Dar has spent her entire life in a small village. An unremarkable spinster still living with her father and stepmother, she arrives home one day to find herself conscripted to the king's army. Dar is summarily marched off to an unknown fate, not a tear shed by the family who so freely gave her up.
Dar learns she is to be bound to a group of Orcs who fight with the humans. Frightened, Dar fears the worst, for she's heard tales of Orcs and their propensity for eating human flesh. What Dar comes to realize is that the Orcs, while alien to her, are no worse than the soldiers who make up the regiment. Not as bad, in fact, for the Orcs want very little from the women who serve them. Not the same can be said of the soldiers who view the women only as servants and whores.
Escape is impossible for the women. When they are taken, they are branded. A brand on the forehead that identifies them as property of the king's army and there's a tidy bounty on the head of any woman caught away from the army. Beaten, starved and marched to exhaustion, Dar is cowed but not broken. She can't run away so she comes up with a plan. Dar learns the language of the Orcs. She studies them, befriends them and learns their ways. She doesn't want the "protection" of a soldier with all it entails and it occurs to her that the protection of an Orc might not be such a bad thing. Dar still marches and she is still exhausted and afraid much of the time, but she is also finding she is a woman of hidden strengths and talents. Not so long ago she feared the future. Now, for the first time, she's ready to face it head on.
KING'S PROPERTY is a promising start to a new fantasy series. Dar figures out what she thinks will keep her alive and protected and goes after it. Even though she makes different choices from the other women, she isn't condescending and doesn't look down on them. The men are fairly horrible, but since I'm not a man that part of the story didn't offend me. The portrayal of the Orc as a different culture rather than simply bloodthirsty monsters is interesting. There are two more books coming in the next few months. I look forward to them.
Born into hardship, Dar learns to rely on herself alone. When her family betrays her, Dar is conscripted into King Kregant's army and its brutal campaign to conquer a neighboring country. Now she is bound as a slave to a dreaded regiment of Orcs, creatures legendary for their savagery and deadly skill in combat.
Rather than cower, Dar rises to the challenge. She learns the unique culture and language of the Orcs, survives treachery from both allies and enemies, and struggles to understand a mystical gift that brings her dark, prophetic visions. As the war escalates - amid nightmarish combat and shattering loss - Dar must seize a single chance at freedom.
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