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Four gods have created a race of creatures each, the race that survives will determine the one true God. This is the Game, and this book is the book of that Game.

The humans, elves, dwarves and orcs are all participants in the Game, whether they know it or not. Their stories intertwine, with each chapter focusing on the life of one significant character as the Game progresses.

It's rather lovely, in a weird sort of way, to read a book where the orcs not only play a key role in the story, but are on an equal footing.

The dwarves are bureaucrats and scientists, as well as the conventional mountain-dwellers you'd expect. They spend most of the book in meetings where the only decisions seem to be to not make any decisions (I've worked for companies like that myself).

The elves are hampered by a queen who is disinterested in doing any ruling.

The humans are the only ones who appear to know they are part of the Game. They are led, as always, by a backstabbing cretin who is not only in charge of running the city, but also the head of the church and the army, and the judge who presides over cases that he himself has brought to bear. Corruption is rife!

Needless to say, if you want to know how it pans out you need to read this book, although be warned that this is the first in a series, so don't expect to find out who wins the Game this early on. I'm already looking forward to the next book.

I received my copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway.

This is an account of an expedition to find a lost tribe of "Bushmen" in the Kalahari desert. The author is a vivid storyteller and explorer, the sort of which are hard to come by these days. If anybody attempted this expedition in 2014, the progress would be on Twitter and the photos up on Instagram before the Bushmen even realised anybody was looking for them. I digress. Plagued by both misfortune, and an equal share of fortune, Laurens' team also set out to make a film of their exploits under guidance from the BBC. It doesn't start off well, but judging from the fact there is an IMDB entry for The Lost World of the Kalahari, the film did get made in the end. I would be quite interested to see it having read the book, which starts off rather slowly (the expedition doesn't even reach the planning stages until chapter 4, and sets off in about chapter 7) and crams any actual Bushman encounters into the last chapter or two (I don't think this is a spoiler given the photos of Bushmen eithin the first few pages). It alludes to a second book covering the Bushmen in much more detail (especially their many stories and legends), although I'm not sure which of [a:Laurens van der Post|10374|Laurens van der Post|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1282469143p2/10374.jpg]'s books this would be.

This is the story of Kate, Mark, Alan and Mo, four orphans who become friends and are called to the world of Tír, which is linked to Earth through a portal.

The character development at the start of this book is superb and I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration of Tír and finding out some of its secrets (there are more to come I'm sure). However, the end of the book meshed into one big battle - I think there were actually about three - and I felt these dragged on a little too long.

I should also point out that I knew where the book was heading, having read the second one first, which might have made the battles less exciting (are they going to survive? Yes they are because I remember them popping up in [b:The Tower of Bones|16003050|The Tower of Bones|Frank P. Ryan|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347371846s/16003050.jpg|21765753]...). Overall I thought the second book held the story better, although I need to re-read it now I understand what is going on (it doesn't really work as a standalone).

If you are a fan of unusual fantasy worlds then this book is definitely worth checking out.

My copy was kindly provided by the author.