Chronicles of the Black Company (The Chronicles of the Black Company, #1-3) by Glen Cook

Jul 16, 2012 mark monday rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantastickal

"Oh, 'twould be marvelous if the world and its moral questions were like some game board, with plain black players and white, and fixed rules, and nary a shade of grey."

war is hell. hell is other people. other people are other people. other people have their problems. i have my own problems. my people are my people. their goals are my goals. we do what we can. we fight in a war. war is a business. war is our business.

The Black Company is a mercenary outfit. they are from the South; they currentl...more "Oh, 'twould be marvelous if the world and its moral questions were like some game board, with plain black players and white, and fixed rules, and nary a shade of grey."

war is hell. hell is other people. other people are other people. other people have their problems. i have my own problems. my people are my people. their goals are my goals. we do what we can. we fight in a war. war is a business. war is our business.

The Black Company is a mercenary outfit. they are from the South; they currently work in the North. they fight for the Lady. they fight against the Rebel. they fight against the Lady. they fight for the White Rose. they fight for the Lady again. they fight for evil, they fight for good. they fight for who pays them. they fight against those who are against them. they do terrible things. they do some good things too.

Glen Cook was in the military. he understands what could be called the military mindset, i suppose. his characters feel completely real. they feel like real soldiers. they are cynical; they follow orders; their first loyalty is to each other. Cook writes in choppy, abrupt, stripped down prose, like a journalist writing on-the-spot field reports. his prose is not rich or lyrical, it does not glow, it does not leap off of the page. his characters have names like "Croaker" and "Darling" and "Shed" and "One-Eye". his cities have names like "Rust" and "Oar" and "Opal" and "Roses". there is a crude poetry to his prose. it is perfectly suited to what this series is trying to accomplish.

i read some reviews of this series before writing this review. a regular complaint is the lack of beauty in Cook's naming of people and places; a certain lack of fantastickal whimsy or majesty in the writing itself. SWOOSH, you are missing the point. The Black Company series is indeed pure fantasy - it contains magic and monsters and wizards and epic battles involving magic, monsters, and wizards. and yet its goal appears to be to reduce all the lavish world-building and all of the lustrous magic within those fantasy elements in service of making something that actually feels real. something that feels dark and dirty, and yet because of that dark dirtiness, something that also feels alive and warm. Cook does not write with a flair for microscopic detail; he does not envision his characters as having larger-than-life personalities or operatically tragic narrative trajectories. he is not George RR Martin. nor does Cook write with snarky, sizzling wit or an eye for the cinematic action sequence or a need to surprise the reader with various malevolent sucker punches. he is not Joe Abercrombie. he writes from a ground-eye view, from a working man's perspective, through the eyes of people who are neither all good nor all bad, but who are just trying to do what they can with what they have been given. they want to get paid, they do not hunger for danger, they want to make their lives a little better. so when the realization dawns that these disreputable, shady, completely fallible characters are trying to accomplish some good with what little they have available... well, it is a beautiful thing. if shades of grey can be considered a beautiful thing.

and he doesn't just do this for his soldiers. the third book portrays a powerful god-tree as a being who is just trying to do a job that needs to be done. he's grumpy about it. he is not particularly sympathetic to other people's problems. he's a good guy, apparently - but a disinterested one. after all, he has to focus on his own work. the series also features a rather loathsome innkeeper and various malevolent sorcerers and tyrants. they get the same treatment... after all, who is a villain in their own mind? the eventual realization that a loathsome innkeeper and a terrible sorceress-tyrant are also trying to do what little good they can accomplish comes slowly and is mapped out carefully, hints dropped nonchalantly, an accumulation of evidence. Cook does not push this revelation on the reader... it just is what it is. and so characters like Shed the Innkeeper and the tyrant known as the Lady - much like soldiers with names like Elmo and Croaker and the Captain and the Lieutenant - become real in a way that i have seldom seen accomplished in other works of fantasy.

great job, Cook. no wonder your series is such a cult classic.

although i think the first novel in the series is clearly the strongest, the entire trilogy is certainly a worthy experience. if you are in the right mindset, if military fantasy doesn't bother your more progressive sentiments, if you actually don't need things like sentiment in your fantasy.

review for the first book here.(less)

36 likes · like · see review

Dec 18, 2011 Adrienne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, first-person, owned, favorites, military, assassins-thieves-etc, post-book-withdrawl, characters-that-feel-real

Any book that makes me want to drop my relatively comfortable life to join a mercenary company with at best a fluid sense of morality is doing something right. I'd be signing up for long marches through snow and mud, for following orders (no questions asked), and for the occasional massacre, and frankly, that's not normally me. Huh.

