The Black Company

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Seventh

Golden Squire
892
15
This series needed a thread, because it's awesome and doesn't get mentioned nearly enough/as often as it should. It also has some of the sickest cover art around.

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KurganAU

<Gold Donor>
246
276
I've got the 4 compilations sitting on my shelf. Read through Chronicles and Books of the South so far, it's a fun series. One-Eye and Goblin shit-stirring always makes me smile.
I don't mind the individual books being short in length, I find it keeps the action moving. Even if you've only got half an hour to read, it still feels like you've made progress.

I'll be starting the Glittering Stone books once I'm finished with the First Law trilogy. I heard they are a change of pace and decided to clear some of my backlog before starting them.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
9,374
10,987
This is, unequivocally, my favorite series in the universe. I have, literally, 3 copies of several of the different books because I used to lend them out to people and not get them back before I wanted to read them again. If I find them in a box I'll take a picture. The first three books in particular are just awesome, but all 10 are great. There are two more "on the way" too, one that is set between the first and second books I believe, and then one that picks up again after the last book. Not sure of a projected release date, but he's already written a couple of short stories that are to be included in the first book.

My favorite thing about these books is the way he doesn't spend time going into vast detail about things. He does when it needs it, but you could probably fit everything specific he has said about any one character into a couple of sentences. Beyond that it is your imagination filling in the blanks, which for me resulted in characters I remember far more vividly than ones that have had pages and pages of description devoted to them.

Also, The Limper is one of the best characters ever, period.

I'm going to steal my post from the previous board because it says pretty much all I need to say about these books, and was helpful in getting at least one person to pick up the series, so maybe it will help again:

I still remember the first time I picked up that book in a Waldenbooks in 1985. The cover was sort of intriguing, but not overwhelming, and the covers on Shadows Linger and The White Rose were positively gay. I read the description and it sounded cool, but I just couldn't tell. So I opened it up to a random page and read. This is exactly the part I read:

The latecomers arrived. One of the men demanded, ?What became of the party in the Camellia Grotto?? His voice had a whiny, nasal quality. My hackles rose. It reeked of arrogance and contempt. I hadn?t heard its like since I joined the Black Company. People in Beryl hadn?t used that tone.

They don?t know the Black Company in Opal, I told myself. Not yet, they don?t.

The voice hit Raven like a sledge whack on the back of the head. He stiffened. For a moment his eyes were pure ice. Then a smile crinkled their corners?as evil a smile as I have ever seen.

The Captain whispered, ?I know why Jalena suffered his attack of indigestion.?

We sat motionless, frozen by deadly imminence. Raven turned slowly, rising. Those three saw his face.

Whiny-voice choked. His male companion began shaking. The woman opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

Where Raven got the knife I do not know. It went almost too fast to follow. Whiny-voice bled from a cut throat. His friend had steel in his heart. And Raven had the woman?s throat in his left hand.

?No. Please,? she whispered without force. She expected no mercy.

Raven squeezed, forced her to her knees. Her face purpled, bloated. Her tongue rolled out. She seized his wrist, shuddered. He lifted her, stared into her eyes till they rolled up and she sagged. She shuddered again, died.

Raven jerked his hand away. He stared at that rigid, shaking claw. His face was ghastly. He surrendered to the all-over shakes.

?Croaker!? the Captain snapped. ?Don?t you claim to be a physician??

?Yeah.? People were reacting. The whole garden was watching. I checked Whiny-voice. Dead as a stone. So was his sidekick. I turned to the woman.

Raven knelt. He held her left hand. There were tears in his eyes. He removed a gold wedding band, pocketed it. That was all he took, though she sported a fortune in jewelry.

I met his gaze over the body. The ice was in his eyes again. It dared me to voice my guess.
My favorite book, ever.
 

rhinohelix

<Gold Donor>
2,860
4,662
Great thread. I never get tired of the first 3, and they were the first books I bought in digital form to carry around with me. The Books of the South are great as well, although I lose the thread towards the end. I played through the "Myth" games and loved the lore but it wasn't until I read the books that I realized it was stolen almost whole from the first trilogy.
 

spronk

FPS noob
22,478
25,383
Is there a website that explains what the fuck was going on in that universe? Its been a few years since I read it, but I remember mostly enjoying what I was reading but not really being able to put anything together in a cohesive framework. It really, really got into Indian/Eastern mythology in the second series too, but there was just so much stuff I didn't really understand about the daughter, the shadow lands, Lady, the original big bad guy and what happened to him, on and on.

It was pretty wild how the author fucked with the reader by having characters lie a lot.
 

cyrusreij

Trakanon Raider
1,712
575
The Limper and Raven were some hardcore badasses indeed. Limper defined the phrase "some men just want to watch the world burn" 20-30 years before TDK. The part with all of Lady's henchman dieing at the end of the first series off-screen, then having a few suddenly pop back up on the other side of the world was just so random. Also, Goblin/One-Eye, best failwizards ever? You better believe it.
 

Zaide

TLP Idealist
3,714
4,337
I got to "She is Darkness", it was the seventh book I read in the series (I skipped the Silver Spike) but after that I stopped, the series was just getting too long. I dislike the idea of an endless plot. The books really were awesome though, especially the early ones dealing with the Lady and the Dominator.
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
9,374
10,987
First of all, The Silver Spike is Limper-heavy, so skipping that is a mortal sin! Seriously, read it!

Second, if it helps any, the wrap-up in the final book is one of the best I've read insomuch as you just read ten books and you don't really feel let down, unlike many, many other series or even single books (looking at you Stephen King, Dean Koontz, etc.).
 

Void

Experiencer
<Gold Donor>
9,374
10,987
Sounds cool, is that book in the OP the jump off?
No. You want "Chronicles of the Black Company" which contains "The Black Company," "Shadows Linger," and "The White Rose." Or buy those 3 individually if you find them, either way that is where you want to start.
 

Golt_sl

shitlord
239
0
I can't remember where I left off either.. but it really is a great series. Now i'm gonna have to start reading it all over again thanks to this post
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Slaythe

<Bronze Donator>
3,389
141
Yeah...I finished up Malazan and jumped right back into a reread of these guys. Having fun so far.
 

Springbok

Karen
<Gold Donor>
8,970
12,474
Just starting book 1 (about halfway through). Clear that the doctor guy is the main character, but feel he's by far the least interesting (at least so far). Pretty good I have to say - its a different pace than I was expecting, but I like it.
 

Seventh

Golden Squire
892
15
Just starting book 1 (about halfway through). Clear that the doctor guy is the main character, but feel he's by far the least interesting (at least so far). Pretty good I have to say - its a different pace than I was expecting, but I like it.
Croaker brings the awesome as the story gets going. Stick with it.