But 769 pages of it was a bit much, and strung together as the three novels were, the anticlimactic ending felt rushed and unfulfilling. In this fashion, Nicholls strings together a series of adventures-interspersed with plenty of random outbreaks of violence-to create entertaining escapism.

The orcs themselves happen to stumble upon enough clues so that when they find one totem they also suddenly (and conveniently) learn where another one might be. A band of warrior orcs breaks ranks from the service of their evil queen to go on a quest to gather five mystic totems. The three novels basically comprise of one episode after another after another, with only the thinnest plotline tying them together. It’s two-fisted sword action all the way through. There is, literally, never a dull moment. Best of all, his action scenes are excellent, and he keeps ‘em coming. While Nicholls is no literary master, there is efficient competence to his prose.

The Orc books have garnered a lot of attention since Nicholls published the first in 1999, and they’ve become quite a hit among fanboys (and fangirls) of the fantasy set. I’m not sure anyone needs to commit that kind of time all at once to Nicholls’ work, though.

So, once I read the first, and it ended with a series of cliffhangers, I was pretty much committed to the whole damn thing.įortunately, Orcs was easy reading, and I had a huge chunk of time, so I dove in and spent a few days of my holiday break in Nicholls’ world of Maras-Dantia. It’s all the same story, just divided into multiple volumes. What I didn’t realize is that the novels are three separate novels the same way The Lord of the Rings is three “separate” novels. My plan was to read one of the three novels in the omnibus, go on to something else, then come back to the other pieces at some undetermined point in the future. Orcs also contains a short story that serves as a prequel to the novels, plus a lengthy author interview. Orcs contains three of Nicholls’ novels, Bodyguard of Lightning, Legion of Thunder, and Warriors of the Tempest, packaged together into a handsome bundle that’s currently being pushed at the major book chains in advance of the 2009 release of Nicholls’ next round of Orc books. Perhaps because the book is a promotional tool as much as a literary experience. Orcs by Stan Nicholls is too much of a good thing.