I did not expect to like this book as much as I did! I was pleasantly surprised. I accidentally began reading the second compilation of books in this series (The Book ...more Any book that makes me want to drop my relatively comfortable life to join a mercenary company with at best a fluid sense of morality is doing something right. I'd be signing up for long marches through snow and mud, for following orders (no questions asked), and for the occasional massacre, and frankly, that's not normally me. Huh.

I did not expect to like this book as much as I did! I was pleasantly surprised. I accidentally began reading the second compilation of books in this series (The Books of the South) before this one, but I quickly realized that it seemed that I was missing a lot of information. So I did a quick google search, learned that it was the second in the series, and trekked over to my local independent bookstore to buy a copy of the Chronicles of the Black Company. And I am glad that I did!

Unfortunately, this meant that I had some little snippets of information about the outcome of the first compilation. That wasn't really too much of a problem, as the first book in The Chronicles of the Black Company (The Black Company) is quite confusing in the beginning since you're thrown into the action without any explanation. The book really only got interesting for me once the Lady showed up, and maybe 50 pages or so after that I was sold. The next two books - Shadows Linger and The White Rose - only got better. So enjoyable, in fact, that I missed my bus stop once while reading a very suspenseful part and that I found myself scheming about how to make time to to curl up with a warm blanket and keep reading.

The characters and their interactions in this book are really its selling point. Yes, there are sorcerers and magic and powerful hero/villain types - but they aren't narrating. Instead, we follow Croaker, the physician and Annalist for the Black Company (and a bit of a tongue-tied romantic with a dry sense of humor), an infamous group of mercenary soldiers who hire themselves out to the highest bidder. Of course, that sometimes means that they're working for the wrong side. It also means that most of the characters we encounter in the Black Company are morally ambiguous, which is exactly one of the things I like in a fantasy novel. From time to time we see how they come to terms with their not-always-respectable actions. On the other hand, most of the time they're real people (okay, well, feared mercenaries) doing what real people do (okay, except for the times that they do things I could never picture myself doing and, you know, all those battles). All in all it's a very different perspective for a fantasy story.

I would have preferred more description about the world in the collection as a whole, as I certainly couldn't picture the settings at all from the writing. Occasionally we'll hear about a beautiful sunset, but nothing about what the cities or surrounding areas actually look like. But I was okay with that; I could chalk it up to Croaker - it just isn't what he wanted to talk about.

I wasn't always sure of the Lady's motives throughout the story, especially concerning Croaker, but hey. That was okay. There were also a few standard fantasy-type cliches, but not as many as in most epic fantasy stories. For example, we had an all-seeing eye (cough, eye of Sauron, cough?) and names hold power over people, but I was willing to overlook those things (unlike the flying carpets.. ugh!).

In any case, I plowed through this book in about a week and then immediately jumped right in to The Books of the South. I imagine I will definitely be rereading The Chronicles of the Black Company in the future.(less)

10 likes · like · see review

Jun 09, 2012 Zachary rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: my-library

I love and hate this trilogy. Glen Cook drew me in, led me to fall in love with characters, and then let me down. This was a common theme as I read. The story would hook and reel me in, then suddenly I would lose interest or feel like the story was incomplete at parts and stop reading for a week or two. I had to push myself to get through this book.

I love the characters. Croaker, One-Eye, Goblin, Raven, The Lady, Darling, Silent, and Tracker. They are all unforgettable. Very complex, very detail...more I love and hate this trilogy. Glen Cook drew me in, led me to fall in love with characters, and then let me down. This was a common theme as I read. The story would hook and reel me in, then suddenly I would lose interest or feel like the story was incomplete at parts and stop reading for a week or two. I had to push myself to get through this book.

