This is one of the few fantasy series worth multiple re-reads just due to the world and characters. I haven't read it in a few years. As soon as I finish the latest Dresden book, I think I'll have to find my copies.
The Black Company
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Springbok
Karen
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Book one done - really liked it. Picked up a lot of steam there at the end. Interested to see how the story develops. Diving in to book 2 as we speak. Thanks for turning me on to this!
After one book, its not quite AGOT or anything - but its a really fun read. Like someone else said - even reading for an hour accomplishes a lot which is nice. Easy to digest.
After one book, its not quite AGOT or anything - but its a really fun read. Like someone else said - even reading for an hour accomplishes a lot which is nice. Easy to digest.
You're referring to Lady. That gets much better too. Spoiler for the later books:
She is actually the POV character/annalist for one of the books. It's pretty damn good too.
Springbok
Karen
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Finished book two. Great, until the end.
I was actually moved when Shed died at the end. More than anybody in the first two books, his story and arc captured me. Really grew to like his character towards the end - really well written character as well. The one thing that seemed really strange/abrupt/rushed was the ending. I'm reading along, waiting for something to happen after they "killed" the Limper - and then in the span of 2 pages (literally), Raven is dead, the ship is back, and Elmo comes traipsing in with the treasure? WTF? Feel it was way too anti-climactic and reaked of a guy needing to meet a deadling. No elaboration just felt so out of place with the rest of the first 2 books. Other than that, appreciate the heads up - these books are good/entertaining.
Void
Experiencer
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There is a reason the ending is like that, more or less.
Also, as I mentioned in the FoH thread, don't forget that these are also supposed to be told from the perspective of the Annalist (Croaker for now), so he focuses on the things he wants to focus on, and shies away from the things he doesn't...like the death of his brothers in particular. This isn't in particular to this specific ending you're talking about, just the entire series in general. Croaker makes it clear he doesn't deal well with recording the death of Company members, and prefers to document/remember them through their lives. So sometimes you get a major character dying, and almost nothing written about it, presumably because Croaker can't bear to write about it.
At least, that's the way I always imagined it, and it worked for me.
Also, as I mentioned in the FoH thread, don't forget that these are also supposed to be told from the perspective of the Annalist (Croaker for now), so he focuses on the things he wants to focus on, and shies away from the things he doesn't...like the death of his brothers in particular. This isn't in particular to this specific ending you're talking about, just the entire series in general. Croaker makes it clear he doesn't deal well with recording the death of Company members, and prefers to document/remember them through their lives. So sometimes you get a major character dying, and almost nothing written about it, presumably because Croaker can't bear to write about it.
At least, that's the way I always imagined it, and it worked for me.
what I find so fascinating is the fact that these books are almost 30 years old, and still read like something written a year ago. compare Black Company to any other 80ies Fantasy novel (hell take early WoT or Sword of Truth) and you realize what a masterpiece this really is.
Nemesis
Bridgeburner
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I've been getting into Audible over the past year or so since I have a 1+hr commute each way...
Can anyone recommend this series on Audible? The narrator sounds dry and uninteresting in the sample, but I could say the same of other narrators that I've come to like the more I listen to them.
Can anyone recommend this series on Audible? The narrator sounds dry and uninteresting in the sample, but I could say the same of other narrators that I've come to like the more I listen to them.
Hatorade
A nice asshole.
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I stopped reading these because so far everyone that died had come back to life making deaths meaningless. I read some spoilers about a few mains staying dead finally but meh at this point.
Great first 4 books(silver spike being the forth) will go back some day I think as I really want to know what happens with Lady and def want to find out more about their past and the ancient weapons.
Great first 4 books(silver spike being the forth) will go back some day I think as I really want to know what happens with Lady and def want to find out more about their past and the ancient weapons.
If you're talking about Marc Vietor then I can't recommend it personally. I listened to the first book for over an hour and had to turn it off, his style was too melodramatic for me and it ended up just annoying me. However it would seem my opinion is in the minority, as in quite a few reviews people seem to think he is great.
wamphyr
Molten Core Raider
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Is it Necro if I bring up a thread from page 2 of a 2 page forum ?
I started re-reading this series... Fucking hell, it is criptic as fuck. Maybe because english is not my primary language and I read when I am tired, but fuck this "blink and you will miss my meaning" type of crap. At least with Erickson, who writes in the same way, you have a 1000000 pages description of a unrelated story-arc to imerse yourself in right afther the moment of confusion.
