The Black Company (The Chronicles of the Black Company, #1) in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Apr 09, 2014 Markus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: black-company, 2014, fantasy

“No one will sing songs in our memory. We are the last of the Free Companies of Khatovar. Our traditions and memories live only in these Annals. We are our own mourners.”

After only reading the first book in the three-part omnibus edition, I can already tell that Glen Cook is an exceptionally skilled storyteller, and that The Black Company is probably the best war story I have ever read.

Series review from the beginning
Series review from the ending ...more

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Oct 13, 2021 Adam McPhee rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021, fantasy, sword-and-sorcery

Not sure how to rate this. Parts of this I quite enjoyed and other parts were a slog.

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Sep 09, 2018 Clint rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sword-sorcery, fantasy, sword-sorcery-group-read, 2018, ebook

This was pretty okay. It took some time for me to get into it, but when I did, it cracked. I would give it four stars, but it dragged its feet too long and had a bad habit of telling instead of showing; buuuuuttttt, I can see the growth potential with the book and I have a feeling it is a series that will get better, and I predict hitting a Plateau near the middle books where it struggles to keep pace with previous books.

Such is the way of these things. I will give The Black Company a few more ...more

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May 29, 2016 Daniel Millard rated it liked it · review of another edition

To be fair, this should probably be 3.5 / 5 stars.

Even after being told/warned about this series, I wasn't quite prepared for just how DIFFERENT this book was from standard fantasy fare. I don't know anything about this "grimdark" fantasy subgenre (which sounds stupid, if you ask me), but The Black Company is definitely one of the earliest and best examples (chronologically) of gritty, war-focused fantasy that I've read. Seeing the inspiration for Steven Erikson's Malazan series is easy, but The To be fair, this should probably be 3.5 / 5 stars.

Even after being told/warned about this series, I wasn't quite prepared for just how DIFFERENT this book was from standard fantasy fare. I don't know anything about this "grimdark" fantasy subgenre (which sounds stupid, if you ask me), but The Black Company is definitely one of the earliest and best examples (chronologically) of gritty, war-focused fantasy that I've read. Seeing the inspiration for Steven Erikson's Malazan series is easy, but The Black Company is simultaneously easier and yet more difficult to digest.

Cook's narration style is bizarre, but I have decidedly firmly that I like it. True, you've got to be paying attention constantly, because skipping or mis-reading even a sentence or two might completely disorient you as a reader, but given the setting and theme (the main character committing the annals of a mercenary company to record), the short, stilted-seeming sentences make perfect sense to me. I find this writing style refreshingly different, and the book won novelty points with me here.

About halfway through the book, the babble and tumble of characters and places began to right itself and make sense. Any confusion is simply due to the large number of characters (mostly members of the company) at the outset, but unlike many authors, Cook doesn't keep piling detail after detail on. There's no problem with the scope of the world blowing out of control, and instead, the various members of the Black Company quickly become readily identifiable individuals with well-defined quirks and personalities. A very interesting and rewarding aspect of Cook's writing is his lack of physical detail attributed to most characters, and a focus instead upon colorful illustrations of how they react and speak.

And what characters they are. My favorite is almost certainly Goblin, and his maniacal spats with One-Eye remind me of ridiculous exchanges with my own brother. These were easily the most entertaining parts of the book for me, and I take extreme pleasure in the author's ability to make me laugh out loud while still delivering good drama and the grim nature of the battlefield - very rare in war-focused fantasy.

An interesting start to a series, and I am given to understand that the later books are very gripping. This first installment got its hooks in me pretty good. ...more

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