Nicholls supplies the reader with a quick recap, so it’s very probable one could read Bad Blood without having first read First Blood.

Bad Blood begins with Stryke and the warband (the Wolverines) happily living in their homeland, answering to no master. Stryke, while happily settled with two hatchlings, hungers for the old days, where bloodlust and adventure were common happenstance. When Stryke gets a mysterious message from Serapheim, a powerful magician, that Jennesta, the Wolverine’s old mistress (read: Evil Overlord) may still be alive and subjugating Orcs in another world, he immediately rounds up the Wolverines for a revenge mission.

Stryke and the band enter another world where Orcs are little more than slaves and their bloodthirsty nature devolved so much it can only be called meek–but a small Resistance tries to keep the humans from gaining total control. For the Wolverines, the ill treatment of Orcs in this world is more than enough to ensure their aid, but when they hear Jennesta may be at the heart of the Orcs’ livestock-like status, they commit to assassination–and knowing Jennesta, very possibly suicide. The book flows at a fairly good pace, and the action simply unfolds.

Unfortunately, right when things really start getting good the book ends, which is the way I suppose it goes with trilogies. Nicholls rips out the still-beating heart of traditional fantasy and puts in its place something less than human. I only wish I had the next book to jump right into!

I just finished Orcs, the omnibus edition by Stan Nicholls. It follows the adventures of the Wolverines, a band of Orcs, and their leader Stryke. While some fantasy purists may object, the whole premise is that the orcs are the protagonists here. They are indentured into service, but many remember the “old days” before humans came when it was not so.

The books begin with the Wolverines on a routine mission that goes awry. Stryke and his band, terrified of their mistress Jennesta’s wrath, take to the hills as renegades. They eventually find several artifacts that can open a portal into other worlds. Each world is home to a different race and due to a warp, the current land Maras-Dantia is a  melting pot of races, religious differences, all boiling towards war. The artifacts allow each race (humans, orcs, gremlins, dwarves, etc.) to return to their respective homes, safe from others.

Nicholls takes advantage of the many cultural differences in his book to point out failings in our world as well: racial/ethnic profiling, stereotyping, war, religious zealots, etc. In fact, scariest of all races were the humans, who warred with each other, as well as against “sub humans” in their religious fantacism.

Orcs was an enjoyable read, especially because (finally!) it was told from the orcs’ point of view. Overall the characters were plausible and realistic. The pace was great, as well as the action sequences. Personally, I could have done without so many, but hey, they’re orcs!

I found the ending a little off from the tone Nicholls sets throughout the books. I felt that Stryke had quite a bit of unfulfilled potential and he could have done most things single handedly–I didn’t like that the mysterious character Serapheim was always just out of the main plotline but then becomes a deus ex machina at the end. Plus he was human. They ruin everything! Booo.

Anyway, congrats to Nicholls. The orcs have been silent too long.

Oh, and the omnibus includes The Taking, a short story that takes place before the events in Orcs. It was also shortlisted for the 2001 British Fantasy Award.