Orcs, note two: subvert my what now?
Okay, Stan Nichols: Actually not all that great. I suspect Grimwood was high (again) when he wrote, "Subverts traditional fantasy tropes" and "very funny." I know that Tom Holt must've been when he wrote, "A feast for the most jaded fantasy lover's palate." Or maybe he was thinking of another book. Any other book.
Apart from the very poor descriptions (LOL juicy battles), what bugs me the most is Evil Bitch Queen From Hell, who is the stereotype of a female evil overlord: beautiful, vicious, butt-fuck crazy. Sometimes I have to put the book down to get over sentences like, "She climbed down from the altar and unstrapped the bloodied unicorn horn she used as a dildo." No, for real. So far she's the only person in the book who's had sex at all.
The only other women of any kind of consequence, for the past 269 pages, have been Lovely Dream Maiden and Token Warrior Woman (who I might kind of like). Among no species (besides the nyadd, but WTF giant slug? And this slug heritage makes Bitch Queen beautiful? Rly?) is there any real deviation from gender roles. I am getting very bored of this in general, but have ranted about it before.
And the orcness? Take any fantasy novel centered on an abused group of people more in tune with Nature than their oppressors, write "orc" instead of whatever you call your favoured human group, and you have Orcs.
I can trudge on for a little longer, but I hope that Mary Gentle's Grunts will be better.
In more impressed news, Jill Tracy's Evil Night Together makes me realize I have a serious lack of villains in my stories and want to remedy that. It is that awesome.
Oh god I have 600 out of 1000 words and I'm not even worried anymore.
Apart from the very poor descriptions (LOL juicy battles), what bugs me the most is Evil Bitch Queen From Hell, who is the stereotype of a female evil overlord: beautiful, vicious, butt-fuck crazy. Sometimes I have to put the book down to get over sentences like, "She climbed down from the altar and unstrapped the bloodied unicorn horn she used as a dildo." No, for real. So far she's the only person in the book who's had sex at all.
The only other women of any kind of consequence, for the past 269 pages, have been Lovely Dream Maiden and Token Warrior Woman (who I might kind of like). Among no species (besides the nyadd, but WTF giant slug? And this slug heritage makes Bitch Queen beautiful? Rly?) is there any real deviation from gender roles. I am getting very bored of this in general, but have ranted about it before.
And the orcness? Take any fantasy novel centered on an abused group of people more in tune with Nature than their oppressors, write "orc" instead of whatever you call your favoured human group, and you have Orcs.
I can trudge on for a little longer, but I hope that Mary Gentle's Grunts will be better.
In more impressed news, Jill Tracy's Evil Night Together makes me realize I have a serious lack of villains in my stories and want to remedy that. It is that awesome.
Click to viewOh god I have 600 out of 1000 words and I'm not even worried anymore.