Customer Reviews

Clan Daughter (Queen of the Orcs, Book II)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

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.

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...

The first book in the Orc saga was pretty good. We have poor clever Dar, branded and enslaved, struggling to survive in terrible circumstances. She does something unexpected. She looks past her initial bigotry, befriends the monsters, and manages to avoids rape and death at the hands of the soldiers. Good girl.

Since I liked the first book so much, I ran right out and bought the next two. I was hoping for more suspense, excitement, people rising above trying circumstances, and maybe even some heroic acts. Instead I got wandering around in the mountains for two hundred pages.

At one point, a dead wizard directs Dar and Kovok to an ancient city, for no particular reason, except that the two of them are destined to fall in lust, which apparently they couldn't have done any place else.

The inter-species boinking might be interesting if they actually, you know, did it. Instead we have long pages of "we mustn't until we are blessed" and "what will your mother say". Frankly, I don't care what Kovok's mom thinks. Why is Dar so obsessed with a goat-herding momma's boy anyway?

There are plenty of blood-smearing, leaf-chewing, neck-biting, chin-tatooing rituals for even more yawns. And Dar gets some visions and special powers. I liked her better when she was just clever and brave.

I hope the 3rd book is better than this one.

Morgan Howell's writing is excellent. He shows, keeps a fast story, and understands the power of simplicity. This novel will grab you and hold you... until you start thinking about the plot.

The hopeless situation of Dar impressed me, a carryover from the first novel. Except for Dar, the humans were evil. The orcs were portrayed as an alien race with an internal honor, who thought little of murdering humans like animals based on their Queen's perceived will. Going into the novel, Howell had a very well defined characterization of Orcs.

Around page 90, he tosses that out. Dar starts hooking up with big K, her orcish protector from book one. Because Howell *had* well defined concepts of what it meant to be an Orc, this turned me off. What made the story compelling was keeping the orcs distinct from and contrasting the humans. The affair felt like bestiality. I mean does every single fantasy heroine I read lately have to start sleeping with the monsters? Howell has drawn his animal-like Orcs in such a way they seem very noble, but you don't forget they are non-human monsters.

After this romance element turns up, the rest of the novel takes a nose dive. The sub-plot with Zna'yat was concluded nicely beforehand, which is a good thing, as Dar becomes indecisive and simpering, like a puppy sniffing after big bad Kovok'mar.

In conclusion, if you read this far, you'll want to finish. The last book sounds better. I'd try and borrow these from a friend or library. I won't be keeping personal copies after reading the trilogy.

The second volume of Morgan Howell's Queen of the Orcs series, Clan Daughter, is better than the first one (King's Property). Unfortunately, that's not saying a lot, as the first one was very flawed but interesting. This time, Howell manages to improve that to just flawed, but still intriguing. He does a masterful job with Orcish society, but once again the characters fall flat and the book is a chore to get through. It's well worth it, though, if only for the Orcs.

First, I have to compliment Howell's society building. I can't really say "world-building," because he doesn't do much with the human side other than some "king under the influence of a dark mage" stereotypes and his reach doesn't really go beyond the one human faction. However, his Orcs are magnificent, and I loved the process of learning how their language and culture work. Howell has created an extremely detailed race, and it's obvious a lot of thought went into it. It's no wonder he wants to explore it.

Dar is the instrument of that exploration, her and her growing attraction to Kovok-mah. It's understandable that she would feel this way, given the fact that it's the rare human who has treated her well. What it also is, unfortunately, is dull. The characters are clearly centerpieces Howell uses to explore the culture, and most bits of characterization show up only to define some other aspect of the Orcs. Thus, the journey to the Orcish homeland, with the exception of a few action scenes, is dry as dust. Things pick up slightly when they get to the Orcish city and we see some intrigue as well. But things don't really get moving until we're back dealing with humans again, and how they interact with Orcs. Once I reached there, it was a breakneck pace to the end of the book, with revelation after revelation, racing to a nice cliffhanger ending.

The map at the beginning of the book isn't any different than the first book, except that it once again shows Dar's journey as it happens in Clan Daughter. Thus, it's useful for helping show the reader just where everybody's going, but my criticism of how small the world is stands. Also, the prose is decent, though once again fairly workmanlike. The scenes are quick throughout the book, making a jarring pace at times.

While all of that made the book slow, it's more than made up for by the depth of detail within the Orcs. For example, Orcs aren't capable of subterfuge (though Dar finds out relatively quickly that this might not necessarily be true). Yes, it's cliched to have a female-dominated society, but Howell demonstrates how this isn't the run of the mill matriarchy found in many fantasy books. Every once in a while, during Dar's journey, we see hints at what she's going to have to do during the rest of the book and in the finale, and how she's going to take her place among the Orcs.

Clan Daughter isn't much better than the first book in the series, but it does show improvement and grips you just enough that you want to keep reading. Even if it's hard to get through, the trip is worth it, and Howell has set it up for a whale of an ending. I just hope he doesn't slow it down again and we don't get 200 pages of tedium before getting to the good stuff. Three times in a row would get really annoying.

David Roy

The three books together, tell a complete and wonderful tale. The reading of just one or reading them out of sequence would leave the reader not completely understanding Dars transformation from lowly servant to nearly divinity.

Loved the first one dearly-gripping story with beautifully described and realistically crafted characters. Found this one to be an excellent continuation and loved learning more of the Orcs' world and Dar's destiny. Flowingly written -- I couldn't put it down.

Seeing that I have something over 40,000 science fiction and fantasy books read under my belt I can say that Morgan Howell's Queen of the Orcs trilogy goes far up on the list of talented authors. The books are gritty, the characters well written, the storyline touching and unpredictable.

I highly recommend the Queen of the Orcs trilogy. Its one of those rare reads that you can't put down.

"You've got spunk --- I hate spunk." Lou Grant on Mary Tyler Moore show...
Over and over the spunky woman resists oppression and wins through.. I guess I never get tired of this story line. The details of how it happens interest me. This is a good example of that. I bought and read and enjoyed the entire series.