Orcs is 'ere

I have always had a thing for orcs. When I played Warhammer the first army I collected was an Orc and Gobbo one, and since then I have sympathised with the greenskins. Therefore I approached this book with feelings of glee and Orcs by Stan Nicholls did not let me down. As you can probably imagine from the title the main characters of these books are orcs.

Nicholls takes us into the world of the Wolverines an orc warband lead by Stryke as they try and survive the various factions out to destroy them. Orcs is a great fast paced read, that flies along from battle to battle as we all know orcs love a good fight. It's nice to see humans as the invader and destroyer for a change as the orcs try to stop them eating the magic of the elder races.

The books in this omnibus collection reminded my of Glen Cook's Black Company series with its focus on the foot soldiers rather than the generals. Nicholls also does a great job of fleshing out his characters and giving them motivations and feelings. And like Cook, Nicholls characters have very distinctive voices.

Overall Orcs is a great read and something that any fantasy fan should pick up.