Customer Reviews

Bodyguard Of Lightning: Orcs First Blood (Orcs)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I must admit that writting from the Orcs point of view is a good idea. But Im affraid that Stan does'nt pull it off particulary well. He strays from the traditional orc charater too much, having them sing of fair orcish ladies and the such.

All books (it is said) have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Not so in this case. The entire story seems the "middle", completely lacking a begining or end. That means that there was no final battle, and the book ended abruptly.

There are good points however. The beginning chapter is so gripping that it will probably motivate you to read half the book in one sitting. Its fast paced and delivers a lot of action through out. The characters are a little cold, but when it comes to a battle, Stan directs them well.

It's worth checking out if you intend to spend time reading the entire series. It does leave you with the incentive to buy the next novel by leaving you on a cliff hanger at the end of the book.

A proud people of warriors at one with Nature struggling to adjust to a world brought to change by invaders from across the sea. Yes, it does sound like a number of native people all around the world to me, too.

But in this book it is the orcs, who normally are treated as bad guys by default, who defend their traditions and way of life in a fantasy world invaded by humans. The humans pollute, exhaust natural resources and generally make things bad for everyone else, all in the name of their One True God.

It is a good twist, but it's not a great book. The characters are somewhat stereotype. It's more of an RPG adventure than a novel. But there is a lot of fighting (it is about orcs, after all) and of course an epic quest to embark on. I can recommend you to read it because it is a quick, fun read with some nice ideas and twists.

At first aproach i was slightly wary of the book, i mean, orcs? heroes? noble creatures? And yet, as you progess through the book, you begin to feel great empathy for these natural-born warriors, who, since there birth have been forced to fight for masters they disagree with, as blind servants, with no say in their own destiny. Suddenly, they have choice, and the opputunity to decide for themselves what their next move will be, not just to be told, and carry out their orders or face certain death. Their journey, and the enemies they face in all directions will have you not only understanding their way of life, but rooting for them, holding your breath, and hoping this next fight will not be their last. It's a book that sucks you in and won't let go, although you might want to harden your stomach to some of the....grosser details.....it's fast-paced, action packed, gritty, and more often than not, very funny. This is a worth edition to any fantasy reader's collection.

This book left me wanting more. It takes an interesting turn as the orcs are the heros of the story, and the humans the villans. You find yourself on the orcs side, on the battlefield and off it.Orcs are supposed to be monsters, yet the unis, the humans, are the true monsters. all in all an excellent book that i could'nt put down.

The Orcs were always my absolute favourite part of the universe that J.R.R. Tolkien created for his unforgettable fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings. So I was pretty excited when I found out that here were not just 1 or 2, but 3 WHOLE books devoted solely to them in which they were the main characters. I couldn't wait to read them!

But I was crushingly disappointed when I started reading and realized that these Orcs were nothing like the charmingly cutthroat ones infesting Tolkien's world, and Stan Nicholls had instead chosen to make his Orcs noble goody-goodies.

Instead of Tolkien, Nicholls seems to take for his inspiration here the countless works which seek to depict Native North Americans and other less developed peoples as some kind of "noble savages". And in opposition to this, we have here the one-dimensionally villainous Humans who encroach upon the vast open spaces across which these nobly high-minded Orcs have roamed free since time immemorial.

The Humans are divided into the Mansis who worship many gods (ie. the Pagans), and the Unis who worship just one god (ie. this universe's Christians). It is the Unis who carry out massacres on helpless Orc villages in the name of their religion (again shades of early North American history) and plot to take over the entire world.

By contrast, the Orcs in this book are depicted as highly disciplined, professional warriors who operate by a strict code of honour. They address each other respectfully by military rank, and obey orders carefully and precisely. -- NOTHING like the wild and chaotically dangerous hordes of Tolkien's Mordor.

And worst of all, with the way that Stan Nicholls writes dialogue, the way his Orcs speak is also NOTHING like the wonderfully vile vibe we get from the language that Tolkien so carefully crafted. In fact, one of the BIGGEST complaints I had while reading this book was that due to the dialogue (very modern, colloquial English), I kept having images of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles popping into my head instead of Orcs. -- VERY annoying!!!

About the only character who did live up to my expectations of nastiness for this book was the evil half-Human/half-Reptilian queen who has enslaved and now rules over our heroic Orcs. But much like the "evil" Humans, she is only depicted quite superficially and is just used as a heavy to highlight the oh-so-goody-twoshoes qualities of Nicholls' Orcs.

Overall I had the impression that this was a book that tried to carefully sanitize the Orcs to make them acceptable role models for potential young readers. But if this book might seem to be intended for young readers, then I should also warn you that it unexpectedly included some explicit (and gory) sexuality, so it's not exactly a kids' book either.

I should confess that this book ended on such a cliffhanger that even though I didn't particularly like it, I did pick up the second book just to find out what happened.

But still, all I can say is if you expect to find the same kind of deliciously evil Orcish rabble as you loved in the Lord of the Rings, you will probably be just as disappointed as I am with this book.

My name is max and this book is my second favorite book and i read alot of books so i recommend you read this trust me you will fall in love with this book and the sequels the only reason why i recommend you dont read this series is that when your done no book will be able to meet your imagination of this thrilling tale

if u loved lotr then ull love this its sordof like the lotr except orcs are the good guys. this also is very detailed and even if u dont like reading u wont want to stop reading this and ull be eager to read the sequel