Orcs: Bad Blood

Orcs: Bad Blood #1

by Stan Nicholls

Stryke and his band of warriors return in the first part of a brand-new Orcs adventure!

When the orcs discovered a world filled with their own kind, they thought they would live there till the end of their days. But the appearance of an unlikely ally will change everything.

This ally -- a human -- tells of the atrocities being visited upon orcs back in the other world. He implores Stryke and his companions to come back so that they may save their kind from extinction and wreak vengeance upon the humans who've wronged them.

But can this human be trusted? Is he a rare friend to the orc -- or is he there to lure them back for their own personal annihilation?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, High Fantasy, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Roman

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Stan Nicholls (born 1949) is a British author and journalist, working full-time since 1981. He is the author of many novels and short stories but is best known for the internationally acclaimed Orcs: First Blood series.

Reviews

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Orcs, those minions of evil in much of our reading and gaming over the past 50+ years, get a break in Stan Nicholls' books. They are shown great compassion, given moral standards and treated with the respect they don't usually get anywhere else. This is what drew me into reading Orcs: Bad Blood, the tale of a crack fighting force who've gotten the band back together to pit their skills against a nasty human sorceress.

If you want action you'll find plenty herein! Some might say too much, and I couldn't disagree that play-by-play accounts of each and every fight or battle are necessary in a work of fiction. Once, followed by summary descriptions for future bouts, would suffice. Perhaps twice if you have a big set-piece conflict at the end.

The writing is workman-like, but does occasionally display a more literary tone now and then, which is always nice. Granted, seeing and hearing orcs act civilly is a bit jarring, but mainly I'm referring to the narrative, which waxes poetic now and then.

This was my first foray into Nicholls' series on orcs. Will I seek out the others? Perhaps. I don't feel compelled to continue this particular series, but I might. It was decent enough, and good reading for an old D&D geek like myself.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent read. 3.5-stars.

I like Strike.
I don't like Haskeer.

I have the other two books in the trilogy and will read them at some point.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars feels a little harsh, so blame Goodreads for not letting me use half stars. I couldn't in all honesty give it a three star rating.

Weapons of Magical Destruction is the continuing story of Stryke and his merry band of Orcs. I have not read any of the other previous books and really have no intention of reading them. There is enough back story explanation for you to get the general idea of who is who and what is what.
Our Orcs start out on their own planet, it appears they got there by using 'instrumentals' a set of five stars that allow them to move between worlds. Their home world is peaceful and well, boring for our battle Orcs. So they decide to go off exploring.

They all view humans as oppressors, who invade planets and take over and repress the natives. Using the magic in the earth as they do so. Magic is limited to what the world can provide so humans literally strip the magic away, leaving the planet, well magic-less.

Our band of friends find a new world where the Orcs are not only repressed by the human occupiers, but have actually lost their Orcish ways of aggression. They allow the humans to enslave them and use them as they please. So Stryke and his team set up with a band of the resistance to help over throw the repressors.

The plot is very light, it really is only there to allow one battle skirmish scene flow into another. Lets be honest here, most of the book is about 5 minute fighting scenes where the orcs cut and kill their way through human soldiers. You need only 5% of your brain to follow the story, so it made for an ideal by the side of the bed book, where I could pick it up and read a couple of pages before going to sleep. I never lost the story with this way of reading as there isn't much to lose.

The characters are actually pretty good, probably the best part of the story. Styke, Coilla, Hasker, Pepperdyne (human), Jup (Dwarf) all add good personalities to the story. There is a lot of focus on bigotry towards Orcs, the author certainly sends us some messages with his novel, but I don't think it is a particularly strongly written message, more a 'if I do this, it might make people think'. The Weapons of Magical Destruction wording and subsequent berating of invading a world to save from potential threat, even though the populations has none of the said weapons or ability to use was just weird. It was either a bit of a laugh (in poor taste) or a very clumsy political statement.

The book ended on with a very typical end of season one style. I will read book two, in bed, over many months. I only paid $3 for these books and it is nice to have something to read that doesn't have me thinking to much for a change.

Would I recommend this book? Nah, probably not. Unless you like Orc fighting :)

[Al Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this back in the day. It wasn't mind-blowing, but it was a lot of fun and nice to see the poor old orcs have their day in the sun.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's definitely the "pedal to the medal action" that the quote on the cover claims. I found it to be so fast paced that I could only read it in small bursts or I would tire of the action sequences. That's not a bad thing, just not my thing. I felt like some plot was missing, or misconstrued from the beginning. It didn't line up with what I imagined was going to be the story, so I was disappointed. However, I would use this book as an example of how to write action. Nicholls has a way of explaining what's going on clearly and logically and with a bit of flair.

[Eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vampires randomly made an appearance. Not sure what to say about that.

