The Black Company (The Chronicle of the Black Company, #1) by Glen Cook

Jun 30, 2012 mark monday rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantastickal

i thought this book was great. a strange kind of modern classic, one that influenced many other fantasy efforts by ushering in the genuine darkness, grittiness, and lack of wonder of the military novel. the writing is direct, unadorned, choppy - a soldier's perspective, i suppose. the novel jumps right in the middle of the action and makes no attempt to help readers out, assuming that they will eventually catch up. experiencing the lack of poetry and of justice, the anonymity of most of the sold...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Nancy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-fantasy, waste-of-trees, abandoned, military-war

After 75 pages, I've come to the conclusion that life is too short to waste reading bad books. Positive praise and reviews caused me to bring the book home against my best judgement. The first-person style, lack of character depth, stupid names, inane dialogue and juvenile prose have caused me to abandon the book in frustration. Good thing I read Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History before giving up on the military fantasy genre altogether.

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Jun 11, 2011 Carol rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Carol by: FA

Shelves: fantasy, action, male-lead, classic

Three stars; ultimately it's just not my kind of book.

As far as plot, it mostly consists of a series of encounters for the Black Company, starting with getting out of their current contract and accepting employment from the Lady. I don't mind this style of plot in my books, but not everyone may enjoy.

The pacing of the story was uneven at best. Mostly the narrative stopped on plot points germane to their particular tasks for the Lady, but occasionally it takes time to linger on company dynamics....more

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Apr 02, 2013 MrsJoseph rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to MrsJoseph by: Tracey

Shelves: 100-books-in-2011, fantasy, fantasy-epic, fantasy-aficionados-group-read, format-paperback, series, series-to-build, fantasy-sword-and-sorcery, military-fiction

The Black Company is a hard book to summarize, so here I borrowed the blurb from GR:

Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hardbitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead. Until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her....

The Black Company – an elite m...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Ian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: action, classics, dark-fantasy, war, pulp

I've heard this described as "Vietnam War fiction on peyote" and I think that's a pretty accurate description. This is wild, dark, bleak stuff and deserves its reputation as a fantasy classic. While other writers had done a marvelous job of plumbing the depths of gritty, amoral fantasy (Robert E. Howard & Jack Vance spring immediately to mind), Cook seems to have been the first to focus on the fortunes of the rank-and-file rather than the great heroes and rulers and magicians.

The Black Comp...more I've heard this described as "Vietnam War fiction on peyote" and I think that's a pretty accurate description. This is wild, dark, bleak stuff and deserves its reputation as a fantasy classic. While other writers had done a marvelous job of plumbing the depths of gritty, amoral fantasy (Robert E. Howard & Jack Vance spring immediately to mind), Cook seems to have been the first to focus on the fortunes of the rank-and-file rather than the great heroes and rulers and magicians.

The Black Company books focus on the trials and travails of an order of amoral mercenaries who are eventually enlisted to fight on the side of the greatest evil the world has ever known. Once an order of proud black warriors (hence their name), they have fallen on hard times: their numbers are dwindling, the commissions they receive are beneath them, and there are only two black men left in the entire Company. All of the other great mercenary companies that once served the civilized world have long since died out or disbanded, and the Black Company seems destined to continue purely as a refuge for wanted criminals and lost souls. All they have left is their own particular code of honor, a refusal to abandon a cause for which they are being paid to fight. So when the terrible Lady and her dark envoys, the Ten-Who-Were-Taken, offer the Black Company a new commission -- helping her put down the rebels who oppose her inexorable conquest of the Northern lands -- the Company is torn between fear and cautious optimism. Once they sign on to help the Lady they will be honor-bound to fulfill their contract and thus honor-bound to serve an empire dedicated to the subjugation of all free peoples and ruled by a team of grotesque, centuries-old sorcerers. But this new job could bring them a chance at renewed glory or, at the least, financial solvency and new recruits. In the end, out of desperation and resignation, the Company takes the commission.

The story here is told by "Croaker", who is both the Company's resident medic (hence his name) and Annalist. He is the latest in the Company's long line of record-keepers, chronicling their success and their failures, and ensuring that the those of the Company stay in touch with the traditions and history that bind them together as an order; he also ensures that no member of the Company will ever be forgotten. He takes his jobs seriously, because without him the men of the Company are both physically and metaphorically lost. Through his eyes we see the rise of the Black Company under the auspices of the Lady, but we also see the wages of war. Death, torture, rape, brainwashing, and looting are just the beginning.

I've hard a couple of complaints about this book. The first is that the author's descriptions of the battle scenes are too short, too sparse. That's very true, but I think that complaint ignores the fact that this is a story told in first-person by a non-combatant who is more interested in the facts than in poetry, and who cares more about who survives and who dies than who ultimately does what in which way. Cook's rendering of Croaker's account of the Black Company's work is completely in keeping with the character he has created.

