed down. I found myself unconsciously listening for these and it broke the flow of the story for me when I heard one!
Otherwise I would’ve liked more depth to the characters, a bit more description about the locations and more detailed worldbuilding. This was an enjoyable listen, especially if you are into orcs, elves and humans and the strained relationships between these classic fantasy races. And definitely if you like your fantasy on the darker side.
* I received a free audiobook copy from the author in return for an honest review
This review and more on my blog www.rosalynkelly.co.uk/blog
May 10, 2017
The 8th God is the story of a group of divinely blessed soldiers given special abilities to slaughter the murderous hordes of orcs. It also, funnily enough, gives the perspective of the orcs as well who are evil but also extremely entertaining. They remind me a bit of Warhammer 40K's orcs in they're a bunch of murderous hooligans first and foremost.
Paul Lavender's world is very much an Azeroth/D&D-esque world and I appreciate it is unapologetically so. He also has a lot of humor, sex, and magic flying around. Personally, my favorite character was the Black Empress and half-orc spy who is given the enviable task of seducing mages to the orc's cause--not a job you normally send half-orcs for.
The book has a few formatting and grammar issues on Kindle. He could use a bit more description of characters as well as places but I've seen much worse. I think the author definitely has a career ahead of him.
Paul Lavender's world is very much an Azeroth/D&D-esque world and I appreciate it is unapologetically so. He also has a lot of humor, sex, and magic flying around. Personally, my favorite character was the Black Empress and half-orc spy who is given the enviable task of seducing mages to the orc's cause--not a job you normally send half-orcs for.
The book has a few formatting and grammar issues on Kindle. He could use a bit more description of characters as well as places but I've seen much worse. I think the author definitely has a career ahead of him.
June 5, 2017
Rip-roaring, old-school fantasy with the grimdark dialled up to 11...
This book reminded me of lots of the old Warhammer Fantasy novels and D&D novels of my misspent youth. It's a setting that should be as cheesy fantasy as it comes, but somehow the author finds originality in the battle of orcs vs elves (and humans and the odd zombie!?!?!). The elves are not the typical effete wimps, the orcs aren't just stupid savages. Instead, the characters are closer to a human analog but with certain traits emphasised. Orcs are therefore extremely aggressive and overly sexualised. Elves are somewhat more refined than humans, but not much. The difference seems to be more cultural than the typical, 'we're the superior elder race' so common in trite fantasy.
This isn't a book for the faint hearted. It has some scenes that are quite harrowing, where you know that a horrific end is coming for a character even while they're blithely unaware of it. This is caused mostly by the actions of the half-orc spy, Bazak. There's plenty of sneaking and conniving going on, so while the action is brutal (and very well delivered) there's some intrigue as well, giving the story another dimension.
Grimdark stories are in fantasy are increasingly popular, thanks in no small part to authors like Joe Abercrombie and others. George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is another example. There's a sliding scale in the sub-genre between the bleak and blood soaked to the bleakly comedic and blood drenched on the edge of being silly at the other. GRRM is firmly on the right and the serious end. Abercrombie is right of centre and I'd put the Eighth God somewhere just left of that centre line. (NB this is not a political scale!).
Why 4 stars not 5? In his decision to wrestle fantasy tropes into a new shape, there are a couple of times when this doesn't work. As much as I enjoyed reading the Eighth God, there were occasions when it made me roll my eyes, but that didn't really detract too much from the overall. I probably prefer a bleaker tone with less frequent blood, sex and swearing but those things didn't put me off. There are, as is referenced in another review, a few issues with the writing itself. Nothing serious and the kind of thing that a traditional publisher would have editors combing the text for. Here the author's an Indie and the very occasional 'clunk' can be and should be forgiven.
Action like a swift sharp kick in the... but subtle it ain't. An enjoyable read.
This book reminded me of lots of the old Warhammer Fantasy novels and D&D novels of my misspent youth. It's a setting that should be as cheesy fantasy as it comes, but somehow the author finds originality in the battle of orcs vs elves (and humans and the odd zombie!?!?!). The elves are not the typical effete wimps, the orcs aren't just stupid savages. Instead, the characters are closer to a human analog but with certain traits emphasised. Orcs are therefore extremely aggressive and overly sexualised. Elves are somewhat more refined than humans, but not much. The difference seems to be more cultural than the typical, 'we're the superior elder race' so common in trite fantasy.
