Wasn't I just bitching about how I wanted to get back to this storyline? I didn't even want to read Silver Spike because it took me away from the group that went south with Croaker.

What the hell happened?

Mergen is narrating. Mergen starts out entertaining, but is my least favorite narrator of the bunch. We're back in Dejagore during the seige WHICH ALREADY FINISHED in the last book. Croaker is dead, Lady is dead, city going down, etc.

No. Wait. Mergen is shifting back, forth and across time like More...

The narrator(s) you know and love are gone, and Murgen steps in to do his best. One snag - Murgen's unstuck in time, so it takes a long time before you get used to what's going on and are able to tell one time period from another. One other snag - even the present day is technically in the past, reliving the main event from Dreams of Steel from another perspective. It's just confusing. It doesn't help that this is yet another book in the interminable slog down south, where the Company's goal of More...

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...

I almost didn't go on after the last book. The Black Company is just not aimed at me. But these last few books turned up in the used bookstore, and it is hard for me to abandon a plotline, so I finally dug in again.

Bleak Seasons is a bridge book of sorts. Cook took six years off after Dreams of Steel, and Bleak Seasons is an alternate viewpoint of much of that time period, as well as a little bit after - introducing a new Annalist, Murgen, who has a tendency to come unstuck in time and space. It More...

Clairement le tome le plus obscur de la série. Le style narratif alterne allègrement les allers-retours entre le passé et le présent sans forcément en informer le lecteur.

Du coup, on s'y perd un peu, on revient souvent en arrière pour s'assurer de l'identité du narrateur, et c'est dommage parce que l'histoire reste bien construite au final et réserve son lot de rebondissements.

Le final, véritable révélateur, donne même envie de relire le livre de suite, pour mieux profiter des "indices" que Coo More...

somewhat disjointed reading, though it keeps me interested, I can't read too much at one time, otherwise it gets to be a little too much for me. Finally finished, I'm still not really sure what was going on. I think I need to read his other books first. Definitely not a great place to jump on this series. I'm still kinda confused, even after finishing the book, and even reading the jacket, which I never do, since it tends to spoil things for me. I started to get some stuff at the end, but I need More...

The Black Company is on one level, standard genre fantasy fare. There isn't much going on other than straight plot exposition (Well, in this particular novel #7 in the series, the time-line is non-linear, but the point holds.) Not much to recommend it other than solid craft and a definite twist on standard good vs. evil morality plays. I consider the Black Company to be epic fantasy that is influenced by Vietnam. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, but no one is fighting for a higher p More...

The Black Company series is really easy reading. Small words. Short sentences. Consistant Narrator. Linear story telling. Bleak Seasons changes that a bit. There is a new narrator, Murgen. Murgen is 1/2 crazy, and undergoing a very stressful situation, so the story is fragmented and disordered.

Some people are going to be turned off by these narrative choices. I admit I was taken aback for a bit. But once you are into this book, you will find that it is akin to the other stories of the black com More...

This book threw me for a loop when I started it. At first, it just seems to be retelling the events of last book from the perspective of those soldiers trapped in Dejagore. But then the narrative jumps to events three years later, and continues bouncing back and forth throughout. Murgen makes for an enjoyable narrator, and while the time-jumping is never fully explained, it's handled well. Murgen "writes" the next volume too, so hopefully there'll be more answers in that book (like what the heck More...

And... a new series starts with a new narrator, Murgen, who for some reason jumps confusingly between times, as well as having an explicable method to observe other places. I understand what Cook's experimenting with in the next few novels, and I admire the attempt, but Cook's strengths are plot wedded to characterization, and these things splinter. Think of this part of the series as being like Vietnam... bloody and much longer than you'd think.

This book was a slog. It introduces a new narrator, the new Annalist and standardbearer, Murgen. The author is obviously experimenting with an odd narrative style, connected to some strange, sorcery-induced fits Murgen is having. However, since these fits cast him into the past, they push him back into plot points already covered in Dreams of Steel, albiet with more detail.

This detail becomes important in later books, including establishing the wired swamp-dwelling people that Murgen marries int More...

a book worth reading if you are continuing the series but not a "fun" book to read just for kicks. it will quite often just leave you hanging with your mouth open thinking what did i miss? an idea for if you do plan on reading it, skip the flash backs and only read the present date chapters otherwise it is just a waste of time...

