I posted this in the 'Fantasy Book Recommendations' thread, but thought it deserved a thread of its own.
I have to thank Moonbiter 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 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 dies and such. It is definitely not Tolkienesque, & I highly recommend this series as a read! Here's a list of the Black Company series of books and a brief synopsis:
- The Black Company
- Shadows Linger
- The White Rose
I will say here that the first two chapters of the first book The Black Company is kind of hard starting, as names of some of the major characters are thrown out rather quickly. This has turned some people off from continuing to read them. If you have this issue, I hope you stay with it, or skip to chapter 3 titled Raker. That chapter was a short in Sci-fi & Fantasy magazine and really gets the book going. You can always go back and read the first two chapters as a prequel if need be. 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 are.
The first three books start with the Black Company taking on a new contract with the Empire, and 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, are faced with the downfall of said empire. Some good battles and sorcery along the way!
The next book is a stand alone that is a 'journal' of one of the characters you get to know in the White Rose.
- The Silver Spike
The fifth and sixth books in the series are The Books of the South:
- Shadow Games
- Dreams of Steel
There are seven members of the Company left, and its a hard time for the Company. Shadow Games begins their journey and what they encounter along the way. Ultimatly, what they get mixed up in as they travel south introduces us to the Shadowmasters, who fear the Black Company's coming. After meeting the Nar, much political intrigue, 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 book written from a different character's point of view. The writing style reflects this as it is seemingly different, which is a great feat for an author to do in my opinion.
The next four books is the more recently written Glittering Stone series:
- Bleak Seasons
- She Is the Darkness
- Water Sleeps
- Soldiers Live
She Is The Darkness gets us back to the writings of the original annalist Croaker, and all he had been through since the end of Shadow Games. The last couple chapters I noticed a changed writing style, and I felt 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, but I thought it could have used another chapter to smooth it out.
Water Sleeps, and Soldiers Live are follow up adventures and closes out stories of many of the characters we have come to know and love. Some cool new folk are introduced but not really developed, and it leaves open the door for more books in the future me thinks (in this interview with Glen Cook he says there may be a couple more Black Company series books coming in a few years).
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 things that really didn't require so much verbiage, and doesn't go into things I found intriguing, but that's the way it is with me and J.R.R. Tolkien.
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 with a feeling a common soldier may have for their fallen 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. 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... 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!