Orconomics: A Satire (The Dark Profit Saga Book 1)

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Kaitha used to be legendary as the Jade Wind, then her performance started to slide, as she started to heavily drink booze and abuse healing salves. Apparently, she hasn't completed a quest in 40 years. Professor Guinea Pig: Gremlins are extremely good at biomancy and they tend to use it, first and foremost, on themselves. This is why no Gremlin looks quite like another, and they tend to like it that way.

Heel–Face Turn: After being soundly beaten by the beserk Gorm and healed by the troll Thane, Brunt decides he no longer wants to be a bad guy. He shows up in two scenes in the second book, the second of which has him in line to get his Hero license. There are many other features where Pike shines a light to illuminate an old trope from a fresh angle. Long-lived elves? How would they handle the plethora of memories and keep a sense of identity? Human cells renew in their entirety over a seven-year period; so too do Pike’s elven personas refresh and reset over a few centuries or so. And what of healing potions? The opiate-induced haze that turned many an eighteenth-century invalid into a laudanum addict is here echoed by heroes succumbing to a grim addiction to self-harm and magical healing. made me laugh out loud numerous times. Had to set down the stuff I was doing while I was listening 'til I could continue. His new team includes colourful and fun cast of characters – a goblin squire (who brings a lot of comic relief), clumsy and naïve prophet of a mad goddess, an elf warrior addicted to alcohol and drugs (healing potions in the book), two mages who are at each other's throats, a thief who claims to be a bard (even though he can’t really sing) and a warrior seeking his own death. They start the quest to find Elven Marbles. As we follow the story, the plot gets a little more complicated and nuanced. God of Evil: Mannon, the Dark Lord, responsible for the War of Betrayal and the creation of the Shadowkin.Orconomics is an economic game like no other, with its peculiar setting, Orcish humor, and great artwork. Two to five players compete to establish Companies in ten different industrial sectors. Players use their actions to create Startups and develop them to become proper corporations; or they can get a presence in an industry sector by winning auctions. In the second book, that role goes to a Kobold named Burt, who appears in the first book a few times. Unlike Gleebek, Burt is fluent in both Imperial and Shadowtongue and has connections everywhere, frequently through other Kobolds. The Hill Gnomes of Clan Erdin (also known as Dwerrow) have many similarities with Dwarves, with the major difference being the existence of Dwerrow women. Don't call them "Hill Dwarves" though. Neither they nor Dwarves like that. Zurthraka: You failed to establish your value proposition! You have fallen from the way of aggressive selling! One must always announce one's purpose in the market to the potential customer! Living Weapon: Most Heroes know to stay clear of these, as they tend to do whatever they feel like. In the second novel, the protagonists need to obtain the ancient Wyrmwood Staff of Geffyn, a powerful omnimancer artifact. Detarr Ur'Mayan convinces it to switch sides. Later, the protagonists are surprised to learn that the infamous crime lord Benny Hookhand is a hook, who takes control over the body of any person touching him. Heraldin knew, and was actually Benny's host body for a time, but never specified Benny's nature.

By playing a card for its industry, you elect to place one of your company tokens onto the topmost part of the banner on either side of the selected industry. This creates a startup that, when promoted all the way to the bottom, becomes a full fledged company (earning you a point). You can also promote an existing startup by a single step. Doug Tisdale Jr. really plays this one like he was holding all the aces. He is just excellent, and I have to say he has some pretty darn good comedic timing and knows how to tell funny. He could have seriously dropped the ball, and not told it with that wink in his eye like he does. He can narrate. There is no question of that here. Even though I did receive a promo code for this review it in no way influenced my considerations of the material, and in fact, inspired me to be more honest. In fact, getting a code generally makes me harsher as a reviewer as I am more often concerned what someone like Me will decide based on my review. The tale twists and turns and gradually much of the complexity is resolved leaving new and grander villains to be taken down in book 2. Tempting Fate: Nove's first principle of universal irony specifically warns people to avoid this trope, using mathematical proofs and Nove's Constant to show the likelihood of something bad happening as a result of a spoken phrase. The characters in this book are absolutely wonderful. They all represent classic roles that you would find in fantasy books, but they are all deeper than you would assume as the book goes along. The low-stakes nature of the plot allows things to slow down and make this very much a character driven book. Each of the characters grow and mature throughout the story, and by the end of it you are left just itching to read more.

