The Chronicles Of The Black Company Series Shadows Linger A fantasy written by Glen Cook in 1984 Reviewed edition by TOR from 1990 A paperback has 320 pages ISBN 0-812-50842-4 Click to rate this book from worst 1 2 3 4 5 to best. The Black Company A fantasy written by Glen Cook in 1984 Reviewed edition by TOR from 1992 A paperback has 320 pages ISBN 0-812-52139-0 Click to rate this book from worst 1 2 3 4 5 to best. The White Rose A fantasy written by Glen Cook in 1985 Reviewed edition by TOR from 1990 A paperback has 320 pages ISBN 0-812-50844-0 Click to rate this book from worst 1 2 3 4 5 to best.

The series follows the characters of the Black Company, a mercenary army with a four hundred years long history of hiring out to whoever pays the price. Right now, the Company is pulling out of a contract with an inept ruler of Beryl, whose desperate attempt at clinging to power in face of overwhelming riots just wastes the Company lives. The ruler of Beryl meets an unfortunate accident and the Company finds itself travelling north on the order of its new employer. Which turns out to be an evil sorceress dubbed the Lady, thought dead by many since her defeat some three hundred years ago. The Lady fights against the Rebel movement, your typical good guys who are trying to oppose the evil she represents. The Company soon proves itself a valuable military asset, scoring against the Rebel where other forces of the Lady fail. Slowly, however, it becomes clear that fighting the Rebel is not the only name of the game. An incessant rivalry between the Taken, ten sorcerous sidekicks of the Lady, is but one of the other problems the Company has to face ...

I really wonder if I should be proud or ashamed of writing a synopsis that is some twenty lines long, yet reveals little of what the series really is about. As is usual with fantasy, you get a story of people living the strife of Good versus Evil, except here it is not the strife that seems to be the focus of the series, but rather the people themselves, or perhaps the people and the Black Company.

After all those epic battles between the ultimate Good and the ultimate Evil, this shift of focus is very refreshing. For one thing, it makes the Good and Evil sides more relative, getting rid of the sickly but prevalent fantasy concept of killing being an atrocity only when done by the bad guys, and somehow being positive when done by the good side. More, it even manages to do so without getting overly philosophical about the concept. Reminds me a bit of Mary Gentle and her Grunts, except there the view from the other side was a cornerstone of a humorous parody, while here it is just one of many breaches of conventions that make the series different from other works of fantasy.

The writing style is somewhat unusual, clipped and matter-of-factly. I would say it fits very well the mercenary setting of the story. In fact, having just finished the eighth instalment of the Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan, which did not move the story forward an inch on some seven hundred pages, I can only applaud that. Except for the fact that the series only lasted me one weekend, and left me wishing for more :-).

To cut my rambling short, I hesitate between the good and the very good rating. Not that I see bad things on the series, it is just that I intended to reserve the very good rating for a few books only, and I seem to be overly generous with it already. Anyway, I think I will stick with good and go order the sequels. I really want to know how it will end with Croaker and the Lady :-).

Almost forgot. Each of the books has a sort of an ending, making it possible to buy them one at a time. But I would not do it if I were you.

Rated as good by Ceres on 1999-10-31

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