The True Bastards
core novel 2019 The Lot Lands
Record
| First published | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.15 (3,584 ratings, collected 2026-08-25) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780525572480 |
Synopsis
This sequel to The Grey Bastards follows Fetching, a half-orc leader who becomes the first woman to head a hoof of half-orc riders, after the events of the first novel leave her band's fortress destroyed and its numbers badly depleted. Struggling with starvation and a dwindling, demoralized following in the lawless badlands of Ul-wundulas, Fetching must find a way to keep her fractured hoof together while facing down rival half-orc chieftains who resent being led by a woman. She contends as well with a mysterious illness she works to hide from her followers, supernatural threats prowling the wastes, and human forces intent on wiping out the free-riding hoofs altogether. The novel follows Fetching's efforts to unite quarreling factions and hold her people's territory before these converging dangers overwhelm them.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Lot Lands
- Series: The Lot Lands core; position 2 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Jonathan French
Notes
- From the series record (The Lot Lands): Core = the 3-novel trilogy. The Grey Bastards was originally self-published in 2015, won that year's Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off, and was substantially revised for its 2018 Crown/Penguin Random House edition; the original 2015 publication year is recorded here as first publication per this project's print-edition convention, with the revision noted rather than treated as a separate work.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Lot Lands: position 2 of 3: previous The Grey Bastards (2015) · next The Free Bastards (2021)
Sources
- Reader-rating platform series page: The Lot Lands
- Publisher listing: The Free Bastards (Penguin Random House)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_French_(author)
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