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    The Black Company
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    The Black Company
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    The Black Company
    Ebook397 pages7 hours

    The Black Company

    By Glen Cook

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hardbitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead.

    Until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more.

    There must be a way for the Black Company to find her...




    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 15, 1992
    ISBN9781466831094
    Unavailable
    The Black Company
    Author

    Glen Cook

    Born in 1944, Glen Cook grew up in northern California, served in the U.S. Navy, attended the University of Missouri, and was one of the earliest graduates of the well-known "Clarion" workshop SF writers. Since 1971 he has published a large number of Science Fiction and fantasy novels, including the "Dread Empire" series, the occult-detective "Garrett" novels, and the very popular "Black Company" sequence that began with the publication of The Black Company in 1984. Among his science fiction novels is A Passage at Arms. After working many years for General Motors, Cook now writes full-time. He lives near St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Carol.

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    Reviews for The Black Company

    4.5/5

    83 ratings27 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Really entertaining and a quick read! I heard about it because Steve Erikson mentioned it, definitely worth the read.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite series. Glad I was able to read it again.
    • 5/5
      The action is non-stop .Glen Cook's black company has all the action of Kull or Conan . Also brings memories of Erikson's Bridgeburners.
    • 5/5
      I first read this book in Afghanistan while I was there on deployment. I love the whole series of the Black Company books. The authors focus on the men, and their camaraderie with each other in the face of overwhelming odds is what captures my imagination. Ask any veteran who is a reader, odds are good they count The Black Company series among their favorite.
    • 5/5
      The text was very dark and rich like a good coffee. The story line was not overly convoluted nor was it contrived just compelling. Though "The Black Company " did not labor over backstory I felt as though it delivered a sense of long history. I plan to read them all.
    • 3/5
      It's violent and I liked the military realism but there was a lot of things not well fleshed out or explained... The world building was a little lacking but in all not a bad time
    • 5/5
      it so fantastic dude I like it so much
    • 5/5
      Loved thid series so much man
    • 5/5
      I bought this book almost 30 yrs ago and it still stands up today. Mr. Cook's tour de force is one of those rare novels that builds a world using far fewer words than his contemporaries yet his creation seems far more tangible due to this lack of verbosity. Thanks Glen, I bought this book on impulse to pass an hour in the backseat of a car from Belleville to St. Charles and honestly by the time we hit the Blanchette bridge I was reading Beryl for the second time
    • 3/5
      Maybe I'm just not that interested in the band-of-mercenary-men-fighting-a-war thing or maybe it was the writing style that just didn't do it for me, but I found it really difficult to get into this book.Pros: I do like the intricate history and the background that the author has created; it's a well developed world with rich characters and lore. Cons: There just wasn't much in the plot to draw me in. The story was all right, and even had a few twists to keep things interesting, and yet I had to try really hard to care.It's not that this book wasn't good, because I like it enough to give it a mediocre to okay rating -- hence the three stars. However, I just couldn't put my finger on anything about the story or the characters that would set it above other dark fantasy books of its type. Maybe I've screwed myself over here, because I've read so many titles in this genre over the last couple of years, my personal bar for quality is now set pretty high. The Black Company was all right, but then there's nothing too terribly memorable about it that would make me gush about this book, say, years down the road. I'll probably continue with this series, but only when I'm done with some of the more high-priority books on my to-read list.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I don't know what to think of this book. It's the grittiest of fantasies, with some really fascinating stuff -- Soulcatcher and the other Taken, the Lady, Raven... -- and some really gross stuff -- Soulcatcher and the other Taken, the Lady, Raven, and just about everyone else. The pacing's odd, but it sort of worked here; the plot takes quite a while to become apparent, but I figured out some important details long before the characters did.

      I'm interested in where it's all going, and the moral shades of grey are very murky, which usually proves interesting to me, but... I don't know, it didn't quite work for me, either. Every time I got halfway towards liking a character, they did something grotesque or got killed. That's normally a dealbreaker for me, so the fact that I kept at it might say something positive to you about the whole thing. I'm definitely reading the rest.
    • 3/5
      Ah, military fantasy. Where the men are real men, the men who are not real men are objects of derision, and the peasant women are convenient tools to, by their brutal rape or lack thereof, indicate the good guys, bad guys, seemingly-good-but-just-as-bad-as-the-bad-guys, or indubitably-quite-bad-but-with-a-heart-of-gold guys.

