Comments for: Orc-brat
Talk to The Lauderdale
If you are a HASA member, you must login to submit a comment.
We're sorry. Only HASA members may post comments. If you would like to speak with the author, please use the "Email Author" button in the Reader Toolbox. If you would like to join HASA, click here. Membership is free.
4 Comments
Orc-brat
Aganaphel - 25 Apr 08 - 6:19 PM
This is definitely an outstanding story - the best story focussing on orcs/uruks that I have ever read. Great characterization, even the minor characters are hard to forget. Keep up the good work and update soon, please! Cheers, Aganaphel
Go to Orc-brat
Orc-brat
thelauderdale - 28 Apr 08 - 4:26 AM
Aganaphel,
I was glad to receive your comment! I've not gotten many on this story, here at Henneth-Annun at any rate, and it was most appreciated. Knock on wood, I hope to update Orc-brat again soon.
Go to Orc-brat
Orc-brat
pandemonium_213 - 28 Apr 08 - 6:30 AM
I stumbled upon "Orc-brat" this past weekend thanks to the comments field on HASA. Otherwise, I would not have known this extraordinary WIP existed.
Lauderdale, you hooked me in the first chapter and had me reeled in before its completion. The pacing is excellent; "Orc-brat" proved to be a digital page-turner for me. Gritty and resourceful Maevyn and Leni with her determination to live combined with Elvish fatalism come alive with your characterizations.
Then there are the orcs.
Your portrayal of Bragdagash's crew is brilliant. You've given each orc (used collectively for Orc, Uruk and Uruk-hai) a vivid and distinctive personality and fleshed out (as it were) their culture (sub-cultures, really, depending on the variety of orc) and behaviors. It's almost as if an anthropologist has stepped in to observe these guys. And the dark humor? Oh, man, great stuff!
In "Orc-brat," you take the orcs far beyond a clichéd unidimensional view of "evil." The reader is confronted by their humanity, however debased it is. If I recall correctly, Tolkien said that in the trenches of WWI, all men became orcs to some degree or another. "Orc-brat" made me think of the fine line that divides human nobility from brutality.
I note that the first chapters were posted here about two years ago, correct? I hope you have the impetus to continue and complete Maevyn's story.
Go to Orc-brat
Orc-brat
thelauderdale - 28 Apr 08 - 3:18 PM
(I suspecting I'm using the comments function wrong...) To pandemonium_213:
Thank you so much for your review. I certainly plan to continue and complete this story: I even know how it ends, though that won't be for a while yet. I will admit that I tend to break off for long periods. There was a very long break between Chapter 18 and Chapter 19, for example, during which I worked on Orc-brat and on its prequel, Treed, but never had a decent Chapter 19. However, I've been very productive lately and hope to upload new chapters for both stories soon.
Thank you also for your words on the Orc characters, who I am fond of despite their ugly behavior.
Go to Orc-brat
