Customer Reviews

The Return of the Black Company

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a reprint of the first half of the Glittering Stone saga. If you have not read the original Black Company series, the characters and plot may prove overwhelming. I'd recommend you start with the first novel, the Black Company. You won't be disappointed. The Black Company (Chronicles of The Black Company #1)

Glenn Cook is one of the great fantasy writers. His style is as rich in imagery as any modern author I can think of - in a good way. His novels are chock full of humor and drama. And the world of the Black company is as imaginative as it is disturbing. One of my favorite settings.

Great world. Memorable characters. Outstanding plot. And writing so inventive that it trumps all the other aspects of Cook's novels. I highly recommend it.

I read the Black Company Series pretty much as fast as the books came out and I could find them. Sense this predated Amazon and my living overseas this wasn't always easy. Before starting on the Black Company Series I never read much fantasy and I still don't, but The Black Company was so different from the few fantasy books that I had read from authors like Piers Anthony. I just had to know what was happening to the Company! I would start searching for the next book in the series till the next book was published and I got it. Now, I wish I kept those hardbacks but being in the military and moving around I ended up selling them or giving them away. After reading most of the reviews I find myself moved emotionally and really wanting to reread the series.

This year I received a Kindle from my wife for Christmas. I had high hopes of rereading The Black Company Series only to find it isn't really available as a series yet with the Kindle. So PLEASE FORGIVE this indulgence when I ask everyone who reads this review to let Amazon know you want the books of the series to be formatted to the Kindle. It is easy and only takes a second.

Is this a good review? I don't know. The Black Company Series is not your typical Fantasy, so much so a person who does not normally care that much for the Fantasy genre fell in love with it years ago and wants to reread it all over again.

"Bleak Seasons". The Black Company is under siege inside Dejagore with their leader Croaker probably dead. Murgen takes charge at a time when the Shadowlander horde assaults them and treachery from inside the company and from other trapped groups insidiously attack them from within the city. Their situations is perilous and their trust in Murgen as their leader is shaky as he has been their chronicler annalist; an expert on their history but not ever in charge.

"She Is the Darkness". Croaker, the sorceress Lady, and the Black Company are in trouble as they are diverted from their enemy to battle other evil entities. This leaves them vulnerable to the malevolent Shadowmaster Soulcatcher, Howler and the Stranglers as they set a diabolical trap to eradicate the Black Company and their sorcery practitioner allies.

These are reprints of the first half of the Glittering Stone saga. Each tale is entertaining for fans who have read previous entries (see the omnibus CHRONICLES OF THE BLACK COMPANY and BOOKS OF THE SOUTH); newcomers will find it a bit difficult to understand what is going on. Still these are enjoyable military fantasy thrillers as the Black Company tries to simply survive against overwhelming odds.

Harriet Klausner

I went looking for a used book and it's in great condition. Really has that feel that it has been enjoyed by other people... which shouldn't be surprising, seeing as it still has all the markings of being from the Multnomah County Library.

Great read. Book was in very good condition. It's an omnibus edition that contains 'Bleak Seasons' and 'She is Darkness' which are the first two Books of the 'Silver Spike' series.

Great books with an acquired taste to the writing style. It is a breath of fresh air for something different. The Company has changed in many ways. Theses books are worth the read. Especially to get to the last book.

I liked the original books the best, but these definitely kept me interested. If you're looking at this page I'd recommend it!

It is stylistically different from the earlier books and takes a few pages to get used to but not a bad read

Like the compendium containing the previous 3 "Black Company" stories (The Books of the South: Tales of the Black Company (Chronicles of the Black Company)), "The Return of the Black Company" is a very well put together book. This collection contains the 7th and 8th books of the series. Unfortunately, though the physical publication is excellent, the two stories it contains are the weakest of the "Black Company" novels. So, even though this compendium is physically well done and handy, I'm rating it at the average of my individual story ratings, i.e., a Good 3 stars out of 5. My reviews of the individual books follow:

Bleak Seasons: Book One of the Glittering Stone (Chronicles of The Black Company):
By rating Cook's "Bleak Seasons" at a Good 3 stars out of 5, I'm probably being charitable. But, I don't think it's actually bad enough to merit only 2 stars. Anyway, I'm not very happy with the book. First, and most obviously, is the point of view the book's coming from: Murgen. I don't have that much trouble with him, personally. It's not even that all of the book is from Murgen's point of view (no interleavings from other characters). It's more the loss of the old standbys: almost all of the regulars are relegated to cameo-like appearances. Of the regulars, Goblin and One-Eye are probably the most prevalent, but even their parts are shallow. Cook does introduce a new group of people (the Nyueng Bao), but they don't seem to serve much purpose here. Which leads to the bigger problem: the book is a re-hash of the material from Dreams of Steel (The Fifth Chronicle of the Black Company) (just from another viewpoint). There's a small amount of material extending from the cliff-hanger there. But the vast majority of the text is about what went on in Dejagore during its siege. And, that leads to another problem: for no apparent purpose, Cook has Murgen jumping back and forth through time to tell the story. All that does is break up the flow of the story and leave gaps between events. For instance, the main relationship Murgen has with a woman of the Nyueng Bao ends rather abruptly in one of the "present moments." Because of all the jumping around, we don't get any true feeling for the relationship nor for what its ending means to Murgen. Ditto for the new material extending from the previous cliff-hanger. At best, this is just irritating. But, in general, it actually ruins the story.

So, overall, the book is readable, but not very good. Maybe what Cook's done here will have some meaning in later books. I hope so. I also hope those later books will be more in line with the earlier "Black Company" books.

She Is The Darkness: Book Two of Glittering Stone: A Novel of the Black Company (Chronicles of The Black Company):
As with the previous "Black Company" book (Bleak Seasons: Book One of the Glittering Stone (Chronicles of The Black Company)), I'm probably being charitable by giving "She is the Darkness" a Good 3 stars out of 5 rating. The first half of this book exhibits many of the same faults of that book: Murgen's the sole narrator; the text is almost all narration and not dialog; nothing much happens but it takes a boatload of pages to do it in; and everyone else is, at best, a cameo of a cardboard cut-out. Thankfully, Cook stopped Murgen from jumping randomly through time. So, it actually feels more coherent. Oddly, just about halfway through, the book entirely changes tone and starts to feel more like the old "Black Company" material. It's still written from Murgen's viewpoint. But, at least Cook replaces most of the narration with actual dialog. He also puts the other characters back in. The kicker is that Cook seems to have been fully aware of this. About 326 pages into the 399 pages of the edition I have (about 75 pages after the change in tone), Cook has Croaker say the following to Murgen:

"What I don't like about your Annals is that they're more about you than they are about the Company.... I mean you focus everything on yourself. Except for a few chapters you adapted from Lady's dispatches or Bucket or One-Eye or somebody, you never report anything that doesn't involve you or that you didn't see yourself. You're too self-absorbed. Why should we give a rat's [...] about your recurring nightmares? And, except for Dejagore, your sense of place is usually pretty weak. If I weren't here myself I'd have a lot of trouble picturing this whole end of the world.... You could work on writing a little more sparely, too.... You tend to go on a lot longer than you need to. At times."

That's a pretty good summary of what's wrong with this (and the previous) book. But, for some reason, Cook didn't go back and edit the first half of the book to follow his own advice. Once you get to the second half of the book, things pick up and the book reads just like the old "Black Company" stuff. But, that second half also contains a really frustrating element. The good guys capture their enemies but don't kill them off: they drag them with them. I felt like I was in a bad horror movie where everyone splits up and walks backwards through the dark.

So, I'm giving the thing middling 3 stars. If there were some way to skip the previous book and half of this one and still maintain continuity in the series, that's what I'd recommend. But, there's no way to do that: you'll just have to slog through the material and hope the next (and later) books are better.

for any fantasy fan i would recommend My Brother's Keeper these books. Even tho i've always hated first person view in novels, Glen completely changed my mind on that. The way he writes you feel more pulled into the character, and feel all the crap that have to deal with. "Uhm." = my personal favorite dialogue itterism of the Cook btw ;-)

My Brother's Keeper

I also enjoy Robert Jordan, George R. R. martin, Piers Anthony (tho u have to have a particular sense of humor for his stuff, which happily i do ;-) Andre Norton, Robert E. Howard, Fred Saberhagen, Raymond. E. Feist, and to a lesser preachy extent Terry Goodkind. If you like the former, then you'll definitely enjoy this. Glen Cook is one of the most underrated fantasy writers-he's like Bruce Campbell as an actor: for those who know him he's awesome as hell and the best especially paired with Ted Raimi), but for those who don't you prolly never will enjoy this satisfaction.

A recommend indeed :-)