[Sven Fesser · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 Sterne, wenn das möglich wäre. An sich sehr spaßig und unterhaltsam. Allerdings haben mich paradoxerweise vor allem die Kampfsequenzen eher gelangweilt. Die Beschreibung von durchbohrten Bäuchen und abgehackten Gliedmaßen ist einmal "witzig", beim x-ten Mal aber generisch.

Die Charaktere sind wie in Band 1 auch schon liebevoll herausgearbeitet und besonders Jup, Coilla und Haskeer (auf verquere Weise) gefallen mir immer wieder ausgesprochen gut.

Endet natürlich mit einem Cliffhanger, aber Band 3 liegt ohnehin schon bereit. Nach etwas "Ausgleichsliteratur" zu dem blutigen Gehacke geht es weiter.

[Trevor Middlebrook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even more good, cheesy fantasy action to really quiet those demons lurking in the back of your mind.

[Killian De Geest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Redelijk basic, goed voor tussendoor

[Vitalij · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story itself was fine. The only annoying thing is that you could literally replace every single orcs with any other fantasy race and story wouldn't change and would still make sense. Basically, the depiction of all orcs characters was too generic and they were lacking character in my opinion.

[Ferry Wever · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een heerlijk nieuw en snel Sword & Sorcery verhaal over de legendarische bende Veelvraten (Orcs) onder leiding van Struyk. Oftewel actie, actie en actie!

[Alan Behan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn I love these Orcs, the Wolverines causing war and bloody mayhem every where they go, highly recommend and a very fun read...😁

[Zoe Furley · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first experience with any of the Orc books. I have always been fascinated by their portrayals in your typical fantasy book/film. I always thought they came out of most of these things as evil cannon fodder and have wanted to see them portrayed differently, as big hulking warriors, with thought and emotion and not just lackeys for higher evil beings.

That being said i enjoyed this taste of their world. Having not read any of the initial three Orc books it did take me a little while to sink in to the book and begin to understand what was going on.The wolverine charters were brilliant i felt i could read about there exploits and may look at getting my hands on some of the initial three books. I particularity liked Colia and how she was portrayed as a strong willed female warrior who takes no shit. Again a nice change from the male heavy typical standard Orc portrayals.

The story itself i felt was a little all over, again that may be because i have not read the initial three but i was struggling to understand the reasons for them doing what they are trying to do. The initial start of this story states they are basically bored in their new home land and want some action and it just so happens to pop up. I'm not sure how i feel about this completely but i thought it was a little 'meh' in terms of coincidence. This then falls in to a want to be assassination for one of the characters from the first few books as well as helping the growing resistance of Orcs in this new land .I did like the glimpse you get at the start of this tale, in to the now comfy lives of many of the wolverines, their families, hunts and general community lives. Again a nice change of pace from typical blood shedding battles.

All in all i enjoyed this as a change of pace book from what i have been reading , i'm not sure if i will continue to read this particular series but for what it is i did enjoy the beginning of this tale.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone described the writing as “workmanlike,” and after I saw that I couldn’t help thinking of it for the rest of the book. In the author’s bio it says he was a journalist, which to me justified the agreeableness of the writing quality. It’s not bad. But I can’t help thinking there’s some small thing missing when it comes to the storytelling factor. The book is not quite as engaging or enticing as it could be.

That said, it’s neat to read an Orc story. I might wish they were a little more distinct from humans than they are, but at the same time, the way they’re portrayed makes them and their plight more relatable I guess.

Looks like the library only has books one and two, so assuming there’s a third, I may never finish the series. Almost makes me just want to stop now. We’ll see how I feel in the morning. Sometimes it’s hard to hit that next audiobook I can get into from the library.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Call it peer pressure, but it seems like every time I went into a bookstore I saw these "Orcs" books or the "Dwarves" books. Finally decided to give them a try. Looks like this is the 2nd book in the series, but the author summed up what happened in the first book so I don't feel like we missed much.

We both those this was not terrible, but not great. The characters were distinctive, but not especially lovable or memorable, there was TONS of action, but it wasn't especially exciting. I realize that the author was trying to "flip the script" by making the orcs the good guys, but they acted so much like humans I often forgot that they were orcs. So I didn't feel like I was reading something that was any different than a normal fantasy novel. I would much rather have had them been more belligerent, aggressive, and feral.

[Alain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alors qu'ils commençaient à s'ennuyer, les Renards vont se laisser assez facilement convaincre de reprendre la route des étoiles pour aider des Orcs et affronter à nouveau Jennesta. Fidèles à leur réputation ils vont foncer sans vraiment savoir dans quoi ils s'engagent...

Si ce voyage va nous faire rencontrer une variété d'Orcs bien différente, l'histoire est elle relativement sans surprise. On repart sur le même mode que la trilogie originale, une action incessante et une certaine légèreté qui rend la lecture agréable sans être inoubliable.

