From a very early age I have loved fantasy stories and this was most likely inspired by J.R.R Tolkin, the author of the famous 'Lord of the Rings' books. Tolkin is famous for creating many of the things in fantasy that are basic commonly thought of in folk lore, such elves pointed ears, and futhered many existing tales with the fame of his stories. One of the many thing that was pressed in all his writtings of middle earth is that orcs are the bad guys, but I have recently read a book called 'Bodyguard of Lightning'the first of a series called 'Orcs', published by orion books, in which orcs are not the villians of the story, but instead they are the heroes.
This is a simple concept which the author, Stan Nicholls, portrays very effectivly and this is the grounds for is marketing, as it is something out of the norm and therefore atleast interesting enough to pick up of the shelf and look at, at which point the blurb pulls you in. The blurb its self is set from the point of an orc telling the reader how they perceive orcs with lines such as 'to you I am a monster', but it then follows with 'it is time you pay heed to the beast' leaving it open ended and making the reader interested.
Other than the obvious gimmic of the role reversal, one thing I have noticed from reading the book which wasn't even attempted to be marketed is that the backround of the story, removing the fantasy element such as monster and magic, is a very accurate depiction of the christian faiths initial introduction and then clashes with paganism. I think that this is an amazing ation to the plot that should have been markted as it opens the door for many more readers.
The audience of the book doesn't seem to be too specific as it's aimed at just about any body who likes a story with monsters and sword fights, to put it simply anyone who enjoys reading fantasy stories, although having read the first of the series I can say it not even close to the same caliber as Tolkin, but still a fairly good book. I don't think they should print that on the back of the book.