I've also heard people complain about the lack of "real" names in the story. This is a very distinctive feature of the world which Cook has created, and if you expect to get lots of "Legolases" and "Valanars" and "Rundoroons" well, you're going to be disappointed. The men of the Company give up their birth names when they join the Company, receiving new names as a result of their actions or distinctive features or ranks or the whims of their new comrades ("One-Eye", "Goblin", "Silent", "Lieutenant", "Elmo", etc.) and that actually helps to bind them together -- the Company is a new family for its members, and the new name is both a sign of acceptance into the order and of forsaking one's previous life. It's also a measure of protection. The Ten-Who-Were-Taken and the Rebel leaders all have name-titles ("Soulcatcher", "the Howler", "Raker", "Feather", etc.) because, as in so many magical systems, knowledge of your True Name makes you vulnerable to your enemies, especially when you and your enemies are both magic-wielders. It's even implied that the Ten's names are concealed from everyone, including themselves, when they are "Taken" to ensure that only the Lady (or her husband) can hold that degree of influence over them.

Clearly I am a fan. But while i do feel that this book has a lot to recommend it, I'm also aware that it's not perfect. The author does his best to have the characters speak in what we might consider "real" or "modern" English, replete with slang; this is refreshing given that the characters are mostly from lower-class and criminal backgrounds, but it doesn't always work. There are several incongruous and anachronistic linguistic elements, references to uniquely modern or American things, which betray the fact that Cook was relatively new to the business of writing fantasy fiction. What is more, the third chapter was previously featured in a magazine and, while it was apparently adapted for inclusion in this book, its origin as an independent short story still shows. Characters, events, facts, and features of the setting, all of which were introduced in the previous two chapters, are re-introduced and there is a persistent feeling that this third chapter was originally intended to be the first.

Overall, I'd say that Cook gets off to a rough but promising start in his first "Black Company" book. I'm looking forward to the reading the next volume.(less)

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May 05, 2011 Tracey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, mercenaries

I finished; I was glad; some questions were answered; I guessed right about a major plot point (which wasn't exactly a huge feat of mental brilliance, since (view spoiler) ...

Plot
I thought it was, for quite a few chapters, almost plot-less; it followed the Black Company on its travels, with no real beginning or middle to the story: it was a series of events. By the end a pattern became clearer,...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read the text version of this book some years ago (so long I'd pretty much forgotten the story). This is the set up for the saga as the Company fights in service to The Lady (a seemingly nasty piece of work who's almost the epitome of evil...almost.)

I'm pretty sure that the Black Company would exemplify "anti heroes" here. nasty fighters a mercenary company made up of the good, bad and ugly (with the good being in the decided minority.) The company has a long and....well "illustrious" isn't a...more

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May 25, 2011 Lady Danielle aka The Book Huntress rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of military/dark epic fantasy

Shelves: fantasy, owned-copy, part-of-a-series, soldier-or-military, medical-profession, wizard-warlock-sorcerer, epic-fantasy, favorites, antihero, fantasy-aficionados-may-read

It’s amazing how well military and fantasy seemed to mesh in this story. The Black Company is an elite mercenary unit that holds two values sacred: Committing fully to any commission they take on, and watching out for their fellow members, their brothers in the unit. This unit consists of hardened fighting men, some of whom happen to be wizards, and our narrator, Croaker, who is the annalist (records the history of the unit) and the doctor of the unit.

The world they live in is plagued by war bet...more It’s amazing how well military and fantasy seemed to mesh in this story. The Black Company is an elite mercenary unit that holds two values sacred: Committing fully to any commission they take on, and watching out for their fellow members, their brothers in the unit. This unit consists of hardened fighting men, some of whom happen to be wizards, and our narrator, Croaker, who is the annalist (records the history of the unit) and the doctor of the unit.

The world they live in is plagued by war between the Rebels and those who serve the Lady. After leaving their present commission for a minor potentate in Beryl (a dead end that could have ended up with them all dead had they not found a way to ‘honorably’ terminate their employment), they take a commission with one of the twelve extremely scary Taken (a cabal of undead wizards who serve the Lady), an androgynous figure called Soulcatcher. Soulcatcher has the tendency to speak in various voices, male and female, sometimes at the same time. The Company knows there is something not right about Soulcatcher. Soulcatcher is probably evil. But for the Black Company, they don’t look at morals that way. Their greatest ethical commitment is to put in a good day’s work for their present employer. The problem is this job is going to take them into really nasty places, and cause some of the men of the Black Company to reevaluate their morals for serving their questionable employer, particularly Croaker.

The writing style in this story appealed to me, with a brisk narrative that managed to convey exactly what I needed to know. The humor is subtle, and the depiction of violence is done very well—not excessively gory, but clearly expressing the ugly nature of war. As I mentioned above, the fantasy elements went hand and hand with this military adventure. The use of magic was a weapon used by both sides in the military conflict. The wizards in the Company were quite the characters, often having competitive showdowns with each other that were great comic relief.

I appreciated the time spent to bring the characters to life. Although these are guys who work for pretty much anyone who can pay for them, I felt that they were honorable men in their own way. Croaker was a good narrative choice, because he was a seasoned soldier who had seen a lot, and pondered what he experiences in a way that brings the reader right into the narrative, along for the ride. He'd been in the business too long to be morally righteous in the traditional sense; but there were things that he and the guys in his unit definitely wouldn’t stand for. Croaker would be one of the first to admit that most of his brothers sit at various points on the evil spectrum. But there is evil, and there is worse evil, as they soon come to find out. The problem is trying to figure out which side is worse.

