Review by Booklist Review
Shortly before the story told in Nicholls' first series of Orcs prose novels, Captain Stryke's war band is forced into the unwelcome role of bodyguarding a goblin sorcerer, who is secretly working against the Orcs and their mistress, the dark sorceress Jennesta. Flood does the heavy lifting here, adapting a story conceived by Nicholls and providing grimy-hued, muscular artwork with scads of excitingly choreographed battles. The action sequences rival those of Frank Miller's 300 (1999) for sheer grit and epic scale, and with weapons brutally penetrating foreheads, faces, and jaws, this title makes a claim for the most impaled heads in graphic-novel history. Bloody though it is, the Orcs are portrayed as reliable and battle-hardened grunts held in a sort of racist contempt by the fantasy beings populating Nicholls' world. What gives this raucous barbarian of a book its heart is that, in the tradition of great underdogs, the Orcs might always be given the short end of the stick, but they tough it out with grim practicality, loyalty, and honor.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Spawned from author Nicholls's series of novels featuring the titular creatures, this comes as a real surprise. Coupled with Flood's deceptively simple and clear visual storytelling, the story centers on a troop of Orcs bound in service-or, more accurately, slavery-to a vicious, magic-wielding queen and tasked with protecting a secret weapon under the control of a goblin sorcerer and his underlings. The Orc commander, Stryke, must lead his soldiers and maintain order in their occasionally fractious ranks while also putting up with abuse from both the queen and the goblins, whose race has long been bitter enemies with Stryke's people. Not to be confused with the variety made famous by Tolkien, the Orcs of this narrative are noble warriors from whose point of view the reader witnesses events and immediately comes to sympathize with their situation. A cracking good tale from start to finish, this is strongly recommended for those who seek a realistically violent and profane heroic fantasy. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
