The White Rose: A Novel of the Black Company (Chronicle of the Black Company) [Mass Market Paperback]

Glen Cook (Author)

Book Description

Series: Chronicle of the Black Company | Publication Date: April 15, 1990

She is the last hope of good in the war against the evil sorceress known as the Lady. From a secret base on the Plains of Fear, where even the Lady hesitates to go, the Black Company, once in service to the Lady, now fights to bring victory to the White Rose. But now an even greater evil threatens the world. All the great battles that have gone before will seem a skirmishes when the Dominator rises from the grave.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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 SF 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 SF 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.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One: The Plain of Fear
 
 
The still desert air had a lenselike quality. The riders seemed frozen in time, moving without drawing closer. We took turns counting. I could not get the same number twice running.
A breath of a breeze whined in the coral, stirred the leaves of Old Father Tree. They tinkled off one another with the song of wind chimes. To the north, the glimmer of change lightning limned the horizon like the far clash of warring gods.
A foot crunched sand. I turned. Silent gawked at a talking menhir. It had appeared in the past few seconds, startling him. Sneaky rocks. Like to play games.
"There are strangers on the Plain," it said.
I jumped. It chuckled. Menhirs have the most malevolent laughs this side of fairy stories. Snarling, I ducked into its shadow. "Hot out here already." And: "That's One-Eye and Goblin, back from Tanner."
It was right and I was wrong. I was too narrowly focused. The patrol had been away a month longer than planned. We were worried. Lately the Lady's troops have been more active along the bounds of the Plain of Fear.
Another chuckle from the block of stone.
It towered over me, thirteen feet tall. A middle-sized one. Those over fifteen feet-seldom move.
The riders were closer, yet seemed no nearer. Blame nerves. Times are desperate for the Black Company. We cannot afford casualties. Any man lost would be a friend of many years. I counted again. Seemed right this time. But there was a riderless mount.…I shivered despite the heat.
They were on the downtrail leading to a creek three hundred yards from where we watched, concealed within a great reef. The walking trees beside the ford stirred, though the breeze had failed.
The riders urged their mounts to hurry. The animals were tired. They were reluctant, though they knew they were almost home. Into the creek. Water splashing. I grinned, pounded Silent's back. They were all there. Every man, and another.
Silent shed his customary cool, returned a smile. Elmo slipped out of the coral and went to meet our brethren. Otto, Silent, and I hurried after him.
Behind us, the morning sun was a great seething ball of blood.
Men piled off horses, grinning. But they looked bad. Goblin and One-Eye worst of all. But they had come back to territory where their wizards' powers were useless. This near Darling they are no greater than the rest of us.
I glanced back. Darling had come to the head of the tunnel, stood like a phantom in its shadow, all in white.
Men hugged men; then old habit took charge. Everybody pretended it was just another day. "Rough out there?" I asked One-Eye. I considered the man accompanying them. He was not familiar.
"Yes." The dried-up little black man was more diminished than first I had thought.
"You all right?"
"Took an arrow." He rubbed his side. "Flesh wound."
 From behind One-Eye, Goblin squeaked, "They almost got us. Been chasing us a month. We couldn't shake them."
"Let's get you down in the Hole," I told One-Eye.
"Not infected. I cleared it."
"I still want a look." He has been my assistant since I enlisted as Company physician. His judgment is sound. Yet health is my responsibility, ultimately.
"They were waiting for us, Croaker." Darling was gone from the mouth of the tunnel, back to the stomach of our subterranean fastness. The sun remained bloody in the east, legacy of the change storm's passing. Something big drifted across its face. Windwhale?
"Ambush?" I glanced back at the patrol.
"Not us specifically. For trouble. They were on the ball." The patrol had had a double mission: to contact our sympathizers in Tanner to find out if the Lady's people were coming alive after a long hiatus, and to raid the garrison there in order to prove we could hurt an empire that bestrides half a world.
As we passed it the menhir said, "There are strangers on the Plain, Croaker."
Why do these things happen to me? The big stones talk to me more than to anyone else.
Twice a charm? I paid attention. For a menhir to repeat itself meant it considered its message critical. "The men hunting you?" I asked One-Eye.
He shrugged. "They wouldn't give up."
"What's happening out there?" Hiding on the Plain, I might as well be buried alive.
One-Eye's face remained unreadable. "Corder will tell it."
"Corder? That the guy you brought in?" I knew the name though not the man. One of our best informants.
"Yeah."
"No good news, eh?"
"No."
We slipped into the tunnel which leads down to our warren, our stinking, moldering, damp, tight little rabbit-hole fortress. It is disgusting, but it is the heart and soul of the New White Rose Rebellion. The New Hope, as it is whispered among the captive nations. The Joke Hope to those of us who live here. It is as bad as any rat-infested dungeon--though a man can leave. If he does not mind a venture into a world where all the might of an empire is turned upon him.
 
Copyright © 1985 by Glen Cook

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy (April 15, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812508440
• ISBN-13: 978-0812508444
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #339,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you like Jordon or Cherryh..., June 15, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Central Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The White Rose: A Novel of the Black Company (Chronicle of the Black Company) (Mass Market Paperback)

The lack of enthusiastic reviews of this book breaks my heart. I recently spent some hours reading reviews of the "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordon, where almost everyone wants more action and less "sit around" character development.

Well, I love the Jordon books too. But if it's action you want, start with The White Rose. You'll be sated with action, with war at its worst and best, sorcery both terrible and humorous, love that is both tender and terrifying and people and situations so real (even thought this is fantasy) that you can taste (and smell) them.