This isn't a book for the faint hearted. It has some scenes that are quite harrowing, where you know that a horrific end is coming for a character even while they're blithely unaware of it. This is caused mostly by the actions of the half-orc spy, Bazak. There's plenty of sneaking and conniving going on, so while the action is brutal (and very well delivered) there's some intrigue as well, giving the story another dimension.
Grimdark stories are in fantasy are increasingly popular, thanks in no small part to authors like Joe Abercrombie and others. George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is another example. There's a sliding scale in the sub-genre between the bleak and blood soaked to the bleakly comedic and blood drenched on the edge of being silly at the other. GRRM is firmly on the right and the serious end. Abercrombie is right of centre and I'd put the Eighth God somewhere just left of that centre line. (NB this is not a political scale!).
Why 4 stars not 5? In his decision to wrestle fantasy tropes into a new shape, there are a couple of times when this doesn't work. As much as I enjoyed reading the Eighth God, there were occasions when it made me roll my eyes, but that didn't really detract too much from the overall. I probably prefer a bleaker tone with less frequent blood, sex and swearing but those things didn't put me off. There are, as is referenced in another review, a few issues with the writing itself. Nothing serious and the kind of thing that a traditional publisher would have editors combing the text for. Here the author's an Indie and the very occasional 'clunk' can be and should be forgiven.
Action like a swift sharp kick in the... but subtle it ain't. An enjoyable read.
August 6, 2017
An Enjoyable Romp
Elves are good (kind of) and Orcs are bad...
After 5000 years of peace, Orcs are appearing in numbers in the lands of humans and elves. Hellbent on evenge, the Orcs murder and burn until the Orcslayers of lrgend rise again to stem the tide. However, all is not as it seems. Is there someone, or something, else manipulating events?
The story rattles along at a breakneck pace, slicing and dicing through characters, while peppered with earhy humour that will at times cause one to chuckle loudly.
The story is the first part of a series, and leaves plenty of dangling threads and worldbuilding to look forward to. Roll on The Sect of Seven.
Elves are good (kind of) and Orcs are bad...
After 5000 years of peace, Orcs are appearing in numbers in the lands of humans and elves. Hellbent on evenge, the Orcs murder and burn until the Orcslayers of lrgend rise again to stem the tide. However, all is not as it seems. Is there someone, or something, else manipulating events?
The story rattles along at a breakneck pace, slicing and dicing through characters, while peppered with earhy humour that will at times cause one to chuckle loudly.
The story is the first part of a series, and leaves plenty of dangling threads and worldbuilding to look forward to. Roll on The Sect of Seven.
November 4, 2016
What a great book!
Welcome to the land of Esterada, where Eleven Battle Mages protect the people and help the humans keep the filthy Orcs in line. Enter Melress, Ashalone, Saethryth, Ellowe, Kepler and Bazak-Kul as very different characters clash against each other during the events of the story. Flipping effortlessly between brutal clashes between warring Elves and Orcs and more tender exchanges between Saethryth and Ashalone. Multiple narratives come together towards the end of the book in a clever and satisfying way.
I particularly liked the subplot featuring comic relief from Pock and Cock, the tavern doormen and the bickering zombie husband & wife team of Mr & Mrs Royce.
Vivid, three-dimensional characters draw you in on this dark high fantasy story which, thankfully, looks like it will be the first of several books. Well worth reading this great story by new author who knows what he's doing.
Recommended. 5 stars
Welcome to the land of Esterada, where Eleven Battle Mages protect the people and help the humans keep the filthy Orcs in line. Enter Melress, Ashalone, Saethryth, Ellowe, Kepler and Bazak-Kul as very different characters clash against each other during the events of the story. Flipping effortlessly between brutal clashes between warring Elves and Orcs and more tender exchanges between Saethryth and Ashalone. Multiple narratives come together towards the end of the book in a clever and satisfying way.
