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Book Cover |
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Excerpt |
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"How do you know my
name?" Brianna demanded.
The ogre smiled, revealing a
mouth filled with ugly orange fangs. "Someone tell me," he
replied. "Now put axe down and come here. We not supposed to hurt you."
Brianna heard a bough of
aspen leaves rustle far above. Another ogre dropped to the ground behind
her, filling the air with the rancid, sour-milk odor of his race. The
princess gagged, then felt an oily hand seizing her wrist. The brute
slipped his other arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground.
Revolted by the beast's vile
touch, Brianna brought her foot up as hard as she could, smashing the
hard bone of her heel into the ogre's soft loins. At the same time, the
princes whipped her head back and bashed the back of her skull into her
foe's nose. She heard the satisfying crunch of collapsing cartilage,
then the brute roared in pain and dropped her.
Brianna turned, swinging her
axe at the height of her own head. The blade took her attacker in the
arm, slicing through tendon and bone to truncate the arm just above the
elbow. Again, the ogre howled. He stumbled back, his purple eyes glazed
with shock and his jaw hanging agape at the astonishing force of the
princess's blow. Giving him no chance to recover, Brianna leveled her
foot at his knee in a vicious roundhouse kick. The joint snapped like
kindling, and the ogre toppled to the ground.
The princess spun around,
expecting to find the other brute already upon her. Instead, he was
watching her with a bemused grin on his lips.
"I hear you strong for
woman," he said.
Brianna narrowed her eyes.
"Who told you that?"
Instead of answering, the
ogre raised his hands and rasped the deep-throated dirge of a shaman's
spell. |
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Synopsis |
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Tavis is a firbolg, a fire giant. Although he is
considered runt only being 8 feet tall, he is highly respected for his
abilities to track and to shoot a bow and arrow. Formally a member of the Border
Guard, he now owns a innkeeper in the Kingdom of Hartsvale. Visiting his tavern, as she does quite frequently is Princess Brianna
and her guardian, Morten, another firbolg who is closer to the normal height of
12 feet tall. Brianna is preparing to pick the man who she will wed and will
someday become king.
A misunderstanding arises when the Brinna thinks Tavis is
lying about finding Basil, a verbeeg, giant-kin, and a human boy, Avner, in his
barn who has stolen some books from Earl Ruther Dobbin. Brianna leave the inn to
travel back home with Morten when she is ambushed by ogres and spirited away by
Gobaka, a powerful ogre shaman. When Tavis reports the theft to King Camden,
Brianna's father, he does not want a search party to go after his daughter.
Tavis insists that he go and the king threatens him, but Tavis ignores the
warning and takes off, with Basil and Avner, following the trail of the ogres.
The soon discover that the king has sent Morten and Earl Dobbin lead a troop of
knights to capture Tavis. Along the way, Tavis and his friends have been killing
ogres, but have not caught up to Gobaka. Morten and the knights are soon
attacked by the ogres and Tavis rescues them. They join Tavis in their search
for the missing princess.
Soon they find that the ogres numbers have swelled
into the thousands. How are they ever going to get past that many stinking ogres
and get Princess Brianna out of there alive?
The Ogre's Pact is the first book of three in The Twilight
Giants by Troy Denning. This Forgotten Realms fantasy tale features
the following main characters: Tavis - a firbolg (giant-kin) and former
scout in the Border Guard, Princess Brianna - a human female that is
kidnapped, Morten - a firbolg and Brianna's bodyguard, Avner - a young
human boy who is street-wise, Basil of Lyndusfarne - a verbeeg
(giant-kin) and friend of Avner, King Camden - Brianna's father, and
Gobaka - an ogre shaman.
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Review |
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The action is pretty much non-stop in the first
book of The Twilight Giants series, The Ogre's Pact, by Troy Denning. I
had never read a fantasy story where the lead character was a giant-kin, so I
became quite fascinated with all of the main characters.
I liked the fast pace
of the story and the world of the giant which was opened up for me to learn
about. Although I have a hard time picturing how tall everyone is, I found
myself falling into this world of giants, ogres and tall humans. Tavis is a cool
character and I look forward to reading more about his adventures in the rest of
the series.
I really like Princess Brianna and hope that she is also a central
character in stories that follow. As for the ogre shaman, Gobaka. He is a
formidable foe. I have always considered ogres to be kind of stupid and not very
magical, but he proved me wrong.
Overall, The Ogre's Pact is a great read
and I highly look forward to reading the second book in this series,
The
Giant Among Us.
I rated this book an 8 out of 10. |
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