Review: "Orconomics" by J. Zachary Pike

As you may have noticed if you visit this site occasionally, my reading has been pretty slow this year. I’m only averaging about one book per month, and May was the first month in my memory that I didn’t finish one at all. There are a few DNFs in the mix, but despite there being new books by some authors I really like that I haven’t gotten to yet, I’ve been in a bit of a slump.

Then I stumbled across J. Zachary Pike’s “Orconomics” ($13.99, Gnomish Press). After getting a few chuckles out of the sample, I still wasn’t sure about it, but the book turned out to be just what I needed.

Gorm Ingerson is a disgraced professional hero. Once known as the Pyrebeard, he was one of the most feared berserkers in the game. Then, a raid on a necromancer’s stronghold went south. He was stripped of his rank, and now wakes up drunk in a ditch most every day. That is until, quite accidentally, he befriends a goblin. He sets out to get the goblin his NPC papers (making him off limits for heroes to claim a bounty). That move sets Gorm on a world-changing path.

The Legend of Drizzt: "Dark Mirror," read by Dan Harmon

My journey into audiobooks continues with the second tale of The Legend of Drizzt, "Dark Mirror," as read by Dan Harmon.

After he was absent from the first story, this second tale of the collection focuses on R.A. Salvatore's famed dark elf.

Drizzt is out of Mithral Hall on a journey to visit the lady of Silverymoon when he comes across the tracks of a band of ogres hauling human prisoners.

Drizzt begins to track the monsters only to encounter the men from a local village, ill-prepared to face their foes, but determined to get their families back. Among those men, though, is a brash leader by the name of Rico, who talks of teaching the ogres a lesson even as Drizzt urges the men to let him steal their prisoners away without a fight.

Review: "Raising Steam," by Terry Pratchett

The steam engine has come to the Discworld, but is the Disc ready? We find out in Terry Pratchett’s latest, “Raising Steam” ($26.95, Doubleday).

Dick Simnel, a young lad out of Sto Lat, has succeeded where many others have failed – usually in a messy pink mist. He’s harnessed steam to create the Discworld’s first locomotive, which (or should we say who) he’s named Iron Girder. And where else would he take this new invention but Ankh Morpork?

Dick ends up in the offices of one Harry King, a man who has made a very good living for his family in sanitation, but is looking for something he and his wife can take a little more pride in. He sees the engine as a way to provide that.

Review: "Rise of Empire" by Michael J. Sullivan

There’s a fundamental shift in “Rise of Empire” ($14.99, Orbit), the second volume (or, if you want to get technical, the third and fourth books) of Michael J. Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations.

The first, “Theft of Swords,” was a fun romp with his pair of rogue heroes, the noble Hadrian Blackwater and the less-than-noble Royce Melborn. In “Rise of Empire,” things get a little more serious and involved. But that’s also a good thing.

As the book starts, the royal empire has taken control of most everything. The church has put the puppet empress Modina – known to our heroes as the village girl Thrace who hired them to save her village from a dragon-like creature in the first book – on the throne. Only Melengar and a band of Nationalists stand between the empire and complete domination.