I love the characters. Croaker, One-Eye, Goblin, Raven, The Lady, Darling, Silent, and Tracker. They are all unforgettable. Very complex, very detailed. One-Eye and Goblin's battles were hilarious and many a time I found myself laughing out loud in my living room, on the bus, or waiting around school.

I really thought the Taken were a very well constructed enemy, even if they were very similar to Tolkien's Nazgul. I liked how each of them had their own personality and feeling to them (something the Nazgul lacked). I didn't really like how they flew on carpets though...

The books lost my attention when Glen Cook would choose to skip important details about events by not including Croaker and just skipping to the result of the event that we never got to read about.

I could never get a real grasp of the world. It really irritated me that there was no map to refer too. I couldn't see how far the Lady's control stretched. What the whole "North" looked like. Where the Jewel Cities lie. Or imagine what the Barrowlands really looked like. I got a few details tossed my way here and there but not a true description of the landscape.

I was also "turned off" when I saw that the names were named Oar, Roses, Juniper, Charm and so forth. I just wished the names were more creative and therefore (in my mind) more believable.

My final complaint is the lack of detail for the majority of the supporting characters. We never really get to know the Lieutenant, The Captain, Elmo, and many others.

At the end of it all, I overcame the irritants and enjoyed the book. Maybe it's not completely my style but I did find some aspects that held my attention.(less)

12 likes · like · see review

Feb 16, 2009 Simon Raistrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

this book contains the first three volumes of an absolutely amazing fantasy series introduced to me by my friend jesse. the black company books offer bloody-minded and gripping military fiction, with cleverly done concepts of sorcery and its practitioners interwoven. at the time I was reading this I thought, "this might be the best goddamned fantasy I've read since Tolkien." rather, scratch the "since Tolkien" part. since reading this series, I have discovered a couple of other ones in the same...more

4 likes · like · see review

Oct 28, 2008 Shane Davenport rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Shane by: Boarders Store Clerk

This was a good read. I would recommend it to any Science Fiction Fantasy reader. It is a bit different than other Fantasy books I have read in that it is more or less in journal form as per the Croaker, the company’s physician, historian, also the narrator of the novels.

I really like how Glen Cook does not portray the characters as too strong or powerful and grounds the novel in a more human perspective.

Also, you have to really think about what you are reading as his style changes a bit as it m...more

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 28, 2009 Zero Restrictions Alfonso rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ok, since I don’t have Mr. Greg’s reviewing skills I’ma keep it short and simple! This is like somebody gave the guy who wrote this book a fucking Minigun and loaded with bullets of awesomeness and told him to aim directly in to my brainand then the mother fucker went trigger happy! This is good shit! I read it twice in a fucking row!

It got it all! Awesome wizards, kick ass villains, drama, action, more action and more drama! And the hottest villain ever!!! EVER!!! I have a crush with The Lady...more

12 likes · like · see review

Apr 02, 2009 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fantasy fans

Shelves: fantasy

This is the collected first three books of Glen Cook's "Black Company" series, chronicling the adventures of a famous mercenary company in grim world threatened by all sorts of darkness. Although the series was continued, the first three books are an effectively self-contained trilogy.

I first read them in college. And back then (so long ago!) they seemed terribly dark - almost unbearably so. How times have changed; compared to some of the torture-porn that's being put out under the fantasy and s...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 02, 2013 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook-list

Dark military fiction is the best that this can be described - a very non-typical fantasy read.

I can't put my finger quite on why I liked these. I wish I could put 3.5 stars. I'm reviewing them as a whole rather than as per-book because I read them that way (right in order). They are very dark, but indirectly. You don't see a lot of the bad stuff going on (the raping/pillaging/etc) but you hear about it indirectly from time to time (Croaker's bizarre dream about underage girls, side mentions of...more

like · see review

Mar 20, 2013 laurenpie rated it 5 of 5 stars

A masterpiece: my all-time favorite series

This series is a masterpiece, perfectly written. In fact, my all-time very favorite series. I identify so much with The Black Company characters that I actually start to miss them, and end up re-reading the entire series again every few years. Must be on my fourth or fifth time through now. Every time, I somehow feel as though I'm coming home.