This is the second book of the series with no ending whatsoever. It's full of some interesting stories, but at the end you are left with a bunch of loose ends. I'll just have to read the next book and see what happens, and I don't like it when authors do that.

I hope Murgen grows to be a better annalist too. Being a mini-Croaker isn't working too well.

I was really looking forward to re-reading this. I remember when it first came out being quite disappointed that there wasn't more about Croaker and the Lady in it. But then every time since then I've been caught up in the tale of Murgen and loved the travelling backwards and forwards that the narrative does and how the end is so very upsetting. I really enjoyed reading it this time too. But after so many fantasy novels in a row I had to take a break before reading the rest of the glittering sto More...

Not too keen to have someone else tel this story other than Croaker and did not like the skipping back and forth in time storyline, but t stil gets 4 stars because of the gritty style of writing that Black Company fans are used to. THe time spent in Dejagore was good.

Like a lot of other reviewers on this site, I was initially thrown off by this book's style. I like Murgen as an Annalist, but his constant, uncontrolled trips back and forth through time make keeping track of what the heck is going on kinda frustrating. It mostly comes together by the end, but the majority of this book is recounting the events of Dreams of Steel but from inside the walls of the besieged city of Dejagore. It seems like the next book actually starts plowing forward with more of t More...

Despite being slightly hard to find and expensive because it's out of print, this is a must read for anyone who's read the first 6 Black Company novels. Be prepared to search for the next book in this fantastic series, She is The Darkness.

Interressant, difficile a suivre de part les voyages continuels dans le temps. L'histoire semble s'essoufler.

Interresting, a little hard to follow due to the continuous jump through time. History seems to come to a difficult end.

Continuing the story of the Black Company, this novel is rather confusing and disjointed. The conceit that Murgen can send his consciousness forth, so he can personally witness events in different times with different characters is... contrived.

Changement majeur de narrateur principal un peu "décevant" qui peu à peu, au fil du bouquin, arrive à vous convaincre pour donner un nouveau souffle à un moment difficile pour la Compagnie.

the black company series never disappoints me. this is the first of the final four volumes in the ten-volume series. if anything, I like these last four even more than the first six.

I enjoyed the way this book went about telling the story of what happened to the boys that were stuck in the seige of Dejagore, with out stopping the forward momentum of the the overall story. I do miss Croaker's Voice and I don't really like the man that Croaker is becoming but considering what these guys are dealing with It isn't a surprise.

The Black Company are the guys that would have fought in World War 1 out of a juvenile sence of invulerablity and duty and then fought in World War 2 beca More...

Cook writes fantasy as gritty as it gets but his characters are ones you can really respect as individuals.

We get a different perspective here (Murgen's) and it works well enough, though I still enjoy Croaker's style better.

The overall feeling I was left with though was that this did not advance the overall narrative much. We had a lot of details from Dejagore filled in, but most of the rest felt like set up for a future book.

It took me a while to get into the story and the way it is narrated, but in the end it was a great read.

2.5 stars, the narrator is occasionally annoying.

A different style than previous books, and makes it hard to get into, but well worth the effort.

not the best of the series by any stretch, but still a fun read. i read a lot of reviews that said that the experimental narrative style was confusing to follow, but i didn't really have any trouble with it, and it was in some ways a nice change from the predictable style of the previous entries in the series. i wish i was able to get my hands on the next book, but apparently it's really hard to find and sells used for about $60 or $70.

I found this one the hardest to get into so far. The narration from the start was such a stark contrast to the previous book that I even started doubting if I'd missed a volume that should fall between this one and "Dreams of Steel." I guess it could be argued that it's supposed to read that way since Murgen is the new narrator, but I felt it took too long a route to explain what's happening and much of it doesn't make enough sense at first. The plot advances, nonetheless.

At first, I was concerned there would be too much repeated story between this and "Dreams of Steel", but surprisingly, there was not. Certain events that were glossed over in "Dreams of Steel" were brought to light, and after I was able to understand the jumping around in time between chapters, and the feelings Murgen felt as he told his story, I really grew to enjoy it, and completed it MUCH quicker than I had finished "Dreams of Steel".