Kahn's Reviews > Bodyguard of Lightning

As I may have mentioned before, I tend to shy away from reviews of books I'm reading – partly to help form my own views and opinions, and partly because I rarely give a toss what anyone else thinks.
But in splitting down the Orcs trilogy for ease of recording my reading habits on here, I couldn't help but see a few.
Boy people are not fans.
The lack of rounded characters (guys, they're orcs - not a multi-tiered family in Game Of Thrones), violence, lack of a believable world (again, guys...) - the great and the good took against the first book in the trilogy when it was published.
And don't get them started on the ending.
But what a lot of people seem to have missed is – this book is a romp. It's a race between battles as our brave band of heroes (yes, the orcs are the good guys, get on board) tear about the place trying to stay alive and get hold of The Thing.
The bad guys in this world are the humans. They've rocked up, wrecked the place, and are now setting about polluting it because they don't care about the world around them and just want to claim it all for themselves.
Now, the sharp-eyed amongst you might guess at something of a subtext at play. And you'd be right.
Buried - barely, it has to be said - among the sex, swearing and slashing of swords is a message about the environment. An important message. A not subtle message. That some – OK, a lot – of people seemed to miss.
And that's the beauty of this first volume. Stan Nicholls has something to say, but he is also having a lot of fun saying it. This book is a riot, it's a complete romp.
Is it high art? No. Is it ground-breaking literature? No. Is it trying to be either of those things? Also no. It's meant to be fun. And it succeeds at that.
And the ending? A cracking cliffhanger that will have you reaching for Vol 2 almost immediately.
The fact it annoyed so many people just makes it all the better.