The Company is still headed south, still headed for its roots, and still trying to survive. As always, the core characters seem to survive, and add new dedicated members as they go. This one starts to bog down a bit as the enemies multiply, and the purpose of the company kind of wavers, but this is still good stuff. ( )

Perhaps the weakest of the Black Company series. The Lady, her kid, and lots of action with local politics and the rise and antics of a thug or thuggee type cult of assassins and their death goddess worship. They want to use and/or worship this child to bring about really bad things. Naturally most other people oppose this vehemently and violently.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2006/11... ( )

Mama Don't Allow No Foot Stomping Here.: After four volumes in which she has played a major, is somewhat silent, part the inevitable has occurred. With Croaker missing in action after the disastrous battle for Degajore and presumed dead, Lady has taken over. Welcome to Dreams of Steel -- Lady's own book. Once a cruel empress and once of the most powerful wizards of the north she is the now leader of that part of the Black Company that did not get trapped in the city. It is up to her to rally and bring the battle back to the shadowmasters.

Just as important as the struggle for Degajore is the introduction of several new characters. In fact, a whole sect of new characters -- the Stranglers, who are more than a little reminiscent of the thuggee. Instead of Kali their goddess is called Kina, but she is just as many-armed and malevolent as her equivalent in this world. Somewhere she sleeps while her followers dedicate their kills to her and work to bring about the Year of Skulls. Now one of the leaders of this sect, Narayan Singh, has attached himself to Lady. She sees an opportunity to use Kina's followers to further the goals of the Black Company regardless of whether the Stranglers might have an agenda of their own.

Nothing in this volume is as it seems. The story picks up some twists that are unusual, even for a Cook novel. Enough to keep the story interesting and convolute. Followers of the series will actually find little difference between Lady as narrator and Croaker. Her established character isn't one that would come naturally to being an annalist, so Cook defaults to his regular style. The result is that this volume works as well as its predecessors and has none of the weaknesses of the next few narrators. I found the book enjoyable, although the end is a little chaotic and sudden.

Lady just doesn't make an exciting narrator. The book starts fairly slow, and the Company itself doesn't ever feature much. The parts I looked forward to the most were those featuring Croaker, now relegated to third-person narrative for the first time in the series, which felt a little odd at first. Nevertheless, a decent entry in the series. The ending is incredibly abrupt, but taken with the time-hopping of the next book, it doesn't seem that out of place. ( )

The narration switches to a new character as our old narrator is temporary indisposed. I don't enjoy Lady's perspective quite as well as Croaker's, but I don't object enough to fault the book. The ending, however, is a fault...abrupt and uneven. ( )