Not do tell me what is the meaning of this paragraf here... Will it be explained later or am I just dense ?
I started re-reading this series... Fucking hell, it is criptic as fuck. Maybe because english is not my primary language and I read when I am tired, but fuck this "blink and you will miss my meaning" type of crap. At least with Erickson, who writes in the same way, you have a 1000000 pages description of a unrelated story-arc to imerse yourself in right afther the moment of confusion.
Not do tell me what is the meaning of this paragraf here... Will it be explained later or am I just dense ?
?Taken,? he murmured. ?Rather like the forvalaka.?
The beast screamed and hurled itself against the bars of its cage, Soulcatcher?s laughter drifted across the foggy deck. ?Taken by the Taken,? I agreed. ?The parallel is uncomfortable.? I had begun to shake as more and more old tales surfaced in my mind.
The Captain sighed and stared into the fog, toward the new land.
One-Eye stared at the thing in the cage, hating. I tried to ease him away. He shook me off. ?Not yet, Croaker. I have to figure this.?
?What??
?This isn?t the one that killed Tom-Tom. It doesn?t have the scars we put on it.?
I turned slowly, studied the legate. He laughed again, looking our way.
One-Eye never figured it out. And I never told him. We have troubles enough.
The beast screamed and hurled itself against the bars of its cage, Soulcatcher?s laughter drifted across the foggy deck. ?Taken by the Taken,? I agreed. ?The parallel is uncomfortable.? I had begun to shake as more and more old tales surfaced in my mind.
The Captain sighed and stared into the fog, toward the new land.
One-Eye stared at the thing in the cage, hating. I tried to ease him away. He shook me off. ?Not yet, Croaker. I have to figure this.?
?What??
?This isn?t the one that killed Tom-Tom. It doesn?t have the scars we put on it.?
I turned slowly, studied the legate. He laughed again, looking our way.
One-Eye never figured it out. And I never told him. We have troubles enough.
Sterling
El Presidente
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If I recall correctly the frovalka that actually killed Tom-Tom was actually Shifter not the frovalka that they captured.
Void
Experiencer
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I'm in this camp. The first 3-4 are some of my favorite books of all time, but as Cook "matured" as a writer and got more verbose with his style the series lost its charm to me. It was really a slog for me to finish, and I hate reading books I that I dislike technically just because I want to know what happens. =(
I couldn't finish, the last book, where the company is pretty much destroyed down south. It had gotten pretty awful.
Void
Experiencer
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If you got that far and didn't finish (if I'm correct in assuming you meant the final book), you should have. I'm not going to say you'll be blown away or anything, but the ending isn't bad compared to a lot of other series, and you were THIS close!
The books did lose a lot of their luster as it went on but I still found them worth reading. Nothing will ever surpass the very first time I read the first three though.
The books did lose a lot of their luster as it went on but I still found them worth reading. Nothing will ever surpass the very first time I read the first three though.
ooo this thread has excited me and I apologize ahead of time for its extreme randomness and jumping around.
Without a doubt my favorite series ever. I'm on my third reading of it right now (and I only just read it for the first time two years ago).
Well, not another READ but instead I'm listening to the audiobooks which, to my surprise, fit the mood really well. I was surprised by you guy's comments about Mark Vietor. I thought his voice fit really well and now he has sort of become THE voice of Croaker to me. Just FYI, he isn't the narrator for all the books, but for most of them. The only narrator I didn't care for was the one in "Dreams of Steel" because
Grumpy - Thanks for that link, I haven't seen such a recent interview in forever. Every time I'd google for news, I'd see very OLD mentions about "Port of Shadows" and "Shadows Linger" but nothing that gave me hope that he'd ever actually finish them. And I don't really like reading his interviews because he seems like sort of a jackass and I don't want to get to disliking him and having that sour my enjoyment of his books =)
Anyway, that article gives me some hope that we'll actually see the last two he's talked about for so long.
I think part of the reason I liked the books to begin with is they reminded me of Myth (for obvious reasons) though I didn't really realize it at the onset.
When I first read them, it was when the new omnibus editions were coming out. The originals are very hard to find (cheaply, anyway) as you may know. I ended up having to wait nearly a year between "The Books of the South and "The Return of the Black Company" and man was that torture because "Shadow Games" had one of the most bad ass cliffhangers ever.
