Just finished the 3rd Black Company book...

[Furtive Noise]

I just finished reading the Silver Spike recently, though the Black Company aren't featured in it a lot of characters and loose ends from the first three books are and its definitely worth reading.

I read through the first book a while back and really couldn't get into it, the writing style annoyed me greatly. Reading it about a year later I sort of 'got it' more, for lack of a better phrase. The characters grow on you, and the gritty, grim world was nice. I found them a nice relaxing change of pace after reading a more literary 'difficult' novel. I kind of agree with those who disliked the Plain of Fear. Its not that it wasn't a neat concept, and I liked the talking menhirs, but that it sort of felt like a crutch the good characters started to have to rely on so much. Less military and more 'well, the white rose is horribly outnumbered and the black company's decimated, but here's a nigh-unstoppable monster army she can use to get almost anywhere in the world real quickly with.' Though perhaps thats not a fair criticism. Bleh, lost the thread of why I posted, I really did enjoy the books despite having weird mixed feelings of some aspects of them.

Has anyone else found some of these books really hard to find? There was a large gap for me between reading the first two and the third & Silver Spike. I suppose I could order them if I really wanted to, but just finding them in stores can be difficult.

 

[barsoomcore]

I really loved the Books of the South. But many people do not, so I can't recommend them whole-heartedly. Without giving away too much, the later books feature new narrators -- Croaker passes on the mantle of Annalist -- so you don't have Croaker's wry wit carrying you through all the time. For some people, I think, that took away one of the primary joys of the series and so they found it difficult to keep going.

Other people found that the expansion of the world and the explanation of things gets too bogged down in detail.

I love them. I've read them multiple times and there's scenes in there just as indelibly printed on my mind as that final showdown between Croaker and Raven on the Barrowlands. And how Croaker ends up is beautiful. Just beautiful. I know I HAD to keep reading because I had to know how all of these people I'd come to care so much about ended up. And Cook does give you great endings for everyone.

Cook had a massive impact on the way I run my campaigns, the way I think about magic and what it is and how it affects people, the way I think about story-telling. I loved loved LOVED the "romance" between Croaker and Lady -- it's one of my favourite relationships in fantasy. What a great moment when Goblin figures out who she is (or is it One-Eye? I think it's Goblin). Hee.

 

[CCamfield]

Yeah, I'd have to say that losing Croaker's voice was a loss. I didn't like some of the other annalists - Sleepy in particular. The writing style changed to become, to my mind, a slower slog than the clear read of the early books.

One of the bits I remember clearly about the Plain of Fear is how they used the flying gasbags as transportation on a raid. It basically seemed to me a fantasy version of a marine strike via helicopters.

 

[drothgery]

I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian here, and argue that The Silver Spike is probably the weakest of the Black Company books. Corbie's just not a very interesting narrator.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian here, and argue that The Silver Spike is probably the weakest of the Black Company books. Corbie's just not a very interesting narrator.

I agree. That book, for me, was the weakest, and very disappointing.

I like the Books of the South. Yes, they are different, and have new narrators, but there are some very interesting relationships going on, and some very interesting concepts, and some very interesting characters.

That said, my favorite books are still Book 2, followed by Book 3. I greatly admire the structure of the story in both books, and the varying PoVs from different locations, and in the case of Book 3, different years.

 

[Thanatos]

I've read every book in the series. I remember reading them when they were first published and having to wait soooooo long to get to the end.

It was a tough journey. A long one too. They were pretty stretched by the end and I wonder if Cook was just tired/burned out/bored or just didn't know really how best to end it by the final book. You might be able to tell, I am a little disappointed with how it ended overall. It wasn't a bad ending, by any means -- I was just disappointed.

These are characters I've followed since what, 84 - 01 and I thought they should have gotten a better ending. But, really, thats what TBC is all about. It's how life is gritty, hard and unfair. You do what you can to just make it through.

It's wonderful material for a gritty fantasy campaign. It's fairly low-brow magic for the most part, with High Magic pretty much gone save for a few hold-overs from a previous era.

The Dominator and his wife, The Lady and The Ten Who Were Taken (the most powerful wizards of the age, enslaved to The Dominator and The Lady through a magic ritual called The Taking (which involves lots of torture, rape by demons and dying and resurrection).

It was a wonderful series of books.
And everyone should have the rules for Tonk: http://interoz.com/madhatters/legionwest/tonk.htm

The first arc (The Black Company, Shadows Linger, The White Rose) is your basic epic story telling of good vs. evil, with the company originally working for the bad guys, but switching sides. While it does end predicably, it is a very good story.

The Silve Spike is often grouped with the first three, but is really a stand alone book in the series, detailing how The Dominator is dealt with (the rest are all dealt with throughout the rest of ALL the books, but the Dominator got his own). It was a fairly good book and tied some loose ends together nicely.

The Books of the South (Shadow Games and Dreams of Steel) detail the company trying to get the annals home and retrace their roots to mysterious Kahtovar, a city that may only exist in legend as the city that first brought forth all the Free Companies. However, a new threat rises and they are the Shadowmasters.

One thing should be noted, throughout these books, we are treated to different "Annalists" the people who keep the records of the company. The writing styles are notably different between Annalists.

The Glittering Stone (Bleak Seasons, She Is The Darkness, Water Sleeps and Soldiers Live) is the final arc of the series. This is the end, all of the characters we began with are finally tied up. New characters are introduced constantly throughout the series and the company is essentialy theirs now. This arc is pretty dark, but very well written. It is also tough to get through in some places because of the pretension, but that gets better as it goes along. Though all of our principle characters have been wrapped up, a new company could actually adventure forth if it was desired, so it isn't necessairly the end of the series if he wanted to do anthologies. I was sad though, to see these people I grew up with, fading away.

But such is life.

 

[barsoomcore]

Yeah, I lived this series all the way through -- I remember seeing The Black Company on a bookstore shelf when it was brand-new and I've spent, what, seventeen years -- half my life -- following these people and their journey.

So maybe I'm sentimental about them. Oh well.

It's funny, both TBC and Jhereg came out at around the same time and Brust and Cook remain two of my all-time favourite authors. Back when fantasy was still small enough that you could read it all, pretty much.

 

[Thanatos]

Thats funny...Jhereg is another series I have read and enjoyed very much. I still look forward to the books when they come out.

Another series I wish they had done more with is Dream Park/Barsoom Project/California Voodoo Game by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes.

But I am definitely sentimetnal about Croaker and The Lady and TBC...I wish they had ended it for Croaker and The Lady on a little bit of a happier note...they really deserved it.

I also wished we could have really seen them get to Khatovar.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Some Spoilers!








I finished The White Rose about five minutes ago and I really enjoyed the series. I was damn near cried one manly tear when the Lady asked Croaker to hold her the before the final battle. I was really hoping he would get the score, or at least a kiss, but there is always the next book.

I don't know if I would like the books with a new annalist though. Croaker has become one of my favorite characters in fantasy. Cook really made me care about the characters. Elmo getting killed by the Dominator was a blow. The Lt. I didn't care that much for. Raven I really liked after the first book, but by the end of the third I kind of hoped Silent would have killed him.

 

[Endur]

Read Silver Spike for sure, as it is the epilog to book 3.

Also, I highly recommend "Tower of Fear" by Glen Cook. Different characters, but Cook's best novel.