Stan Nicholls

Orcs: First Blood — (1999-2000) Publisher: When humans arrived on Maras Mantia, home of dwarves, elves, and all the other old races, they raped the land of its soul and magic. And, now the Orcs, whom Earthlings hunted down and slaughtered like beasts of the field, may be the chosen creatures destined to win peace for all...

"Look at me. Look at the Orc." "There is fear and hatred in your eyes. To you I am a monster, a skulker in the shadows, a fiend to scare your children with. A creature to be hunted down and slaughtered like a beast in the fields. It is time you pay heed to the beast. And see the beast in yourself. I have your fear. But I have earned your respect. Hear my story. Feel the flow of blood and be thankful. Thankful that it was me, not you, who bore the sword. Thankful to the orcs; born to fight, destined to win peace for all." This book will change the way you feel about Orcs forever.

Orcs (omnibus): Whoever wrote the teaser on the back cover should’ve written the book

The Wolverines are an elite Orc fighting unit bound to the service of an evil witch-queen. War rages between religious factions — those who follow the one god who places humans above the elder races (orcs, dwarves, trolls, etc.) and those, such as the Wolverines, who worship the old god. On a mission to secure a mysterious relic, the Wolverines discover a slim hope of salvation for all the elder races, but they must turn renegade to achieve it.

The shadowed brute on the cover of Orcs caught my eye, and it's got endorsements by great authors like David Gemmell and Tad Williams, but it was this teaser on the back cover that got me hook, line, and sinker:

“There is fear and hatred in your eyes. To you I am a monster, a skulker in the shadows, a fiend to scare your children…… Feel the flow of blood and be thankful. Thankful it was me, not you that bore the sword. Thankful to the orcs; born to fight, destined to win peace for all”

Wow! Now if only whoever wrote the teaser had written the rest of the %@#^ed book!

I managed to finish the first novel (Bodyguard of Lightning) of this three-book omnibus before realizing that what really kept me going was the 14 bucks I paid for it.

Stan Nicholls had a great idea... if only he’d done something with it. I expected to find a leather-tough, savage race born into slavery and caught-up in a war not of their making. Instead, I got creatures with no remarkable traits at all. They might just as well have been human barbarians except they’re almost too civilized. On a good day, these orcs couldn’t hold their own against a squad of Marines. It’s mentioned several times in the cheesy dialog that orcs are a race born to war, but they’re more talk than walk. In fact, the Wolverines could win an award for being the most democratic military unit ever; They discuss, if not vote-on, every decision. Sure, an argument breaks out among them from time to time, and a few of those almost come to fisticuffs. And ... oh, my goodness!... sometimes they even use real cuss-words! Otherwise, these orcs are pretty tame.

I’d almost say Orcs was intended as YA, specifically teen-aged males. What boy doesn’t enjoy a little gratuitous combative violence? (Heck, I still do.) But, the plot includes some explicitly detailed sacrificial rapes and murders committed by the sensuous cross-species-bred queen. I guess the intention was to show her evilness, but I can’t decide whether it was vulgar or just ridiculous.

Besides all that, the writing is mediocre at best. —Greg Hersom

The Dreamtime (Quicksilver) — (2003-2007) In the UK, these are known as The Quicksilver Trilogy and are titled Quicksilver Rising, Quicksilver Zenith, and Quicksilver Twilight. Publisher: In a land where magic defines the social order, the ruling tyrants alone control the most powerful sorcery ... One of the last of a massacred race of warriors — an unparalleled swordsman magically afflicted by spells of blind, uncontrollable rage — Reeth Caldason wanders Bhealfa seeking vengeance ... and freedom from his strange malady. Now word has come from a sorcerer's apprentice of a mysterious Covenant in the capital city, a secretive society that may provide the escape Reeth desires. But forming an uneasy alliance with the youthful messenger could ultimately prove disastrous — for the road they must travel together leads into the sordid heart of a perilous conspiracy of treachery, tyranny, necromancy, and death.