      If you can get past the appalling gender and sexuality issues, The Black Company is quite good fun - more sneaky tricks than pitched battles, and while there are no actual good guys, the range of shades of grey is carefully thought out and quite engaging. Overall not a book I'd recommend to someone who didn't already like the genre (it's 80s-vintage and thus even less enlightened than modern stuff) but it's exactly what it was intended to be.
    • 4/5
      An intriguing first book in a series. The Black Company recounts the tale of a mercenary company of men who serve varying masters. Told from the point of view of Croaker, the company's physician and annalist, the company becomes embroiled in a conflict between the cruel Lady and the Rebels who oppose her. Despite serving the Lady's needs, some members of the company and even the Lady's inner circle may be working against her, particularly as rumors arise that the mythical White Rose is in the world again. An excellent read, I can't wait to start the next one in this series!
    • 5/5
      A unusual story for its presentation of a fantasy world from the common soldier's perspective; a bit like Lord of the Rings told from the viewpoint of an orc. But this "orc" is one member of a mercenary band of humans who, though they value their reputation for loyalty first and foremost, sometimes wonder whether they're fighting for the right side. Fantasy tropes are present but stay in the story's background, which remains dedicated to following the Black Company's moves under its employers. The Black Company might question their orders but they don't balk at carrying them out, whatever the complications this leads to.Croaker, as company annalist, relates the novel from his first-person perspective. It isn't clear whether what we're reading is the word-for-word record he sets down. I chose to read it that way, although doing so presents a few problems for the same reasons that I tend to think he's a reliable narrator: confessions that would embarrass him or cast doubt on his continuing as archivist, if they were read by the company. What's most interesting is that he's not certain of the moral ground occupied by key players on either side of the conflict that the Black Company finds itself embroiled in. He can only relate the orders his company receives and how they were carried out, while all else is his conjecture. Croaker reveals the swinging of his personal moral compass in how he sets down his record, even as he remains stubbornly loyal to and understanding of the amoral dictates that must guide the company he so strongly identifies with.In spite of the limited viewpoint, the author behind the narrator still does a fine job of giving us a big picture of events and the world they take place in, without ever giving away which side in the conflict is truly the good and the bad. Meanwhile we can empathize with Croaker's measuring sticks for trying to figure it out: his respect for the value of life, given his other role as the company's medic; the camaraderie among the company that keeps him grounded; and the actions he witnesses or becomes party to that make him doubt and wonder. Even by story's end, when he seems to have chosen which forces he believes represent good and evil, it feels like he's hedging his bets for practical reasons. Fantasy doesn't get any more realistic than that.
    • 4/5
      I found this book very difficult to get into. Cook's style put me off at first and it took me at least half the book to start to settle into it. Even 5 books into the series now I still struggle with it at times. However, the story is interesting and overall I am glad that I have plodded along through the books. Soulcatcher, Croaker and Raven are some of my favorite characters from this book. I think the introduction of Raven is what kept me reading.
    • 4/5
      The tale is told through the eyes of the company’s physician and Annalist. He’s fairly new to the company, and has limited knowledge of some of his more ancient colleagues. He reads and analyzes the history of the Company and attempts to order, in his mind, and in the annals, the story of his own service with the last free mercenary company as they struggle through a war-torn landscape where defeat is far more common than any sort of victory.Croaker is an astute observer of both his friends and his enemies and struggles, as he writes,to understand motivations and philosophies for those he comes to know. But his colleagues are not men who willingly share their inner thoughts and fears, he has only their actions to use as a measure of these men.We join the mercenaries as they are involved in supporting ‘The Lady’ against ‘The Rebel’ and are in a long and soul-deadening retreat, as her forces are being assaulted by a far larger and more motivated force attempting to drive her from power. The Black Company is the only group involved who are mercenaries, and are not sworn to fight for one side or the other.Much of the book involves Croaker trying to make sense of what morality and loyalty involve in light of their situation, and as he sees it, it is mostly to his fellow soldiers and few friends, as well as living up to your word and your contract, no matter what horrors you find yourself facing, even when you realize you are fighting for Evil, or are you? Not knowing who is in the right, who is just, who is the lesser Evil, Croaker swallows his doubts and fears and just does what he’s told, to the best of his ability.The characters in the piece are complex and interesting, and you never do really get their entire story, particularly not the two newest members of the mercenaries, Raven and a girl he saves from murder and mayhem, Darling. But through Raven, somehow, Croaker ends up singled out by ‘the Lady’ who is a sorcerer and who is frightening even to battle-hardened men. He tries to understand why and how she chooses him and finds himself far more afraid of her, than he is of a terrifying battlefield.This is not the sort of book that will appeal to a lot of readers. It is grim and gritty and there are no heroes and no clear winners. But the book held my interest and got me thinking of warfare and its effects on not only the landscape and the civilians but also on the soldiers themselves and their own efforts to justify actions that oftentimes seem inhumane and senseless.
