La Compagnie noire

I am haunted by the clear knowledge that, in the end, evil always triumphs.

I struggled with the start of this book. I know that being dropped in to a middle of a story, in a strange land, with unfamiliar characters takes time to adapt but I just wasn't "getting" it.

I was diligent, carried on with the chapters and around the 20% mark something connected and I understood Croaker's perspective. The first few chapters aren't a traditional story where one chapter follows the other, each one was contained in a specific event/time and before I understood that I felt lost.

Once I understood that the story picked up and my interest returned. This was near the end of book one, and with the introduction of the Lady that may have helped my enjoyment too.

We are the victims of our own competence.

Book two felt like more of a coherent story. Having a reminder about who the Taken were, their burial and resurrection helped to coalesce the story for me as I didn't absorb those details in book one. The additional POV's were a benefit and when events connect in Juniper it was fantastic.

Book two and three also benefited from having a consistent story and we weren't jumping years or locations between chapters. This allowed me to settle in and enjoy the story more instead of digging for details trying to understand what is happening where.

Little before have to hate, have to blame someone for their own inadequacies.

I was content with just reading the Northern series of the Black Company but I'm enjoying myself too much now to stop. The world unfolds through the perspective of one person and relies on a 'show don't tell' approach which works wonderfully because the reader learns about events as Croaker does.

The gritty mixture of magic, military and mercenaries is excellent and I'm more than happy to stay on this ride until I read through the entire Black Company series.

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 would like people to believe, which I think actually detracts some from the overall story, but it's still worth a read.

I'm less enthusiastic about the followup books, but I'll save that for my comments on those specific books.

I was surprised to find that the trilogy of books that make up this compilation originally came out in the mid-eighties, during the time I was most voracious in my reading of fantasy and science fiction. After looking up the covers of the original printings, I understand why. This series suffered from uninspiring covers that I can recall seeing on the shelves, but passing by without bothering to even read the cover blurbs. The covers of the compilations are far superior, and more evocative of the contents.

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 science fiction labels, the Black Company seems almost as tame a Curious George. *

Well, not really. But it is much less horrible than I remembered, in retrospect. It's also much better than I remembered. While not necessarily a deathless classic of the genre, the books are very well written, well-paced, and exciting. Yes, there is some darkness, but this series would be a good addition to the library of any fantasy fan from mid-teen to adult. And if my memory serves me, the Black Company books did break new ground in fantasy, extending the "dark" trend previously exemplified in Michael Moorcock's Elric books.

• • I'm talking about you, David Wingrove: you should be in prison, along with Jack Chalker's corpse and some of the contributors to the Wild Cards series.