Queen of the Orcs - King of Property

Genre fantasy Author Morgan Howell Publisher Del Rey External Links Official Del Rey

Morgan Howell has brought an excellent fantasy novel to the world! It's a story where a young woman battles for her freedom, morals, rights, beliefs, and her choices. She too finds herself battling for creatures known as Orcs, who are misled in fighting for a crook who deceives them in a trap, all the while saying it's from the Orcs "Mother"(their God) who they highly respect and believe in. The protagonist, Dar, was not only brought up in family where her step mother portrayed hatred towards her, but also by a father who drafted her into an army controlled by a deceitful and conniving King named Kregant. There she is to live a life as a slave to not only soldiers, but also too frightening creatures known as Orcs.

Dar was introduced of endless labor to soldiers who she grew disgust for, running away could never be an option for Dar. Unfortunately for Dar, being branded on her forehead made things a bit difficult to escape from the unit. Seeing as though and girl who decides to make a run and gets caught, loses their head to make reward for their pockets. Living a life as a woman in the unit seemed immoral and injustice for Dar, the primary task was to feed the bellies of the soldier men and the Orcs. In addition for the women, tupping (having sex) with a solider would and could only bring her fortune such as used clothing from a killing or left over food from the men, this was something Dar would never consider or abide by. To her fate, Dar realized that the Orcs were not these frightening creatures she once learned and heard about. In fact the Orcs had great respect for the women, they were known as "Muth la" also known as "Mothers" who they thought greatly of.

Dar then made kinship with the Orcs where she learned the orcish language and custom ways; she too gained their protection from the washavoki (Human men & women). Having the luxury of an Orcs protection caused only resentment from the solider men and women towards Dar. This eventually lead her to be shunned from communicating with the others and left her with orders/chores for her to put up with.

As Dar focused on remaining friendships with Orcs despite what the others thought of her, she later finds herself envisioning deaths to come. Some including her and some to her now befriended Orcs. It was her time to remain seizing protection from the others, but also warning the Orcs for their own. The book is hands down a must read for fantasy fans! If you're looking for suspense, answers, and shocks, then Morgan Howell has just demonstrated the first of the trilogy in Queen of the Orcs. I couldn't put the book down and when finished only wanted more! Fortunately, book II Queen of the Orcs (Clan Daughter) will be released very soon.