The Black Company

Would you read a story about a group of mercenaries in a fantasy world? You bet you would. What could promise a more compelling story? And Glen Cook pulls it off nicely. I was kept engaged through the three books that make up the initial trilogy. And it is difficult to do when you have the same characters three times across what is perhaps a quarter of a million words.

So, what makes it work so well?

Alert. There may be plot spoilers ahead.

First off, it doesn’t feel like an epic story with multiple arcs. We have relatively few characters and these can be treated in depth. Then there is the actual story itself. It starts with a bang and a perfect reason for the Black Company to engage with a rather dubious character. This takes them to a new setting where the plot really gets going.

What is good for the reader is that whilst there is no dissembling, the events and decisions don’t seem to make all that much sense. One can try and fathom what is going on only for new events to change the direction of the plot. This seems so right from the story’s perspective since there is no POV from the antagonistic forces. Also, I liked the ambivalence in the characters’ reaction to certain individuals. This switches as the individuals reveal themselves through their interractions with the characters in a most realistic way.

The first book ends with a climatic battle and one is left wondering where it could go next. Needlessly, for the second installment isn’t a clone of the first book; far from it. It takes the story in new directions that make you question what the first book revealed. This is Brandon Sanderson territory and reveals the master story teller that Glen is in full.

As with the first part of the story, this middle piece has lots going on and the continuing confusion in my mind (other readers might be more canny in discerning the direction of the plot) as to where it is all going. It ends with a low point for the Black Company as their past existence is at an end. This both nicely closes the middle section of the trilogy and sets up the premise for the third, climactic, part of the story.

At the start of book three, we find the Black Company much reduced in circumsances. Also, characters who had a certain significance in the earlier parts now assume new prominence and importance in the story in ways the earlier part had nicely foreshadowed but whose import is only now becoming clear.

To complement this part, there is an interesting introduction of some quite weird (even in the context of the story) elements that at first, in my initial reaction, struck a discordant note compared to the previous setting of the story but whose important role later on needed to be articulated.

As with the earlier “confusion” as to what is going to happen, I considered the ending good in that regard. It is hard to avoid telegraphing the outcome as the various strands coalesce into the final climax. But Glen does a good job of keeping the reader guessing.

Now, no book is perfect. One enjoys it despite some flaws. And, inevitably, there are some here. One I think is that all the main characters survive until the climax. Given the Black Company’s business, is this likely? There are losses, and significant ones, but no named characters, as such. In defence, there is one who dies—the Captain—but he is hardly a main player here. His demise is to underline the way the Black Company has been virtually destroyed by the end of book two and the fact the Black Company is going in a new direction.

Nor does anyone quit the company other than Raven, who could be said to have not so much left it, as never really belonging.

Another quibble is that the magic is variable. Is it immensely strong, as sometimes seems to be the case, or is it of limited effect, as other events suggests? Of course, it “can” all be explained by who is yielding it. But even so, it adds a slightly jarring note to the story.

However, as said at the start, this is an engaging and very well plotted and written story that makes it deservedly a genre favourite. One can quibble as I do above (reading as a writer and not a reader, as it were) about aspects of the story. But I’d be proud to have authored such a great, well-structured, tour de force. It’s inspirational on so many levels for a writer to read.