The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French

Paperback, 421 pages

Published June 21st 2018 by Orbit (first published October 16th 2015)

Series: The Lot Lands #1

Fantasy 

Own

I did not actually want to read this book, I was told it was so grimdark, and I am not a grimdark fan. But I have come to realise that I do like grimdark, just not grimdark where the main characters rape or laugh while buddies rape...yeah no thank you. And those are so hard to find cos it's not like glowing reviews say it.

But then I found it for free on this take a book, leave a book bookshelf my library has. I had to try it, if I did not care for it I could just leave it there for someone else to take. Cos I was curious, even if I again was told it was not for me since I was not a SoA fan.

Oh and there is rape mentioned. But as long as my main guy does not do it, I am fine. This is a shitty place, the intestines in a dung heap kind of place. Orcs come plundering, killing and raping. The children of such unions are killed, left to die or given to orphanages. And they used to be slaves, kept at brothels, used at servants or made to work in mines. Until they showed their worth and now some patrol the borderlands on hogs. 

This is the arse of the empire.

It is dark, they kill, they joke, they talk shit. And there is politic. Their leader is tired, Jackal feels like he is leading them astray. Then a weird wizard shows up, not to mention they find an elf being tortured (and you do not mess with elves.)

I did like Jackal, he does have honor in him, and with that I can follow him. The only woman worth mentioning is a fellow soldier, and I did not like her one bit, ugh, the next book seems to be about her, I despair.

Some neg reviews talk how there are no women and the only women in it are whores. Well, this is the shithole of the empire,what do you expect. I do not want my fantasy to be 50/50 Utopia. What on earth could happen there to be interesting? Let me read about a fucking disaster where I would not want to live. Where I'd rather just drown in a river instead.

I really enjoyed it and read it in a day. It was an easy read, I want more, and just fuck, it was a shitty place to read about. It makes you want to swear. So much, and snort.

Cover

Is this made with women in mind? Cos I approve

LIVE IN THE SADDLE. DIE ON THE HOG. 
Such is the creed of the half-orcs dwelling in the Lot Lands. Sworn to hardened brotherhoods known as hoofs, these former slaves patrol their unforgiving country astride massive swine bred for war. They are all that stand between the decadent heart of noble Hispartha and marauding bands of full-blood orcs. 
Jackal rides with the Grey Bastards, one of eight hoofs that have survived the harsh embrace of the Lots. Young, cunning and ambitious, he schemes to unseat the increasingly tyrannical founder of the Bastards, a plague-ridden warlord called the Claymaster. Supporting Jackal’s dangerous bid for leadership are Oats, a hulking mongrel with more orc than human blood, and Fetching, the only female rider in all the hoofs. 
When the troubling appearance of a foreign sorcerer comes upon the heels of a faceless betrayal, Jackal’s plans are thrown into turmoil. He finds himself saddled with a captive elf girl whose very presence begins to unravel his alliances. With the anarchic blood rite of the Betrayer Moon close at hand, Jackal must decide where his loyalties truly lie, and carve out his place in a world that rewards only the vicious.