Orcs: The Omnibus Edition (GollanczF.) [Paperback]

Stan Nicholls (Author)

Book Description

Series: GollanczF. | Publication Date: August 1, 2004

Combining the acclaimed trilogy of books, Bodyguard of Lightning, Legion of Thunder, and Warriors of the Tempest, plus a new short story previously only available in a small press anthology, this is the entire story of Stryke and his band of Orcs. Fantasy's bad guys finally get their own say in this fast moving, action-packed, tongue-in-cheek tale of Orc valour and human treachery.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stan Nicholls has been a reviewer and interviewer in the UK for more than 20 years and is a key figure on the genre scene. He writes a regular column for TIME OUT and contributes to both INTERZONE and STARBURST. He is also the author of several children's fantasies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575074876
• ISBN-13: 978-0575074873
• Product Dimensions: 1.8 x 5 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #944,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good idea, bad book., October 27, 2008

By 

Jason Coyne (Highland Park (Chicago), Illinois, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Orcs: The Omnibus Edition (GollanczF.) (Paperback)

A standard orcs vs humans fantasy novel, except from the point of view of the orcs. This could be a great idea. It IS a great idea. This is NOT a great book.

the opening chapters of the book are great, very interesting to view the standard conflicts from a different angle. However, the book starts to fall down very quickly.

Its a pretty standard hero of a thousand faces tale, lowly grunt, on a quest to retrieve X sacred items and defeat the bad guy, after an old wise guy tells a story and then is killed.

The combat scenes are frequent, long, and repetitive, giving blow by blow accounts of the combat. Over and over. There is only so many times you can read about specific parry/doge/counter attack routines for 3 pages at a time and keep interested. There are MANY of these scenes in the book.

the book starts out with some decent standard fare sex stuff, but goes off the deep end with graphic descriptions of the lead villain-ess raping captives and when they orgasm (due to spells/aphrodisiacs) killing them and eating their hearts to regenerate her magic powers, including raping female elves by using unicorn horns as a strap-on. (Really, im not making this up)

Character descriptions are very two dimensional and repetitive. The exact same introductory descriptions about each character are repeated several times throughout the book, as though you didn't just read the exact same words about a character a few pages ago.

More importantly, this book is a VERY VERY thinly veiled analogy for the author's white christian male guilt. Humans are white settlers from europe. Orcs (and other various fantasy races) are the indians. The humans believe in a single god and (literally, by name) believe they came from adam and eve. They are all evil, and murdering and enslaving the native races, except for those humans who have converted to the local pagan religion.

The author falls for the classic "noble savage" myth, that all the indians were peace loving and had no conflicts with each other, until the humans showed up. (Except for how the orcs were a war race that sold themselves to the highest bidder. If everyone gets along, why would the orcs have a society like this?)


I'm all for moral analogies and learning lessons from a sotry, but at least make things be you know, actually separate and parallel, and not directly reference the things you are trying to talk about over and over.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great book, not for the youth though, October 4, 2007

By 

ryan "Kismet" (Portland, ME) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orcs: The Omnibus Edition (GollanczF.) (Paperback)

I loved these books. The point of view was great and the story shifted enough to keep me engaged. I would recommend this to any fantasy reader. This book is very violent and has a bunch of "Adult Only" sections.

I wish the story would go on with another book or two.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ...wierd!, July 29, 2011

By 

Cheryl L. Blakeslee - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orcs: The Omnibus Edition (GollanczF.) (Paperback)

I have always been a big fan of fantasy novels such as the lord of the rings trilogy and the inheritance cycle. but this is awful! yeah there is fantasy but its not what i would expect. Its completely wierd also. The evil queen does sex rituals on prisoners and she collects blood in a bath tub. Not the kind of book i like