Company [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Orbit
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841495107
• ISBN-13: 978-1841495101
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 7.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,985,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars J.G Ballard x David Gemmell, June 23, 2009

By 

J. Shurin "carnivore" (London) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Company (Hardcover)

The enigmatic K.J. Parker has done it again with The Company - a one-off, strangely-philosophical fantasy.

Parker has already proven his/her ability to write deeply-troubling low fantasy (including occasional dives into the outright macabre), but in The Company, Parker consciously sets out to explore the more depressing aspects of the human spirit.

The Company is composed of a half-dozen ex-soldiers. As 'linebreakers', they were in some of the wildest and most dangerous battles of the war - constantly at the front line, only surviving through luck, skill and a bit of barbarism. Now that the war is over, the soldiers have drifted back to their civilian lives - only to find that they're no longer comfortable away from the battlefield.

Lead by Kunessin (the only one to stay in the army after the conclusion of the war), the group re-assemble and set off to forge their own, special peace. By settling an island out in the middle of nowhere, they hope to create their own private sanctuary - someplace they can be on their own.

From the start, their plans are ruined by the harsh necessities of the real world - they need servants, they need wives, the weather is terrible, the transport is unreliable... Under the strain, Kunessin and the Company soon realize that the connections between them might not be as strong as they once believed.

The Company is fantasy only in that it isn't set in the 'real world'. Parker invents battles and geography as he/she sees fit, in order to make the story as compelling as possible. Still, The Company could work in a modern, futuristic, historical... any sort of setting. The characters, their conflict and the ultimate resolution - it is about the people, and not where they are.

As a result, the best comparison would be to the existential science fiction of a writer like JG Ballard, who used science fiction or fantasy settings/analogues to explore the darker aspects of human nature. Parker isn't perfect, but The Company is an ambitious, aggressive book, and the author deserves a lot of credit for making it an absorbing read, as well as an overtly meaningful one.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard slog, January 27, 2009

By 

N. Brett (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Company (Hardcover)

This is a Fantasy novel in very little but name. Yes it is not set in out `world' but this is about a group of individuals and is more about hidden secrets and relationships.
A group of retired elite soldiers decide to move to an Island (with new wives and some `workers') to set up a new life and society. What initially seems a good idea starts to come unstuck as gold is discovered on the island and past secrets start to catch up with them.
In essence the author takes the scenario of a group who were tight knit during a war, but then puts them in a different situation. Suddenly people on whom your life used to depend are seen in a different light...
I was looking forward to this, the premise and characters looked interesting, but in the end I found it a struggle, often picking up something else instead. I feel bad about that because this is a worthy and well written book but it just didn't grab me and the motivations of some of the characters were not overly clear and it became hard to engage with them. So, three stars. Just.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful...until the last little bit., November 4, 2009

By 

EchoesIE (West Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Company (Paperback)

The Company was the first book I picked up by K.J. Parker, browsing along until the cover art cot my eye on a shelf in a bookstore. It was an impulse buy and it was worth the price paid. I found this one of the better books I have read recently, Parker keeps a solid tempo throughout the whole thing, does a great job at explaining the past of the characters and the characters (though their names get confusing here and there) are a nice mix of high-and-mighty and I'm-here-to-be-here. The main character is likeable, and his intentions are for the best. The plot is pretty straight forward and Parker does a decent job at moving along. The whole thing boils down to the last few chapters that really made me scratch my head. It was as if the whole book had been written in a nice orderly fashion, nicely laid out...then the deadline hit and Parker had to throw together an ending. I finished the last few chapters in one night and was eagerly anticipating an epic ending, but sadly there was only an ending...no epic-ness about it.
All in all, a great read (and a good size novel at that, nothing too gargantuan, yet something that will take a few nights to read). I look forward to diving into more of K.J. Parker's works soon enough.