How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Very good
Advantages:
Action packed adventure
Disadvantages:
Nedd to read whole series
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
If you’re familiar with Tolkien then you know that Orcs serve the Dark Lord and are instruments of evil, however maybe there is another side to them. This is the approach that Stan Nichols takes in this Orcs series, which is made up of three novels ‘Bodyguard of Lightning’, ‘Legion Of Thunder’ and ‘Warriors Of The Tempest’. The books could not be described as stand alone novels and it is really necessary to read them in order to follow the story. In this review I will be looking at the second book ‘Legion Of Thunder’.
THE STORY
The series is set in the mythical world of Maras-Dantia and is seen from an Orc or more precisely from an elder race perspective. The elder races will be familiar to fans of Tolkien as they include Dwarves, Orcs, Gremlins, Trolls, elves, dragons and in this second instalment we come across Centaurs as well as some less familiar creatures such as Brownies, Nyadds (an amphibian race), Merz (a sea dwelling race) as well as Banshees.
The land has been invaded and gradually conquered by the human settlers. They have through ignorance and malice disrupted the natural balance of the land by decimating the countryside to make room for their alien crops and by clearing the land of it’s original inhabitants many of which now have become subservient to powerful human factions. The orcs once a proud people made up of warrior clans have been reduced to serving as mercenaries to the humans.
At the end of the first book ‘Bodyguard of Lightning’ we left our hero Stryke and his band of Orcs known as the Wolverines in extreme peril and they seem to remain in danger for most of the second instalment too. After having fallen out of favour with Jennesta the sadistic Queen of Cairnbarrow in whose service we find her at the start of the series the Orcs are now considered deserters and criminals. A bounty has been placed on their heads and there is no shortage of people willing to try and cash in.
Their only hope is to discover the secret of the strange relics known as instrumentalities that Jennesta is also so keen to find in the hope that their possession will give the Orcs some power or at least a means of bargaining for their lives.
Just as in the first novel the plight of the Wolverine war band set against the political manoeuvrings of the different factions in Maras-Dantia.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
As I commented in my review of the first book this is from the very outset a fast paced, violent, adult fantasy. Nichols uses this second book to flesh out more of the characters and to introduce us to more of the fantastical races that populate this world. Little by little he introduces us to another layer of complexity to the story. What role does Adpar the Queen of the Nyadd and Jennesta’s sister have to play in the Orcs quest for the instrumentalities? Will they find allies amongst the other races? Are Stryke’s strange dreams portents of the future and are the Wolverine’s actions being guides by a mysterious force as yet unknown to them?
As he did in the first novel Nichols writes in a clear an accessible style, he is at his best describing the frequent battles that the Wolverines are involved in and there are plenty of hacked limbs, spurting blood and general carnage to keep lovers of ‘gorefest’ happy throughout.
As the Wolverines travel around the land on their quest it gives Nichols the opportunity to describe different aspects of his mythical world. His descriptions are again vivid.
Nichols has produced an innovative twist to the traditional 'Tolkienesque' world of fantasy but he still describes a world, which will be familiar to many fantasy genre fans. The world of Maras-Dantia is also populated by dragons, gryphons and giant lizards as well as fairies and kobolds. The descriptions of this mythical world and its creatures are colourful and vivid as we travel to the dark forest of the centaurs the underwater world of the Nyadd and the trading city of Hecklowe policed by magically created mechanical men know as Watchers. Nichols has obviously borrowed a lot from traditional mythology and from other fantasy authors like Tolkien but he has also been inventive in his own right and he certainly has subverted the roles of many of the creatures to such an extent that the story and characters appear fresh even to the most experienced fantasy fan.
Once again the level of violence and death on view as well as a few sexually explicit references would probably make this book unsuitable for the youngest readers but I would guess it should be suitable for most teenagers.
Without forgetting that this is basically escapist fantasy the characters and the story are defined well enough that certain themes, racism, prejudice, the environment can be found all spiced with a certain amount of dark humour. This serves to give the story more depth and elevates the series above your average fantasy novel.
OVERALL
Once again as in the first book ‘Legion Of Thunder’ leaves us with plenty of unresolved issues in expectation of the third and final instalment. There are plenty of twists in the story and a few shocks so that the obvious path isn’t always followed and the end of this second instalment once again leaves us on a knife’s edge thinking how can the brave Wolverines survive.
Nicholls as succeed in writing an ‘hedge of your seat’ adventure, steeped in the fantasy tradition while at the same time subverting the genre so as to something distinctive and new. The author is very well versed in the field of fantasy literature having written children’s fiction (Nightshade Chronicles trilogy) and being a regular guide to the fantasy genre for Time Out magazine. He has also collaborated with David Gemmell on ‘Legend and Wolf in Shadow’ and I found his style to be very reminiscent of Gemmell’s certainly his fans will enjoy this trilogy.
While this series might not be as good as some of the classic fantasies and in some ways maybe a little derivative it is still a good read.
The paperback cover once again doesn’t do justice to the content of this book and as the old saying goes don’t be tempted to ‘judge a book by it’s cover!’.
‘Legion Of Thunder’ by Stan Nicholls (Published by Gollancz -ISBN: 1857985605, paperback 288 pages) can be bought from Amazon.co.uk for £4.79 (+p&p) but a better deal is to buy the omnibus edition called 'Orcs' containing all three books in the trilogy for just £6.39!