Another standout character in this story was Raven. He was, well, scary, but tremendously fascinating. A man who joins their unit shortly after they take on the commission with Soulcatcher, he is driven initially by revenge. A formidable killer who scares even the hardened men of the unit, but with a sense of honor that causes him to intervene when another group of soldiers murder a village of children, and gang-rape a nine year old girl. That girl and her grandfather essentially become part of the unit, and Raven becomes like a surrogate dad to the little girl called Darling. This unlikely adoption of a mute little girl and her grandfather adds to the rag-tag family atmosphere of the Company, as they all end up becoming fond of the girl and her grandfather.

Shades of gray. This story is definitely about that spectrum between black and white. It touches on the fact that war is more often the means through which figures in power work out their political squabbles, and less about doing the ‘right thing’ or righting wrongs. And the puppets of their war are working men, getting paid to fight their battles. That doesn’t erase their individual responsibilities for the wrongs they do, and they carry those burdens in the ways they can best manage. But at some point, one has to wonder when it’s time to walk way, to save what’s left of one’s own soul. That’s what Croaker struggles with.

I like that fantasy can go to these places that I wouldn’t necessarily explore out of the fiction setting. The military life is not one I would choose for myself. However, I respect those in the military a lot. Like any profession, a soldier has his own set of ethics and rules, and the good and the bad that goes along with his job. Cook illustrated the inns and outs of military campaigns very well here, the grueling days and nights, and how war isn’t always some crazy, dramatic battle. Sometimes it’s about the long waiting, the even longer marches, and the deprivation when supplies are down, losing men faster than they can be saved, and digging in while the Company is surrounded by the enemy. And everyone has their part to play in the conflict, even if it’s just cannon fodder (sadly enough).

I’m on a roll. I’ve liked most of the epic fantasy I’ve read so far. But this one stands out with its military esthetic, which was done very well. I read this story out of an omnibus collection of The Chronicles of the Black Company, and I’m glad I went ahead and bought it because I want to read more of the Black Company’s adventures.
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Nov 14, 2012 Daniel Roy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, fantasy, br-bookclub

Boy, this is one dark book. It's grim, gritty, and dripping with pain and viscera. It's the perfect antidote to all that high fantasy filled with beautiful people having sex between dragon battles. If it were a person, it would stare at people at parties and make them uncomfortable with its facial third degree burns.

Pullitzer-winning war journalist Chris Hedges, in War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, explains how war as we perceive it is a patriotic fantasy that has very little to do with the...more Boy, this is one dark book. It's grim, gritty, and dripping with pain and viscera. It's the perfect antidote to all that high fantasy filled with beautiful people having sex between dragon battles. If it were a person, it would stare at people at parties and make them uncomfortable with its facial third degree burns.

Pullitzer-winning war journalist Chris Hedges, in War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, explains how war as we perceive it is a patriotic fantasy that has very little to do with the grim, senseless phenomenon experienced by those who live through it. As Hedges explains, there are no heroes and villains in war, just human souls bruised by fear, anger, and a disturbing thirst for violence. At times, The Black Company feels like a fantasy take on this very idea. There are no heroes, here, only villains: some of them know their villainy, while others struggle to come to terms with their role while they watch their own despair.

The characters of the eponymous Black Company are by no means fully realized and fleshed out, except perhaps for the narrator. But there are clear hints in the text that the story itself is a cipher; that the real darkness lingers below the surface of the tale, that the material that the narrator omits is as relevant as what he leaves in his story. That, ultimately, is where characterization shines in The Black Company: not in individual characters, but in the whole tapestry of war, the story of ordinary men whose souls are slowly eroded by the conflicts in which they participate. No wonder the series has many devoted fans in the military.

The magical elements of the setting also reflect this sense of despair in the face of an overwhelming force. The Taken, a group of sorcerers on the same side as the Company in the conflict, each reflect the horrors of war in their own way. There's Soulcatcher, perhaps an allegory for the way patriotism and History eventually steal your soul for its own nefarious purposes when you die. There's the Limper, and the Hanged Man, and the Howler (referring to PTSD, perhaps?). And then there's the boss of them all: the Lady, every man's romantic ideal, the woman of your dreams, the most evil of them all. She takes heroes on the other side, and abuses them so much that she turns them into one of her broken and sinister generals.

I have to say, as much as I enjoyed this book, I'm not sure I'm interested in the sequels. The book functioned as a tableau, a powerful fantasy allegory for War and the damages it inflicts. As the details of the conflict became more specific, as the Black Company began to engage in a conflict with clear sides (albeit both equally nasty) instead of a mere senseless conflict, I felt the allegory weaken. And the problem is, none of the characters are truly appealing as protagonists. Oh, they're fascinating, sure, but they're so brutish and lost to their own hearts that you can't even feel for them as anti-heroes.

Word of warning: don't read this book if you can't handle, say, straightforward talk and depiction of wartime child rape. It might be fantasy, but it's brutal and bleak storytelling, with no breaks for fresh air. If you find the strength to read through, you'll find a troubling, rewarding story unlike anything in fantasy. A Game of Thrones, for all its sex and gore, romanticizes violence and rape; The Black Company merely tells it like it is, existential pain and all.(less)

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May 10, 2013 Hannah (Jaedia) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: epic-fantasy, fantasy, fiction

First published on Once Upon A Time.