I absolutely love Glen Cook's writing style. I see that several reviewers complain about it being overly choppy a

...more A masterpiece: my all-time favorite series

This series is a masterpiece, perfectly written. In fact, my all-time very favorite series. I identify so much with The Black Company characters that I actually start to miss them, and end up re-reading the entire series again every few years. Must be on my fourth or fifth time through now. Every time, I somehow feel as though I'm coming home.

I absolutely love Glen Cook's writing style. I see that several reviewers complain about it being overly choppy and abrupt, and not laying enough background framework. I personally never felt any of that. The level of background, the timing and the pace seem just right to me and definitely add to the realistic feel of the narrative. Glen Cook isn't aiming for "The Comprehensive History and Analysis of the Black Company," but rather, the daily/monthly annals from ground-level perspective, hastily scratched out if there's time between missions. Our annalist is not privy to the big picture, and lacks the benefit of time's distance and omniscience--I say all the better! Ergo, narration suffused with real-time agony and sweat, and even here and there an irrepressible sense of wonder that will not be extinguished.

One last thought on the writing style: I love how Glen Cook can so finely-tune his nuance with just the right descriptor, without ever becoming wordy or pretentious. (Yes, I admit to resorting to my dictionary repeatedly while reading this series.) My heart races every single time I read that first chapter set in Beryl. And don't get me started on the end of Book 3!!! I think my heart actually stops!

Finally, to the best part of the series: the wonderful characters. They're amazing! They're so real, always evolving (fascinating), yet always true-to-character. Croaker: sweet, funny, thoughtful but tough, unprepossessing and unselfconsciously courageous. One-Eye, Silent, Raven, the Captain, Elmo, Murgen... my old friends. The only character I never appreciated was Sleepy, too smug for me. But that's okay, because all the better (after that draught) when I get to the next book!

I must disagree with my sister Puppitypup's assessment (for identical twins we sure do have very different tastes): the entire series is wonderful.

And lastly...

Please, Glen, I need more Black Company!!!

(less)

like · see review

Jan 17, 2013 Anson Mount rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

"The Black Company" is quite simply the best fantasy series I have ever read. For too long, the genre was caught between the kind of adolescent irony propagated by authors such as Piers Anthony (for whom I still carry a teenage love) and the romanticized sword & sorcery worlds of authors such as Robert Jordan. Fortunately, Mr. Cook arrived in time to provide a much-needed dose of realism, internal conflict and morally questionable heroes and villains alike.

When asked for the elevator pitch...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jul 20, 2012 Hans Ng rated it 3 of 5 stars

IMO the author's style of writing is something of a love/hate kind of thing. Considering the book mostly takes place from the form of Croaker's point of view, you are usually stuck with one perspective only. Also, while there is strong character development with each of the characters, i find that there's always something missing whenever I finish the books. The author never goes into much detail or description through battle scenes or fights. Major events are sometimes skipped entirely only to...more

like · see review

May 16, 2012 Michelle Feist rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: gave-up-on

Couldn't keep reading...This book got such good reviews in the places I checked and I had had my eye on it for some time, so I was looking forward to enjoying a great fantasy story. Maybe the story will get better, but it's the writing style that I can't get past! It's so choppy and lacks detail or smooth transitions from scene to scene. I felt like I was reading something my grade 6's would write! I could get NO feeling for any of the characters so far, not even the narrator - they all felt fla...more

4 likes · like · see review

May 11, 2012 Jared rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had not heard of this book series till I joined a war gaming LARP called Darkon. I joined a country called the Bloody Axe Mercenary Company. They told me they were based off The Black Company from the books of the same name and that it was a semi-required reading.

So I looked up the books and started reading.

I think the series of the North is just great. The way it is written from Croaker's perspective, the short but oddly descriptive way things are described. It was all very refreshing for me...more I had not heard of this book series till I joined a war gaming LARP called Darkon. I joined a country called the Bloody Axe Mercenary Company. They told me they were based off The Black Company from the books of the same name and that it was a semi-required reading.

