Customer Reviews

Queen of the Orcs: King's Property

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Dar knew her step-mother hated her, but Dar never expected her father to conscript her into King Kregant's army! The king is on a brutal campaign to conquer a neighboring king's land. Women are needed to cook and serve for not only the human army, but also the orc warriors. Thus Dar is branded on her forehead and immediately put to work. The brand upon the forehead is stronger than any shackle could possibly have been. Any female with the brand that is found away from her unit is decapitated; her head turned in for a bounty. The women do not live long in servitude either. Something or someone is always killing them off, forcing the king's army to recruit more female slaves.

Dar always thought that orcs were nothing more than killers. However, Dar begins to learn the Orc language and soon learns that orcs respect females (a.k.a. "Mothers") highly. The other female slaves do not know this and would not believe Dar had she informed them. As Dar struggles to survive her army life, she also begins to befriend the orcs. This causes major strife between Dar and the other women, as well as, between Dar and the human men. To make matters worse, Dar has a growing gift for dark prophecy and she foresees awful events for her friends among the orcs and herself. Problem is that orcs have honor and do not understand the concept of lies and betrayals, so Dar's warnings go unheeded.

***** This is the first of the THE QUEEN OF THE ORCS trilogy. Author Morgan Howell has created an outstanding foundation for the next two books to build upon. The story grabbed me quickly and held onto me tighter than Super Glue until the very end. Thank heavens the next book will be released within the next month. Otherwise, waiting would be sheer torture for me! Be warned, you will NOT want to put down this story, so make sure you have LOTS of time before you even open the front cover. BRAVO! I want more! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

I happened on this book completely by accident, and didn't expect to like it. The first few chapters set up a been-there, done-that tale in which the men were evil, the women were catty (except the protagonist), and the orcs were all Noble Savages. But as I continued to read the story, I found that I liked it despite these flaws -- and the flaws gradually faded. A good male character appeared; some of the women were good; one of the orcs wasn't noble; and the protagonist made some painful mistakes. That was enough to keep me reading.

One thing I particularly liked about the tale is its take on orcs -- they're still the brutish-looking, scary monsters of Tolkienesque fantasy, but here they're also depicted as intelligent, honorable, and the victims of a serious PR problem. It's nice to see the scary monsters treated as the heroes for a change.

I'm still a little wary about this story, though, in large part because the protagonist is just a little too good. She's intelligent, resourceful, pretty, and well-spoken; she's the only one among the group of female slaves who resists prostituting herself for food and clothing; she's able to master the orc language in a very short time; she's able to understand both humans and orcs with stunning psychological clarity; she even sees visions of the future (apparently) sent by the orc goddess. Given the title of this series, I can see she's being set up as some kind of orcish messiah, and that smacks of Mary Sue-ism and a thousand cliches in which the good white hero joins the poor downtrodden natives and leads them in a rebellion against his own kind, etc. But thus far the story is well-written enough that this element doesn't turn me off... yet, anyway. I'm waiting to see how book 2 goes.

I absolutely loved this book. The main character, Dar, has lived an extremely hard and tragic life, but that's nothing compared to what lies ahead the day she is given up by her own family to become a slave in the lowest dregs of the King's army, the Orc regiments. Once there, her strength and determination quickly makes her enemies with just about every man and woman in the army, and every day is a battle simply to remain alive.

Morgan Howell has created a fascinating world where monsters are not always what they appear, and inhumanity and treachery know no limits. From the very first page, I was entranced by Dar's story and her relationship with the Orcs, but also appalled and horrified by some of the atrocities that were depicted. For that reason, it's not an easy read, but I highly recommend it, and I simply cannot wait to read the next book.

I LOVED this book and am looking forward to the next two in the series. I had never heard of this author before, but after reading the book, I googled her (found out it's a him!), and went on a search for a website.....alas he has apparently not set one up yet.