The Black Company was first published in 1984 and one of the first of its' kind, influencing such fantasy authors as Steven Erikson. Yet somehow, I hadn't heard of it until it was chosen as the Fantasy Faction Book Club's book of choice for February. As it's described as being a dark and gritty epic fantasy, as well as such an influential novel, I went ahead and found a decently priced second hand copy of the omnibus to join in.

It is a story about a company of...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Christopher rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 11, 2012 jD rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2_audio-book, 2012, fantasy_adventure_worldbuilding, fantasy_myths, fantasy_strange

I actually did not know what to expect from this series. I was not familiar with the author or the series but it was on my TBR pile for 2012 so I grabbed the audio book.

I found the story had many creative angles that grabbed me hard. The magic was pretty unique. The characters were what made the difference for me. The story is told from first person perspective. I would have loved a broader view and as a result, it did not reach its full potential for me. The world building was not consistently...more I actually did not know what to expect from this series. I was not familiar with the author or the series but it was on my TBR pile for 2012 so I grabbed the audio book.

I found the story had many creative angles that grabbed me hard. The magic was pretty unique. The characters were what made the difference for me. The story is told from first person perspective. I would have loved a broader view and as a result, it did not reach its full potential for me. The world building was not consistently creative. Most of the scenes were basic things I see every day. As with most fantasy, the story does not fit with a specific historical timeline. I knew by the lack of electricity and the use of horses for transportation that technology was not part of the mix.

The Black Company is basically a band of mercenaries that find themselves thrown into a complex God-war. This is where it gets tricky. The Lady is like a goddess who has champions who are basically demi-gods made from powerful wizards. Yes, made from. No one has actually seen The Lady but everyone agrees she is the big fish in the pond. Her champions are various levels of bad and were originally created by her husband who is a god she betrayed and buried for all time. He is still alive and trying to wake up. I suspect that will happen in a later book. There are 10 champions who are called The Falllen. They have names like The Limper and Soul Catcher. They have unique powers that are never really explained for the majority of the book. This annoyed me beyond measure. The Lady is being attacked by another group who seem to just want her gone. They have magic too and ‘bring it’ for the big battle at the end. Of course, I forgot what they called themselves. They were supposed to be the bad guys but since everyone was basically bad, I kept it moving and decided it would fall together at some point.

The Black Company is hired by Soul Catcher and thrown into a hot mess of strange magic, treachery, and bloodshed. While serving The Lady under the watchful eye of Soul Catcher, they come into a village that has been destroyed by The Lady's enemies. There they find a 9-year old girl who has brutalized. They take the child in and grow to love her. She doesn't speak but she doesn't have to. It's clear this child has an important role in how all of this will shake out.

When I got to the end of this audio book, I had mixed feelings. I wanted to go on to the next one but I am leery. There are a slew of books in this series. I am not feeling it to that level. On the other hand, I want to know more about these characters and The Lady. I also want to know what role Darling, the girl, will have on what is clearly an impressive power struggle. I have purchased the second book on audio and will get to it at some point. There was not a hard cliffhanger so I can wait awhile. I can't really recommend this series because I am not in love with it to that level. I don't know how enjoyable it would be to read. I would have skipped for sure. Also, it is very annoying how important details are just skimmed over as if you should already know. I kept wondering if there is a prequel that I don't know about. The author has more patience than me. Overall, there is some good stuff in there that just wasn’t delivered as well as it could have been. The characters are the catch. They are very interesting.
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Jan 17, 2008 Kirt rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's a good read. It involves an ancient and traditional mercenary company, The Black Company, trying to survive in a rather nasty fantasy world. It has an interesting combination of grittiness and wonder. The plot, involving the Company being employed by an ancient evil that turns out to be, in a lot of ways, the "lesser evil", is actually very predictable in spots.

But it's not the plot that makes the book readable: It's the characters in the Company itself, the colorful people for whom the Com...more

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Apr 03, 2008 Dfordoom rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-fantasy

The adventures of a company of warrior mercenaries in a medieval-type fantasy world, but told in what's presumably supposed to be a modern and grittily realistic manner, with the characters sounding like hard-bitten US marines in a bad Hollywood war movie. It's The Dirty Dozen in chainmail. This sort of thing can be done well, as in Mary Gentle's "Ash", but in "The Black Company" it becomes very tedious very fast. And whereas Mary Gentle actually knows about medieval warfare, this one gives the...more

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Feb 09, 2009 Bryce rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a very much grown-up book. It's also a bit of a downer because there are no good guys in the book. The protagonists are mercenaries who are enlisted into the service of the ultimate evil power in the world. The rebels who are fighting against the evil empire do many of the same atrocious things and are being manipulated by an even greater evil once banished from the world. The characters--even the protagonists--are completely desensitized to the great suffering around them. They simply w...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Series: 11/27/2005 5/10

The Black Company series' premise was very interesting - a gritty dark take on the ins and outs of a military company in a fantasy world. It didn't really live up to expectations though. I would've preferred to see more of the company rather than the focus on one individual. The series definitely has it's ups and downs. Some books are decent and others are pretty bad - it seemed to get worse as it went on. The plotting was pretty poor and the characters were one-dimensiona...more

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Feb 07, 2009 Art rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I randomly came across a very expensive Glen Cook hardcover in a bookstore, and the foreword mentioned the Black Company. I decided to try that first, cheap paperback and all. I got hooked, just like the author of that foreword said I would.

