Simon A’s Review: Orcs: Weapons of Magical Destruction (Bad Blood 1), by Stan Nicholls
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Ho for the orc, staple of fantasy fiction: invariably green, ugly and violent, with dubious personal hygiene and a serious image problem. Where would traditional high fantasy be without them? They seldom have names or personalities, dwarves always hate them and muscle-bound heroes carve through their ranks like they are rows of standing corn. Tolkien’s big set-piece battle scenes mostly depended on them, and numerous successors and imitators have used them ‘as is’ with little or no adaptation. A