mass market paperback, 315 pages
English language
Published July 9, 2007 by Ballantine Books.
Bound into slavery to a fearsome regiment of orcs after being betrayed by her family, Dar spends her time learning the culture and language of her orc captors, survives the betrayal of allies and enemies alike, and struggles to understand and master her mystical talent of prophetic visions in order to gain her chance at freedom, in the first volume in a new fantasy trilogy.
Well written and enjoyable. The main character is, of course, an outlier physically, mentally, and emotionally, while the bad guys are eeeeeebil and defined sketchily at best. The interactions between the main character and her protector are the best part. It's basic fantasy, and worth passing some time with.
The story of Dar, more or less kidnapped to be a woman for the army, and I say 'be a woman' on purpose.
Dar is a woman in a culture that treats rape as the primary mode of interaction between men and women. Dar has been raped by her father before the book begins, and is very determined not to be raped again, but she has very few resources to do this. The other women for the army deal with the same problem, although most of them in different ways than Dar chooses.
Half-way through the first book, Dar realizes that the reason she was kidnapped is because the Orcs in the army require someone to fill the role of 'woman' for them, but that the Orc idea of womanhood is radically different: the Orcs aren't really aware that the women in the camp are subject to rape, simply because …
The story of Dar, more or less kidnapped to be a woman for the army, and I say 'be a woman' on purpose.
Dar is a woman in a culture that treats rape as the primary mode of interaction between men and women. Dar has been raped by her father before the book begins, and is very determined not to be raped again, but she has very few resources to do this. The other women for the army deal with the same problem, although most of them in different ways than Dar chooses.
Half-way through the first book, Dar realizes that the reason she was kidnapped is because the Orcs in the army require someone to fill the role of 'woman' for them, but that the Orc idea of womanhood is radically different: the Orcs aren't really aware that the women in the camp are subject to rape, simply because rape is such a nonsensical idea to them. Orcs are a matriarchy, and violence against women is literally blasphemous to them.
Dar, understandably, decides she would really rather be an Orc, and sets about doing everything she can to be accepted into their society.
My feelings toward this book (and the series, in fact, since I have read the second as well,) are intensely mixed. Many of the camp women deal with the threat of rape by putting themselves under the protection of a man, and while Dar is somewhat sympathetic to them, Dar nonetheless has no female friends by the end of the book. The fact that Orcs revere women is obviously a pretty good deal for Dar, but the book doesn't go into what that means for the male Orcs, who in the book seem delighted and honoured to be part of a society in which they will never be able to gain authority.