The Black Company is a group of mercenaries, called so because back in their early days they WERE a company of black-skinned men. They fight for whoever pays, and they will march through Hell and back to honor their contract. And in this story, they work for...more

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May 06, 2013 Gus rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book and the 9 that follow it are one of my all time favorite Fantasy Fiction series. The books in this series are the annals of a gritty band of mercenaries known as the Black Company. The annals are ostensibly the work of they physician and and official annalist of the band, and thus are effectively a first-person narration. (why a group of mercenaries should even have an annalist in the first place is a mystery until near the end of the series)

The Black Company starts out working for th...more

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Apr 10, 2013 H rated it 5 of 5 stars

Clever, morally-ambiguous mercenaries

I feel like there is a standard hero story in fantasy. A person, or a small group of friends, starts the story in a settled, complacent home. Their town gets attacked and they begin the quest. They acquire new powers and abilities and try them out. The whole story leads up to some climactic battle with the evil empire or a dark lord, and the heroes save the day and go home.

This is not that story.

Instead this story is about the henchmen of the dark lord

...more Clever, morally-ambiguous mercenaries

I feel like there is a standard hero story in fantasy. A person, or a small group of friends, starts the story in a settled, complacent home. Their town gets attacked and they begin the quest. They acquire new powers and abilities and try them out. The whole story leads up to some climactic battle with the evil empire or a dark lord, and the heroes save the day and go home.

This is not that story.

Instead this story is about the henchmen of the dark lord (or here, dark lady). The narrator is known as Croaker, the doctor and occasional officer for a band of resourceful mercenaries known as the Black Company. This perspective allows the reader to see the broad movements of armies and the results of individual actions in an epic clash of Evil and Good. Most of the characters in the story are either members of the band, virtuous but flawed generals of the armies of Good, or evil, bickering wizards under the Lady.

There are two elements that set this book apart from others I have read: the scale of the characters and the pacing of events. The Taken (the evil wizards) are described as being nearly impossible to kill, having almost god-like magical powers, and being able to destroy entire armies single-handedly, things which we see during the book. At the same time, Croaker meets or works with several of them throughout the book, so the reader spends more time seeing their flaws, feuds, motivations, and personalities. They spend more time stabbing each-other in the back then they do commanding the Lady's armies, almost like some cross between the Illiad and Game of Thrones.

The pacing of this book is also strange. The book is broken into parts of the war: the mercenaries sign a contract, their first raid, tricking one of the Good wizards, a retreat, etc. Each operation would be a couple of chapters, although there isn't much actual fighting. At the same time, the narrator uses exposition well enough to keep the story smooth, instead of choppy. It felt less like a series of distinct events than a continuous story with all of the hiking taken out (looking at you Frodo).

I would recommend this for fans of Steven Brust (Book of Jherg), or fantasy in general.

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Mar 04, 2013 Peter Levi rated it 1 of 5 stars

I want to give the book no stars, but that isn't possible. My thoughts contain SPOILERS so you have been warned (citations are from the mass market paperback). The book came highly recommended and unless endless, manly campaigning is your thing there's nothing to glean from the book. Even the campaigning is boring and the book itself is rife with problems: (142) we have Croaker talking about how he glosses over the Company’s excesses, which makes me ask this question: if we are meant to sympathi...more I want to give the book no stars, but that isn't possible. My thoughts contain SPOILERS so you have been warned (citations are from the mass market paperback). The book came highly recommended and unless endless, manly campaigning is your thing there's nothing to glean from the book. Even the campaigning is boring and the book itself is rife with problems: (142) we have Croaker talking about how he glosses over the Company’s excesses, which makes me ask this question: if we are meant to sympathise with he & his comrades, how can we honestly do so if such conduct is little discussed? If we are meant to disapprove of their behaviour, why isn’t there more disapproval in the text? And to repeat, why are we continually told things about Raven without seeing him earn any of the comments given to him? I have to wonder, with the little girl Darling running about, how is she reacting to the raping & plundering Croaker alludes too? I’m also baffled by the Company’s lack of attrition--more should die in their campaigns. The Taker gets humanized? Why? So much of the information in the book is back loaded (so things happen and we find out the reason for them long afterward, including character development). Throughout the novel what (really) are the differences between the two sides, & why does it matter that the Lady’s husband (the ‘Dominator’) is sort of awake & why is his rule worse than anyone of the other dictators? Why is Croaker reluctant to take his final mission when he always goes? And my favourite bit has to be (284): “…threatening blood feud with anyone fool enough to disturb my dreams. Not that they didn’t deserve disturbing. They were foul. I was doing unspeakable things with a couple of girls who could not have been more than twelve, and making them love it. It’s disgusting, the shadows that lurk in the mind.” Why do we need the details of his disgusting dreams? Why now, why that? Especially when we’re being sold on him having a healthy relationship with 10 or 11 year-old Darling?(less)