I haven't gotten around to reading that new short story "Smelling Danger", anyone checked that out yet?
Zaide - I agree with Vvoid on his comments about the wrap up. Possibly THE most satisfying conclusion to a series I've ever read. The part of me who wants more Black Company books is excited for them, but another part of me hates to mess up such an outstanding ending. Also, be sure to read "The Silver Spike". The Limper as mentioned, plus a lot of wrap-ups on other familiar faces.
I'm like a lot of you... loved the first 3 and the later ones lost a bit of their luster. The first time through I LOVED every one, but the second time I didn't like "Bleak Seasons" and "She is the Darkness" as much, but I still loved the final two. I really enjoy how there seems to be no real overall plot initially, you're just following the lives of these people and, sure they get some purpose in book 3, but then for a long time after that there is seemingly no overarching goal, and then suddenly things just slam home and their purpose gets even more important than their earlier one. It just took me off guard at the time. And I really love how it pans out.
Without a doubt my favorite series ever. I'm on my third reading of it right now (and I only just read it for the first time two years ago).
Well, not another READ but instead I'm listening to the audiobooks which, to my surprise, fit the mood really well. I was surprised by you guy's comments about Mark Vietor. I thought his voice fit really well and now he has sort of become THE voice of Croaker to me. Just FYI, he isn't the narrator for all the books, but for most of them. The only narrator I didn't care for was the one in "Dreams of Steel" because
the narrator made The Lady sound sort of like a valley girl and that really killed the image of her to me.
Grumpy - Thanks for that link, I haven't seen such a recent interview in forever. Every time I'd google for news, I'd see very OLD mentions about "Port of Shadows" and "Shadows Linger" but nothing that gave me hope that he'd ever actually finish them. And I don't really like reading his interviews because he seems like sort of a jackass and I don't want to get to disliking him and having that sour my enjoyment of his books =)
Anyway, that article gives me some hope that we'll actually see the last two he's talked about for so long.
I think part of the reason I liked the books to begin with is they reminded me of Myth (for obvious reasons) though I didn't really realize it at the onset.
When I first read them, it was when the new omnibus editions were coming out. The originals are very hard to find (cheaply, anyway) as you may know. I ended up having to wait nearly a year between "The Books of the South and "The Return of the Black Company" and man was that torture because "Shadow Games" had one of the most bad ass cliffhangers ever.
I haven't gotten around to reading that new short story "Smelling Danger", anyone checked that out yet?
Zaide - I agree with Vvoid on his comments about the wrap up. Possibly THE most satisfying conclusion to a series I've ever read. The part of me who wants more Black Company books is excited for them, but another part of me hates to mess up such an outstanding ending. Also, be sure to read "The Silver Spike". The Limper as mentioned, plus a lot of wrap-ups on other familiar faces.
I'm like a lot of you... loved the first 3 and the later ones lost a bit of their luster. The first time through I LOVED every one, but the second time I didn't like "Bleak Seasons" and "She is the Darkness" as much, but I still loved the final two. I really enjoy how there seems to be no real overall plot initially, you're just following the lives of these people and, sure they get some purpose in book 3, but then for a long time after that there is seemingly no overarching goal, and then suddenly things just slam home and their purpose gets even more important than their earlier one. It just took me off guard at the time. And I really love how it pans out.
Springbok
Karen
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Just knocked out the final book in the series. Took forever getting through the last few books, as I didn't really care for them but wanted to "complete the story".
Agreed with what most everyone is saying - first 3 books were really tight, really entertaining, and really well written. After the 4th book, he sort of unravels a bit too much for my taste.. and the final books especially felt like an entirely different series than I had started with. Still better than playing computer games I think, but I can't help but be a little annoyed at how he concluded the series (though I agree the ending was pretty satisfying). Wish he had stuck with what made the first 3 great.
Thanks for the recommendation though!
Agreed with what most everyone is saying - first 3 books were really tight, really entertaining, and really well written. After the 4th book, he sort of unravels a bit too much for my taste.. and the final books especially felt like an entirely different series than I had started with. Still better than playing computer games I think, but I can't help but be a little annoyed at how he concluded the series (though I agree the ending was pretty satisfying). Wish he had stuck with what made the first 3 great.
Thanks for the recommendation though!