However, and most of it happens to be tersely described from a distance.

The Black Company is also packed full of action. Cook has also created a grim, eerie and satisfyingly dark world, which he establishes primarily by dropping carefully offhand hints about the Taken. With evocative (if slightly unimaginative) names like Nightcrawler, Soulcatcher, Moonbiter, Bonegnasher, The Howler, and The Hanged Man, the Taken lurk threateningly on the periphery where, shrouded in mystery, these monstrous creatures add an extra thrill of horror to the already ominous atmosphere. This, I soon discovered, made them just as entertaining as Harry, Ron and Hermione as Eragon and Murtagh, and the Fellowship of the Ring.Īnd the characters aren’t the only selling point. Good guys. In stark contrast, Croaker and the rest of the Black Company are entirely motivated by greed and selfishness – at least to start off with. In my experience, fantasy protagonists were heroes. But back then, I’d never encountered anything of the kind. Nowadays, of course, grimdark tales are a dime a dozen. In fact, I still recall the thrill of reading it for the first time and getting to grips with the fact that this Cook feller had written an actual book about actual mercenaries who are actually fighting on the side of the bad guys. I think The Black Company is the first example of ‘GRIMDARK’ fiction I ever read (closely followed by Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself). This is a somewhat disorientating stylistic choice, but it’s one to which I quickly became accustomed.

The Black Company‘s brusque prose and terse descriptions – not to mention the author’s casual tendency to skip over major events in the spaces between paragraphs! – lend even major scenes a “blink and you’ll miss it” kind of urgency.

While I would call it refreshingly blunt, others might (and often do) dismiss it as jarring and curt. The Company have been hired by The Lady (an ancient tyrant) who along with her monstrous generals (twisted supernatural beings known as the Ten Who Were Taken) is intent on defeating the Rebel armies and ruling all the known lands (obvs).Ĭook’s writing style is not exactly immersive. Croaker is a physician and annalist working for a mercenary force called – you guessed it! – the Black Company. The Black Company is compellingly narrated through a single PoV. Much like Glen Cook, I’ll get straight to the point.

Black company by glen cook