    • 3/5
      Dark and gritty military sci-fi/fantasy, this follow the mercs of Black Company as they enter into The Lady's service. This is the first of the series and it did take me about 1/4th of the book to settle into Cook's narrative style, since at times, I felt it was a wee bit disjointed. That smooths out however as pertinent background info is slowly delivered. The mercs themselves are intriguing; men who do not wish their backgrounds to be known and with names like Silent, Croaker, Candy, etc - they keep even their real name secret - I found the mysterious/shadowly approach fitting. There is magic and upheaval in this world - reminds me of both Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion series (though that is decidely ...more paladin/good oriented) and George R. R. Martins' series (A Song of Fire & Ice) for a grittier feel. Ultimately though, it's neither and stands on its own merits.
    • 5/5
      "The Black Company" is the story of the the titular mercenary unit, the last of the Free Companies of Khatovar. The tale is told through the perspective of Croaker, the Company's medic and annalist. Croaker's narrative records the Black Company's exploits over the period of a couple years as they go from transfer from a previous employer into the service of "The Lady," a dread sorceress from the North. She is embattled in a bitter war with a rebellion led by a circle of eighteen rogue wizards. The rebellion is motivated by a prophecy that one day a child known as the "White Rose" would lead the rebellion to victory against The Lady. The Black Company becomes a main instrument in the Lady's war machine, even as they're pushed further and further back toward her capital and what looks to be sure defeat.The novel's mood is decidedly grim, a great example of the gritty fantasy genre. For the Black Company life is hard and shored, filled with a never-ending cycle of death and destruction. And since the novel is written from the experiences of the Company annalist, there is little attention paid to world-building. Oh, there's enough explanation of backstory to make the tale understandable, but only just. Many of the typical facets of fantasy worlds are not explored, and for good reason. If the narrator is writing to the people in his realm, there is a certain amount of information that the author would assume to be common knowledge. Therefore it wouldn't be necessary to include them. This style of story-telling depends upon an active and insightful reader, but if you simply read and give the novel a chance, I think most people will adapt to it quickly. I myself struggled with the style at first, but that frustration didn't last long. The momentum of the story quickly grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go.Cook avoids many of the usual fantasy tropes, which was refreshing. He also uses a narrative voice that is often short and succinct. The story is distilled down to actions and dialogue, a few personal musings, but very little that might detract from the pacing of the book. Grim details are often discussed with a matter-o-fact-ness that might shock some readers, but again, it all fits with the POV. After all, it's what you would expect from a warrior poet. And all that together makes "The Black Company" different from most of the fantasy novels out there. It's one of the reasons I found the novel to be so enjoyable.If you haven't figured it out by now, I really enjoyed this one. The novel may have been published in 1984, but it's edge hasn't dulled one bit. The story itself is great, and I was blown away by Cook's skill and inventiveness of style. I gave it a totally fan-boy rating of five stars, mostly because I'm a sucker for gritty fantasy. And "The Black Company" is gritty fantasy done right.
    • 4/5
      It's easy to see the influence of Glen Cook's The Black Company in much of modern fantasy, including the works of Steven Erickson and Joe Abercrombie. Despite being published in the 80s, the grittiness of his flawed characters is very much at home next to books published 20 years later. The writing style is a comfortable hybrid between internal narration and diary entry, which Cook uses to quickly progress the story through weeks and months of forced marches through desert and swamp and field.
    • 4/5
      Striking approach to epic fantasy: terse communiques written from the front lines by the medic of a band of mercenaries. No flowery descriptions here. It's all about the trenches, the platoon members, the bargains one makes with one's self during war. Except for a few key moments, the gods and generals are all off on the horizon. Though this was written almost 20 years ago it still feels new. There's a reason it was popular with the troops in the Gulf. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
    • 4/5