So I looked up the books and started reading.

I think the series of the North is just great. The way it is written from Croaker's perspective, the short but oddly descriptive way things are described. It was all very refreshing for me. The main thing I loved about this series is how it feels very complete. The first book we see the company come under the employment of one of the Lady's wizards. Yes, The Black Company are by no means good guys and Croaker at one point goes out his way to say this, but you also get to know they don't go out of their way to do evil things and they tend to choose the lesser of evils.

The 2nd book, I feel, is the strongest in the trilogy, but definitely sets up the 3rd book well. Everything by the end feels tied up and I intend to read the Books of the South.

The interactions between the characters is fun and through the series you grow to like them and you feel Croaker's confusion and pain when characters are lost.

Some minor problems I had with the series was mainly in Shadow's Linger and The White Rose and that was when the narration wasn't from Croaker's perspective. The entire first book is from Croaker's perspective so it was a bit annoying to me cause I had grown used to Croaker. It is more a personal thing, but the other perspectives does all eventually come together nicely.

Some of the complaints I have read about the writing I think might be attributed to maybe some people just aren't getting it. Yeah, that is a cop out answer but hear me out. Croaker is the annalist and doctor of the company. So we are reading from the biased, as Croaker says at one point, view point. Also the descriptions are sparse, but when you have to fight and heal and record the history of a military outfit in the middle of a campaign you might not have time to jot down every little detail or go into long winded descriptions of every single fight the company gets into. But of course this is just my opinion. Different strokes for different folks is what I say.

(less)

1 like · like · see review

Sep 30, 2011 Daniel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi-fantasy

I'm not certain why I was suddenly extremely interested in reading some Glen Cook novels, but I suspect that I came across some reviews that fascinated me, so off to the library web-site I went and requested a couple of books. This was the first to arrive, which seemed nice, being, actually, three books in one.

It took me a little bit to get in to the first book, the abbreviated speech and short-hand conversation that the characters seemed to use, but once I got accustomed to this, I was very int...more

like · see review

Aug 27, 2011 Lightreads rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fiction

Well, that was . . . testicular. Military fantasy about a company of mercenaries, with one of those completely flat, non-ideological conflicts where we’re told X and Y persons are evil, but we have no context for any of it. So what you have left is a bunch of battle summaries (boring) and some local color (all men, don’t ask about the women. Just don’t’).

I think my real problem is that this is told by the company doctor writing the history. He freely admits that he is eliding and prettying thing...more

4 likes · like · see review

May 25, 2011 Joshua Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, military-fantasy

Almost from the moment I finished reading this book and every subsequent one in the series, Glen Cook has been my favorite author. His narrative is great and his characters are both fully developed and individually unique. Almost from the beginning you get the feeling you know each of them. In my opinion, characterization has always been Cook's biggest strength and these books provide the reader with a great example of what to expect from his work.

That being said, the story itself is also intere...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 09, 2011 Kiel Van Horn rated it 4 of 5 stars

First impression: I'm noticing some verb tense issues: "He grinned feebly. His face was pale. His pate looks like a polished ostrich egg." The narration is abrupt and seems to leave a lot of description out, in a sort of noir style where the narration limits itself to character action and dialogue with very little description of scene. (We do get an idea of the setting through that characterization, though.) I get the impression that he's a writer who is not comfortable with his ability to write...more First impression: I'm noticing some verb tense issues: "He grinned feebly. His face was pale. His pate looks like a polished ostrich egg." The narration is abrupt and seems to leave a lot of description out, in a sort of noir style where the narration limits itself to character action and dialogue with very little description of scene. (We do get an idea of the setting through that characterization, though.) I get the impression that he's a writer who is not comfortable with his ability to write. (Later he would reveal that the first person narrative is actually because that narrator is the "annalist" for the Company, the keeper of the chronicles, if you will.)
I just read his Wikipedia page, and apparently he's an ex-Navy guy and writes his characters like soldiers he knew in the service.
I can see Cook's influence on Erikson, definitely. I would almost say Erikson copied from Cook, so far. I see a lot of influences on fantasy fiction that probably came from Glen Cook, especially on Robert Jordan. The Taken and the Forsaken are extremely similar concepts.
It got better. I finished the first book and liked it a lot. The second book is changing narrative styles a little bit, adding some third person. The third book is also playing with the narrative structure a bit, using letters to illustrate some back story. Kind of interesting techniques he employs to move the narrative forward, and neat that he always seems to be changing it up, playing around with different methods.
All in all, I really liked this series. I got used to the minimalist noir style that he likes to use—he's not exactly the Hemingway of fantasy, but that seems to be what he's going for. He seems to eschew developing scenes and writing imagery, but when imagery is used it's really cool and imaginative. And while I think dramatic development would enhance some of the scenes a lot, it was nevertheless a captivating read and very imaginative.
Biggest detractor? Tons of places but no friggin' map!
(less)

