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Title:
The White Rose
Series: The Black Company
#3
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 4 of 5
Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages:
314
Words: 99K
Publish: 1985
Once
again, I thoroughly enjoyed this re-read, to the point where I was
looking forward to my down time so I could pick this up. But once
again, I didn’t remember a blessed thing from my initial read in
2015. I was worried that maybe my brain was starting to go, but I
didn’t write this review for over a week once I finished the book
and by the time I went to write this, I had completely forgotten the
plot almost completely again. It took reading the Grokipedia entry to
bring me up to speed. Which means it is not me but something about
these Black Company books that just slide off my mind as soon as I’m
done with them, even while I really enjoy them. Crisis Averted!
At the end of the previous book, Shadows Linger, the Black Company was reduced to a much smaller company, under 100 people. By the end of this book, they are down to under 10 people and they “officially” disband with the end goal being to return The Annals back to Khatovar, the Black Company’s point of origin back in the misty past. It makes for a good tying off point for the series if you weren’t wowed but at the same time gave Cook the necessary loose threads if he wanted to write more, which is what ended up happening. Many more Black Company books came into being and even to this day, he is pumping them out. I just hope he finishes the current series before his own pump gives out. The guy is old after all.
The other thing stood out to me, was the inclusion of a past storyline about Bomanz the Wizard, It took me a while to realize it was happening in the past. I don’t think that incomprehension was Cook’s fault this time, it was squarely on me. I am writing this little bit because I believe that Book 10 is about Bomanz and by the time I get to book 10 I have a feeling I’m going to have forgotten who he is, hahahahaa :-)
To end this review, I’d like to talk about the cover. For the past couple of books I’ve been able to find alternate covers (even as I chose to go with the original one for the first book) but for this one, this is the only English cover I could find. There was one other one, but it was ugly, enough so that I didn’t even consider it. I guess I’m spoiled. First World Book Problems...
★★★★☆
From Grokipedia
The novel is set six years after the events of Shadows Linger, with the surviving members of the Black Company having taken refuge in the Hole, a network of caves beneath the Plain of Fear, where they form the core of Darling's New White Rose Rebellion.[10] The Plain of Fear's magical inhabitants—such as windwhales, mantas, talking menhirs, and the sentient Father Tree—provide protection against the Lady's forces, while Darling's expanding null field suppresses magic in its vicinity, offering the rebels a strategic sanctuary.[10] [11] The Lady surrounds the Plain with armies commanded by the Taken, including the vengeful Limper, whom the Company believed they had killed years earlier.[10]Croaker, the Company's annalist, receives mysterious packets narrating the story of Bomanz, the wizard who unleashed the Lady decades ago, along with a summons to travel north into Imperial territory.[10] Darling authorizes Croaker to lead a small group—including wizards One-Eye and Goblin, the enigmatic Tracker, and his hound Toadkiller Dog—on the journey, traveling aboard a windwhale and witnessing Darling's successful strike against Whisper's headquarters at Spit.[10] In the Barrowland, the group discovers that Raven, a long-deserted Company member, sent the packets and now lies in a coma after a failed attempt to probe the Great Barrow using sorcery.[10] Flooding from the Great Tragic River erodes the Dominator's prison, threatening his awakening and release.[10] [11]After evading initial Imperial capture and fleeing the Barrowland garrison, Croaker is seized and delivered to the Lady at the Tower at Charm.[10] Recognizing the Dominator as the greater threat, the Lady proposes an uneasy alliance with Darling's forces, withdrawing her troops from rebel areas and accompanying Croaker back to the Plain of Fear disguised as his companion.[10] There, revelations surface that Tracker and Toadkiller Dog are ancient demons bound to the Dominator, freed by Raven's actions; Father Tree intervenes to subdue them and thwart an assassination attempt by Taken Scorn and Blister.[10] Darling and the Lady forge a truce, enabling their combined forces—including the Company remnants, Plain creatures, and Imperial troops—to march north to confront the Dominator.[10]At the Barrowland, the alliance revives Raven and Bomanz while systematically releasing and destroying the Dominator's lesser demons.[10] The Dominator breaks free but is confined within Darling's null field, where his powers are neutralized; when briefly freed, he unleashes devastating sorcery, killing several Company members including Elmo and the Lieutenant.[10] [11] Tracker battles the Dominator in a brutal melee, and One-Eye and Goblin drive a silver spike into the Dominator's head, binding his essence and planting the spike in a sapling grown from Father Tree.[10] The Limper attempts to betray and kill the Lady with a crossbow bolt bearing a false True Name, but Croaker beheads him in retaliation.[10]In the battle's immediate aftermath, the Lady betrays the alliance by naming Darling's True Name, destroying her null field forever.[10] Silent speaks for the first time in the Annals, naming the Lady and stripping her of her sorcery.[10] The Black Company, reduced to six surviving members, departs the field and heads south toward Khatovar, accompanied by the now-powerless Lady.[10]
Major characters
The major characters in The White Rose include the remnants of the Black Company and key figures on both sides of the conflict against the Lady and the looming threat of the Dominator. Croaker, the Company's physician, historian, and primary narrator, emerges as a central leader of the depleted group, guiding its survivors and developing a nuanced, personal relationship with the Lady that reveals her more human aspects. [12] [11]Darling, the deaf-mute prophesied White Rose, serves as the symbolic leader of the New White Rose Rebellion and possesses a powerful null field that cancels nearby magic, positioning her as the prophesied counter to sorcerous domination. [12] Her true name is Tonie Fisk. [13]The Lady, the Empire's formidable sorceress ruler, displays increasing humanization through her interactions with Croaker while facing significant challenges to her power, including a temporary alliance against a greater evil and a reduction in her magical dominance. [12] [11]One-Eye and Goblin, the Company's veteran wizards, provide essential magical support and endure dramatic changes during key events, contributing crucially to rituals aimed at containing ancient threats. [12]Raven, a former Black Company member who deserted years earlier, returns with actions that nearly free the Dominator and complicate the rebellion's efforts. [12]Tracker and Toadkiller Dog appear as enigmatic companions to the Company, with Tracker's dumb strength and affability masking their revealed nature as demonic entities bound to the Dominator. [12]The Limper, a resurrected Taken and the Company's longstanding nemesis, commands Imperial forces with boundless hatred toward the mercenaries and meets his final death at Croaker's hands. [11]Supporting figures include Silent, a quiet Company wizard skilled in finger speech; Bomanz, a wizard whose historical actions in the Barrowlands prove vital to the story's resolution; and Old Father Tree, the ancient sentient entity ruling the Plain of Fear and offering cryptic guidance amid the conflict.
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