Sean Gursky reviewed Shadow games by Glen Cook
Review of 'Shadow games' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
My first exposure to the Black Company was the "Tales of the Black Company" and the three book omnibus edition helped create a complete story. Each book is about 300 pages each and having a few back to back made the story more cohesive as they build that history of the Black Company.
I started reading the remainder of Black Company without following any omnibus packaging and went in numerical order. After reading "Silver Spike" and "Shadow Games" I feel that the stories benefit from being clustered together as they work toward a larger story. This sentiment was noted in my review of "Tales of the Black Company" and that the collection of stories made the read enjoyable.
I may have done a disservice to "Books of the South" series by reading 3.5 > 4 > 5 instead of how it's packaged 4 > 5 > 3.5 because so far …
My first exposure to the Black Company was the "Tales of the Black Company" and the three book omnibus edition helped create a complete story. Each book is about 300 pages each and having a few back to back made the story more cohesive as they build that history of the Black Company.
I started reading the remainder of Black Company without following any omnibus packaging and went in numerical order. After reading "Silver Spike" and "Shadow Games" I feel that the stories benefit from being clustered together as they work toward a larger story. This sentiment was noted in my review of "Tales of the Black Company" and that the collection of stories made the read enjoyable.
I may have done a disservice to "Books of the South" series by reading 3.5 > 4 > 5 instead of how it's packaged 4 > 5 > 3.5 because so far I have found the books on their own to be 'only okay'. The sum is the whole of its parts and if I'm getting the same story individually or in a packaged set then there should be no difference.
Yet "Tales of the Black Company" was a bundled trilogy and it has been superior to the books I have read since, so either those first three books are the best or there is voodoo involved.
What did I think of Shadow Games? It was enjoyable but I only just liked it. The 'old gang' is back together and try to cope with their mission of suspecting that there are some troubled stories in their past. The subtle clues as to what happened to the previous Black Company bands was interesting and hope that these weren't just a tease but have some payoff.
I felt that the Shadowmasters were a bit underwhelming for the most part. I had hopes for a new big bad or someone/something to rival the Black Company but it was a little flat. When you realize who they are I felt almost more disappointed. I will read "Dreams of Steel" on its own before going to the packaged "The Return of the Black Company" (#6-7) and "The Many Deaths of the Black Company" (#8-9).