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Jan 10, 2013 Jessica Clare rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fantasy has never been my favorite genre--I barely made it through "The Hobbit," couldn't finish the Lord of the Rings trilogy because I couldn't get into Tolkien's style, and put down "Game of Thrones" after the first chapter. Sure, I read some Mercedes Lackey and Robert Jordan when I was in middle and high school, but that's really as far as my fantasy reading has gone. (And I only made it through two and a half of Rober Jordan's books) However, "The Black Company" got and held my attention--i...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Mjhancock rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

There's been a movement in fantasy fiction, since about the time that A Song of Ice and Fire started gaining steam, toward what's paradoxically called "realistic" fantasy. Basically, it means fantasy that skews less toward the good vs. evil of, say, the Lord of the Rings, or the Belgariad. And I can relate to that desire; read too many in the good vs. evil mode, and Good starts to seem a little smug and sanctimonious, with the ending always rather predictable. The catch is that fantasy has been...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Cora rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, war

The Black Company is a fresh perspective on a typical fantasy story. Like most fantasy, there are evil villains and rebel forces that are trying to overthrow an evil sorceress that is ruling the land as a tyrant. What makes this book different is that it is told from the point of view of a member of a group of mercenaries that is working for the evil sorceress. The story takes place in the trenches and the reader does not know any more about what is going on than the main character knows (the st...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fic-escapist, fic-fantasy

The Black Company is gritty-as-can-be swords-and-sorcery fantasy, written years before that became a trendy idea. The “Company” of the book is a group of mercenaries that hires on with a powerful sorceress known as The Lady, and does various unpleasant jobs for her high command, a circle of grotesque and generally nasty wizards called The Taken. Imagine if the Lord of the Rings were told from the perspective of a group of Sauron’s hirelings, and you might have a sense of what to expect. Except,...more The Black Company is gritty-as-can-be swords-and-sorcery fantasy, written years before that became a trendy idea. The “Company” of the book is a group of mercenaries that hires on with a powerful sorceress known as The Lady, and does various unpleasant jobs for her high command, a circle of grotesque and generally nasty wizards called The Taken. Imagine if the Lord of the Rings were told from the perspective of a group of Sauron’s hirelings, and you might have a sense of what to expect. Except, here, there isn’t much chivalry from anyone -- the “rebels”, while less defined, aren’t much more savory than the Lady’s minions.

The writing, accordingly, has a bracingly hard-boiled flavor. The story’s narrator is the Black Company’s chief medic and historian, a man named Croaker. He entertains few illusions that his brothers in arms are “nice people”, as they go from territory to territory, pacifying the inhabitants in the traditional manner, but there’s a sort of professional honor code that holds the company of rogues, fallen men, weirdos, and thugs together. They might be fighting for money, but they operate with discipline, take care of their own, and display occasional human decency. In a world where the unimportant often end up dead in piles as the armies sweep through, that’s better than nothing.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Platoon-meets-Lord of the Rings feel. The writing is a little choppy, though, often skipping past major events with a terse summary, or dropping in new characters with minimal introduction. But, the style fits well -- Croaker isn’t a guy who believes in the glory or righteousness of the cause and he’s patched up the wounded so many battles, he has little taste for describing what happens on the field, but, at the same time, he feels that what happens to him and his comrades ought to be recorded. I found the simple immediacy refreshing -- even in a fantasy world, the experience of ground soldiers might be universal, including their distance from the politics of everything. That said, some of the anachronisms got a little annoying: I wouldn’t expect someone in this world to know about biological evolution or use the term “sandbagging”. On the other hand, I suppose the use of spellcasters in the lines would enable soldiers to employ somewhat more “modern” tactics.

Other aspects of the book aren’t as ground-breaking. Once you get past Cook’s different take, the world-building and plot fall into familiar molds. But the action, initially aimless, begins to take on a purpose, and I got caught up in the story around the midpoint of the novel. The climax features an epic siege battle as good (and ghastly) as any in fantasy. I also enjoyed the endless bickering between two rank-and-file wizards, who seem to devote more energy to petty magical squabbles with each other than doing their jobs. I don’t know how well Cook maintains the strengths of his grunt-level perspective in subsequent books, but I’ll have to check out the next one. You can certainly enjoy this entry as a standalone work, if you choose not to go further.

Audiobook notes: I thought the narrator did a competent if uninspiring job. He sounds a little “older” than I would expect Croaker to be, but, then, it’s not clear how many years after the fact he’s supposed to be telling his story.(less)

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Sep 11, 2012 John Cahill rated it 1 of 5 stars

Not good at all. Avoid this series like the plague. The typical‘reluctant group of heroes get together to save the world for a price storyline’.

The author has crafted a mediocre world and filled it with characters that lack depth and their actions constantly confound the story line. Wizards that remember knowledge that could have helped them 3 chapters ago and characters that forget things – like forgetting to tell your life long comrades – men you have fought and died with that you are a shape...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Peter E. Frangel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: epic-fantasy, 2010

The Black Company, to me, is the perfect example of the book that was published because the story was so good that the writing didn't even matter. Not that Glen Cook doesn't know how to write, but it isn't smooth and it is too incoherent for me to say that he is a good writer.