Anyway, the book is a unique twist on the coming of age tale. The young protaginst has had a very hard life and is sold into slavery by her family. She becomes a cook in the king's army and befriends the orcs who are used as effective killing machines against their own sense of how the world should work because their Queen has told them to do whatever the king's men ask of them. I love how the world is built and the two very different types of culture portrayed in the novel. The two very different cultures find a common ground in the protaginst who by the end of the tale is more orc than human.
Read it you won't regret it!

I read Queen of the Orcs: King's Property on my Kindle because it looked promising. It starts off well, but ultimately fails.

Dar is half kidnapped, half sold by her parents into the king's army, where she is branded and enslaved. Most frighteningly, she is required to serve food to the orcs, the shock troops of the army. The orcs' reputation for brutality terrifies Dar, but ultimately she discovers that the orcs have more to them than she thought.

The book starts off well. It moves quickly. Dar is a likeable, well-drawn character, initially. The prose is clear, in a "bread and butter" style. (If you want poetic metaphors, look elsewhere.) Quite readable. But early on, the themes start smashing you over the head, and they ain't fun.

Theme 1: Every human male is a rapist, a murderer, or a molester who lives to humiliate or otherwise degrade women. Seriously. All of them. Raping and humiliating Dar is the antagonist's primary goal. When the possibility of gang raping Dar comes up, every man (every man) in the camp shows up, hoping for a piece. Dar's father molested her. The king and his generals amuse themselves by pelting the serving women with banquet scraps and then forcing them to eat off the ground. Dar's supposed romantic interest comes from a culture that (he claims) treats women well, but he never defends her--or any other women--publicly. Neither does any other man, for that matter. I found this particularly difficult to believe. Not one male says, "Hey! I have two daughters back home just her age. It's not right for you to treat young girls like that." Actually, it's not just unbelievable, it's insulting to men.

Theme 2: All women are victims. Every single woman in the book is victimized by the men. They are raped, treated as prostitutes (trading sexual favors for extra food and better clothes), beaten, even flogged, and executed. And they're all terrible bitches to each other and to Dar. Only one woman actually treats Dar nicely. And the plot of the whole book revolves around Dar scheming to avoid being raped by the antagonist, which really wears thin after a while. You see, Dar is always trying to avoid something rather than trying to do something, which makes for annoying reading.

Theme 3: The noble savage. I thought this idea had died out in the 40s at the latest. Clearly not. The orcs fulfill this idea. They are all, to a man (orc) noble, intelligent, thoughtful, philosophical, clean (unlike the humans, they bathe regularly), and orderly. They have a well-developed spirituality (the humans seem to have none). They don't understand the concept of lying. But since they are also brutal, efficient killers and are not human, all humans look down on them. Except Dar, of course. She hates men (well, look at her choices) and ends up forsaking her own kind to join the "aliens." C.J. Cherryh explored this idea in her fiction a couple decades years ago, and while this doesn't mean Morgan Howell can't do it, it does invite comparison, and Howell fails here for the simple reason that his characters are more two-dimensional.

Theme 4: The world is unrelentingly brutal and everyone who is nice eventually dies. And it gets really, really tiring to read about.

There are enormous holes in the world building as well. The army that Morgan is with never once drills. No one seems to care for weapons and armor--or even carry them. When they stop to make camp, the soldiers lounge around doing nothing while the enslaved women do all the work. This flies in the face of all military history. Every commander knows that a major problem is keeping soldiers busy between battles--idle hands make trouble--and one way to keep them occupied is camp work. Not in this army, apparently. The women even put up the soldiers' tents for them! I laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of it.

Also, the orcs have been serving under human command because the humans once conquered the orcs, and the orcish queen made this concession. I can buy that idea, except that there's no way this undisciplined army could possibly have conquered the orcs portrayed in this book. The orcs drill and move as a precisely oiled machine, but the humans--who never practice fighting--managed to defeat them in battle? I couldn't buy it.

There's more, but you get the idea. The writing itself is competent, but this book would probably have made more sense 25 years ago, when "feminist fiction" meant "man-hating." Grade: D+.

The story is hard to get into because everyone is evil or inhumane except the protagonist. Infanticide and torture take place that don't even progress the plot, they just exist to disgust the reader. Then, the story doesn't even bother to have a semblance of a conclusion. It's like reading the first half of a book you just hope gets better, and then it ends, telling you to shell out more money to get more.

