known for the "Orcs" sequence that rehabilitated those traditional bad guys as quest heroes in their own right. In this Fantasyland, there's a standoff between unpleasant empires run along police-state lines, with "paladins" as heavy enforcers, brutal suppression of awkward truths, and zero human rights for the people in the street. One lunatic prince forever flees Death in a magic floating palace that wanders through his realm, uncaringly crushing farmhouses and orchards that get in the way. All this spawns a highly organised Resistance crossing imperial borders, whose long-term plans--most unusually--do not involve armed uprising. Meanwhile, far away, a warlord called Zerreiss is gobbling up townships, promising freedom, and seems to have the advantage of some mysterious affinity with this world's (literal) underground channels of magic. Nicholls assembles a motley crew of misfits: a woman enforcer disgraced for insisting on the truth, a warrior from a despised race who's afflicted with an odd blessing-cum-curse, a wizard's apprentice whose master was murdered by paladins and who proves to have a very special talent, an unwilling prostitute on the run, and a famous tenor singer. All end up together in the Resistance, where they're drawn into highly illegal schemes to raise money and to sabotage the imperial record system with its dossiers on known dissidents. On the other side, the state has adapted magical glamours into tools of surveillance, oppression and torment, while even the rebel outfit is plagued with embedded spies. Against this interesting background, there are numerous set-pieces of fast-paced but routine fantasy action: many sword fights, daring assaults on fortified houses, raids and rescues, Indiana Jones-style booby traps, and--something that now seems to be contractually required in commercial fantasy--a desperate flight through stinking sewers. This is all good fun, though, and the pages turn fast. --David Langford
known for the "Orcs" sequence that rehabilitated those traditional bad guys as quest heroes in their own right. In this Fantasyland, there's a standoff between unpleasant empires run along police-state lines, with "paladins" as heavy enforcers, brutal suppression of awkward truths, and zero human rights for the people in the street. One lunatic prince forever flees Death in a magic floating palace that wanders through his realm, uncaringly crushing farmhouses and orchards that get in the way. All this spawns a highly organised Resistance crossing imperial borders, whose long-term plans--most unusually--do not involve armed uprising. Meanwhile, far away, a warlord called Zerreiss is gobbling up townships, promising freedom, and seems to have the advantage of some mysterious affinity with this world's (literal) underground channels of magic. Nicholls assembles a motley crew of misfits: a woman enforcer disgraced for insisting on the truth, a warrior from a despised race who's afflicted with an odd blessing-cum-curse, a wizard's apprentice whose master was murdered by paladins and who proves to have a very special talent, an unwilling prostitute on the run, and a famous tenor singer. All end up together in the Resistance, where they're drawn into highly illegal schemes to raise money and to sabotage the imperial record system with its dossiers on known dissidents. On the other side, the state has adapted magical glamours into tools of surveillance, oppression and torment, while even the rebel outfit is plagued with embedded spies. Against this interesting background, there are numerous set-pieces of fast-paced but routine fantasy action: many sword fights, daring assaults on fortified houses, raids and rescues, Indiana Jones-style booby traps, and--something that now seems to be contractually required in commercial fantasy--a desperate flight through stinking sewers. This is all good fun, though, and the pages turn fast. --David Langford
Reviews which might be of interest for Stan Nicholls
3 Similar Reviews of Warriors of the Tempest (Orcs Series) - StanNicholls
THE END OF THE ORCS? Review ofWarriors of the Tempest (Orcs Series) - StanNichollsby
Mauri
Advantages: Fast paced, new slant on old genre Disadvantages: Lacks a little depth in story and characters
...If you’ve read the other reviews on the previous instalments of StanNicholls’s Orc trilogy you’ll know that he has subverted the traditional view of Orcs as instruments of evil as popularised by Tolkien and other fantasy authors. The Orcs in this trilogy are brave warriors whose once proud traditions have been destroyed by the coming of Humans to their ancestral lands.
The Orcs series is made up of three novels ‘Bodyguard of Lightning’, ‘Legion Of Thunder’ and ‘Warriors Of The Tempest’. The books are not ‘stand alone’ novels and I would advise to read them in the right order. In this review I will be looking at the third and last book ‘Warriors Of The Tempest’.
THE STORY
Nicholls takes us to the mythical world of Maras-Dantia. The world is populated by the ‘elder’ races familiar to fans of Tolkien and mythical traditional literature...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Action packed adventure Disadvantages: Nedd to read whole series
...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 StanNichols 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...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
very helpful 28.01.2005
An Orc's Life Review ofBodyguard of Lightning (Orcs Series) - StanNichollsby
Mauri
Advantages: Fast paced, new slant on a tired genre Disadvantages: Books are not stand alone
...For anyone who has ever read any Tolkien or seen any of Peter Jackson’s superb adaptations of the books Orcs represent the evil minions of the dark forces in the fantasy universe. We know little about them their origins their culture but we know they are evil. But as in real history where the official record is always written by the victors and therefore not likely to be favourable to the vanquished the accounts we have of Orcs in fantasy fiction is always from a human perspective and could therefore be only part of the truth. This is the approach that StanNichols takes in ‘Bodyguard of Lightning’ the first instalment of his inventive fantasy ‘Orc’ trilogy, which also includes ‘Legion Of Thunder’ and ‘Warriors Of The Tempest’.
THE STORY
Nichols looks at the mythical world of Maras-Dantia from Orc or more precisely from an elder race...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
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08.02.2005
28.01.2005