like · see review

Jan 10, 2011 JS rated it 1 of 5 stars

I gave up on this one. I can see why some people might like it, but in the end this book has none of the things that I look for in fantasy.

In the first place, Cooke's descriptive style is extremely sparse. Very little is described and much is implied or left to the imagination. This is a good thing, I suppose, since given how appallingly grim this book is it might be even more revolting if things were described in detail. As is, the style of this book is like one of those modern paintings in wh...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 05, 2010 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really liked these books.

Thinking back on it, I can't remember much of the first book but I do remember that I wasn't really that interested in the story until the Second book.

What really got me interested was the parts that included the Lady.

When reading this book I went into it thinking that it was going to be like most books I've read. Maybe one character's point of view in a sort of memoir style about what happened in their life with detailed accounts. This wasn't it.

The books are writt...more I really liked these books.

Thinking back on it, I can't remember much of the first book but I do remember that I wasn't really that interested in the story until the Second book.

What really got me interested was the parts that included the Lady.

When reading this book I went into it thinking that it was going to be like most books I've read. Maybe one character's point of view in a sort of memoir style about what happened in their life with detailed accounts. This wasn't it.

The books are written from the point of view of Croaker, the Company Annalist and the Physician. Its done in a sort of Diary-like way. He writes it as he sees it and writes down what he heard from other people. Which meant some really big gaps in our knowledge of what happened as well as his.

I loved the characters in this story. Croaker was my favorite as he was the storyteller. Raven was fun just because he seemed like such a badass. Darling was interesting because she had been through some crap but still managed to be so energetic in her fondness for Croaker and the others. One-Eye and Goblin were easily some of my favorite characters because they were always pulling crazy stuff. Soul Catcher was one of the most interesting for me because she talked in the voices of others. She always had this rivalry with the Limper throughout the books and they were constantly going after each other.

The Lady was and is my All-time Favorite character in this series. Especially during the Books of the South later on down the line. She was intriguing because she was the Lady of the Empire. As much as Croaker wanted to find out about her past, so did I.

I liked the way the books were written. The tone they took, that things weren't overly detailed. They gave off general impressions but he didn't go into some flowery explanation of how everything was detailed. It was easy to read. I was easily drawn into the world that the Black Company was in. I really wish there was a map of the area because I was lost as to WHERE they were half the time. I like the naming convention, too. That the Sorcerer's and Sorceress's were tied to their True Names and that it could be used to strip them of their powers. It was different but it was awesome.

What I didn't like about the series was that there were some pretty sharp gaps in our knowledge. Even now I don't know much about the other side of the war. There was mention of a Circle of Eighteen. I don't know much about them. Whisper was part of that. You didn't know much about the enemies of the Empire and there were several of the Taken who you never met and didn't know anything about. But that was the nature of this book. If you were writing a diary like as not there'd be plenty of things you'd forget to put in, too.