I particularly liked the subplot featuring comic relief from Pock and Cock, the tavern doormen and the bickering zombie husband & wife team of Mr & Mrs Royce.
Vivid, three-dimensional characters draw you in on this dark high fantasy story which, thankfully, looks like it will be the first of several books. Well worth reading this great story by new author who knows what he's doing.
Recommended. 5 stars
July 7, 2017
For thousands of years five great fortresses have guarded Esterada and peace has reigned, but that is about to come to a crashing end if the Orc's of the badlands have their way! Lulled into a sense of security by the years and years of peace the folk of Esterada are slow to realise the danger.....all bar a few, protected by not only soliders but fearsome Battle Mages few believe there is anything to worry about, but the Battle Mage numbers have dropped over the years and with traitors about war is coming! Told from multiple points of view including Saethryth one the last remaining Orcslayers, Melress a newly appointed half Elf Battle Mage and an assortment of others including the Orcs themselves this book moves along like a freight train gathering speed, with perfect pacing it moves from character to character all the while with the danger building..... this is a visceral book with a mighty punch, not for the feint hearted with guts and blood flowing as easily as the bad language, all of which makes for a totally captivating read that drags you along for the ride. All the characters seem very real and the action scenes are very well handled. This is a great first book and I genuinely look forward to the next in what I hope will be many more.
October 10, 2017
This is one of those books some friends of mine recommended as a decent grimdark story. I decided to give it a shot, and I am glad I did. It is a completely different take on elves. No longer the wise, graceful elder race, these are gritty, at times petty and prejudiced. They can't stand the half elves, and give them a raw deal, and they are not too sympathetic.
The Orcs are much different than the fairly sterile ones Tolkien created. Yes, they kill indiscriminately, but this author's are so much worse. They don't just kill. They torture, humiliate and will rape anything they can hold still. They plunder, despoil, keep sex slaves and are generally the worst sort of evil race I have ever seen put to page that is not demonic, and these actually give other writer's demons a run for the money, and these create the background tension in the story.
The story starts 5000 years ago. An elvish battalion has been almost wiped out by a horde of orcs. The last seven elves are surrounded by the horde, protecting a pregnant human woman, about to be wiped out when a miracle occurs. The warriors are imbued by the seven elven gods with magic weapons and armor that they become bonded to for life, that allows them to defeat the orc horde. These are the Orcslayers, the scourge of the orc hordes, and the orcs would tremble in fear at the mention of them.
Now 5000 years later, the orcs haven't been seen in numbers in millennia. The South is at peace, with 5 forts guarding the passes between the orcs in the north and the elves and humans in the south. In the orc lands, and orc chieftain with dreams of uniting the tribes and conquering the south, sends his half-orc son, Bazak, to spy on the leadership of the Southern kingdoms, and help set up the invasion. He makes it down south and seduces a captain in the guard of Ashen Falls, gaining valuable intel.
Enter Saethryth. He is one of the two Orcslayers currently active. The roles have been passed down over the years. He follows the half-orc and confronts him as he is about to kill his duped captain, and saves her, although the orc gets away. He then decides to help her get revenge on Bazak by inducting her into the Orcslayers, realizing their numbers need to be increased, and she takes the new name Tierra.
The other storyline follows Melress, a half elf battle mage who is actually
Saethryth's half brother, unbeknownst to them both. Melress is sent on a mission to support the fort at Knight's Reach if the Orcs actually are invading. While he is on the way to the fort, he comes across a farm that an orc war band has despoiled, and he uses his power to save a young woman who was recently killed. He has a unique power to raise the dead, which is a priest's power, not a mages, and this plays an important part in the story later. He also unintentionally raises her parents, but they arise after he and the girl leave, and the parents quest for orc vengeance provides some hilarious moments in an otherwise grim story. Talk about gallows humor! We also discover that there might be a little more to the Elven pantheon than the seven accepted gods.
