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Blurb: (From Book 1) A new, darker age is dawning. The greed of kings has ignited a seemingly endless war. As men fight, the monsters of the untamed wilds are devouring the frontier. Villages are abandoned as fields go fallow. Murderous bandits roam the desolation.
None of that matters to a nameless goblin slave. He just wants to eat as much food as he can shove into his mouth when no one is looking, but fate runs a twisted course, so instead he is whisked away to the far off Iron Teeth Mountains. To stay alive, he will have to evolve into something more than a simple goblin, and carve a bloody path through the forests of the North.
However, first he has to get over his crippling fear of trees, and survive in a place where everything considers him to be the perfect size for a quick snack...
Review: I am sucker for books from a goblin's perspective. This series likely went under my radar for so long because it is an unfinished web serial that has been converted into books. That's a red flag that should be stated as quick as possible, and is a good reason not to read this series. To get the other negatives out of the way: I found that the writing was not the greatest. This was especially clear in the third book. The biggest problem with this is that many of the conversations feel artificial, and the motivations behind some characters are entirely one-dimensional.
On to some positives though! I finished the three books. I was happy reading them, and I laughed a lot. There are simply a lot of funny conversations. I think the setting is incredibly well done, and the wild North is captured beautifully. It gave the impression of a true wilderness lacking any governance and containing threats that are both frequent and of actual concern. The general take on goblins is interesting, and the writing is of high quality when dealing goblins. Those looking for a story involving outlaws or goblins should definitely give it a shot.
I'm quite bummed that I probably won't continue reading more. While there's clear flaws, I enjoyed reading the series, and I really wanted to see where Blacknail ended up. The unfinished state of the series, and the probable drop of writing quality in the unpublished books 4 and 5 is too big a hurdle. This series is therefore just on the border of being recommended.