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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