In this sense, Glen Cook reminds me of Terry Brooks. The two of them seem to have made a name for themselves from sheer imagination alone. The story of The Black Company is so intriguing and interesting that I'm sorry to se...more The Black Company, to me, is the perfect example of the book that was published because the story was so good that the writing didn't even matter. Not that Glen Cook doesn't know how to write, but it isn't smooth and it is too incoherent for me to say that he is a good writer.

In this sense, Glen Cook reminds me of Terry Brooks. The two of them seem to have made a name for themselves from sheer imagination alone. The story of The Black Company is so intriguing and interesting that I'm sorry to see that it was only written into a 250 page book instead of a full-blown epic series. 'Well, there are about a dozen other Black Company novels!' you interject, but that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that this first book had about three books worth of material in it. This produces both good and bad things.

The Good is that the story, the intrigues and the characters were all really well-shaped. There was so much stuff in here, and such new and interesting imagery and scenery, that I just couldn't help but keep reading to find out were it was all going. It's really quite a dark and dreary environment, and every once and a while, I like reading about those, wondering if any light will be introduced at one point. All in all, I just need to admit that it's nice to get through an entire trilogy worth of story and developments in less than 300 pages of material.

But that's also where it gets Bad: Glen Cook is not talented enough of a writer to pull off that much information in so little words. Sure, there's humor, there's detailed description and there's a good sentence structure. But it jumps around all over the place. He will spend ten pages talking about something that seems important and then throw in a sentence like, "And so a week later, we took down the fort," followed by the entire battle described in one, maybe two paragraphs...then they're in the Fort and the next part starts. Call me picky but a one week battle to take down a fort held by the enemy might deserve at least a few pages, if not its own chapter, no? Well, the entire book is like this. It spans entire seasons and years, several war campaigns and lots of storyline in very little time.

This is acceptable, if the author is able to pull it off. But it wasn't good enough for me. I almost feel like each chapter of the book was its own short story. Maybe this is what he wanted, but it just left me hollow at the end, making me feel like I either wasted my time reading 7 short stories or got lured into reading another set of short stories in the next volume that might be worth reading...or might not. From other books I've read by Glen Cook, I don't think that his skills have developed much throughout the years, so I'm guessing that it's probably not worth my while to read ten more Black Company books, even if they are all 300 pages or less.

I'm really sad about this one. The storyline and the potential for it being one of the greatest epic series was their, Glen Cook really does have an amazing imagination. I only wish he had either the skill to pull off what he was trying to put out or had chosen to develop the details of the story more fully. Oh well.(less)

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Jun 21, 2012 Prakriti rated it 2 of 5 stars

I've given The Black Company two starts this year, the second one almost taking me through 75% of the book. I was scratching my head the first time around, but I was hooked on the second time around. I didn't finish it though, I got bored. And I doubt I shall continue, either with this book, or further down in the series.

I heard about the series in conjunction with 'Wheel of Time', 'Malazan book of the Fallen' and 'A song of ice and fire' as THE few fantasy series to be read (I had also heard of...more I've given The Black Company two starts this year, the second one almost taking me through 75% of the book. I was scratching my head the first time around, but I was hooked on the second time around. I didn't finish it though, I got bored. And I doubt I shall continue, either with this book, or further down in the series.

I heard about the series in conjunction with 'Wheel of Time', 'Malazan book of the Fallen' and 'A song of ice and fire' as THE few fantasy series to be read (I had also heard of Gormenghast - shudder!), as having inspired quite a few fantasy authors out there.

It follows an entire army, a mercenary army with soldiers and a few wizards. Now it is difficult to understand how could a narrative cover what is happening with an entire army while on the march, how does one cover action/ war? Most books/movies/ TV series take the route of having multiple narrators down the hierarchy, build up an emotional connection with each's own idiosyncrasies, and push the story forward.

However, this book has one narrator, Croaker, and this is a good (and refreshingly different) premise, that what you're reading is from the annals of The Black Company, and what you're reading is what Croaker chooses to write about. He's the Doctor of the company, though he's not short of bravado and going on random adventures with a sword. His relationships with the other men, his version of the wars, his opinion is what one reads. And it does make for a breezy read. And I like the narrator's voice.

This book is kind of like ... let me choose the right comparison here, the movie Transformers. It's fast paced, it's buddy-buddy talk for the men, kind of like a superhero comic. One enjoys it a while but can't take it seriously, because stupid magic keeps butting in. This is quite irritating, because it just blows up any kind of credibility (Kind of the same thing I feel for the THOR character, who's a god, but he would fight with his fists to save earthlings). It isn't even explained properly. These are big wizards, they do big magic, these are small wizards, they do small magic. And of course, our heroes would have the small wizards.

It's stupid after a while. (less)

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Jun 04, 2012 Gian Piero rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to - more than I wanted to, at times. Maybe because, for all its purported grittiness, it doesn't feel nearly as gritty as GRRM. Maybe because I found the narrator, company physician/annalist Croaker, to be quite sympathetic. Or maybe I just happen to like stories like this. The Black Company doesn't mind working for the Bad Guys, and they can look pretty bad themselves, but in the end they are not without their own sort of honor and humanity.

More than on...more

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May 20, 2012 Brennon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Although I cannot write a super extensive review at the moment, there are some things that I want to say about this book that really made it up there on one of the most entertaining reads I've had the chance to dive into.

