24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Come on people!, December 18, 2007
This review is from: Clan Daughter (Queen of the Orcs, Book II) (Mass Market Paperback)
I was surprised to see this book at such a low rating. This is the great continuance of the Queen of the Orcs story.
First of all, I think that a lot of people don't understand the feelings Dar and Kovok-mah develop. She has been abused by humans her whole life, her only friend died and Kovok is the only person she cares for still around. So yeah, she goes for it. Ok, so he is not entirely human, but its no worse than if he were an elf, werewolf or something.
As far as the plot, it is made clear that Dar is surprised at the way things are turning out, and credits it to the fact that Muth La, the goddess, is taking care she will not die in order to fulfill a prophesy.
So there! It was good. If you liked the first, read the second. If you didn't like the first, you probably won't like the second. This got bad ratings because the people who wrote them gave it negative reviews for weird reasons, like I didn't like the first one so I didn't like the second, or its been done before, or I was mislead by the cover. Come on people!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story, weak romance., August 29, 2009
This review is from: Clan Daughter (Queen of the Orcs, Book II) (Mass Market Paperback)
The first book in this series, "King's Property," is a good yarn and Dar is a good character (albeit with a bad name -- kept making me think of frustrated pirates). The best part of that book is the depiction of the orcish culture, and its comparison to human. "Clan Daughter" is pretty much the same.
This book picks up exactly where the first book left off: Dar and the five remaining orcs of the troop she served in King Kregant's army have left the battlefield that claimed the lives of all of their companions, and they are heading back to the orcs' homeland, the mountains far to the north. The orcs have accepted Dar as their leader, as their society is strongly matriarchal, and Dar has managed to impress them with her wisdom; they see her more as a woman and less as a human, and are therefore willing to accept her guidance. All but one: Zna-yat still hates and distrusts her for her humanity, and plots her death once again -- a goal he tried and failed to accomplish in the first book.
Unfortunately, Dar has no idea where she is going, apart from "thataway," and so the first third of the book describes the orcs' very difficult journey through human lands, trying to reach their home. Over the course of the trip, Dar uses a combination of wit and wisdom, luck and magic to guide them the right way, and they do win through to the orc lands. But that's when the trouble begins. On the trip, a new complication has arisen: Dar has fallen in love with one of her orcish companions, a love that is returned, but one that is also doomed, because no orc male would marry when his mother forbids the relationship -- and no orc mother would allow her son to marry a human, no matter how dearly the two love one another.
This is the only place where the author's gender, I think, has an impact on the story: this romance seems depicted as a man would think about it, not as a woman would. Once Dar has some physical contact with her lover (Have no fear, there are no nasty bits), it is all she can think about; her longing for him is described as a physical need like hunger and thirst, and whenever the two are together, all she thinks about is getting snuggly. This is not the way women tend to think about the one they love, as far as I know. The romance isn't bad, it just seemed a little off for a young woman's first love.
The plot takes a whole new turn once the group reaches the orc lands; some of the plotlines from the first book return, and are wrapped up, and the story also heads off in a whole new direction. The ending felt a wee bit rushed, though I'm sure the third book -- already out and waiting on my shelf to be read -- will expand and explain everything that comes in a rush at the end of this book. Overall, this was a fun, easy read; the best parts remain the depiction of the orc culture as different from, and superior to, the human culture; you definitely come out of this book wishing you were an orc, instead of some stinking washavoki.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Three nights of hard travel had cooled Dar's rage., June 5, 2008
This review is from: Clan Daughter (Queen of the Orcs, Book II) (Mass Market Paperback)
Book Two of the Queen of the Orcs trilogy makes for a nice diversion.
At the end of book one, poor military planning leaves swaths of dead soliders. Only protagonist Dar and a handful of orcs remain alive, and as this book opens, Day is leading her allies back to the mountains they call home. Essentially a fantasy road story, we follow the progress as Dar first reaches the orc homes, delves a little more into orcish politics (matriarchical society, with a kind of Iriquois meets samurai feel), and "volunteers" to rescue the Queen of the Orcs being help as a kind of gentle captive in the court of a sadistic human king... Along the way, Dar begins to explore the relatively new (and decidedly creepy) visions of the future she is having. Are these actual set-in-stone prophecies, or are they more Dead Zone like possibilities? With some rather intriguing asides (including, believe it or not, orc nookie), this second book is somehow less gritty than the first, and propels the drama quite nicely into what seems to be a much more political/character-driven finale...
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