Booklog 20/2019 - Jonathan French: The Grey Bastards – The Lot Lands #1

[jacey]

I really shouldn't have read this immediately after Sebastien de Castell's Greatcoats series, because, though it's good, it doesn't have that extra something that lifts the Greatcoats books beyond good. I'm missing the High-level camaraderie and the humour. This is grim and gritty, but doesn't quite have the excellent character interaction. But comparison is perhaps not fair. If I'd read this first, I'd probably have loved it unreservedly. Jackal is a Grey Bastard, one of a brotherhood of tough, rough half-orcs patrolling the Lot Lands on giant riding-hogs to guard against incursions by full blood orcs, and centaurs, which trying to steer clear of the elves. There is wit, but it's crude, which is totally believable under the circumstances. It's beyond bawdy, however. The half-orcs think with their balls half the time, yet it's not simply a book of male characters, there are strong women, too, both human and half-orc. The orcs organise themselves into cells (called hoofs) and take in half orc children, the most promising of which eventually become full members of the hoof as they grow. Think biker gangs on pigs with an added nursery. Jackal believes it's time the leader of the Grey Bastards makes way for someone younger, stronger and more savvy. He takes his chance to make a challenge, but it doesn't go the way he expects. Cut loose from his hoof, Jack must take his chance as a lone rider, and this is where we learn more about the Lot lands and the folk that inhabit them. The ending, wholly satisfying, sets up the stage for a second book, The True Bastards, due in October 2019.