Krishna
Cannot place this book. Are we to take this childish tale seriously? Does it think it is in the same genre as The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien? Or is it a tongue in cheek satire on the genre? I don’t know. It obviously does not read like a satire so I guess it is a mediocre tale told, from all accounts.
Lord Palladon Tirion Fording is a just, strong, able, governor of a fief. He is riding through Hearthglen woods, in deep thought about signs of war starting again in the Empire.
He comes across an aged Orc. When a building collapses around him, he is rescued by the orc and left unconscious.
When he realizes that he was tied to a horseback when found by his colleagues, he is troubled by the notion that one of the savage species can be so benevolent. After calming down his subordinates who are riled up, he goes to the ruins alone to investigate and meets the selfsame orc.
He realizes that the Orc, Ertrigg, is a good one, and is living alone exiling himself from the mislead Orcs. He gives word that Ertrigg’s secret is safe with him and faces flak trying to defend the secret, from his advisers, from his wife Karandra, from a hothead called Barthilias.
When he is forced to take his friend and superior to the place and the Orc is tortured, he stands up for it and is arrested as a traitor. He refuses to give up defending the arc and so loses his light and is excommunicated for his pains. Barthilias, the brash, vicious deputy becomes the governor of the province in his stead.
The story has a cardboard feel to it. He goes to rescue the orc with no plans in mind and no preparations. He is saved by fortuitous events. Everyone there is melodramatic. Good is all good and evil (for instance Barthilias) is all evil.
The author was a game designer and is behind the very famous War of the Worlds game and the book feels equally superficial as the game. The game enthralls because of the visuals and action. The book feels toyish at the same level.
Interesting to read? Yes, kind of. Thought provoking? Absolutely not.
3/ 10
– – Krishna