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Orcs (The Omnibus Edition) by Stan Nicholls
01/04/2006 . Source: Paul Hanley 
pub: Gollancz. 711 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-575-07487-6. Buy Orcs in the USA - or Buy Orcs in the UK  check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
This is the paperback omnibus edition combining the original three volumes of Stan Nicholls' story about the fantasy world of Maras Dantia and, in particular, Captain Styrke's band of Orcs. The titles of these were 'Bodyguard Of Lightning', 'Legion Of Thunder' and 'Warriors Of The Tempest'.
The Orcs, ever since Tolkein's 'Lord Of The Rings', have been viewed as the expendable foot-soldiers fighting on behalf of villainy and evil. Shadowy spear characters fit only to be impaled on the hero's sword. Stan Nicholls shows them for what they are: good soldiers doing their best in often very unpleasant circumstances. This book or books are the tale of a quest by Stryke's warband who, having crossed their very homicidal employer, set out on their own account. It is an excellent read. A good adventure story with plenty of action, humorous and well-crafted.
The book is set in a magic world called Maras Dantia. All is not well with the world or with the once proud Orcs who have fragmented as a group and have had to rent themselves out as warrior bands to survive.
Captain Styrke leads such a band called the Wolverines and the story opens with them in battles fighting humans and storming a fortified settlement to retrieve an object for their employer, Queen Jennesta. After a bloody fight, they succeed but being Orcs they celebrate afterwards and knowing how she will react to their delay in returning (by butchering the lot of them) they set off on their own account to discover what the object is and where there are more of them. The story is their pursuit of these objects and Jennesta's pursuit of them.
This is a real saga of a book at over 700 pages and during their travels, the warband encounter all sorts of other creatures. Some are those we know from mythology such as dwarves, elves, trolls and goblins whilst others come from the author's imagination. Nicholls makes this an exciting journey full of action and allows the reader to vary easily suspend any disbelief and accept these creatures as the fully-rounded characters that they are.
I will not spoil the story by setting it all out but it is a richly detailed adventure with lots happening and ever more people/creatures becoming involved in the search/pursuit for one side or the other or for themselves. As the story progresses, we readers gradually understand what has happened to this world and why the mysterious cylinders are so important.
It is a book well worth reading with the added interest that the heroes are the usually much maligned Orcs. Thoroughly recommended.
Paul Hanley
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