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I love to find the influences in a book of other works – to see the roots on which the author has drawn. Sometimes my enthusiasm is misplaced; like an over-enthusiastic archaeologist, I conjure up links that the author will tell me were at best subconscious and more likely non-existent. But it is fun to hunt them down, nonetheless. Orconomics offered me a feast of such associative moments. For example:

Tales of fantasy fiction – like their heroes – can be too elevated and grand, or too dark and destructive to make for an easy match with comedy. Aside from the barbed witticisms between rival characters, it is rare to find a book built upon a spine of humour and satire. The great Terry Pratchett managed it magnificently, but the Discworld series aside, I’ve only really read two books that strove for laughs in a fantastic setting. The first was The Outsourcerer’s Apprentice, which – to my mind – worked over-hard to manufacture punning comedy from its real-world allusions yet still fell short of an underlying story that would bear the weight of a reader’s expectations. The second was Nicholas Eames’ Kings of The Wyld, which I found massively enjoyable as it somehow combined the plots of “The Magnificent Seven” with “This is Spinal Tap” into an epic quest that was – like its heroes – not without flaws, but fun nonetheless. Duality Motif: Niln has eyes of different color, which is a common indication of being a Half-Human Hybrid or an Elf-Gnome hybrid. Dimensional Thinking: Stone drakes, being massive ravenous beasts made of stone, don't tend to turn very well. Experienced adventurers know to leap out of its path when a stone drake is charging them. Most novices instead make the mistake of trying to outrun a stone drake though, which never works since stone drakes can actually move pretty fast in a straight line. Near the end of Orconomics, Brunt is lying in a ditch, badly wounded in his fight with Gorm in his Berserker mode. When Thane approaches him, Brunt tells him that he was going to retire in two weeks. Thane heals him with a potion, though, telling Brunt that he doesn't have to be a bad man anymore.Bottomless Quiver: A Poor Man's Quiver always has an enchanted arrow in it, regardless of how many have been pulled out. Why is it called "Poor Man's Quiver"? Because buying it is certain to turn one poor given its exorbitant cost. Kaitha has one. H ey Orc! Are you sad that the days of heroes are in the past? Dive into the world of business, a vortex of competition, a fight to be the best! Talk Like a Pirate: Captain Jones, a hired assassin, is dedicated to his pirate persona to the point of annoyance. He is capable of speaking normally, but his publicist spent a long time developing his personal brand and he has no intention of dropping it for anyone. Bittersweet Ending: At the end of Orconomics, Most of the heroes survive and continue their adventures, but Niln and Gleebek/Tib'rin are dead, an entire tribe of peaceful Orcs are slaughtered (although some manage to escape), most peaceful Shadowkin lose their NPC papers and are declared F.O.E.'s and the lives of those Shadowkin who avoid this are effectively hanging on a thread, and the heroes are hunted by the Heroes' Guild. Companies in each industrial sector generate income or losses, and grant abilities to players - in combination with the cards they have in hand - they can use to manipulate the economy of the Orc society. For example, as a leader of the Totemology industry you will be able to send a Crisis onto your opponents' companies; or you can use your control of Banks to make your opponents go bankrupt defaulting on their loans...

In this story, the word “hero” goes no further than your job description. Professional heroics is a finance-driven business, and not a romantic morality play on ‘doing the right thing.’ In this world, everyone wants a piece of the pie: shares of loot are sold to investors in advance, agents and guilds vie to increase their cuts, and adventurers are treated as commodities. Some people, such as the Shadowkin -- classic fantasy monsters like dragons, goblins, and orcs – are targeted simply because they’re seen as pests, or keepers of a valuable treasure. Yet many of the Shadowkin are harmless, and just want a chance to survive on the fringes of civil society. But why should we pay any mind to the plight of these lower-class citizens if they are swept aside in the name of profit? Won’t the investment firm executives utilize their unregulated power to continue to influence the market to their liking? Is this all starting to sound a bit familiar? All Trolls Are Different: Trolls are large ape-like Shadowkin who, despite their size, are incredibly stealthy. They can also compress themselves into the size and shape of an ordinary boulder. According to legend, Trolls are Sten, who were corrupted by Mannon into a shadow of their former selves. The author balanced humour and seriousness perfectly and the result is a book that made me laugh and cry in rapid succession. The series has a number of shout-outs to Real Life companies, such as Lamia Sisters (Lehman Brothers), Citistate (Citibank), and J.P. Gorgon (J.P. Morgan).The second book explains that the giltin were introduced after Dwarven alchemists perfected their craft and started producing mountains of gold, tanking their economy. Thus, the giltin are detached from the gold standard, preventing such a disaster from repeating. The Dwarven Empire still hasn't recovered. Kaitha, an Elf ranger, known as the Jade Wind in her glory days. Has since become a drunk and a salve-head. She hasn't completed a quest in 40 years. A former Elven princess of House Tyrieth. See Overly Long Name for parts of her full name.