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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Profane? Yes. Rude? Yes. Bawdy? Yes. One helluva good read? Absolutely yes.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The concept is strong, and the grimdark tone sets the stage nicely—gritty, unpolished, and not your typical shiny fantasy. The writing is solid, and the world has some real weight. But where it falters is in the characters and pacing.
There’s very little character development—people stay more or less who they were at the beginning, and that makes it hard to connect. The plot is full of twists, but not the clever kind. It’s more a case of repeated: “Ah, you thought you knew?”—followed by yet another misdirection or the main character jumping to the wrong conclusion based on incomplete or faulty information. Once or twice? Fine. But it happens so often, with so little resolution, that it just becomes exhausting.
The ending wraps up the main conflict, but it's rushed—squeezed into the final 10 or so pages after a long, slow buildup. And yes, there's a definite Deus Ex Machina feel to it.
Spoiler:
I’ve heard the sequel digs more into character and nuance, but this first book doesn’t do much to inspire confidence. I don’t regret reading it, but I doubt I’ll continue the series. My copy’s probably getting donated to my local library.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So I had heard a lot about this book from Reddit, Youtube and just general word of mouth, so when I saw that it was at my local waterstones I just had to pick it up.
The Grey Bastards is essentially about how the world would look like when society has to deal with Orcs and what to do after they have rampaged across human towns. This leads us to a look at a society with half orc - half humans that are essentially utilised as the orc killing squad. Now, in this story they are not necessarily as organised as that but imagine Sons Of Anarchy biker gangs, where the gangs are different groupings of half orcs riding massive hogs that are tasked at ensuring no orcs stay on their turf.
That is essentially how this story feels to me and it works extremely well, it is grim, but also has a good sense of humour and it stays away from a lot of the grim dark stereotypes that you may expect. All of the graphic violence and sex scenes are well written, and did not make me outworldy cringe when it came up. There are notes of sexual violence but this book strikes a fine line of "this is just how the world is" without being graphic about it or trying to show off some strange fetish that some authors shoe horn in.
The main characters of this novel are well written, you get a great understanding of the key characters, even while only getting one POV, that of Jackal. I really enjoyed his character, his insights to the world and other members of his group and the way he handles situations. Thankfully, the author doesn't go out of his way to make him seem stupid, just a bit naive and a bit too impulsive which really works well.
I do not have a lot of gripes with the book, but the main issue I had with it was solely due to the pacing of the story. At times it felt like the story didn't want to have a lull, it needed something to happen to push the pace. It didn't want you to think about the story, what has happened or really think about all the world building. It wanted to continue to describe things, show you new plot elements or characters and wanted to get on with it. This can be a great thing but in the first of a trilogy, I think it would have benefitted in letting the reader enjoy the world and get to grips with certain things before quickly rushing on.
The Grey Bastards is essentially about how the world would look like when society has to deal with Orcs and what to do after they have rampaged across human towns. This leads us to a look at a society with half orc - half humans that are essentially utilised as the orc killing squad. Now, in this story they are not necessarily as organised as that but imagine Sons Of Anarchy biker gangs, where the gangs are different groupings of half orcs riding massive hogs that are tasked at ensuring no orcs stay on their turf.
That is essentially how this story feels to me and it works extremely well, it is grim, but also has a good sense of humour and it stays away from a lot of the grim dark stereotypes that you may expect. All of the graphic violence and sex scenes are well written, and did not make me outworldy cringe when it came up. There are notes of sexual violence but this book strikes a fine line of "this is just how the world is" without being graphic about it or trying to show off some strange fetish that some authors shoe horn in.
The main characters of this novel are well written, you get a great understanding of the key characters, even while only getting one POV, that of Jackal. I really enjoyed his character, his insights to the world and other members of his group and the way he handles situations. Thankfully, the author doesn't go out of his way to make him seem stupid, just a bit naive and a bit too impulsive which really works well.
I do not have a lot of gripes with the book, but the main issue I had with it was solely due to the pacing of the story. At times it felt like the story didn't want to have a lull, it needed something to happen to push the pace. It didn't want you to think about the story, what has happened or really think about all the world building. It wanted to continue to describe things, show you new plot elements or characters and wanted to get on with it. This can be a great thing but in the first of a trilogy, I think it would have benefitted in letting the reader enjoy the world and get to grips with certain things before quickly rushing on.
Good stuff - Half orcs riding war pigs is brilliant and hilarious. Lots of action without getting dull, and some good world building and backstory.
So-So stuff - Doesn't really break out of fantasy character stereotypes, especially for the female characters. So many jokes about genitalia. Like half the number would still be too many. And Jackal is sort of hapless as a hero.
