The True Bastards cover art

The True Bastards

The Lot Lands, Book 2

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The True Bastards

By: Jonathan French
Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
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About this listen

Following the runaway success of Jonathan French's critically acclaimed fantasy adventure The Grey Bastards comes book two in the Lot Lands series - The True Bastards.

Lead from the saddle. Dare to survive.

Fetching was once the only female rider in the Lot Lands. Now she is the leader of her own hoof, a band of loyal half-orcs sworn to her command. But in the year since she took power, the True Bastards have struggled to survive. Tested to the breaking point by the burdens of leadership, Fetching battles desperately to stave off famine, desertion and the scorn of the other half-orc chieftains, even as orcs and humans alike threaten the Lots' very existence. Then an old enemy finds a way to strike at her from beyond the grave - and suddenly only one faint hope for salvation remains.

A standout adventure fantasy debut that's down, dirty and damn good fun - perfect for fans of Joe Abercombie, Mark Lawrence, Markus Heitz's Dwarves series and Stan Nicholl's Orcs series.

©2019 Jonathan French (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Adventure
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It's book two, so I'm obviously enjoying the story. It's good to see Fetch struggling with things in this one, whereas in book one, she was the unfallable bastion of perfection.

This is my 38th audio book, and whilst there have been a few undesirable narrators, I have never disliked listening to a story this much.

I'll ignore the default frustration of having a narrator switch from one book to another, which changes the voices and accents you have come to relate to each character for this review.

Honestly, Lisa seems to be either extremely bored narrating this story or is begrudgingly doing it despite REALLY not wanting to.

I am in chapter eleven at this point and there are currently more than twelve different characters with identical voices, speech styles and accents, all spoken in a lazy manner that gives off a very "uuuuuuugh fiiiiiiine I'll read the story to the class" kinda feel.

The rest of the characters that she does put effort into have no soul in them. There are comments and statements in high stress situations that are narrated as half asleep all through the story, and the audible vibe doesn't match the urgency of the situation.

To her credit though, Lisa at least manages to keep the accent of Crafty and others from his homeland consistent with that of the previous narrator.

Maybe she is simply inexperienced, and I am wrong about the above. Either way, I hope this is taken as constructive criticism as opposed to outright whinging.

Great story, but the delivery is very meh.

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A gripping tale. Full of Orcs, Elves, Frails and Mongrels. So much better than Lord of Rings - I hope this is made into a movie. I can’t wait for Book 3!

Wow!

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The story is great, i think better than the first. The narrator was great too!! Really would recommend.

Great story and great reader.

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really looked forward to this sequel and wasn't disappointed.
a little slow to begin, but many threads were being brought together for a terrific well rounded tale. if you enjoyed the first, the second will certainly please

soots, sand & slaughter

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Great 2nd book. Awesome story. I was a little bit thrown when I heard a woman telling the story. Took a little bit to get used to. This book is from Fetch’s point of view. Can’t wait to dig into the 3rd book.

Another good one

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it took a bit of getting used to a different narrator for this second book but holy shit what a ride ! A little bit over the top with Fetch always doubting herself blah blah blah but she is still one hell of a half orc ! can't wait to see what they do to the Frails in the next book :)

bring on the next book

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