Jonathan French (1)

The author called this a gritty story, and that's exactly the right word. A warrior saga is not the kind of thing I'd normally pick up but it had a great staff review at my local indy, and since I was already loading up, what's one more book, eh?

Took me a while to warm up to it but it just kept piling on good stuff: characters, backstory, atmosphere (usually malodorous), creatures of more kinds than I can count. Okay, it was a bit complex for me to really grasp how the many pieces fit together but I couldn't slow down reading to puzzle everything out. I liked it.… (mais)

This was so good! If you like your world-building imaginative and gritty, your characters unapologetically brash, your plot fast-moving and epic, and don't mind some salty language, this book (and hopefully the entire series) delivers. It is simply terrific. Yes, there is plenty of adult language, but I never found it gratuitous; it fit perfectly well with the characters and their hard lives, and if anything it added to the world-building and set this book apart from most mainstream fantasy. Sure, many (most?) of the male characters are incredibly misogynistic boors, and that can be tedious and cringey at times, but that is the world these people inhabit: it feels fitting. This book reminds me a lot of the old [a:Ramsay Thorne|209429|Ramsay Thorne|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]/[a:Lou Cameron|350702|Lou Cameron|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] "Captain Gringo" ([b:Renegade|23474650|Renegade (A Captain Gringo Western Book 1)|Ramsay Thorn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1414596634l/23474650._SX50_.jpg|43066070]) adult westerns: trashy and filthy, but well-written and incredible swash-buckling fun.… (mais)

Pros: main characters are half orcs so that was cool in that it one of the very few books where we are looking at the world through the view point of a non human character; main characters were riding hogs which is also pretty cool, I like seeing human-animal bonds being an important part of a story

Cons: everything else but mainly I have a real BIG problem with how female characters from all the races are portrayed in this book. I won't repeat any of the derogatory terms used in the book here but one quote from the book pretty much sums it all up here "females are only good for f**king and fetching". And not a single male character seems to have an issue with this which is crazy considering how they were all conceived and how their origins are founded in slavery. It's actually quite disturbing when you reach the end of the story and you are trying desperately to think of a single female character that hasn't been raped, has self agency, isn't a prostitute, and isn't referred to in a derogatory manner. I just can't get behind this book because of this issue. It makes me wonder about the author and what his intent was with this book.… (mais)