So good! Fantasy Novel from Orc Perspective? What!

I have to say I enjoyed every minute of this book and I am now very disappointed it's over.. hurry with the next one please. This has multiple story lines but not too many... Most books that have several main story lines, I usually have one that I like a lot more than others, and find myself wishing it would get back to the story line I liked... Bare with me here... This book was incredible in that by the end of every chapter I wouldn't want it to switch, and it kept happening all the way through like each story kept topping the other chapter by chapter and I enjoyed every story line. I would say that I really really enjoyed the fresh ideas and the exploration of how a orc child/warrior could also grow up proud of his heritage, guess I always figured they didn't care. Kinda reminded me of Riyria Revelations in that it was just fun all the way through!!! I would highly recommend for fantasy readers of any age.

9 people found this helpful

Another great book by EWR.

I’m not familiar with the co-author, but I have very much enjoyed Mr Robertson’s other series. This one has started out very promising. He has built an interesting world and great characters. If you like his “Cycles” series you will like this too, though this book is not connected to those stories as far as I can tell. Definitely worth a credit.

6 people found this helpful

Tedious and lacking heart

Robertson’s newest series has some unique concepts and characters, but ultimately served up many of the features that soured me on his Cycles of Arawn and Galand series. This is a series with dragons, orcs, and dwarves. Slight twists, like Orc Jodi as one of the two MCs and the existence of muskets, didn’t do much to separate this from every other (and better) medieval fantasy series. Creative cussing (“all the gods!” uttered a lot) exists alongside occasional F bomb. The magic system is the book’s most unique concept, but seemed flawed and not fully thought out. This book also couldn’t decide if it wanted to be YA (teenage humor, in particular, not to mention the cover/Title) or adult (Mallach the dwarf is a backstabbing, alcoholic, A hole and there are some triggering parts about slavery and child prostitution and some graphic violence). The biggest negative is tedium. With action, fun, or personality, I can forgive things like confusing plots and magical inconsistencies, especially in a first book. But, this story dragged. At least in Cycle of Arawn we got the Dante/Blays banter; here our two MCs proceed separately for 3/4 of the book (almost to 17hrs). Orc Jodi’s storyline follows the usual “from tragic beginnings, and thru endless training montages and setbacks, a hero will rise” path. Wizard Wit’s storyline is the “preternaturally gifted wizard who will conveniently survive impossible situations” path. Like Robertson’s Cycle books, there’s way too many hours spent on the journey- and by that I mean the literal journey, traveling here and there. Also like the Cycles, young adepts enter an order of wizards with mysterious ways and dubious morality, and my eyes rolled at the way Wit’s friends just went along with the Order’s nonsense. Like Cycles, I found myself not really liking the MCs, as they seemed quick to do bad things to accomplish their goals, with little guilt. It’s never a good sign when the most interesting characters are the side characters, like Mallach the dwarf and wizard adepts Menteger and Fanial. As for Kramer, he’s a solid narrator, but it can be hard to tell when he’s doing female voices... and the females had gender neutral names (Shane, Menteger, Fanial), so I had to concentrate to figure out who was speaking or acting. Also, his difficulty with female ranges led to repeats from other books. Menteger sounds just like Navani Khollin and there’s a character that sounds like the Sword Nimi voice from Way of Kings- very distracting. Ultimately, this book took 23hrs to set the stage for a drawn out, convoluted “conquer the world” conspiracy arc, but didn’t invest me in the MCs, the confusing plots, or the sparse action. I will not proceed further with the series and will instead re-listen to Theft of Swords and Riyria which has a much better balance of medieval fantasy, action, and fun banter between two stellar MCs.

1 person found this helpful

Excellent! Refreshing Magic Systems

I don't normally write reviews, because I suck at trying to explain things, so I just do the star rating thing. This story however is amazing and I felt I had to write something. I just listened to it twice in a row. The story and characters are what you would expect from Ed, well thought out and engaging. I've not read any of Sams work but I'm happy to meet him and can't wait for them to put out book 2. The magic systems are very interesting and refreshing. Nice to see some out of the box stuff here. I liked how the story went back and forth between the Orcs and Humans, and how each of their stories developed and then came together. 2020 ended great thanks to this listen!

1 person found this helpful

highly recommend.

great start to a series. would recommend to any fans of epic fantasy stories. Fun to see some of the story from the perspective of the orcs.

1 person found this helpful

Great story

Edward w robertson. has created some fun characters who go on a wild adventure with a weird legal twist. Really enjoyable!

1 person found this helpful

It Slaps. Hard

Every time the pov switches you'll be like "no that was my favorite character" but for every character

Wizards behaving badly

Edward W. Robertson and Sam Lang crafted an interesting tale where a human wizards who possess the power of mind control look to extend their will from their current area of influence to greater reaches using machinations, intrigue and subterfuge. Few have the will or capability to stand against them but for a few young adepts who resist the wizards influence and entreaties and seek a more compassionate means to administer order. This is also the story of the warrior-like orcs who are being raided and enslaved by a strong band of raiders and a small cadre of gifted orcs called No Names who seek to stop them. The above is a punishing brief description of the outline of the novel since there are layers of other events occurring simultaneously that both enrich the story and, regrettably, often weigh it down. The authors limit their world-building and exposition quite well but then overdo their character building such that the listener is too often required to suspend the forward flow of the story to listen to what seems like mini-tales and experiences of most of the 1st tier characters. This is furthered by the wizard mind augury ability suddenly pulling characters away from the here and now and vicariously recalling their target's memories, often without any clue to the listener, causing one to worry that the audio may have skipped forward or had been a flaw in the recording process. Still, the mastery of Michael Kramer's oratory skills minimized the frustration over these sections keeping the listener paying attention until the bit of disorientation passed and the mainline story continued.

Another Great Listen

Fantasy has been mastered again! This book is another great journey into a fantasy that is so wonderfully familiar to those who love the genre, but has some amazing nuances when it comes to magic 10/10, would recommend!

The first book from EWR that I am going to return.

I love his stuffs except this one. boring beginning. could not get over chapter 3.