Book Review - THE GREY BASTARDS by Jonathan French

(Title: The Grey Bastards / Author: Jonathan French / Publisher: Crown Publishing / Publication Date: June 19, 2018)


The journey of the book The Grey Bastards and its author Jonathan French has been an interesting one to say the least.  The book won the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off contest back in 2017 among some quality competition (one of which being Phil Tucker's Path of Flames, which I liked a great deal).  Soon after winning this award, a major publisher Crown Publishing came a calling for Mr. French.  The book was then pulled from the market and is now scheduled to be re-released by Crown next month complete with a beautiful new cover and marketing campaign.  

Suffice it to say it has been a whirlwind couple of years for Jonathan French and all of the attention that The Grey Bastards has garnered lately has made me want to read it all the more.  I was extremely lucky when I procured an advanced reader copy of the Grey Bastards from Crown Publishing a couple of weeks ago and subsequently tore through it from front cover to last page in about 6 days or so.  I have to say up front that I usually don't enjoy books that lean on the Grimdark side of things, but this one has a lot more going for it than just the violence aspect and as a result, I did end up really liking The Grey Bastards.

The main setting for the Grey Bastards is the Lot Lands and its surrounding territories.  The Lot Lands is a strip of land that separates the human kingdom of Hispartha from the orc-dominated land filled with marauding bands who want nothing more than to pillage, kill and destroy all non-orcs.  Think of the Lot Lands as the only buffer that keeps orcs from totally overrunning the virtually helpless human lands.  The only protection the humans have from these murderous orcs are a company of half-orcs called The Grey Bastards.  The Bastards are kind of stuck in the middle, not really accepted by the humans but even more hated by their full-blooded orc brethren.  

So the Bastards have settled into a tenuous alliance with the kingdom of Hispartha which enlists their protection in keeping the pillaging orcs off their backs in return for being tolerated and somewhat left alone to go about their uneasy existence.  There is also a side story that deals with the internal friction inside The Grey Bastards ranks, specifically between their current ineffectual leader The Claymaster and an upstart hoof Jackal who sees through his ineptitude and wants to overthrow him for leadership rights.  When Jackal kills a human nobleman in self-defense, the unsteady alliance between the Bastards and Hispartha is tested, and when a mysterious sorcerer shows up among the their ranks, Jackal must decide who is friend and who is foe very quickly.  

For there appears to be a growing conspiracy against the crown that Jackal may be the only one who can get to the bottom of.  But the question is does he even want to?  Will it matter in the end when The Grey Bastards have always been looked at as nothing more than former slaves who need to simply be tolerated rather than embraced?  And what part does the sorcerer who just appeared one day play in all of these intrigues?

The Grey Bastards is not an easy book to read.  I don't mean that in any stylistic or storyline way because this is a very good book.  I mean there is a ton of language, violence, sexual situations etc.  Jackal likes his prostitutes and the Bastards use a copious amount of colorful language in their conversations with each other.  In saying that however, it never seemed to be misplaced with the type of story I was reading.  I mean, I was reading a book about some unsavory characters and some pretty heinous villains.  

And the damn book is called The Grey Bastards, so you kind of know going in that you aren't reading Jane Austen.  The great thing about this book is that you really feel connected to the characters and quickly form a bond with them.  You get a picture of Jackal that is of someone who just wants to live his life but at every turn someone is screwing it up for him.  He's duty-bound to protect his Bastard brothers and so feels compelled to challenge The Claymaster when he feels their leader is doing them a disservice.  He also knows that the only reason why the humans who shun him at every turn even exist is through his protection.  It's an irony that is maddening since the humans show no respect to the half-orcs who protect their very lives and existence.  

I couldn't help but think that French was making a statement about prejudice and discrimination the more I read.  With each interaction between the humans and half-orcs, the disdain with which the humans treat the Grey Bastards is palpable.  I could be wrong there and I don't want to speak for Jonathan, but I just got a really strong sense that there were more parallels to this story and the real world than not.  And the fact that I actually began to sympathize with the Bastards really shows you the type of writer that Jonathan French is.  I could see that they were in a position where they couldn't win and for the most part it wasn't of their choosing.  This is so easily relatable to the real world and I can't help but keep harping back to that.  I connected with this book on that level so much and it made my reading experience even deeper and more thought-provoking.  

So what I thought was going to be a fun fantasy read about a bunch of hooligan orcs riding hogs, ended up being so much more than that and it is a testament to Jonathan French that he can make a social point while disguising it as a raunchy violent fantasy book.  Consider me a huge fan of Jackal and the gang.  But be forewarned, these ain't your grandfathers orcs.  Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys the works of Joe Abercrombie and Glen Cook.

(My Rating: 9/10)