So-So stuff - Doesn't really break out of fantasy character stereotypes, especially for the female characters. So many jokes about genitalia. Like half the number would still be too many. And Jackal is sort of hapless as a hero.
Disclaimer: Before anybody assumes that my straight-white-male-ness precludes me from "getting it". Let me assure you, I do. I will 100% support you in standing up against injustice and bigotry in any form it takes in the real world. But I will also defend any artist's ability to write any story they want to write. I also believe there is a vast difference between writing a story which contains bigotry and actually being a bigot or championing bigotry.
Do you feel strongly that present-day social issues should be mirrored in the fantasy books you read regardless of the story setting? Do you feel that fiction should be the primary method through which societal injustices should be addressed and fought? Do you think there is no place in fiction for books to contain non-PC content? Are you incapable of separating entertainment from the passion of your beliefs? If any of these are major issues for you, you should probably go ahead and skip this book.
This book is crude. This book is irreverent. This book contains sexism, racism, and probably some other -isms. This book is about a primitive, warrior-clan society that isn't "enlightened" by today's standards. This book is about surviving in an environment that doesn't care about fair. This book is also immensely funny and enjoyable. This book is also about friendship and loyalty and sacrifice. This book is pure entertainment and it was exactly what I was looking for in a book at the moment. Set aside your personal crusades for a moment and just enjoy a damn story.
Do you feel strongly that present-day social issues should be mirrored in the fantasy books you read regardless of the story setting? Do you feel that fiction should be the primary method through which societal injustices should be addressed and fought? Do you think there is no place in fiction for books to contain non-PC content? Are you incapable of separating entertainment from the passion of your beliefs? If any of these are major issues for you, you should probably go ahead and skip this book.
This book is crude. This book is irreverent. This book contains sexism, racism, and probably some other -isms. This book is about a primitive, warrior-clan society that isn't "enlightened" by today's standards. This book is about surviving in an environment that doesn't care about fair. This book is also immensely funny and enjoyable. This book is also about friendship and loyalty and sacrifice. This book is pure entertainment and it was exactly what I was looking for in a book at the moment. Set aside your personal crusades for a moment and just enjoy a damn story.
I thought that this was a really well-crafted book that felt almost like a video game. The characters were developed and the world was definitely more fleshed-out than many in this genre. However, despite how much I enjoyed the premise and the excitement I don't believe that I'll be picking up the next in the series.
For starters, the language in the book was really a little over the top for me. Now, I'm certainly not one to shy away from using a curse word, but these characters really took vulgarity over the top. Women were often referred to by their genitalia and most of the conversations involving them included some sort of reference for their use as a sex object. Even when the men spoke to each other it was never a long wait for someone's dick size to make an appearance into the conversation. I wasn't necessarily angered or outraged by the vulgarity, but it honestly just became boring, overstated, and a distasteful in terms of writing style.
On top of that, I think that there was slightly too much going on here. The world was immersive and extraordinarily creative, but there was a lot of focus on numerous fantasy races and interactions. The main conflicts in this novel were caused by political clashes and race wars, but I still don't feel as if I truly understand why some dislike each other or what the history is here. Wizards, orcs, elves, humans, sludge people, and all of the half-races in between were all present and held separate grudges. It got a little bit confusing, especially when thinking about territories.
Overall it was well-done, but due to the boring vulgarity as well as a lack of editing down I don't believe I'm going to continue reading. I would definitely recommend this to people looking for a lot of violence, sex, and action (usually a winner for me) set in a LOTR-style universe with a barbarian cast.
For starters, the language in the book was really a little over the top for me. Now, I'm certainly not one to shy away from using a curse word, but these characters really took vulgarity over the top. Women were often referred to by their genitalia and most of the conversations involving them included some sort of reference for their use as a sex object. Even when the men spoke to each other it was never a long wait for someone's dick size to make an appearance into the conversation. I wasn't necessarily angered or outraged by the vulgarity, but it honestly just became boring, overstated, and a distasteful in terms of writing style.
On top of that, I think that there was slightly too much going on here. The world was immersive and extraordinarily creative, but there was a lot of focus on numerous fantasy races and interactions. The main conflicts in this novel were caused by political clashes and race wars, but I still don't feel as if I truly understand why some dislike each other or what the history is here. Wizards, orcs, elves, humans, sludge people, and all of the half-races in between were all present and held separate grudges. It got a little bit confusing, especially when thinking about territories.
Overall it was well-done, but due to the boring vulgarity as well as a lack of editing down I don't believe I'm going to continue reading. I would definitely recommend this to people looking for a lot of violence, sex, and action (usually a winner for me) set in a LOTR-style universe with a barbarian cast.