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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant fantasy epic, without the epic formula., 4 Dec 1996
By A Customer
The Black Company series is one of my all-time favorites.
I've been reading fantasy and science fiction since I was
a kid, and many of the books that I used to like, I find
that I've outgrown. This series, though, has remained a
favorite of mine, and recently I got a copy of the first
book, titled "The Black Company", to see if it was as
good as I remembered.
The book is structured as a series of episodes,
chronicling the lives of the core members of the Black
Company, a mercenary company with a history going back
thousands of years. Everything is told from the
viewpoint of Croaker, the company's head doctor, and
official historian. (One of this series' trademarks
is the abundance of evocative names, both people and
places. My favorite is "The Tower at Charm".)
In this first book, the setting is the struggle
between the Lady, who rules an empire with the help
of her enslaved sorcerors (called "The Taken"), and
the Rebels (of course). This conflict is raging
over the entire continent, with the Black Company
serving as a valuable pawn in the struggle. Usually,
the Company is in the thick of it, and Croaker's
viewpoint provides a gripping account of strategy,
intrigue, massive battles, and desperate chases.
I think this book is good because it incorporates a
lot of the great epic-style elements, such as the
titanic power struggles, while avoiding the usual
shortfalls of an epic, such as flatness in the
characters, and excessive, sometimes artificial
moralizing. There is no "struggle between good and
evil" in this book - the Rebels are just as bad as
the Lady and her minions. The characters, though,
are vivid, and, in the midst of this large-scale
warfare, brief moments of intimacy and sincerity
shine through, especially between members of the
Company, trying to help each other to survive in a
very imperfect world.
Gripping story. Wonderful characters. I'm glad
that the series is still in print.
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by Glen Cook
by R.Scott Bakker
by Glen Cook
by Glen Cook