When you finish. Don't despair. You can't cram all the sequels into your book-bag. Read every one. At this time, "She is the Darkness" is the latest, but don't skip any. This guy can write good... suck you right into the book and have you believing stuff that- never mind. Go for it.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous end to a fantastic trilogy, April 4, 2001

By 

Stephen M. Bainbridge "www.professorbainbridg... (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The White Rose: A Novel of the Black Company (Chronicle of the Black Company) (Mass Market Paperback)

The White Rose is the third volume in the opening trilogy of the "Black Company" saga. Buy this book right now. But then click on Cook's name and buy the first two volumes of the series as well: Black Company and Shadows Linger.

The Black Company is one of the great creations of modern fantasy. In a genre in which most stories are starkly black and white--really pure good guys and really bad villans--the Black Company (contra its name) lives in gray. Indeed, Cook puts the following words in the mouth of Croaker (the principal viewpoint character and narrator in the early volumes): "I do not believe in evil . . . . I believe in our side and theirs, with the good and evil decided after the fact, by those who survive. Among men you seldom find the good with one standard and the shadow with another." Me too.

In early novels of the series, the Black Company was toughest, nastiest, scariest outfit around. "Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil--for I am the baddest SOB in the valley!" could have been the Black Company motto. In the White Rose, their numbers have shrunk and the warriors are starting to show their age. They survive now by guile, rather than brute strength.

In the White Rose, the Company also must grapple with its code of ethics, which previously was focused almost wholly inward. Honor vis-a-vis the outside world consisted of keeping one's contracts. Otherwise, honor was focused on one's relationships within the Company. But now the Company has decided that honoring its contract with Lady is not worth its collective soul. Almost against its will, the Company now finds itself serving the greater good.

Many reviewers of White Rose and other Black Company novels have commented on the sparse nature of Cook's prose. In fairness, the White Rose is even sparser than most of the other novels in the series. We have almost no sense of Toadkiller Dog's appearance, motivation, attitudes, or aptitudes. Yet, in a curious way, I think of this as one of the strengths of Cook's writing. Reading Cook's novels is sort of like listening to an old-fashioned radio serial. You have to use your imagination to fill in the gaps. I suspect that my mental picture of Toadkiller Dog is a lot scarier than anything Cook would put down in print. I like that sort of novel, but your mileage may vary.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Croaker, there are strangers on the Plain", September 12, 2008

By 

The Straw Man "J.E. Hoppock" (Aloof October on April's Birthday) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The White Rose: A Novel of the Black Company (Chronicle of the Black Company) (Mass Market Paperback)

In the third novel of The Black Company saga and completes the "first trilogy" (the first & second being "The Black Company" and "Shadows Linger"). This book closes many loose ends and opens up many new possibilities. This concept is translated in the myriad books that have followed in The Black Company series.

In this book Croaker, company physician, historian and solider, is now aiding The White Rose/Darling. The idea is that The White Rose is the only one who can defeat The Lady. The former is the epitome of good and the latter is the epitome of bad. Believe me, there is a lot more too it, I am just paraphrasing. Now before Croaker and The Black Company were part of The White Rose movement, they worked under The Lady and her arcane and potent wizards, The Ten Who Were Taken. In order to make matters even more complex, the Taken were once under the power of The Dominator (basically the Devil himself). And to take it to the soap opera realm, The Dominator is The Lady's ex-husband. So now The Dominator is going to rise again from his grave to destroy the world. Consequently, The Lady, The White Rose or The Black Company wants to stop this from transpiring.

I have to say this book was a fun read, yet it was also a deep read. Glen Cook has a way of writing very complex. His imagination is endless, which is a good thing. There were many parts of this book were very philosophical and introspective. Many elements of religion were touch or inferred in this novel. In contrast, I found myself jumping back to earlier parts in book, just to make sure I had a grasp of what was going on. This is book (and series) is a very entertaining read, but it isn't light stuff. As for the names of the characters they are still wonderful: Goblin, One-Eye, Silent, Elmo, The Limper, Croaker, Soulcatcher, Raven, Tracker and of course my favorite Toadkiller Dog. I found Toadkiller Dog to be an interesting and somewhat funny character.

Despite some of the dark fantasy themes of The Black Company series, Glen Cook is still able to throw in humor. There is a reoccurring interaction between Croaker (the narrator) and a menhir. The menhirs are tall talking stones of few words. These menhirs live on The Plain of Fear. The Plain is where The Company has been hiding since the last novel. Anyway there multiple menhirs who keep saying to Croaker "Croaker, there are strangers on the Plain". Any time Croaker tries to reply the menhir is either gone or has some sort of funny response. There is also a part in the book where Croaker, One-Eye, Goblin, Tracker and Toadkiller Dog go on a mission and the result is both comedy and adventurous.

One thing that I did find strange about this "conclusion", it seemed to happen rather quickly. There was such a build up with the two former books and even in this one. However when it came right down to it, the story seemed to wrap things up in an expedited fashion. I don't want to be mistaken, I liked the end result, it just seemed like there was all this build up and little apex of climax. Who knows, maybe this was Glen Cook's intention.

Overall, this is a great book and great series of fantasy. I am not a huge fantasy person; as a matter of fact I don't like elves, dwarfs and other jovial mystical stuff. However, this series is very different and somewhat gothic. This is a wonderful book that can allow you to escape reality and modern times.