More Black COmpany stories. Cook starts to wander a little o the journey south, but sets up the story line for Glittering Stones in doing so. ( )

It's true that these stories aren't up to the standard of the excellent original trilogy. The Black Company's past wasn't something we desperately needed to know; and in fact one of Cook's strengths as a fantasy writer was how little time he spent on world building throughout the first three novels. Cook could simply have carried on the story of The Black Company by having another annalist write about the adventures of the Company during his own times. We didn't need *this*.

But, criticism aside, these stories are still a darn good read. Sure, there are problems with characters coming back and characters missing from the original. But these tales are just a lot of fun to read and, really, that's the most important thing.

It is annoying though that this collection only begins the tale of the Black Company in the south. I suppose we'll have to wait for the next omnibus to reprint the remaining four volumes so we can see how it all ends. ( )

Obviously a case of the author and publisher milking a popular series to death. The first three Black Company novels were very good, collected together in Chronicles of the Black Company. The three books in this omnibus have nowhere near the quality, sense of humor, or plotting of the first three. People who were good and truly dead in Chronicles are suddenly alive again, for no apparent reason, other than to make the author some quick bucks. There was a real over-arching plot driving the first three; here, it just feels like some bad guys were whipped up out of thin air, to provide a reason for bloody battles. The wit is gone, the joyfulness is missing...all the fun bits (the wizards zapping each other, for example) are MIA here. A very pedestrian, boring omnibus. I didn't even bother with "The Silver Spike," as I really didn't want to see Raven turned into an alcoholic mooning after the insipidly-named Darling. No more Cook for me, I'm afraid. ( )