Other than that, I really recommend this book. Its a great start to a great series. Follow it up with the Books of the South and then The Return of the Black Company after that. The story just gets more and more interesting as you go along. (less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jul 18, 2010 Luke Coury rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, manly

Amazing books! I read all 12 or so of them and they just got better as the world of the Black Company got bigger and bigger. It eventually became mind-boggling. I love the hardcore manly-ness with a mix of romance and just this unknown step leaving the reader craving more information on how something works in the Company's world of magic. I would be reading and literally tear the pages out during battle scenes or moments of suspense. The characters were amazing and perfectly developed. Goblin an...more

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 15, 2010 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fiction

An interesting look at the "other side" of a classic fantasy situation where one force fights against a despotic empire ruled by practitioners of black magic. What kind of men would fight to uphold such a system? Men like those of the Black Company.

The Company is a mercenary force whose members find their morality in doing their job and supporting their comrades. They're professionals who leave the "politics" to others. Later in the story we learn that "the Rebel" force isn't as good as they wou...more

like · see review

Jan 09, 2012 Alytha rated it 5 of 5 stars

The plot follows the eponymous Black Company, a mercenary company, over 40 years on their travels and campaigns around the world (a map would have been nice to see where they actually are going), as chronicled by the Keeper of the annals, and physician, Croaker. After having somewhat forcefully concluded their former contract, they accidentally find themselves allied with the Lady, an evil warlady and sorceress..oops...

A couple of hundred years ago, the Lady and her husband, the Dominator, ruled...more The plot follows the eponymous Black Company, a mercenary company, over 40 years on their travels and campaigns around the world (a map would have been nice to see where they actually are going), as chronicled by the Keeper of the annals, and physician, Croaker. After having somewhat forcefully concluded their former contract, they accidentally find themselves allied with the Lady, an evil warlady and sorceress..oops...

A couple of hundred years ago, the Lady and her husband, the Dominator, ruled over a vast empire, with their evil minions, the Taken, who are all powerful, almost immortal warriors and sorcerors. Then, a Rebel leader called the White Rose, appeared and successfully battled them. She managed to imprison all of them in the Barrowland, surrounded by ghosts and spells. However, a magician managed to get through, and set free the Lady and the Taken, who revive their Empire.

In the first volume, they follow the Lady's forces north, and help her conquer cities and defend herself against the Rebels. In the second volume, they again have to help the Lady, as her former husband, still buried in the Barrow, threatend to break free, and as she says, that would be the end of the world. In the third volume, they find themselves standing against the Lady, as the reincarnation of the White Rose has appeared, and they support her. (Although there will be some surprising developments later).

I really liked these books. (Except maybe the names of the cities. Who in his right mind calls a city Rust, Horse, Lords, Spit...honestly. I mean I get the weird character names, especially for the names of the members of the company, but cities...

I realise I've only gone very summarily over the plot, but it's really the characters who make these novels special. Apparently, the series is well-known for introducing the concept of morally grey characters in fantasy, and it does a really good job of it. You grow so attached to these characters that you forget that, strictly speaking, they are not nice people. The mercenaries are of course professional soldiers, who will fight and kill according to the orders of whoever holds their contract, and they might find themselves on the other side of the battlefield just a couple of days later, and fight just as enthusiastically. Croaker, as a doctor and kinda intellectual might be the lightest characters of them all.

On the other hand, the "evil empire" does not appear all that evil. Sure, it does conquer cities, but other rulers do that too, and as a ruler, the Lady doesn't seem any worse than many others. People don't seem to disappear randomly, or be repressed. The Taken seem to be pretty sadistic though, at least some of them. On the other hand, Soulcatcher is quite nice for an evil sorceress, whereas some of the Rebel leaders change sides and don't seem to regret it much. The only character who is undoubtedly called evil is the Dominator, who seems so evil that all the other "evil" characters would do anything to keep him safely stowed where he is. I'd guess under his rule, things wouldn't be so easy anymore.

Another thing I like is that evil is an equal opportunity career. About half of the "baddies" are women, and they are definetely able to hold their own in a fight. I'm a bit ambiguous about the Lady, maybe her later change of heart is making her a bit too cheesy or Mary-Sueish...but I still kinda like her. Girl-power for the win ;)

I also really like the main character and first person narrator, Croaker, who chronicles everything in a nice witty tone, and provides a lot of humanity to the story, which sets it apart from general hack 'n slash fantasy.

And then there's flying carpets, flying whales and mantas, talking stones, a magic tree...

