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Title:
The Black Company
Series: The Black Company
#1
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 4 of 5
Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages:
223
Words: 89K
It
has been a decade, 10 years, since my first original foray into the
world of the Black Company by Glen Cook. I initially ignored the
Black Company in the 90’s and ‘00’s because of the Dark Fantasy
tag and I really didn’t want to get into that. Then I read the
Malazan Book of the Fallen and loved it so much and hated it so much
that any objection to dark fantasy was swept away. That still wasn’t
enough though. What was enough was finding out that Malazan was an
homage (some, including myself, would call it a complete ripoff) to
the Black Company. So in 2015, I began my campaign to read the Black
Company novels. It was a complete success and I swept away all
obstacles in my path. It was on that read that I determined that the
authors of the Malazan books were complete hacks because of just how
much they lifted from the Black Company mythology for their own
massive series. I am over that now though. If you like the Black
Company, you will probably like the Malazan books. If you like the
Malazan books, you will like the Black Company novels (or else!).
There was only one “thing” this time around that I simply didn’t get. It was obvious the characters were referring to something, either another character or situation that we as readers were supposed to infer something from, but while it was staring me in the face, I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out. It really felt like when I read the Russian novels and they leave a sentenced unfinished and expect the reader to figure it out by context, cultural or textural. Honestly, I don’t even remember what the specific incidence was (so I can’t even state it and hope someone can enlighten me) and my reading was not less for not understanding, but it was so painfully obvious that there WAS an inference and I wasn’t getting it. I don’t like that feeling. I want to understand ALL the things.
Doing a re-read really helped my overall understanding because Cook throws the reader into the deep end and we’re expected to start swimming like an olympic athlete from the get-go. Since I have navigated these literary waters once, I didn’t have to spend as much time frantically trying to figure out which direction I was even supposed to swim in. I already knew and therefore could pay more attention to the smaller details that were simply lost in the last read.
This is a good fantasy story with a very rich history and characters that are unique with their own voice. I never once questioned who was who, because Cook writes each character as a true individual. There are no generic characters. Some might only be mentioned once, or twice, but you do not confuse them with anyone else. It helps that Cook does the nickname thing really well. Everybody has a unique name with a story about that name. We might not get that story, but it is hinted at and referenced to, much like would happen in any big, close knit community. Outsiders are excluded on the surface but if they hang around, they’ll find out those stories and become part of that community themselves. Thus it is for the reader. The deeper you go into the annals of the Black Company, the more familiar you will become with them and the more enjoyable your reading will be.
This was a complete success of a re-read and I suspect the rest of the series will be just as enjoyable, if not more so, as I get to them. I highly recommend this series by Cook.
★★★★☆
From Blackcompany.fandom.com
The Black Company is in service as bodyguards for the Syndic, the ruler of the Jewel City of Beryl. The band of sell-swords is languishing in the humid city. It is yet another miserable summer, and they are displeased by their current employer and self-conscious of their reduced state compared to prior generations.
The Annalist and physician of the Black Company, Croaker, is curing one of his Company brothers – Curly – for poisoning and questions him for places that he has been eating outside their barracks. Identifying the source, Croaker reports his findings to the Company's leader, the Captain, who sends a sergeant named Mercy, the minor wizard Silent, and a dozen men with Croaker to deal with them. Their target is the Mole Tavern, and they suspect the poisoners are the Blues, the faction which opposes the Syndic. After they kill many of the perpetrators and their sympathizers in a bloodbath, Silent discovers that some of the more conservative members of the Blues are hiding in a cellar. They take them captive to turn them over to the Syndic. On the Avenue of the Syndics, they see a visiting Legate from across the Sea of Torments, accompanied by hard-bitten veterans like themselves. The mysterious masked rider is on the back of a titanic black stallion.
Later, a violent riot erupts in response to the arrest of the Blue leaders. Several Urban Cohorts mutiny when they demand extra pay to deal with the mob and the Syndic refuses. A Company stronghold is attacked, and Mercy is fatally wounded, but the Cohorts are ultimately repulsed.
The next day several members of the Company including Croaker and three of the Company's four wizards (Goblin, Silent, and Tom-Tom) follow a rumor of a legendary creature called a forvalaka escaping from Beryl's Necropolitan Hill. At the opened tomb they discover fifty-four ancient forvalaka skeletons and several freshly-killed soldiers, all drained of blood and missing their hearts and livers. This confirms the rumor about the forvalaka, which frightens Tom-Tom, whose former master N'Gamo was badly mutilated by a young, unrelated forvalaka decades prior.
The riots finally quiet down, and thousands of corpses litter the streets. Tom-Tom leads a Black Company delegation which also includes the Lieutenant (the band's second-in-command), Croaker, and Silent. They are received by the masked Legate aboard his colossal ship. The Legate frightens even the wizard Tom-Tom, and, disturbingly, speaks in entirely different voices. He makes them an offer of alternative employment, but this will require treachery on their part against the Syndic.