I normally don't reveiw a book unless I loved it or hated it. That said, I decided to reveiw Morgan Howell's "Queen of the Orcs: King's Property" because so many other reviewers have gotten it wrong.
"King's Property" has been criticized for a message that all men are evil, who only want one thing, and all women are either whores or shrews. Also, it has been slammed for a message of the "Noble Savage". In my opinion, these reviews are unfair. "King's Property" follows the beginning of a young woman's (Dar)journey, as she is sold into slavery by her parents. She is taken as a servant for the King's army, to serve his legion of Orcs, an inhuman race that at first appears simply bloodthirsty and scary. The story is told from Dar's point of view (though not first-person), and she endures some terrible events. Her opinion that men are "evil" is just - for her - since she has only encountered abuse and shame at their hands. However, this is certainly not the message from the author, even though his/her Orc culture is matriarchal. It just makes sense given who the character is, an abused, scarred girl. As far as the "women are shrews" bit, this is an ufair stereotype given to all characters in the book. Certainly, some are, but the women in this story have also seen some horrific things, and none are unaffected by it.
And then there is the "noble savage" bit. Certaintly, the Orc's society is less sophisticated than the human society, but it is also painted with its own problems, like the unblinking loyalty to a queen who is making questionable decisions.
Now, even though these criticisms have been unfair, the book is not without its flaws. Dar is certainly a compelling figure, but something is wanting in the story. I wanted to see what happened to her, and I would like to follow the rest of the trilogy, but the sense of urgency that should accompany her precarious position is lacking. Perhaps the book felt a little preachy; it strove to be thought provoking, but never succeeded. The world building was interesting, and fairly well-done as well. In all, while this book aspires to a vivid, epic journey like the fantasy classics, it misses the mark. Still, it is worth reading to pass the time; just don't go in expecting a LoTR, and your expectations won't be let down.

I guess I'd call this "dark fantasy" since there is little hope throughout the book. It's also not a book I, personally, would give to anyone under 15 years old. The book clearly implies, though never actually states, that Dar was raped repeatedly by her father and both Dar and a young girl come very close to being raped on several occasions. While most of the sex, rape, and killing occur 'off screen' and none of it is explicit or gratuitous, the horror, violence, and danger of her surroundings is nearly unrelenting.

Understandably, Dar doesn't trust men and doesn't really like them. I was a bit turned off by the apparent "all men are scum" message but, near the end, it becomes quite clear that Dar doesn't hate all men--just the ones that really are scum.

That being said, all of the characters were very interesting and realistically drawn. The story was suspenseful, and the world-building was excellent.

Genre Reviews
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After misposting this on the second book....

Highly recommended reading. I stayed up until 3:30am because I couldn't put it down. Mr. Howell weaves a dark, dreary yet fantastic tale of Dar, a woman cast out from her home and into slavery in service to Orcs in the army of a greedy King. Here she discovers her strength and an unlikely ally among the Orcs.

If you don't like dark, I recommend looking elsewhere. This is the first of a trilogy. I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

This book compelled me to read it from end to end because I wanted to know if Dar could survive. I plan on reading the sequel, but not buying it.

This novel lost one star for wallowing in brutality. Dar's hateful parents threw her away to the military, who slave branded her, and forced her to work as a serving wench. Dar objects to the 'wench' part and that's the plot of the novel -- will she survive with her virtue (and pride) intact?

The second star was lost for lack of redemption. None of the human male characters in the book are good men. Dar is too busy surviving to be classified as either good or evil. The orcs (nicknamed piss-eyes) kill children with efficiency at their handler's orders, but don't enjoy it.

In short, this a novel of medieval war brutality, with a girl slave as the main character. It is full of evil with little good. The characterization is one sided, the setting is projected well, pacing is acceptable, and plotting haphazard (plot = will Dar survive today?). My recommendation is if you want to feel more strongly what this novel evokes, read a horror novel by Stephen King or Dean Koontz.