An Orc on the Wild Side

By: Tom Holt

Narrated by: Ray Sawyer

Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Winter is coming, so why not get away from it all?  

Being the Dark Lord and Prince of Evil is not as much fun as it sounds, particularly if you are a basically decent person. King Mordak is just such a person. Technically he's more goblin than person, but the point is that he is really keen to be a lot less despicable than his predecessors.   

Not that the other goblins appreciate Mordak's attempts to redefine the role. Why should they when his new health-care program seems designed to actually extend life expectancy, and his efforts to end a perfectly reasonable war with the dwarves appear to have become an obsession?       

With confidence in his leadership crumbling, what Mordak desperately needs is a distraction. Perhaps some of these humans moving to the Realm in search of great homes at an affordable price will be able to help?

An Orc on the Wild Side is the latest comic masterpiece from one of the funniest writers in fantasy.

©2019 Tom Holt (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"Uniquely twisted...cracking gags." (Guardian)

"Holt doesn't skimp on the flashes of brilliance." (SFX)

"Clever, funny, tirelessly inventive." (Christopher Moore)

very tom holt but a bit meh

A very Tom Holt story with familiar characters. but... i don't care for any of them... LOTR jokes but never actually fun... i like the "new evil" concept...might work as a political party nowadays...

Top notch narrator

Top knotch narrator makes a great satirical book even funnier and more entertaining. Highly recommended!

Disappointingly tedious

I love the sense of humour, absurdity and satire so persevere with this one, but it really dragged. The narration was slow too, even at 1.25x speed, however the characterisation was good. Shame really, lots of potential but could perhaps benefit from tighter editing of the book and more lively narration.

Hilarious !

I have seen some reviewers stating that this gloriously funny book is not as funny as previous works, I have only read the Seige trilogy and as good as those were this is so much better!!

One of the best.

One of the best. The saga continues with the established standard and entertainment value, keep it up, please.

An entertaining listen, but light on laughs.

Not a patch on the JWW stories. Very well read, as you'd expect from Ray Sawyer.

Women improve everything

If you enjoy Tom Holt like I do you'll love this book. As usual is quirky, enjoyable with bits that will make you laugh out loud. I also love the reader .

more alternative madness

another enjoyable exclusion with Tom and his Orcs. not a story to start your journey on but defiantly worth listening if you have followed the others and the narration is excellent. just didn't quite grab me as much as some of TH work. Still my favourite author though.

Entertaining

Tom Holt has a unique sense of humour and writes fantasy like no-one else. This book is hilarious and a real "page turner". The narration is equally good and Ray Sawyer adds so much to the mix, I find myself reading in his voice when I have a hard copy in front of me. Highly recommended.

Reheated material

This book feels like an uninspired combination of "The Good, the Bad and the Smug" and "The Outsorcerer's Apprentice'. Slight variations on existing characters I don't mind, but there just wasn't enough original story or humour in this one. Maybe newcomers will enjoy this more

Brilliant as always!

Tom Holt never fails to come out with witty interesting and original stories, this time melding two of his worlds into one and shaking it up with the ex pats and creating females!