Looking forward to reading the other books in the series :)(less)

like · see review

Nov 10, 2011 Ulrich Krieghund rated it 2 of 5 stars

Like a few other reviewers, I was looking for a gritty fantasy series or novel. Unfortunately, some 70 pages in, I had to abandon this one due to some glaring weaknesses.

1. I found it to be a poor choice to have a first person point of view in the form of Croaker to tell the story. It's a group of mercenaries and a world that are unknown to the reader. The writing wasn't strong enough to present the story in this fashion.

2. There was no map. I read that Glen Cook doesn't do maps for his fantasy...more

like · see review

Jan 21, 2010 Greg rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a collection of Cook's first three books about the Black Company. The narrator and main characters in the story are a part of a historic mercenary group called the Black Company. The story and tone are more like Robert Hemphill's Platoon and other war journals than more traditional fantasy stories.

Cook really surprised me. While reading the first book in the series I was worried that The Black Company would be similar to many fantasy plots, but he took his story and characters to an...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 15, 2011 Michelle McGuinness rated it 5 of 5 stars

I gave this book a five because it does exactly what it sets out to do. It is gritty, dark and fantastic from start to finish. Nothing is sugar-coated. You follow the lives and adventures of a band of mercenaries. Their work is not pretty, and they're not always fighting for that good guys. This limbo Cook places his characters and readers in - a limbo in which there is no clear good and evil - works really well throughout all three books. It is unsettling and challenging, which is rare for fant...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 05, 2012 Travis Orders rated it 5 of 5 stars

Unlike many people, I cannot rate the individual books, I can only rate the series as a whole. I read them all in omnibus form, one following the other, and enjoyed pretty much every page of them. I have read a good deal of reviews, where the later books are panned, but I thoroughly enjoyed the gritty writing style throughout. The characters DO "write" in a somewhat similar tone, but I dont find that to be a detractor. They do serve together, and are bound to share attributes. I was impressed wi...more

like · see review

Jul 14, 2011 Kathleen Ragan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: must-own

This was an amazing book! It was one of the first Fantasy novels to use the ordinary-man-put-in-extraordinary-circumstances technique, and the author uses the technique very well. The book doesn't have any monsters really (at least, not in the usual fashion). And, although it does have a magical component, the author draws a distinct line between parlor tricks and truly powerful beings. This gives it the extra touch necessary to pull of a magical book. The author's ability to create characters t...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 26, 2009 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of epic fantasy or war novels

This book was just absolutely phenomenal. The thing that was craziest about it was when I was about a quarter into the first book of this three book collection, I was ready to put it down. It read like a war story set in a fantasy world. Which is apt because that's exactly what it is. However, I wasn't interested in a war story. I like to read about characters and their development and interactions with other characters. However this was a gift from a friend who gave it with high praise and we n...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 27, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book (or rather, these books, since this is an omnibus of a trilogy) is fan-freakin-tastic. I read the whole damned thing so fast I can't separate them in my head.
Lots of action, journeys, deaths, and the like. Mostly believable, despite being quite entrenched in the epic-fantasy realm.
It does jump the shark a few times, and does not hold onto its own premises an quite a few places. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil it for you.
That being said, the style is adult and grounded, clean an...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 11, 2009 Henry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Wow, I really like this series! The author really captures the feel of camaraderie and the bonds that are formed by men serving in combat. Those are the things that anybody that served in the military, whether today or a thousand years ago will most miss after their service is done. The author wonderfully describes what is like to be miserable in the cold, to be wet when sleeping outside, and to want nothing more but a warm, dry place to sleep...those were the parts that have me smiling thinking...more

1 like · like · see review

title link	preview: Chronicles of the Black Company
avg rating	preview: Chronicles of the Black Company Goodreads rating: 4.19 (6384 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/400924.Chronicles_of_the_Black_Company?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317065062l/400924.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/400924.Chronicles_of_the_Black_Company?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook[/url]

Chronicles of the Black Company (The Chronicles of the Black Company #1-3)

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (6)

Genres

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Glen Cook

Books by Glen Cook

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Chronicles of the...

Quotes from Chronicles of the Blac...