[Carl Gilliam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this on audiobook. I agree with what other people are saying that characters lack depths but the book makes up for so much more. I mean its a war band of Orcs cutting their way through humans. It's action-packed and not meant to be too in depth.

Looking forward to listening to Orcs: Army of Shadows but first going back and reading Orcs: First Blood. Hopefully not being on audiobooks does not make a big difference.

[Scott Addison-Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me this started quite slow and I struggled to get into it. I stuck with it and glad I did, I enjoyed it, the fighting scenes were visceral and engaging. I this book as a Christmas present having never heard of it before I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was better than my first impressions and would definitely consider the follow ups

[Sarah Ehinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, but not a great one either. At times the story felt forced and some of the characters failed to grow through their adventures in the first few books, so that lessens the complexity of the characters.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

All you need to know about this series is there's a completely out of the blue scene where the villain uses a unicorn horn as a dildo while speaking to an underling.

[Mr Bill Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

cracking stuff

Very good seamless transition into part two of the Orc trilogy, all characters still wonderfully written, on to the next act.

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts out slow but gets a lot better as it builds

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book is in the second Orc trilogy. If you enjoyed the first trilogy, you would enjoy this book. It has everything you want. Tons of fast-paced action, adventure, character development, interplay, and tons of talking shit and violence. So, if you would rather drink at a biker bar instead of a hipster lounge, this is your book. Would recommend.

[Walt O'Hara]

Vague, and ends on a cliffhanger.

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. 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. I read ORCS (the Origin story) and ORCS: BAD BLOOD, which follows up some years after the first story.

The world of the ORCS series is classic Basic Dungeons and Dragons, circa 1980s. An Orc band, led by gruff Stryke, is in the service of one classic evil Queen Jenesta. 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. A quest ensues, to get the 5 boojums (actually they are called instrumentalities). 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.

All this stuff would be a delightful romp indeed, were the writing a bit above the juvenile level. 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. The dialogue is exquisitely repetitious and unoriginal-- author Nicholls goes back to the trough again and again to the same dialogue to bookend scenes. 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.. I'd have a lot of dollars.

With all that said... I know, I know.. I'm a sucker for nostalgia. I found myself liking these orcs. They, at least, are realized well. They are intelligent (enough), possess a sense of honor, love to fight, but aren't stupid about it. They aren't creatures of evil, rather a decent enough bunch who have been enslaved into service to previously mentioned evil Queen. Humans, in contrast, come off as mostly evil, stupid and fanatical. Which was kind of refreshing!

In summary-- ehhhh this series isn't exactly a classic and will be largely forgettable, but isn't without enjoyable spots. If you want a decent popcorn read that probably should be labelled a "Young Adult" fiction, you might like Orcs

[Arctic Llama · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantasy novel told from the point of view of the Orcs. In this book, the Orcs are a warrior race, not known for deep thinking or culture, but certainly not barbarians either. From what I understand, this version is actually a whole trilogy in a single book. This is a good thing, because from where the various books are marked as ending, this is actually not a trilogy. The first book, for example, "ends" with the Orcs discovering something about the relic that they have that sets them on a quest. In other words, I'm not sure the first book holds up on its own.

That being said, the whole volume is an interesting and clever read. The world is unique, as are the depictions of some of the other races. The story centers around a single warband of Orcs lead by Stryke. After finding, and taking, some drug called peucillid (something like that) the Orcs fall asleep, which will not end well for them. Their magical and cruel boss bought them (and a bunch of other orcs, although this happens outside of the story) and is happy to slaughter them for the slightest infractions. This is moot, however, when the object they were sent to obtain is stolen. The rest of the book is there quest to get it back, find out there are more, and then get them.

There are several ways to end the type of book where the main characters find something mystical that may change the world. They can learn how to use it during their quest. One (or more of them) can just somehow "know" how to use it when the time is right (usually by birthright or mystically being a chosen one). Or, as this author chooses, someone else can show up with the answer.

There is a follow up series of books to this one with the same universe and some of the same characters. Perhaps the highest praise I have for this book, is that I fully intend to go find and read the next books. If you want more, it has to be good, right?

All in all, this was a fun fantasy read, refreshing in a sea of cloned worlds. If you like your fantasy straight up, and fast paced, this is a good book for you.

[Brendan Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first three Orcs books when I read the omnibus edition a while ago. They were a fun alternate view of the fantasy genre but afterwards I didn't really give them much thought. I wasn't aware a second trilogy had been written until I happened upon a copy randomly in a book shop.

It turned out to be more of the same with one other interesting addition. I think my favourite thing about Nicholls' writing is his descriptions of the various battles and the Orcs have lots of battles. They are extremely detailed including overall tactics and thoughts right down to individual blow-by-blow accounts of one-on-one combat within the fray. All with various fighting styles and weapons in a wide variety of locations.

