From: ingram@dirac.phys.washington.edu (Doug Ingram)
Subject: Re: Glen Cook's next Black Company Book
Organization: University of Washington
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 20:57:10 GMT

news@massey.ac.nz (USENET News System) writes:

>I just was looking at the first 2 of the Black Company Books, are they any 
>good?

	Here is a copy of a review I posted to rec.arts.sf-reviews right
after it came into being.  I hope you find it useful.


                          THE BLACK COMPANY
                            by Glen Cook

               Review copyright (c) 1991 by Doug Ingram

[Bibliographic information at the end of the article]

	Like most of my very favorite books, _The_Black_Company_ (TBC)
was recommended to me by a good friend.  At the time I first read this
book a few years ago, Glen Cook was arguably an "unknown" author even
though he had several books to his credit (including the Black Company
series and the Bragi Ragnarson series, for lack of a better name), so I
was astounded that work of such quality had been overlooked by the masses.
Lately, however, there has been a surge of interest in Cook thanks to
his many new novels which include a three-book extension to the original
Black Company trilogy (the last book should be released real soon now),
which also resulted in TBC reappearing in the shelves of many bookstores
after an absence of a few years.

	This story follows the adventures of a troop of mercenaries
in a fantasy world where genuine encounters with good are few and far
between and the shades of evil are numerous and fascinating.  It is
told from the point of view of the Company physician, Croaker, who 
doubles as the historian of the Black Company.  What the reader sees
are the entries in his annals, which are passed down through the 
centuries to each new generation of Company mercenaries and guarded
with ferocity as valuable treasures.

	As the story opens in Croaker's world, we get a picture of the
world which is ruled by an evil sorceress known only as "The Lady" whose
cohorts are known as "The Ten Who Were Taken."  You'll never see a finer,
more colorful bunch of villains than the original Ten, all evil sorcerers
with nams like "Limper," "Hanged Man," "Soulcatcher," "Howler," etc., and
personalities to match.  The `good' guys, referred to en masse as "the
Rebel" by Croaker, are creating havoc in the North, and the Black Company
is hired by the Lady and her Ten to help squash the rebellion.

	The action gets going pretty quickly, and there are a lot of 
exciting combat scenes and wonderfully intricate plots and counterplots
between the Ten and the Rebel and even infighting among the Ten themselves,
which usually leads to the most fun.  As a mercenary, Croaker has a lot
of tough moral ground to cover, fighting for the forces of evil, but it
soon becomes apparent that choosing sides isn't so easy.  Some of Cook's
best passages involve these moral struggles, but there's much more to
this story.

	The main plot has to do with the Rebel legend that a new leader,
prophesied as the White Rose, has been reborn from the past to lead them
into a golden new age.  Of course, it's the Company's job to make sure
this doesn't happen, but in the meantime, the Company must also guard
against an even greater evil taking over the land in the form of the
Dominator, who was once the Lady's husband but is now entombed in the
far North of the land.  Needless to say, the job gets pretty hectic,
and before it is over, you'll be breathless.

	The Black Company is filled with as many interesting characters
as there are villains, and Cook takes advantage of this to the hilt with
some great subplots.  The ongoing "war" between the two wizards Goblin
and One-Eye is very entertaining, and other characters like Raven are
left only as sketches to be filled in later with gusto.  There are many
scenes which I greatly appreciated in which just the "boring" side of
being a mercenary is portrayed (like playing cards for months waiting for
a trap to spring, with tension building all the while), but the reading
is still the kind you just can't put down.  

	By allowing the reader to tag along with the Company through 
Croaker's journal, Cook has really found a way to bring the reader into
his world through the back door.  It's rare to find a good book these
days told from a character's very limited point of view, but Cook has
really pulled it off here.  If you haven't read this series, you're 
missing out on a classic.  It might be hard to find since it's seven
years old now, but now that the second trilogy (not quite as good as the
first but still well worth the read) is coming out, some bookstores have
filled out the whole series on their shelves.  If you've read my other
reviews, you know my general tastes in books...this series ranks right up
there with Brust's Vlad Taltos series as one of my all-time favorites,
and I can't recommend it enough.

%A Cook, Glen
%T The Black Company
%I Tor Fantasy
%C New York
%D May 1984
%G ISBN 0-812-50389-9
%P 319 pp.
%S The Black Company Trilogy
%V Volume 1
%O paperback, US$3.95
%O order from Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. 49 West 24th St.  New York 10010.

Doug Ingram // ingram@dirac.phys.washington.edu // ingram@u.washington.edu
			"Carpe Datum"
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written