So far, definitely the best fantasy series I have ever read. Amazing for a book written in the early 80s!
It starts a little slow and confusing, since it uses a new setting and completely new characters, but then everything starts to fall into place in surprising ways - and some of the known (anti)heroes gradually show up to interfere with the apparently independent events. The psychological evolution of the main character (Shed) is extremely credible, well-done and fulfilling, the events evolve in surprising and captivating ways, the bigger picture is skilfully drawn-up, the very dark atmosphere succeeds in creating a grim and oppressive feeling.
It is a great mystery, noir and espionage book, less so a war one (similar to the first, it has very little actual combat for what is supposed to be a military fantasy).
I have just 2 minor complains: the first will probably get twists/changed in the next books (the side the Company goes to in the end, I disliked that); and the writing, which is very straight forward, with an endless stream of very short sentences (I find that tiring, not to mention unartistic - no Gene Wolfe here). Still, the great story gets through despite the unpolished style, and is so good that it creates an addiction: I feel I have no choice now but to read the next books in the series, as soon as possible (good thing I already have all 9 of them).
Highly recommended for grimdark fans. ( )

Glen Cook was already an experienced writer when he published The Black Company in May 1984: I counted 9 novels. The Black Company would spawn 11 novels and a bunch of short fiction. Shadows Linger, the second book of the first trilogy, appeared a few months later in October. That same year Cook also published The Fire in His Hands, which started the Dread Empire series.

In 1985, when the third Black Company title appeared, Cook put out no less than 6 novels. Most of those seem to have gotten only one print run in the 80ies, and yet around 2010 Night Shade Books did reprint them.

That might be on the strength of The Black Company: the series that had a profound influence on Steven Erikson and The Mazalan Book of the Fallen. Cook was a very busy writer, but so far The Black Company remains very, very readable. I enjoyed Shadows Linger a lot.

Most of what I’ve written in my review of the first book holds for this sequel too. And yet this is a different book altogether.

Mind you: it is not different in quality or appeal. Cook still deploys solid prose & snappy writing, and spoon feeds nothing. The pacing is excellent, and there’s no frills or attention to immersive details – demonish enemies are just referred to as “creatures” and Cook doesn’t waste pages nor paragraphs explaining how they look: they are creatures, they are dark, and they attack. It’s a breath of fresh air in today’s fat fantasy market. More importantly: it gives the reader agency.

(...)

Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It ( )

Despite forgetting all but the most major plot points from the Black Company (I read a lot of books in 2016, it's not Glen Cook's fault), I do remember that being a hard read. I don't know if it's because I read it in print, or just that Cook's economy of word choice means that you can't skim and know what's going on. But I got a omnibus ebook of the Books of the North, so I mostly read Shadows Linger on my phone. It went a lot quicker than the first book! One reason is definitely chapter length - there are 7 chapters in the first, and 49 in the second - with probably 50 pages of difference in length. Ironically, breaking it up made it much quicker for me.

The scope of the book is also a lot more narrow. Enough of the old plot points were revisited for me to have an idea of old stakes, and I think the new stakes were much better communicated. Some of this is probably a symptom of sequelitis. If the third book resolves the White Rose plot, it'll be fine. But since I've heard this series is legendarily long, I'm wary.

I didn't like all of the additions - I didn't think Shed or Asa had much to redeem themselves, though that's probably most of the point of the setting. But unrelenting cowardice just gets really tedious. It was way better back in Croaker's point of view. The Black Company is a way more compelling set of characters, too. But that's only about half of the book.

I think I would have liked a few more battles, too. It's pretty obviously meant to be some kind of military fantasy, and Shed's POV got in the way of a lot of that too.

I'll finish off the Books of the North sometime in the next few years. This stuff is dark fantasy but way more accessible than Malazan. ( )

The second Black Company novel surprised me with a much more traditional structure than the first one had (two converging, focused plotlines), which might perhaps have made the reading experience a tad less idiosyncratic, but in no way weaker. A chilling, magical mystery, some great character arcs and a plotline that was usually hard to predict. Two thumbs up. Only minor flaw is that the ending felt less like a proper ending than the first one's did, but I sort of expect that in the middle installment of any trilogy. ( )

This started a little slow but once it picked up it didn't stop. Really enjoyed how the plot developed and thought it built well on the first book. ( )