The story lines converge at Knight's Perch, where the one of the forces of the orcs is invading. What follows is a well drawn out battle scene, with surprising combat, monsters rampaging, heroism, courage and barbarism in steady amounts, as well as some betrayal you don't see coming. Bazak and Tierra meet again, although Bazak doesn't enjoy the meeting for long. We discover Melress is married to someone rather important, and that there is a grand conspiracy moving events far bigger than the orcs, looking for vengeance long denied. The story ends with us getting a glimpse at the larger world the story will be taking us in to in future books.
The characters and setting are real strengths of this book. Saethryth's world weary cynicism, Tierra's need for revenge and to protect her homeland, and Melress's innocent earnestness, with just a bit of a chip on his shoulder due to being half elven, all make them endearing. The side characters are also well fleshed out, making you interested in their interactions throughout the story. The villains are just loathsome. There is no other way to describe them. They are Orcs as would make Tolkien shiver just thinking about them. They are not sympathetic in the slightest, although they are interesting, as in wow, that train wreck sure has a lot of fatalities way. You just cant take your eyes off of them, even though you want to.
All in all, this was a very good debut novel. Grimdark as all hell, great characters, an interesting backstory, and a fully fleshed out world that has a grander conspiracy awaiting discovery. Is it a perfect book? No. There are some editing issues, such as punctuation, things of that nature, that are kind of usual in a lot of first time indy books. Its not something that will ruin your enjoyment of the book. I recommend this book wholeheartedly for dark fantasy fans.
I will mention one more thing. This book shows the orcs in a very visceral, graphic way. They keep sex slaves, and will slaughter, rape and humiliate any and all of their victims. This includes ALL of them, so gender and age do not restrain them. There is graphic talk of sex, and the aftermath of their raids is described, so if you are looking for clean, sterile fiction, this isn't it. I had no issue with it, since the author basically took the gloves with the orcs, and depicts them as I always imagined orcs to behave. Fair warning.
The Orcs are much different than the fairly sterile ones Tolkien created. Yes, they kill indiscriminately, but this author's are so much worse. They don't just kill. They torture, humiliate and will rape anything they can hold still. They plunder, despoil, keep sex slaves and are generally the worst sort of evil race I have ever seen put to page that is not demonic, and these actually give other writer's demons a run for the money, and these create the background tension in the story.
The story starts 5000 years ago. An elvish battalion has been almost wiped out by a horde of orcs. The last seven elves are surrounded by the horde, protecting a pregnant human woman, about to be wiped out when a miracle occurs. The warriors are imbued by the seven elven gods with magic weapons and armor that they become bonded to for life, that allows them to defeat the orc horde. These are the Orcslayers, the scourge of the orc hordes, and the orcs would tremble in fear at the mention of them.
Now 5000 years later, the orcs haven't been seen in numbers in millennia. The South is at peace, with 5 forts guarding the passes between the orcs in the north and the elves and humans in the south. In the orc lands, and orc chieftain with dreams of uniting the tribes and conquering the south, sends his half-orc son, Bazak, to spy on the leadership of the Southern kingdoms, and help set up the invasion. He makes it down south and seduces a captain in the guard of Ashen Falls, gaining valuable intel.
Enter Saethryth. He is one of the two Orcslayers currently active. The roles have been passed down over the years. He follows the half-orc and confronts him as he is about to kill his duped captain, and saves her, although the orc gets away. He then decides to help her get revenge on Bazak by inducting her into the Orcslayers, realizing their numbers need to be increased, and she takes the new name Tierra.
The other storyline follows Melress, a half elf battle mage who is actually
Saethryth's half brother, unbeknownst to them both. Melress is sent on a mission to support the fort at Knight's Reach if the Orcs actually are invading. While he is on the way to the fort, he comes across a farm that an orc war band has despoiled, and he uses his power to save a young woman who was recently killed. He has a unique power to raise the dead, which is a priest's power, not a mages, and this plays an important part in the story later. He also unintentionally raises her parents, but they arise after he and the girl leave, and the parents quest for orc vengeance provides some hilarious moments in an otherwise grim story. Talk about gallows humor! We also discover that there might be a little more to the Elven pantheon than the seven accepted gods.
