Black Company fans!

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Are the rest of the books of the quality of the first book? The gritty feel and down and dirty story so far is quite, quite good. This is a fantasy book that is firing me up like I haven't been by a fantasy novel in a long time. Whisper has just been taken by the Lady, so I haven't finished it yet. I couldn't imagine this book going bad at the end though, it's just too much fun so far.

I really get the itching to run a game in this kind of world and with this kind of a mercenary group. This would be great for Warhammer RPG or GURPS fantasy. D&D could work but with some work, a lower magic setting would be easier IMO. Anyway does the story get better or worse in the rest of the series?

 

[barsoomcore]

It's a GREAT series. I love these books and they get more mature, more bleak, and more sophisticated in style and voice as they go on.

No question. Read on, my friend, read on...

Ah, first time reading the Black Company. I envy you.

 

[buzzard]

Actually just to be a sourpuss, I have to interject that some of the later books manage to drag. The first few are truly excellent however. I think the one I never finished was She is the Darkness, which is well along in the series.

 

[Endur]

Glen Cook is a great author. Some of his books are better than "The Black Company."

The Black Company, Shadows Linger, The White Rose, and The Silver Spike are my favorites from the Black Company series.

The Tower of Fear is my favorite of all of his books (stand-alone novel).

His Bragi Ragnarson series is very good, particularly the early books in that series if you can find them. A Shadow of All Night Falling, The Fire in his Hands, All Darkness Met, October's Baby, With Mercy Towards None.

The Garrett PI series is comedy.

He has a few trilogies and other stand alone novels.

 

[CCamfield]

Well... pretty much what Endur said. You been picking my brain or something?

The first four BC novels are the best. (Maybe the first Book of the South came before The Silver Spike, but I'm counting it as the fourth.) And The Tower of Fear is awesome.

He also has written some really good SF. The closest in tone to the Black Company would probably be Shadowline, a SF mercenaries novel drawing heavily on Norse myth.

 

[drothgery]

I really think The Silver Spike is the weakest of the Black Company novels, mostly because the narator Cook designed just doesn't have the intellectual curiosity of the others, and the villians of the piece were pretty uncomplicated.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I'm reading them for the first time too. DAMN but they're good! Highly recommended. I've only read one other of his books, the Swordbearer, and that was good too.

 

[Harp]

I just want to echo the sentiments of Endur and CCamfield -- the first four books of the Black Company and Tower of Fear are far and away my favorites. I'm afraid the Black Company lost me in the Books of the South. Lost some of their charm somehow.

Didn't know about the SF books. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[FraserRonald]

Let me also chime in: The first 3 Black Company books are among my favourite books ever. They honestly kick ten types of as . . . er, asparagus. And I would also like to cast my vote for Tower of Fear. When people ask me for something to read, I often offer up my well-worn copy, knowing it'll hook them.

I've got the whole Black Company series, all first editions and the last two in hardcover. Cook is pretty much the only author that I will buy in hardcover, no questions asked. He's working on a new fantasy trilogy (non-Black Company) but more BC books are not beyond the realm of possibility.

And, personally, while I flagged with Bleak Seasons, I enjoyed all the Books of the South. I think they changed in tone and atmosphere, but so did the company. The Company in the South was a thing far-removed from the Company of the North.

 

[Endur]

Have you heard any details about what Cook is working on right now? Its been a while (2002) since his last book came out.

Cook is pretty much the only author that I will buy in hardcover, no questions asked. He's working on a new fantasy trilogy (non-Black Company) but more BC books are not beyond the realm of possibility.