During a meeting of the Company's senior members, they eventually decide to take the offer via their most honorable deception. That night, the forvalaka attacks the Syndic's residence, the Paper Tower, and slaughters almost everyone inside. The Syndic actually survives, but it is implied that Match finishes him off. When the Company goes after the forvalaka, it kills many of them, including Tom-Tom, much to the horror of Tom-Tom's brother and fellow wizard One-Eye. It escapes down the exterior of the tower.
Leaving the city that night, they kill hundreds of the mutinous Urban Cohorts soldiers in their sleep. They head to a lighthouse on the Pillar of Anguish, where their transportation arrives in the form of the Legate's gigantic ship. The Legate takes the Black Company into the service of the northern empire and reveals that he has captured the forvalaka and has plans for it. Croaker realizes who the Legate is; when the Captain questions him, he reveals the Legate is Soulcatcher, who was buried alive at least three hundred years ago alongside nine other evil sorcerers called the Ten Who Were Taken and their masters, the Dominator and his wife the Lady. They ruled an ancient empire called the Domination before being sealed away. The Company resigns themselves to their new service and One-Eye is deeply troubled that the caged forvalaka on the ship does not have any of the wounds they gave it.
After crossing the Sea of Torments, they disembark at the city of Opal, where they stay for a few weeks. They meet with a strange man called Raven at the Gardens to consider his enlistment. After a bizarre confrontation with the powerful Imperial staff general Lord Jalena, the senior Company members witness Raven swiftly murder a woman and two of her companions. They head out to deal with Rebels who are causing trouble in the northern region of the Empire.
The Company enters the province of Forsberg while trying to link up with the Taken called the Limper. The Lieutenant sends Elmo, one of the senior sergeants, to make contact with their advance scouts who are waiting outside a rebellious village. Elmo takes Croaker, Silent, Raven and seven other men with him, and when they arrive at the village, they discover everyone is dying or dead, except for Darling and Flick: a deaf-mute little girl and her elderly grandfather, who are being tortured by the Limper's drunk soldiers. Saving the two victims and later recapturing the fortress at Deal earn the Limper's hatred.
Later during the winter in the fortress at Deal, Raven goes on a weekly supply run ("turnip patrol") to the nearby city of Oar with Candy, Doughbelly, Jolly, and Flick. However when they are sold out by the stablekeeper Cornie, the group is ambushed by about a dozen local thugs hired by the Limper's underlings Captain Lane and Colonel Zouad. Raven is severely wounded and Flick is killed. In retaliation, Elmo leaks the location of the Limper's men to the Rebels, who capture them. But when it becomes a danger that the Company's involvement might be discovered, Soulcatcher sends a fellow Taken called Shapeshifter to help. They infiltrate the Rebel bunker in Oar and spring a trap on the Limper when he arrives to rescue Zouad. Raven goes missing but reappears as the Company moves out from Elm. Rejoining them, he takes the little girl Darling as his ward.
Now garrisoned in the huge fortress of Meystrikt in the Salient, the Black Company has earned a reputation as the Lady's elite. During an ambush patrol the Company obtains some of the Rebel sorcerer Rakers' hair. Using this One-Eye, Goblin, and Silent come up with a plan to take him down with a bounty for his head, which Soulcatcher approves. Soulcatcher, Goblin, One-Eye, Croaker, Elmo, Raven, and two more soldiers named Otto and Hagop go to the city of Roses and set the trap. A stunning pile of treasure is planted on one of the frozen streets, protected by ward spells. The trap is powered by the sorcerer's own captured hair, and the loot can only be retrieved safely if someone deposits Raker's head nearby.
The powerful Limper arrives to claim the treasure for himself, and corners the helpless Black Company men in their apartment. But Soulcatcher intervenes, and reveals that the Limper has been humiliated by Shapeshifter due to his unauthorized absence from Elm. The Limper flees in terror that he will be disciplined by the Lady, and they go back to maintaining their vigil over the treasure and trap in the street below.
As planned, Raker discredits himself among his Rebel peers trying to disarm the trap, and his followers lose faith. Finally, after Otto and Hagop are assaulted by Raker, Raven and Croaker take the initiative. Raven uses supernatural tracking senses to track down Raker in the frigid city. Using Croaker as bait, the pair kills him. With Elmos' help they pack up the treasure which they split before they return to the rest of the Company.
Despite their victory, the Company is forced to leave the Salient on account of the Limper's apparent blunders in the north. They head through the Forest of Cloud toward the city of Lords. During the retreat, they stumble upon and ambush a training camp of the Rebel sorceress/general Whisper. They discover her valuable papers which the Lady and Soulcatcher later use to reveal that the Limper is a traitor. The Limper's True Name was uncovered by Whisper, and she has used it to suborn him... the Imperial defeats in Forsberg and the Salient are his treachery.
Croaker and Raven receive some training in Lords, and the pair are sent to ambush both Whisper and the Limper in the forest. The risky operation is a success, and the Lady herself appears to take possession of the prisoners. The Limper is tortured gruesomely by the Lady, and is then carried off by a dragonfly demon. But Whisper suffers a much worse fate: she is subjected to a hideous ritual and transformed into the first of the Lady's new Taken.
