–by Wombat-socho
Noticed this in passing: the extremely weird fantasy novel by Mary Gentle, Grunts
, is available for $1.99 on the Kindle. For those unfamiliar with it, Grunts is about a bunch of orcs about to lose the Last Battle against the forces of Good, despite having the numerical, strategic and tactical advantages…until they find some strange weapons from another world in a dragon’s hoard. As one commenter at Amazon remarked, these orcs are more like the fungoid brawlers from Warhammer 40K than Tolkien’s bog-standard humanoid minions of evil, but it’s still a fun read.
A related freebie: Saruman of Many Devices, in which Saruman the White looks into the palantir of Isengard and finds Center (from Drake & Stirling’s Raj Whitehall novels) looking back. Amusing crossing of the streams.
Grunts is a fun and funny read.
My grip with ‘Grunts’ is that Ms. Gentle… completely misreads Tolkien. Mr. Tolkien was a believer in the Catholic doctrine of subsidiarity: he felt nothing like ‘contempt’ for the underclass; he believed that the underclass could do much better.
But, yes, her book is a fun read. Ms. Gentle did well for herself.
Amusing crossing of the streams…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyaLZHiJJnE
Important Safety Tip, avoid Total Protonic reversal!
Fortunately fanfic writers aren’t working with backpack proton accelerators.
Not sure if it was Grunts, but one of her books hit the Ick-O-Meter hard enough for her to go on the Don’t Read List.