Clan Daughter (Queen of the Orcs, Book II)

Book Two of the Queen of the Orcs trilogy makes for a nice diversion. At the end of book one, poor military planning leaves swaths of dead soliders. Only protagonist Dar and a handful of orcs remain alive, and as this book opens, Day is leading her allies back to the mountains they call home. Essentially a fantasy road story, we follow the progress as Dar first reaches the orc homes, delves a little more into orcish politics (matriarchical society, with a kind of Iriquois meets samurai feel), and "volunteers" to rescue the Queen of the Orcs being help as a kind of gentle captive in the court of a sadistic human king... Along the way, Dar begins to explore the relatively new (and decidedly creepy) visions of the future she is having. Are these actual set-in-stone prophecies, or are they more Dead Zone like possibilities? With some rather intriguing asides (including, believe it or not, orc nookie), this second book is somehow less gritty than the first, and propels the drama quite nicely into what seems to be a much more political/character-driven finale...

I loved the Morgan Howell books. I thought the story was well thought out and frankly am looking forward to ANY books by this author!

I was surprised to see this book at such a low rating. This is the great continuance of the Queen of the Orcs story. First of all, I think that a lot of people don't understand the feelings Dar and Kovok-mah develop. She has been abused by humans her whole life, her only friend died and Kovok is the only person she cares for still around. So yeah, she goes for it. Ok, so he is not entirely human, but its no worse than if he were an elf, werewolf or something. As far as the plot, it is made clear that Dar is surprised at the way things are turning out, and credits it to the fact that Muth La, the goddess, is taking care she will not die in order to fulfill a prophesy. So there! It was good. If you liked the first, read the second. If you didn't like the first, you probably won't like the second. This got bad ratings because the people who wrote them gave it negative reviews for weird reasons, like I didn't like the first one so I didn't like the second, or its been done before, or I was mislead by the cover. Come on people!

Dar has a strong reason for not loving for the human race; her father sold her into the King's army and he is not a king who takes female servants when he is needy. After a battle, Dar convinces five orcs to defect Kovak-Mah, who loves her, follows her wherever she goes and where he goes so do the other four orcs.. On the journey to their home in the wasteland part of the Urkhert Mountains , Dar and Kovak-Mah realize they love each other, but he knows their life together is doomed as the Orcs hate humans and only fight for them because their queen, who lives near the human king, orders them to do so. While living with the orcs, Dar partakes in a ceremony in which she is reborn with the spirit of an Orc. Because of this and that she still looks human, she is chosen to talk with the queen, who refuses to allow female orcs to come near her; her objective is to learn why they kill for a human monarch. The second book of this trilogy (see KING'S PROPERTY) is a fabulous fantasy due mostly to the intricate Orc culture that is vividly described in detail which in turn provides the tale with a seemingly powerful authentic anchor. Dar is a dynamic independent woman who follows her own course when it comes to races and love. Her fiery spirit along with the insightful Orcan lifestyle and some more typical battle scenes make CLAN DAUGHTER an entertaining tale. Harriet Klausner

Highly recommended reading. I stayed up until 3:30am because I couldn't put it down. Mr. Howell weaves a dark, dreary yet fantastic tale of Dar, a woman cast out from her home and into slavery in service to Orcs in the army of a greedy King. Here she discovers her strength and an unlikely ally among the Orcs. If you don't like dark, I recommend looking elsewhere. This is the first of a trilogy. I'm looking forward to the next in the series.