Prohibiton Orcs - Series - Review
Link to the author's (M. W. Lucas) personal website
Book 1: Prohibition Orcs
Book 2: Frozen Talons
Blurb: (From Book 1)
ELVES WENT INTO THE WEST—TO AMERICA.
GENERATIONS LATER, ORCS FOLLOWED.
1927 Detroit. Orcs fight Prohibition, avoid police, and labor hard for their children. All while doing their best to navigate the narrow human world. Men drive fancy Dodges and Cadillacs; orcs squeeze into fourth-hand Model Ts. Dwarves dominate the skilled trades; orcs push brooms. And behind everything, elves make it their life’s work to deny orcs have worth.
To be an orc is to endure, but when the world tries to deny even that, an orc must act.
And Uruk-Tai will do anything for his family.
Review: The cover art and premise combined gave me no choice but to give this series a try. Downtrodden bootlegging orcs? It's my duty to read that, and as expected, I truly enjoyed reading the books.
The series depicts a wonderfully creative world based in 1927 Detroit that incorporates dwarves, orcs, and elves. It does a fantastic job of showing how difficult some communication can be across cultures and how the assimilation to the "American-Human" way affects that collective culture. The series also does a depressingly good job at building a believable picture of how racism would exist if some fantasy species co-exited in a human-dominated society.
I giggled a lot at the necessity to phrase everything in terms of "war". I outright balled with laughter at "Tell me more about this prune juice" and "It's in the best interests of the corporation". Both books in this series are short, have plenty of memorable moments, are well written, and are fun. I strongly recommend anyone intrigued by the premise to give them a shot.