So a few weeks ago I was at Mysterious Galaxy (yeah, I’m there a lot) and I came across this books, Orcs by Stan Nichols. I picked up the omnibus book of a three novel trilogy with the viewpoint entirely from a band of Orcs. The concept intrigued me and after reading the first page I decided to take a risk on an author I had never read and bought the collection.

Sadly, this book has not lived up to it’s promise. First off the Orcs aren’t very Orcish. The Orcs come across as tough fighter with a martial culture, but nothing that is outside of human norms, so there isn’t really an alien viewpoint.

Worse yet the events of the book have a very scripted feel to them. It is far from character driven. Rather an event will happen and that drive our protagonists into their new direction. They are reactionary character rather than character that take and initiate action.

The principle villain of the piece is so cardboard that she would be more properly described as recycled cardboard. She has no better characteristics and runs here military is such a piss-poor fashion that in reality she;d have mass desertions and few victories.

I may finished this book but then again I may not. I have a couple of other books in the wings and frankly, this one is just not holding my attention. Too much like an RPG game, this book needed more cooking before being published.