ingram@dirac.phys.washington.edu (Doug Ingram) (06/06/91)
THE BLACK COMPANY
by Glen Cook
Review copyright (c) 1991 by Doug Ingram
[Bibliographic information at the end of the article]
Like most of my very favorite books, _The_Black_Company_ (TBC) was
recommended to me by a good friend. At the time I first read this book a
few years ago, Glen Cook was arguably an "unknown" author even though he had
several books to his credit (including the Black Company series and the
Bragi Ragnarson series, for lack of a better name), so I was astounded that
work of such quality had been overlooked by the masses. Lately, however,
there has been a surge of interest in Cook thanks to his many new novels
which include a three-book extension to the original Black Company trilogy
(the last book should be released real soon now), which also resulted in TBC
reappearing in the shelves of many bookstores after an absence of a few
years.
This story follows the adventures of a troop of mercenaries in a
fantasy world where genuine encounters with good are few and far between and
the shades of evil are numerous and fascinating. It is told from the point
of view of the company physician, Croaker, who doubles as the historian of
the Black Company. What the reader sees are the entries in his annals,
which are passed down through the centuries to each new generation of
company mercenaries and guarded with ferocity as valuable treasures.
As the story opens in Croaker's world, we get a picture of the world
which is ruled by an evil sorceress known only as "The Lady" whose cohorts
are known as "The Ten Who Were Taken." You'll never see a finer, more
colorful bunch of villains than the original Ten, all evil sorcerors with
nams like "Limper," "Hanged Man," "Soulcatcher," "Howler," etc., and
personalities to match. The "good" guys, referred to en masse as the Rebel
by Croaker, are creating havoc in the North, and the Black Company is hired
by the Lady and her Ten to help squash the rebellion.
The action gets going pretty quickly, and there is a lot of exciting
combat scenes and wonderfully intricate plots and counterplots between the
Ten and the Rebel and even infighting among the Ten themselves, which
usually leads to the most fun. As a mercenary, Croaker has a lot of tough
moral ground to cover, fighting for the forces of evil, but it soon becomes
apparent that choosing sides isn't so easy. Some of Cook's best passages
involve these moral struggles, but there's much more to this story.
The main plot has to do with the Rebel legend that a new leader,
prophesied as the White Rose, has been reborn from the past to lead them
into a golden new age. Of course, it's the Company's job to make sure this
doesn't happen, but in the meantime, the Company must also guard against an
even greater evil taking over the land in the form of the Dominator, who was
once the Lady's husband but is now entombed in the far North of the Land.
Needless to say, the job gets pretty hectic, and before it is over, you'll
be breathless.
The Black Company is filled with as many interesting characters as
there are villains, and Cook takes advantage of this to the hilt with some
great subplots. The ongoing "war" between the two wizards Goblin and
One-Eye is very entertaining, and other characters like Raven are left only
as sketches to be filled in later with gusto. There are many scenes which I
greatly appreciated in which just the "boring" side of being a mercenary is
portrayed (like playing cards for months waiting for a trap to spring, with
tension building all the while), but the reading is still the kind you just
can't put down.
By allowing the reader to tag along with the Company through
Croaker's journal, Cook has really found a way to bring the reader into his
world through the back door. It's rare to find a good book these days told
from a character's very limited point of view, but Cook has really pulled it
off here. If you haven't read this series, you're missing out on a classic.
It might be hard to find since it's seven years old now, but now that the
second trilogy (not quite as good as the first but still well worth the
read) is coming out, some bookstores have filled out the whole series on
their shelves. If you've read my other reviews, you know my general tastes
in books...this series ranks right up there with Brust's Vlad Taltos series
as one of my all-time favorites, and I can't recommend it enough.
%A Cook, Glen
%T The Black Company
%I Tor Fantasy
%C New York
%D May 1984
%G ISBN 0-812-50389-9
%P 319 pp.
%S The Black Company Trilogy
%V Volume 1
%O paperback, US$3.95
%O order from Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. 49 West 24th St. New York 10010.
Doug Ingram // ingram@dirac.phys.washington.edu // ingram@u.washington.edu
"Carpe Datum"