Jack Bloodfist: Fixer by James Jakins
Review by: Dani Long
Twenty years ago, families of orcs and goblins fled from their homeworld through a magic portal that led them to urban Virginia. Now it seems that the danger they fled has followed them to their sanctuary and is threatening to destroy the home they’ve made.
Garak “Jack” Bloodfist is the son of the cheiftan that led this group of orcs and goblins on their exodus. He now operates as a “fixer” by helping the communities in any way that he can. Because of this, he is the first person that is called when a fellow orc turns up murdered which leads Jack straight into the middle of the threat his small community is facing.
Probably my favorite part of this book all comes down to it having a non-human main character. Between this book and Jonathan French’s The Grey Bastards, I am becoming more and more captivated by orc main characters, which is not something I thought I would ever say. Having long been portrayed as the mindless pawns of villains in scores and scores of fantasy stories, I find that I am really enjoying reading about them as the main cast of characters.
There were some magical abilities that orcs have that was briefly explored in this book. The warcriers were the only ones really talked about in this installment but I would be really curious in future books to see what other abilities and roles other orcs may have.
I mean, our main character here is an orc whose magical ability turns out to be singing. As bizarre as that sounds on paper, it really worked well. I definitely want to know what else the orcs are capable of.
Jack Bloodfist: Fixer is a fun balance of action and humor that reminded me a lot of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. The humor and style are very similar and throughout the book, I could not help but picture Jack Bloodfist and Harry Dresden sharing a beer in a hole in the wall pub somewhere.
Highly recommended for fans of urban fantasy.