Review: The Weight of Blood

The Weight of Blood is the first book in the Half-Orcs series by David Dalglish. I was initially going to purchase the Half-Orcs omnibus, but Weight of Blood went free on Kindle, so I decided to snatch it up. I'm a bit glad I didn't spend the money.

Brief Summary: Weight of Blood follows brothers Harruq and Qurrah. Their mother was an orc and their father was an elf, making them a strange mix in a world where orcs are despised. It is all they can do to survive in the harsh world of humans. That is, until a lovely elf and a strange man in a black cloak arrive and test their loyalty to one another.

My Thoughts: I did not enjoy this book, plain and simple. From the get-go, I had trouble getting over the similarity to the brothers in the Dragonlance series. Harruq is the strong but dumb one who sacrifices everything for his brother, the physically weaker mage with aspirations of power. I don't know if Dalglish read the Dragonlance series before writing this, but it's impossible to read one without thinking of the other. On top of that, the characters had very few redeeming characteristics. They slaughter children without a thought, take out an entire village without even asking for a reason, and blindly follow a man who is clearly the most evil person they have ever met. There is the occasional glimmer of hope throughout the book that they will change, but when they do, it is almost too sudden and kind of weak, really. Then there is the love story that does not get fleshed out and seems like something thrown in just to have it in there. I've heard great things about Dalglish and I think I'll try something else in his repertoire in the future, but this piece definitely fell flat for me.

Rating: ☻☻☻