First, his style of writing is different. It took a bit of effort on my part to really understand what was going on. Aside from expecting the usual flowing descriptions that many authors place in their books, this was almost the opposite. Many small details were lost to me and...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Nathaniel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I read the Black Company because Jim Butcher cited it as one of his leading influences. After reading the book, I can certainly see why. Of course it deals with fantasy, but it does so in a very gritty way. There is none of the romance, and magic is seen as being at once incredibly powerful but also very much like a craft or a science, with the nuts and bolts showing as opposed to just a wand, a phrase, and neat special effect. The magic of the book, even though it doesn't take center stage and...more I read the Black Company because Jim Butcher cited it as one of his leading influences. After reading the book, I can certainly see why. Of course it deals with fantasy, but it does so in a very gritty way. There is none of the romance, and magic is seen as being at once incredibly powerful but also very much like a craft or a science, with the nuts and bolts showing as opposed to just a wand, a phrase, and neat special effect. The magic of the book, even though it doesn't take center stage and the protagonist can't use any, conveys the sense that there's a whole lot going on under the hood. In addition to all this, the first novel sets up what clearly looks to be a very, very long-range, multi-book story arc. And that--the long arc--has always been Butcher's greatest strength.

That's not to say that the book itself was great, however. I'm glad I read it for research purposes, but I wouldn't recommend it except to someone specifically looking for the fantasy-version of military sci-fi. The writing was plain and workmanlike--it got the job done but you never really thought about it much--but what bothered me was the morality of the book. Or rather: the lack thereof.

The gist of it is that the main character is part of The Company--a regiment of 1,000 - 6,000 elite mercenaries who sell the services to the highest bidder no questions asked. They have a kind of code of honor, but not much of one since they spend the first section trying to legalese their way out of it and then eventually just murder the guy who hired them. So much for the lawyers, I suppose.

Then they get hired by a villainous evil who has been awoken from his (her? it's not quite clear until the end) prison beneath the sands. That villainous evil works for *another* villainous evil who is even more villainous and more evil, and they in turn are fighting The Rebel. The Rebel is supposed to be a freedom fighter, but ends up torturing, maiming, and slaughtering just as much as the other bad guys. But wait: there's more. There's actually *another* evil who is even more evil than all the other evils, and there's a conspiracy to get awaken that evil and then things will be really, really bad. Like, for serious this time guys.

I think the tone was supposed to be grim, but it's grim to the point of just not caring. The main characters are all murderers and rapists and liars. The depictions are never that graphic, but they are there. I have a hard time finding empathy for rapists, even if they have some sense of brotherhood among their ranks. (Does that make raping OK? I would hazard a "no", personally. Not even if all your buds are doing it.) Now if you wanted to have some story of redemption, that would be tricky but possible. Stephen R. Donaldson pulled it off, but Glen Cook is no Stephen R. Donaldson. Which I guess is no surprise to Cook, 'cause he never even tries.

Instead, we're supposed to feel like the rapists are the good guys because they mostly rape grown women (although this isn't very clear) but they stop a bunch of other bad guys from raping a child. I guess it's preferable to stop the child rapist than join in, but it doesn't exactly make you someone I want to see triumph in the end. It doesn't help that the main character has a bizarre romantic crush on the 2nd most villainous villain in the game which isn't cured until he sees her kill another villain who happened to be her sister. Murdering tens of thousands of people, trying to enslave an entire country, and generally acting like a medieval Stalin are all just par for the course... but kill your own sister (who happens to have been trying to kill you first): well that's just *not done*.

So more than anything else the morality just felt... confused. There was supposed to be some kind of stirrings of good-guy in there somewhere, but when the guy who watches his buddies rape their hearts out and basically says "boys will be boys" finds himself the smallest glimmer of conscience I don't want to cheer. Or root for him. I just want to drop a nuke on the entire fantasy world and wash my hands of it. There isn't a single character in the book I wouldn't be happier to see dead than alive. Not even that one little girl who is supposed to be the magical ray of hope and good and sunshine because she's *so* unbelievably good that it's just silly. So she can die too.

I'd read more books, except I have the sneaking suspicion she won't die horribly, and so what's the point?

Once again: it's not *just* that the protagonists are all violent, abhorrent scum-bags, it's that there's never a single interesting word about it. There's no point. No depth. No sophistication. It's just gratuitous "my anti-hero is more anti- than your anti-hero" idiocy.

But still--if you ignore the morally warped universe--the action is good, the plot is involved, and there's a lot of innovation in the mixture of genres and re-imagining of tropes. So it gets 3-stars instead of 2.(less)

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Sci-fi and Heroic...: The Black Company Discussion	9	76	11 hours, 11 min ago
Fantasy Book Club...: * The Chronicles of the Black Company Coming this June	22	107	May 21, 2013 04:45am
What did everyone get out of it?	9	47	Mar 15, 2013 06:26am
Beyond Reality: THE BLACK COMPANY: Finished Reading (* SPOILERS*)	8	79	Nov 27, 2012 09:13am
Beyond Reality: THE BLACK COMPANY: Roll call and initial impressions (NO SPOILERS)	36	90	Nov 12, 2012 06:17pm
Is it deep?	10	78	Jul 03, 2012 06:07am

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The Black Company (The Chronicles of the Black Company #1)

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