Chronicles of the Black Company

Ok, since I don’t have Mr. Greg’s reviewing skills I’ma keep it short and simple! This is like somebody gave the guy who wrote this book a fucking Minigun and loaded with bullets of awesomeness and told him to aim directly in to my brainand then the mother fucker went trigger happy! This is good shit! I read it twice in a fucking row!


It got it all! Awesome wizards, kick ass villains, drama, action, more action and more drama! And the hottest villain ever!!! EVER!!! I have a crush with The Lady now! I love this mother fucking book!
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This is the collected first three books of Glen Cook's "Black Company" series, chronicling the adventures of a famous mercenary company in grim world threatened by all sorts of darkness. Although the series was continued, the first three books are an effectively self-contained trilogy.

I first read them in college. And back then (so long ago!) they seemed terribly dark - almost unbearably so. How times have changed; compared to some of the torture-porn that's being put out under the fantasy and science fiction labels, the Black Company seems almost as tame a Curious George.*

Well, not really. But it is much less horrible than I remembered, in retrospect. It's also much better than I remembered. While not necessarily a deathless classic of the genre, the books are very well written, well-paced, and exciting. Yes, there is some darkness, but this series would be a good addition to the library of any fantasy fan from mid-teen to adult. And if my memory serves me, the Black Company books did break new ground in fantasy, extending the "dark" trend previously exemplified in Michael Moorcock's Elric books.

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* - I'm talking about you, David Wingrove: you should be in prison, along with Jack Chalker's corpse and some of the contributors to the Wild Cards series. ( )

3 & 1/2 heading for 4 stars. includes the first three Black Company books: The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose. starts slow, and then as the story widens and deepens, becomes engrossing. a curious combination of a contemporary-sounding story and a mythic landscape, in an arena of endless war. easy to see why Steven Erikson loves it, and built on the way it changed the perception of what you could due with a classic epic fantasy. and that's some evolution arc for an Evil Queen. ( )

A mercenary, paramilitary group battles for, and then against, an empire led by the immortal Lady and her wizard commanders.

Why I picked it up: I read Matter of Time and thought it was OK, but Mike and Mary mentioned how much they liked Glen Cook. I borrowed a ratty copy of this from another library, then sought out a cleaner copy for my Kindle.

Why I finished it: Despite the pulp environment, there's some strong writing here: decent characterization with long arcs, inventive narrative structures, thematic complexity. Just heady enough that I don't feel embarrassed settling in and letting the plot carry me along.

I'd give it to: Anyone looking for more military in the fantasy epics, or fantasy in their military sagas. ( )

The Annals, currently kept by physician Croaker, are the history of the Black Company. Feared and hated, the mercenaries are often bloody, deadly and crude, but have an honorable streak as well. Croaker is charged with the Company's memory - when mercenaries fall, no one but their brethren remember them. When the Company is manipulated into taking a new contract with the Lady and her Taken, little do they know how many years and countless casualties their deal will cost them.

Epic fantasy in the very best sense. Cook has a knack for putting sentences together in a way that forces you to read the meaning between the lines. ( )