James Nicoll Reviews

2023’s Dragonfired is the third installment in J. Zachary Pike’s Dark Profit secondary-universe fantasy series.

Good has triumphed over evil and the universally acclaimed hero Johan is king! His beloved Marja is queen! All shall celebrate! The humans and other Lightling races because they’re on board with Johan’s glorious plans (or at least the version Johan is sharing). The gnolls, trolls, and other Darkling races pretend to celebrate because the price of open dissent is death.

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2018’s Son of a Liche is the second installment in J. Zachary Pike’s Dark Profit Saga.

Dwarf adventurer Gorm’s quest in Orconomics: A Satire was something of a mixed success. Well, more of a catastrophic failure: the orcs of Guz’Varda Tribe befriended by Gorm and his friends dropped their guard and were massacred by gold-hungry humans; two of Gorm’s friends died; and the party was unjustly branded as criminals by the government of the Freedlands. 

The only up-note was that Gorm and company dealt the Liche Detarr Ur’Mayan a resounding defeat.

Well, less a resounding defeat and more a minor set-back. Cue the undead legions carving their way across the continent. 

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2014’s Orconomics: A Satire is the first volume in J. Zachary Pike’s Dark Profit Saga.

Disgraced dwarf berserker Gorm Ingerson is woken from his latest drunken bender by an adventurer doing his best to kill a terrified goblin. Gorm beats the adventurer to a pulp and takes his stuff. 

Rather than killing the defenseless goblin out of hand, as tradition dictates, Gorm takes the goblin, Gleebek, to the great city of Andarun to get its Non-Combatant Papers. It’s an act of charity that attracts just the wrong sort of attention.

Soon after arriving in Andarun, Gorm gets an offer he cannot refuse.

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