Back
Glen Cook: Chronicles of the Black Company (2007, Tor Books) 4 stars

Darkness wars with darkness as the hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay …

Review of 'Chronicles of the Black Company' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

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.