β Scribed by Martinez, A. Lee
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
If the members of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch and Robert Asprin's Phule's Company were conscripted into Mary Gentle's Grunts, the result would be something like this caustic genre-parodying second novel from Martinez (Gil's All-Fright Diner). Never Dead Ned is an accountant whose only talent is self-resurrection. Chosen to lead the notorious Ogre Company, Ned ingratiates himself by dying before the senior officers can finish conspiring to kill him, and comes back to life just in time to be caught up in a battle with Rucka, the world's most powerful demon. Martinez loves turning conventions upside-down: Ned is unbearably uncharismatic, Rucka is 19 inches tall, the wizard Belok is allergic to magic. That makes the predictable elements-the self-sacrificing supernatural guardian, the inevitable love triangle, Ned's world-changing destiny-seem even more hackneyed, somewhat diminishing the power and fun of the "gotchas." Once Martinez learns to strike that balance, he'll be a humorist to be reckoned with.
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Never Dead Ned has died 49 times but can't seem to stay dead. Afraid of death, anyway, he found a safe niche as an accountant for Brute's Legion. Upper management transfers him to command Ogre Company, the legion's dumping ground. He has one advantage over previous commanders: no matter what accident befalls, he comes back alive. And then he finds out why he never stays dead, after which he has to go to any length not to die again. That's harder than it seems when commanding such stellar specimens as a two-headed ogre, an orc who's oversensitive about looking like a goblin, a daredevil pilot goblin (and the not very trainable rocs he flies), a siren, a temperamental Amazon, and an oracle who hears and smells the future. Still, he has six months to whip Ogre Company into shape. Oh, for the love of Ned! Martinez's follow-up to Gil's All-Fright Diner(2005) is as joyfully fast paced and funny. Ogre Company tweaks fantasy cliches most excellently. Regina Schroeder
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