      Gets much better as it goes along.Upto maybe halfway through the books is somewhat disjointed. It is the chronicles of a longstanding company of mercenaries called 'the Black company', who recall their exploits over the years in 'The Annals'. The current annalist is one 'Croaker' real name and past unknown. He is the medic for the company, which are currently in the town of Beryl acting as bodyguards for the ruling Subric. A strange beast is prowling the city and eventually the Company withdraw, into the service of a foreign vessel coincidentally in port at the same time. the Master of the vessel turns out to be Soulcatcher, one of the demigods of northern lands and a vassal of the Lady, an evil undead of vast godlike powers long thought absent from the world. Soulcatcher's allies - 9 other Taken - are attempting to preserve the Lady's empire against a Circle of 18 wizards leading a vast rebilion against her 'evil' rule. But the Company right and wrong doens't matter, only the purity of their service counts - and not having to fight unless you have to. The inital campains are disjointed as the company moves around a bit, and many details left untold by Croaker. However we learn a bit about a few of the more senior members, although out of a 600 strong company (and it was 6000 once apon a time) we only get a few names, and even less in the way of personalities. However as the action hots up the writing becomes more fluid, and the characters, especially croaker, gain more depth. The Taken politic amoungst themselves for the Lady's favour, and the Black Company are caught up admist their struggles. Meanwhile the Rebel forces draw ever nearer to the seat of the Lady's power.It's a quick read, but enjoyable. Croaker has several moral doubts, and even though the Black Company are hardly angelic there are limits. It's fairly obviously set-up for a sequel so some of the more engimatic characters may get more details later. There is a surprising and enjoyable pleasing absense of detailed fights, mostly summerised with we won and there were lots of bodies, however this is parto f what adds ot eh disjointed feeling at times.intreguing and I'll look for the sequels
    • 5/5
      This book deserves its accolades and its longevity; it is just excellent, a worthy contribution to the genre!The Black Company is the first chapter of a sweeping tale surrounding a fraternity of soldiers-of-fortune enlisted into the last of the Twelve True Companies. Forged four centuries earlier and named so, when all its members were black-skinned, this disparate group forms a tightly-bound, mercenary brotherhood; the last of the Free Companies of Khatovar holding on precariously to their past traditions with few new members. This story serves as a chronicle of their latest adventure, related by their physician, Annalist, part-time historian and scholar, Croaker, who, with his perspicacity and underlying honour, commands a respect from both his brothers and the reader. Recounted in segments, Croaker enlightens us, in a charming, self-derogatory manner, with the background, the necessary history and the present circumstances as the company undertakes its latest commission to the Lady and her ‘Taken’ minions; sorcerers recently escaped from a long imprisonment imposed by the White Rose, and now under attack by forces of the Rebel. Unwillingly used as a pawn in a colossal power-play, the Black Company thus finds itself, and its core members, the focus and pivot of titanic battles and numerous betrayals now engulfing their world.This is a big, bold, bustling epic of a story, replete with copious battles and cunning politics, and with villains aplenty. But what sets this tale apart from other military fantasy is the underlying ethos asserted in the book by the author: “ There are no self-proclaimed villains, only regiments of self-proclaimed saints. Victorious historians rule where good or evil lies.” (p.108)Thus it is simple to connect with this rabble of a group; unproblematic to empathise with their philosophy – evil is found in all, just in varying shades.Every now and again one finds a favourite fantasy with an inventive plot, a multitude of fascinating characters and a premise which is both engaging and original – but with a profundity that sets the narrative apart. I consider this book as such, and, along with its well-constructed phrasing and fast-paced story-line, it encourages me to believe that this entire series will entertain thoroughly throughout. And it is patently obvious why writers of so many of the recently-written popular fantasy epics have been influenced by these books – the cream always rises to the top!
    • 4/5
      This book is the first of a trilogy that is, in turn, part of a 10-volume (to date) work. This fantasy/military story is original and gripping reading; Glen Cook is one of the most consistent authors for good stories.
    • 5/5
      Part of the best-selling "Black Company" series, noted for it's highly personal style and gritty prose.
    • 4/5
      A good start to this series. I look forward to more. I think Cook could have fleshed it out a little more, but maybe that's based on the expectations of modern fantasy epics. If you've read Stephen Erikson's Malazan series Cook's influence is very clear.
    • 5/5
      If I were going to be sent to a deserted island and could only take 20 books, without question these three (Black Company, Shadows Linger, White Rose) would be on the list. Where Tolkein and Brooks have written epic fantasy, very elaborate and refined, Cook's series has a raw, gritty feel to it. His style is brief, the language sparse. There are plenty of plots, subplots and rabbit trails to keep you involved in the story and enough loose ends to make you read the next book. I have generally not been a fan of books written from the first person point-of-view (Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series is a notable exception) but these are well done.The books are presented as a history of the doings of the Black Company, a mercenary band available to anyone with money. The story is told by their Annalist, Croaker. In the first book, are introduced to the war between Good (the Rebel) and Evil (the Lady and her servants, the Ten Who Were Taken). The Black Company has been hired by Soulcatcher, one of the Taken, and thus become unwilling fighters for Evil. But all is not as it seems, for there is another, still greater Evil called the Dominator.
    • 5/5
      Who says heroes have to be on the side of the righteous? This is a story of a mercenary company enlisted to serve the Empire of an evil Sorceror-Empress. It is told through Croaker, the Company Annalist, and holds you right from the get go, as he charts the Company's course. Along the way we see a memorable Empire, a ruinous war, a titanic battle, and very little traditional heroism. A great read.