The Goblin Corps

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Darin betrachtet er die Klischees der Fantasy aus dem Blickwinkel der „Bösen“: Orks, Trolle, Oger und alle, die sonst als Antagonisten herhalten müssen, bekommen hier ihren großen Auftritt. Marmell’s got a great sense of humor and snark, which he injects throughout the narrative, especially between members of the Demon Squad. Jetzt versammeln sie ihre Kräfte hinter dieser spitzohrigen Plage von einem Erzfeind, dem Elfenmagier Ananias duMark, um einen endgültigen Vernichtungsschlag zu führen. Although born in New York, Ari has lived the vast majority of his life in Texas—first Houston (where he earned a BA in creative writing at the University of Houston) and then Austin.

Joe Abercrombie perked things up for me with his Blade book series primarily because of the wonderful dark humour but then he went all YA.His conspiracies and plots that he masterminds are intricate and fiendish, and the goblins are merely little pawns pushed around at the end of his creepy skeletal fingers. There are a bunch of those stories out there, and you can find some of those elements here (the focus is, after all, on the bad guys, and some of them are likeable). We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Without characters to care about, turning the page was a chore, not a joy, and I felt like I was back in high school preparing some boring book for a class book report, than actually reading a novel for enjoyment.

No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Other authors, less famous than The Bard have pulled it off in modern fantasy – Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibonea was an utterly evil character, yet memorable and even sympathetic in his own way. Plot-wise, The Goblin Corps revolves around a new Demon Squad assembled to serve King Morthûl in preparation for the upcoming war against the Allied Kingdoms. And apparently, the orc had high school biology courses, telling a pack of naga that he planned on kicking their “cloaca” all over the swamp. Grasping for the Wind "To my relief, The Goblin Corps possesses the same elements that made [Marmell's] The Conqueror's Shadow so much fun to read.Given his druthers, Cræosh would have been just as content to ignore the gremlin's distress, if not kill him outright. Like Abercrombie, Marmell puts his own twist on fantasy tropes, and like Martin he is unforgiving with the lives of his characters, but though his narrative decisions resemble these two's somewhat, at the end of the day it's difficult to peg his writing down as similar to either of them. Casually, Cræosh wandered to the fire and slid to the leaf-covered ground, shoving a pair of smaller orcs out of his way. He is the author of the Mick Oberon gangland-fantasy-detective series, the Widdershins YA fantasy series, The Goblin Corps, and many others. As a result, I was on the fence regarding the author’s new novel, The Goblin Corps, before I eventually decided to give the book a chance.

Marmell follows an episodic format, with long chapters (12 chapters divided over 551 pages) amounts to almost a collection of novellas. The story follows them on their adventures as they are trained by the imp, borrowed by the lich-king’s sorceress-wife Queen Anne, and finally used by the undead monarch to carry out his back-up plans for world conquest. These are no slobbering, imbecilic puppets but highly entertaining warriors, but watch your back as your corp "buddies" may just have other plans for you. Cræosh is an embittered orc put in charge of a Demon Squad — a war-band of goblins in the service of Morthûl, and who are inexplicably the most inept-seeming group of warriors ever tasked with taking care of the dark lord’s business. Unlike the inconsistent characterization in CONQUEROR’S, THE GOBLIN CORPS has some characters you’ll enjoy rooting for, whose motivations make sense.The sun shone directly overhead, though little of its light or warmth penetrated the canopy of leaves.

The armies of Kirol Syrreth muster to meet the attack that is sure to come as soon as the snows have melted from the mountain paths, but their numbers are sorely depleted. THE GOBLIN CORPS at first seems like your average dungeon crawl adventure, but Marmell is clever and makes it funny, twisty, and fresh. Upon his great marble throne the Charnel King sat, slumped forward, weighted down by the impossibly heavy matters pressing upon his decomposed shoulders. Heck, Anne Rice made vampires lovable, not to mention sexy, even though the character of Lestat was an antisocial blood-glutton and hedonist.Here is a story of Evil battling against the forces of Good, of a lich king’s quest for world domination, and his hand-picked squad of monsters to “assist” him in his lofty goals: The Goblin Corps!