The story lines converge at Knight's Perch, where the one of the forces of the orcs is invading. What follows is a well drawn out battle scene, with surprising combat, monsters rampaging, heroism, courage and barbarism in steady amounts, as well as some betrayal you don't see coming. Bazak and Tierra meet again, although Bazak doesn't enjoy the meeting for long. We discover Melress is married to someone rather important, and that there is a grand conspiracy moving events far bigger than the orcs, looking for vengeance long denied. The story ends with us getting a glimpse at the larger world the story will be taking us in to in future books.
The characters and setting are real strengths of this book. Saethryth's world weary cynicism, Tierra's need for revenge and to protect her homeland, and Melress's innocent earnestness, with just a bit of a chip on his shoulder due to being half elven, all make them endearing. The side characters are also well fleshed out, making you interested in their interactions throughout the story. The villains are just loathsome. There is no other way to describe them. They are Orcs as would make Tolkien shiver just thinking about them. They are not sympathetic in the slightest, although they are interesting, as in wow, that train wreck sure has a lot of fatalities way. You just cant take your eyes off of them, even though you want to.
All in all, this was a very good debut novel. Grimdark as all hell, great characters, an interesting backstory, and a fully fleshed out world that has a grander conspiracy awaiting discovery. Is it a perfect book? No. There are some editing issues, such as punctuation, things of that nature, that are kind of usual in a lot of first time indy books. Its not something that will ruin your enjoyment of the book. I recommend this book wholeheartedly for dark fantasy fans.
I will mention one more thing. This book shows the orcs in a very visceral, graphic way. They keep sex slaves, and will slaughter, rape and humiliate any and all of their victims. This includes ALL of them, so gender and age do not restrain them. There is graphic talk of sex, and the aftermath of their raids is described, so if you are looking for clean, sterile fiction, this isn't it. I had no issue with it, since the author basically took the gloves with the orcs, and depicts them as I always imagined orcs to behave. Fair warning.
February 26, 2021
Orcslayers
I absolutely love books with Orcs in them, and boy The Eight God did not disappoint, the story is told from a few of the characters view points, after five thousand years of peace between the Orcs, Elves and Humans war is coming, Orcs are marching and being led by a new powerful force and the Orcslayers and Battle Mages will be waiting for them, smashing characters and world building, can't wait for the following books The Sect of Seven and Return to Ashen Falls, This Series has the potential to be great, highly recommend....😁
I absolutely love books with Orcs in them, and boy The Eight God did not disappoint, the story is told from a few of the characters view points, after five thousand years of peace between the Orcs, Elves and Humans war is coming, Orcs are marching and being led by a new powerful force and the Orcslayers and Battle Mages will be waiting for them, smashing characters and world building, can't wait for the following books The Sect of Seven and Return to Ashen Falls, This Series has the potential to be great, highly recommend....😁
April 19, 2019
This is definitely a first book, but it’s also an author I want to read more from in the future. I liked the premise, and seeing more from an orc pov was an interesting change. The book has a number of issues with the way it treats women (wanting sex after a major trauma is a trope I wish would die out) but in other ways it has an interesting take on things. I liked the world building and I have to admit I loved some of the little throwaway details like Lucy’s parents!!
July 12, 2017
For thousands of years five great fortresses have guarded Esterada and peace has reigned, but that is about to come to a crashing end if the Orc's of the badlands have their way! Lulled into a sense of security by the years and years of peace the folk of Esterada are slow to realise the danger.....all bar a few, protected by not only soliders but fearsome Battle Mages few believe there is anything to worry about, but the Battle Mage numbers have dropped over the years and with traitors about war is coming! Told from multiple points of view including Saethryth one the last remaining Orcslayers, Melress a newly appointed half Elf Battle Mage and an assortment of others including the Orcs themselves this book moves along like a freight train gathering speed, with perfect pacing it moves from character to character all the while with the danger building..... this is a visceral book with a mighty punch, not for the feint hearted with guts and blood flowing as easily as the bad language, all of which makes for a totally captivating read that drags you along for the ride. All the characters seem very real and the action scenes are very well handled. This is a great first book and I genuinely look forward to the next in what I hope will be many more.
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