Just a note saying that the first three books have been re-released in one edition called The Chronicles of the Black Company, partly due to the books popularity with soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. I'm guessing it's likely they can relate to the men of the Black Company?
I highly recommend reading the first three books of this series, and if you enjoy them, the rest will continue and also fill-in the background some.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~The Black Company series~I have to thank my friend Moonbiter over on Twilight of Arnor for getting me into this book series. He bugged me for years to read it, and when I found an old paperback of the first book I decided to do so. Now I've read through this whole series and I can say for sure that it was well worth the time and effort! Glen Cook doesn't follow the usual book fantasy formula. He builds an amazing but often cruel world, and despite a few dry stretches along the way, he keeps your interest and will throw in a twist and turn when it seems least expected. The story is told from the common grunt's eye, not from the nobles. An annalist is charged to keep records of the Company's doings and who joins and who leaves and such. If you're looking for a Tolkien clone, this series is definitely not Tolkienesque. But if you're looking for something darker then I highly recommend this series as a read! Here's a list of
Black Company series of books and a brief synopsis:
*The Black Company
*Shadows Linger
*The White RoseThese three are called
The Books of the North & are also sometimes referred to as
The Annals of the Black Company. These three books are available as a single three-book hardbound edition under that name that name
(regularly listed on ebaY - advanced search under 'Books' for 'Glen Cook').I will say here that the first two chapters of the first book,
The Black Company, is kind of hard starting as the nicknames of some of the major characters are thrown out rather quickly. This has turned some people off from continuing to read them, but in a way, its sort of a 'weeding out' of those who aren't worthy of joining the company. If you stay with it and get to chapter 3 (titled
Raker), you wont be sorry. That chapter was a short in
Sci-fi & Fantasy magazine in the early eighties and really gets the story going. If you do start with chapter 3, you can always go back and read the first two chapters as a sort of prequel if you wish. A note on the chapters in the first book... they are huge! Take the breaks when the story shifts a little, or where the little three stars appear.
The first three books start with the Black Company taking on a new contract with the Empire, and they board ship to head north. Along the way they have to battle a rebellion against the empire, and in finally coming to the city of Charm, the capital of the Empire, they are faced with much more than they ever expected. There is alot of good battle descriptions and sorcery along the way!
The next book is a stand alone that is written from the perspective of one of the minor characters introduced in
The White Rose...
*The Silver Spike Written as a journal for a common soldier, it's an excellent book that takes place not long after the events covered in the
White Rose. An evil power mentioned in the earlier books attempts to rise again. I think its one of the better reads of the series.
The fifth and sixth books in the series are called
The Books of the South:
*Shadow Games
*Dreams of Steel
Shadow Games is the account of whats left of the Black Company as they journey south
(a few of the members quit the company and remained in the north and are written about in The Silver Spike). The timelines of
Shadow Games and
The Silver Spike are somewhat concurrent as they cover the adventures of the two groups. Here is a synopsis of
Shadow Games &
Dreams of Steel, the two
Books of the South...
There are seven members of the Company left, and its a hard time for the Company.
Shadow Games starts off with the remaining members deciding their course of action since they have no comission binding them. This begins their journey south, and into all they encounter & what they get mixed up in along the way. As they travel further south, we are introduced to the Shadowmasters who fear the Black Company's coming. After stopping and resting in a city where they meet the
Nar, much political intrigue, alliances, and army-building, there come a climatic battle with the
Shadowmasters. Dreams of Steel continues from the aftermath of this battle, and is the first actual Black Company book written from a different member's point of view. The writing style reflects this as it has a distinctively different feel, which is a great feat for an author to do in my opinion. The end of
Dreams of Steel leaves the story as somewhat of a cliffhanger leaving the reader wanting to know what happens next.
And it took awhile for the next book to come out. The next four books are called [/col]
The Glittering Stone series:
*Bleak Seasons
*She Is the Darkness
*Water Sleeps
*Soldiers LiveThe account in
Bleak Seasons is of the perspective of the standard-bearer Murgan, who we are introduced to in
Shadow Games. This account parallels some of the events mentioned in
Dreams of Steel and is again, written a bit different to reflect a different character's perception.
She Is The Darkness gets us back to the perspective of the Black Company annalist, and covers all he had been through since the end of
Shadow Games, so it too runs somewhat concurrent with accounts in the previous two books. The writing style is similar to the early books, though the last couple chapters I noticed the story got a little choppy and hurried. It seemed Glen Cook may had let it sit for a time, and then hurried to finish it to maybe meet a deadline. The story worked ok, but I thought it could have used maybe another chapter to smooth it out some.
Water Sleeps, and
Soldiers Live continue the Glittering Plain adventures after a number of years, aging the characters and closes out stories of many of them. Some new folk are introduced but not really developed, and it leaves open the door for more books in the future me thinks [small](
in this interview with Glen Cook he says there may be a couple more Black Company series books coming in a few years)[/small].
As a series, you can feel the morphing of the story through the years it took Glen Cook to write them, and it follows well in the aging of the characters in the story. I do think he dwells too long on some things that in my opinion really didn't require so much verbiage, and he doesn't go far enough in depth into things I found intriguing, but that's also the way it is with me and J.R.R. Tolkien's writings.
Yes, the
Black Company is quite a dark story for sure. One of the things I liked about it was the way the battles were described. Not outrageously descriptive, but it conveys a feeling a common soldier may have for their fallen friends and comrades. Also, some of the more developed characters seem 'real', and the composition of the Black Company at any one time is filled with 'everyman' types from all walks of life. I'm surprised this series isn't more popular, but I guess it takes a grim sort of person to understand it. If you're looking for the typical fantasy 'happily ever after' story, this is not for you. But if an 'in the trenches' grit is looked for, I highly recommend reading this series.
Here are the book covers of most of the books.I found a
Black Company Livejournal Community here.
About the cardgame
Tonk the men are said to be playing at various times... its a gambling card game played in the Black Company books based on the rummy game of the same name.
Here are the rules if anyone is interested in it. I had the opportunity to play this game a year or so ago with several people, and it was quite fun!
If you would like to read what others think of the books, these following links are to reviews of the first Black Company book. They may contain spoilers, but for the most part they don't give too much away:
This review is a good one on the first book. I have to agree with his final statement where he says not to read it if you're looking for a Tolkien derivative. I guess because its so different from Tolkien is why I like it.
This review speaks well of the book too.
This Review gives some comparison to other popular authors.