Croaker, Raven, and Silent make their way out of the Forest of Cloud to find Lords badly besieged. They cannot enter the city to rejoin their comrades. There is a hellish sorcery duel occurring at the walls: Soulcatcher and Nightcrawler are trading explosive blows with Harden – Whisper's ferocious cousin – and other members of the Circle of Eighteen.
After the Taken lose Lords, the Company and a few thousand other Imperials retreat across the Windy Country to the Stair of Tear. They fight against Harden's Rebels almost every step of the way. At the Stair, they hold the enemy forces at bay for a time. In a carefully-planned assassination, four of the Taken (Soulcatcher, Shapeshifter, Stormbringer, and the Hanged Man) take down Harden. But Croaker witnesses an inexplicable and frightening incident during which Soulcatcher and Stormbringer allow the Hanged Man to die, despite Shapeshifter's obvious desire to save the man.
Although Whisper and some of the old Taken are accumulating stunning victories against the Rebel in the east, things are collapsing around the Black Company in the center of the Empire. They are forced to retreat yet again, this time toward the Tower at Charm... the Empire's headquarters. The Great Comet is in the sky, a possible harbinger of doom for the Lady and her followers.
The Black Company captures two more Rebel sorcerers for the Lady, young newlyweds called Feather and Journey. On the return trip to deliver the new prisoners, Croaker believes he is targeted by one of the Taken. Strange lime-colored thread threatens him. They hustle away and meet the Howler, who flies them on a giant flying carpet to the Tower.
During the final preparations for Charm's defenses, Croaker meets the Lady again. Soon, a massive accumulation of Rebel armies attempts to crush their enemy in the days-long Battle at Charm. Shapeshifter is reportedly killed in very suspicious circumstances. Croaker is attacked by the forvalaka, last seen in Soulcatcher's possession, but is saved by the huge Taken known as Bonegnasher. Later that night, the Taken suffer even more fatalities. But it is infighting that does them in, not the enemy. Stormbringer mutinies, and she and Bonegnasher kill one another. On another night, Nightcrawler is killed by the Rebels, but the Faceless Man and Moonbiter kill each other.
The Lady sends for Croaker personally, and reveals that the women among the Taken have been betraying her to support the Dominator, who is the true driving force behind the Rebels. She subjects him to the Eye, a dreadful experience, but gives him a beautiful bow with black arrows to use for a special purpose. He uses one of the arrows to chase away a mysterious attacker: a sheet of darkness which fits the description of Soulcatcher's namesake sorcery.
On the final day of the battle, the Rebel leadership claims to have found their long-awaited savior child, the reincarnation of the White Rose. The Company wizards can see that it is a hoax, created to motivate the enemy rank-and-file. Feather and Journey–new Taken alongside Whisper–emerge to stop the Rebel's final push. War elephants burst forth from hidden compartments near the Tower, and the Rebel only defeats them after suffering terrible losses.
Then, the Howler flies over the enemy formations, dropping bizarre orbs. As he returns, there is yet another betrayal among the Taken: Soulcatcher somehow sabotages the Howler's flying carpet, and the diminutive wizard slams into the top of the Tower at high speed. The Lady and Croaker leave the battle to chase after Soulcatcher on the backs of sorcery-enhanced black stallions. After a long pursuit during which Croaker doubts he is in full control of himself, he shoots Soulcatcher with his special arrows, and lops off his target's head. Soulcatcher's morion opens for the first time, unexpectedly revealing the face of a gorgeous woman. The Lady explains that Soulcatcher was her own sister. Where Croaker once entertained fanciful romances about the Lady, now he is thoroughly disgusted. He has no choice but to accompany her back on her badly damaged flying carpet.
Returning to the Tower, Croaker sees windrows of dead men. Tens of thousands have been killed by the deadly sorcery in the Howler's orbs. Many dropped dead in formation. While most of the dead were Rebels, a significant number were Imperials. He also briefly sees Darling among the basalt wasteland which surrounds the field of battle. Arriving at the Tower, the Limper is revealed to have been reeducated by the Lady and newly loyal. The remaining Rebel have been killed via ambushes and traps in the Tower.
Raven is believed to have died in the battle, but Croaker and Silent surmise otherwise and eventually track him down. The two determine, as Raven had beforehand, that Darling is the true reincarnation of a historical hero called the White Rose due to strange events which surrounded the girl during the battle. Raven had deserted with Darling to protect her from the Lady. After Croaker persuades the highly-stressed Raven that they are not there to harm Darling, they give him horses, rations, and money (Raven's share of the treasure from the entrapment of Raker in Roses). Croaker wisely recommends that Raven choose some other direction other than Opal and Beryl. In case Croaker finds himself subjected to the Lady's Eye again, he interrupts Raven before their new destination is disclosed. After a tender farewell with Darling in finger speech, Croaker and Silent ride back toward Charm and the Black Company, and Raven and Darling continue their trek into hiding.
