Orconomics – Enjoyment Go Up

I have been aware of Orconomics, by J. Zachary Pike, for a while now. I have been following Mark Lawrence’s self-published blog-off for years, and we were even asked to be reviewers once. The competition has been my introductory point for numerous great series over the years, but it has also introduced me to a number of books I did not enjoy. As such, I have become much more selective in the self-published reads I check out over time. But, when I was in the mood to read something humorous, I decided to finally give this book a shot and discovered I had been sleeping on an absolute powerhouse. I loved this book.

Orconomics takes place in a world very similar to ours (Arth), but the careers are much more about going out and stabbing the bad guys as opposed to working a desk job. Somehow, though, both have that horrible corporate dread that you are making the world a worse place. The Heroes’ Guild of Arth has turned adventuring into a career, selling the rights to monsters’ hoards of treasure as equity to those with the capital to buy them. Corporations spend immense sums to buy stocks in quests, hedging that they’ll reap the profits in plundered funds when the loot is divvied up. But capitalism is an undying engine that consumes everything in its path in its sole-minded zealotry to make the line go up, and bad guys with hordes are a finite commodity.

In the hot seat for this hilarious tale is the famous(ly) disgraced Dwarven berserker Gorm Ingerson. An iconic has-been who ruined his name running from a quest, Gorm has been living the low life for over twenty years since a single quest went wrong and ruined his name, getting him fired and blacklisted from the heroes guild. That is, until Gorm is presented with an interesting choice: join a suicidal quest for a mad god with an unreliable prophecy and get his hero job reinstated, or be killed in a back alley. After careful consideration, Gorm chooses to keep his blood inside him and joins a dysfunctional party of psychos, which doesn’t make him feel great about his chance. But there’s more to Gorm’s new job than an insane prophecy; powerful corporations and governments have shown an unusual interest in the job. You can be sure that if it is something that corporations are keen on, it can’t be good news.

This book is very clever, and I am struggling to find a way to put into words how impressed I am with it. The juxtaposition between the real-world terrors of corporate capitalism and this fantasy world is incredible, and the allegory feels completely seamless. The narrative is just so sharp, even before you start to work in the humor and wit. It somehow manages to be silly, serious, irreverent, heavy, and funny all at the same time. Orconomics is a book where all of the pieces simply come together to make a perfect larger whole, and I am so happy I finally got to read it. I suspect that this will not be a 10/10 for some people, but for those who have gazed into the hellscape that is capitalism and desire nothing more than to cut off its head with a sword: this is something you will really enjoy.

Getting into the specifics: the characters are fabulous. Pike puts together a slate of rogues, good and bad, that I adored immediately. The characterization is phenomenal and the chemistry is synthesized with a science I can only envy. The dialogue is punchy and fun, with the book making me laugh out loud consistently. The party plays off of each other very well, and the world and plot are set up to deliver funny joke after smart observation over and over again. The pacing is extremely fast, in a way that is both entertaining to read and designed to not let you overthink where things are going. This results in several satisfying twists and reversals that up the excitement of the read immensely.

Most of all, this book made me smile for almost all of its 350 pages. And when it wasn’t making me smile it was making me cry or filling me with a burning rage that inspired me to look harder at how I engage with a capitalist society. The commentary here isn’t revolutionary, if you are familiar with anti-capitalist rhetoric, you are not going to learn anything you don’t already know. Yet I have never seen the messaging so effectively worked into a piece so seamlessly. The result is something that is fun but with some real weight behind it.

I loved Orconomics. I ordered the second two books in The Dark Profit Saga the moment I finished the first book. I cannot wait to read them. This is one of the best books I have read recently, and the fact that it was self-published only makes it even more impressive. If you like anything I have been saying, don’t sleep on this gem like I did.

Rating: Orconomics – 9.5/10
-Andrew