Like some of the other reviewers, I wasn't really sure how this was fantasy or science fiction, as it could have been as easily set in our world after one of the many wars of the 19th century. Overall, the book felt not fully fleshed out- all the characters were stark in their one-dimensionality, and the world building felt woefully incomplete- why should I care about this great big war that is supposed to inform all the characters and their actions, when there is almost no information given about it?

There were momentary flashes of humor, like when the men are forced to take wives in a cattle market sort of ceremony, but overall, it was a dark and rather depressing read, especially after the group moves to the island and begins their troubles with the hired servants over the gold, and then tries to take on the government. A very grim book, overall. ( )

As the cover says: The War is Never Over. Which leads me to think there just may be a second book in the pipeline. I hope so. The Company could be set in a not so distant past or future. A group of war veterans demonstrates the loyalty bred in battle, the strengths and weaknesses of each and the bond between men. I liked the strong individuality of each character and the unique minimal verbal exchanges between the men and everyone else which tended to place the Company outside the small society, present but not a part of it. All in all a good book.

"K.J. Parker's latest effort, The Company, has received high marks from people whose opinions I hold in high esteem. Unfortunately, I did not find it nearly as impressive as most did....This book's fatal flaw, in my opinion, is not that the project to colonize the island ultimately fails, it's that the company's history doesn't really affect the characters in their present endeavor except in rather static ways. Let me try to explain. The way Parker intersperses tales of the past in the main story suggests that the history retold will have some great impact on the present. But it really doesn't, other than in the sense that one guy's rather selfish and and another makes a cowardly decision and these facts cause the group to fail to get along. But this isn't a product of the company's history per se; it's a product of the fact that one guy is kind of selfish and another could sometimes be a coward. Since these historical anecdotes figured so prominently in the story but didn't really serve that much of a functional purpose, the result is a rather large letdown."

Read the rest of this review at Speculative Fiction Junkie ( )

I'm not really sure why this book is categorized as fantasy. The location doesn't exist, the monetary system is different, and the military uses swords rather than guns, but I think of fantasy as having magical or, well, fantastic elements, and this doesn't. At times it actually felt more like it was a post-Vietnam novel more than anything else.

The characters are all very one dimensional and there are a lot of them. The only first tier character that was easy to keep straight was the main character and eventually, the sort of second in command. Muri eventually distinguished himself as a character but of the other two characters there would be "the guy who owns the farm" and the other one and I'd still confuse them.

Although the women were almost afterthoughts, I could at least distinguish most of them, although I couldn't remember who they were married to.

Only one of the 10 characters had any good qualities to speak of. I'm not sure if we were supposed to think that loyalty is enough of a good quality or if Parker really didn't want any of the other characters to have anything the reader could identify with or like about the characters. Even loyalty which is normally a good quality isn't one in this story.

The men all served in the war together and 4 of the 5 got out of the service and went on with their lives. When the fifth shows up he tells them all they're moving to an island to start a colony and they go with him out of loyalty. The problem is that we're told for a long time that there's this loyal bond between them but it's not until much later we see through flashbacks how that bond (theoretically) was formed. Unfortunately, even the flashbacks lack conviction or depth of emotion. It's more like they were thrown together by circumstance and stayed together because it was easier than not doing so.

The main character's motivation has to do with reclaiming a farm his family lost as a child. Unfortunately, Parker seems to think that motivation is the same thing as personality. All of the characters seem somewhat disconnected from reality. Early on the main character tells another character that, given the chance, he would have murdered the other character's entire family when they were all in the war and doesn't get why the other character is upset.

None of the characters want to take responsibility for anything. None of them will admit that they made mistakes or when they're in the wrong. Most of the characters who went home after the war never really amounted to anything.

The characters were shallow and the story was shallow. ( )

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