Following will be minors spoilers from the first three books and some from the beginning of this book.

After finding all the Instrumentalities in the first trilogy the Orcs used them to escape to an alternate dimension. In this book we find out there are multiple dimensions and that travel between them is restricted and monitored by a secret organization called the Gateway Corps. An agent is dispatched to watch the Orcs and recover the Instrumentalities. This adds a very interesting sci-fi twist to what was already a non-traditional fantasy world. I want to know more about the Gateway Corps but so far they've only been watching and waiting. Hopefully they will have an expanded role in the next installment.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A welcome return to the squad of Orcs, the Wolverines, captained by Stryke, the main character. after their first trilogy, the band come back for a two parter, more magic, more fighting, more adventures, dimension travelling, swords, sorcery and battles. ( and magical artefacts )
it is an easy, enjoyable read, with a fresh view on Orcs and their culture.
accepting a mission from the mysterious Human magical, the Wolverines set out with some old hands and some new recruits to save their species and kill their evil ex-queen, not an orc but a human / Nyadd cross, who's father , incidentally, is the mysterious magician. they hit the ground running and are no sooner back in their old world, when they are attached by a group of horsemen, after battling them and getting away with a few fatalities, the undead rise up and attack from an old graveyard..undead vampires, who start biting !,more action and some fire, and it's burning zombie vampires and that's the first 60 pages. this has everything to make it part of the fantasy genre, without it being run of the mill, keeping it nice and fresh. Nicholls manages to create likeable characters, funny dialogue and great action, top speed pace....and in the last 9 pages the WMD's ( weapons of Magical destruction ) are mentioned, nothing whatsoever to do with Iraq, of any relevance about not finding any! good drop of something topical there...everything you need and more ! enjoyed it that much I now need to read part 2...

[Captain Comic Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally don't read books out of order as a personal rule. I didn't realize this was the second in a series or else I would have sought out the first book first, but I was already reading it when I came to this conclusion. That being said, it is a testament to the book itself that I continued to read.

I had never before read a book from the perspective of orcs as they're generally portrayed as villains, and to have them be the heroes in their own story struck me is fascinating. I truly enjoyed the characters, especially Stryke and Coilla, and I often found the orcs more endearing than the humans. Almost from the get go I was interested in the plight of these characters, despite only getting a brief initial rundown of the whole first book.

However, the story itself seemed to drag at points, as if the author had to fill in some space between major plot points. It wasn't a major obstacle as it gave more depth to the setting, but it did take away from the actual story telling aspect of the book. It ended up reading more like a narrative re telling of a campaign-based video game rather than a book. This sort of suited the subject matter in a way so it might have been intentional, but to me it was less engulfing.

Overall, I enjoyed the uniqueness of this book, and I will definitely be hunting down the others to read what I have missed and what is yet to come.

[Ежко Таралежко · Rating 3 out of 5]

Не съм убеден изданието на Бард ли е изрязано, или автора е приключил по средата на нищото с идеята да има продължение, но книгата завършва с такъв очевиден cliff hanger че свят да ти се завие...и да те накара да се почувстваш тъпо.

Иначе си има и силните, и слабите страни. Никълс определено успява да създаде симпатии към орките и на моменти - да те накара да псуваш човеците, любовната история между орка и човек също е забавна...но ах този наивитет в писането. Нещата се случват просто ей така, няма почти никакво (още по-малко логично такова) обяснение за стремежите и целите които движат героите, всичко става на юруш (ми аре, изостяваме си семействата тука на спокойния оркси свят и отиваме да гоним лошата от която едва се измъкнахме навремето...)

От една страна е забавно, съвременното фентъзи сериозно страда от напъните всичко да е прекалено сериозно и логично, от друга страна тук нещата са наистина прекалени.
Не е лоша книжка, но не се заемайте с нея преди да се убедите дали има продължение и как да го намерите....иначе ще останете като мен с пръст в устата и питайки се - "сега пък кво стана?"

[Batsap · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Orcs are back! ... and doing pretty much the same things as before: fighting, cursing and agonising over the instumentalities.

Which isn't to say that this book was particularly tedious reading. If you enjoyed the 'Orcs' trilogy that preceeded this book, then you will already be familiar with Nicholls' sparse, punchy prose and his frequent fight scenes. There were a few new interesting characters and I felt that Coilla was explored a little more in this book - at least, as much as any of the characters are truly explored.

However, I didn't enjoy this as much as the 'Orcs' trilogy, feeling that it lacked the wit and surrealness of the first three books. The plotline felt a little sparse in comparison to the first three, even though in this one we are introduced to a new part of the world with Maras-Dantia in and the parallel worlds introduced at the end of the trilogy is further explored. For the majority of the book though, the plot stays with the Wolverines.

And of course, it ends on a cliffhanger that has left me wanting to see what happens next.