The Grey Bastards

This one was one of the crudest, most fun things ever and in that way it was absolute perfection. Funny enough, as I wasn't 100% sure about it when I succumbed to the trend on Goodreads and put it and also [b:Kings of the Wyld 30841984 Kings of the Wyld (The Band, #1) Nicholas Eames https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1477027207l/30841984.SY75.jpg 51246585] on my list. Somehow that one seemed more of an obvious winner, but this... god, this one matched it. The Lot Lands are harsh. Imagine some dried out, barely populated Wild West of a place, ending in marshes, the insulation between cultured, inhabited lands and... basically orcs. The people populating it are misfits and outlaws, ones who couldn't fit it with polite society, some of said people are more on the not entirely human side, namely half orcs, forming bands to keep the orcs away. Jackal, our protagonist is a member of one of the bands, the Grey Bastards, lead by a kind of insane, ageing boss suffering from a mysterious illness. When him and his friends, Oats and Fetching get attacked at a brothel by human soldiers the delicate balance between the different races seems to become impossible to maintain. Their problems are just beginning, though. Please, please, please, if you are in any way sensitive, avoid this. You will be offended. There is violence, blood, swearing, sex, dick jokes galore. It is not for everyone and that is fine, the book is not some crime against humanity because it is rough. Especially when said rough things and not PC characters fit in with the world. Here comes the soapbox; when we have a world where everything from the weather to your neighbours are inhospitable and dangerous to your life, it is understandable that you will be uncouth. It doesn't mean it is nice to be so, but it is not a surprise. Here it is a fact. Which leads to my next point; characters being imperfect or doing things socially not acceptable and offensive in our reality are okay to exist. They absolutely do not reflect on the author's (or the actor's playing them in different media) character whatsoever. If you can't handle those things, avoid this. Now that only the ones willing to handle “no homo” jokes and descriptions of prostitution and such are left here, lets go into some details about this joy of a book. Orcs and elves are not my personal favourites. It's really just based on personal taste, but give me mages and dragons any day over freaking elves and orcs. With elves it's mostly how damn cheesy they can be so fast, basically super dignified fairies with their sparkly accessories and soppy poetry. With orcs I have no idea. I guess I don't find them particularly interesting. Here somehow the world building was just the right amount of grit and established ideas to work out. Granted, not much about elves yet, but still, it worked. The fact we follow a mixed race was pleasant, as it had some connection to both sides, but they were separate enough to have their own voice and culture. The scope wasn't gigantic, the events mostly played out in a few settlements of the Lot Lands and just a toe dipped into the human controlled areas. We will definitely see more later. The characters are... grey. What felt especially wonderful was how while the half orcs dislike the humans who often use them as slaves, they were not the noble savages as opposed to the horrible cultured society. Often that is the issue; the more “barbaric” races and cultures are turned into these deep, exotic ones that possess some higher knowledge because mumbo jumbo and spiritual stuff. We see them in their own culture, hierarchies, feuds, issues and it all feels realistic. They are not elevated. They possess the same flaws as everyone else, they are not a perfect civilisation. They are not there to just smash all kinds of injustice and social issues. They are very much realistic. It's kind of hard to go into details without giving away too much, because as far as their society goes, there are some interesting plot twists. Talking about plot twists, they did work so well. Don't get me wrong, the story draw me in from the get go and I basically needed no time to be invested, but things got a depth ad we went ahead with the story. If anything, they turned out to be surprisingly interesting, different and smart. (Not everyone will agree with me, I already know that. If I'm an idiot for finding things in this clever, then I can live with that.) When you believe you realised how the power relations work here, you learn something new that changes things fundamentally. Which was something I loved. The plot twists actually affected the whole world. They were substantial enough to not be shock factor or only concerning certain characters, but to actually make a difference. When it comes to banter in books, it can either work so well or fail spectacularly and make you end up with 4th graders acting tough. (coughCassandraClarecough) Mr. French managed to make it feel real. Again, it can be juvenile and rude, it is. A lot of genitals flying all over the place. But... you can see it happening. The characters interact like loudmouth brothers-in-arms who bond over playful insults. Even the one sister-in-arms is one of them and I personally like that they are not easy on Fetching. She needs to keep up with them, so she needs to be up for all. AND SHE IS, hallelujah. The characters are all warriors, they all need to have a certain bite to them. They all do. They fit into the world they inhabit perfectly, they fit together and they still all have their colourful personalities. One of the absolute most outstanding ones to me was Oats, the protagonist's best friend. He is a thrice (mix of an orc and a half orc, 3/4 orc basically), therefore gigantic and brutish in looks, but he is the sweetest. A gentle giant who is fiercely loyal and really dependable. I loved him so much. I was genuinely impressed by this one. It had all the elements to make it a worthy read to me, I'm waiting eagerly for the next book in the series. I'm definitely picking it up once it's accessible. I would go as far as to say it absolutely can stand its own even among works of big names in fantasy. Absolute badassery. Good night and let me ride off to the sunset now!