The Black Company
Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead. Until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her... So begins one of the greatest fantasy epics of our age—Glen Cook's Chronicles of the Black Company.
Stats for nerds
13recommend
26mentions
21people
2007–2025years
54% recommend42% neutral4% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Also: a little more widely known, but the Black Company series by Glen Cook.
- There's certain books that I've been rereading for decades.
Right now, I'm getting to the end of Glen Cook's The Black Company series (11 books). I've read it many times, but I keep on enjoying it, each time, as if it's the first time.
I do not get the same from movies or shows. I have a few favorites that I watch over, but not usually more than once.
It's just not the same.
- > versus fiction in a fantastical world or a "real world" where the existence of magic™ must be extensively explained.
Well now if we're drifting, I don't consider "fantasy" has to explain everything like it were an AD&D manual.
Take Glen Cook's Black Company series where magic just happens without explanation. Compare with something like Brandon Sanderson who describes "magic systems" in great detail always. I find the former enticing and the latter boring.
Lord of the Rings didn't explain anything either.
- Most rating systems suck because the rating is relative to the reviewer but the interpretation is relative to the reader. And of course the rating relative to the reviewer at that time.
After decades of reading, there are probably only four fiction ratings for me:
Recommend - to a specific reader or genre
I read it multiple times over years
It's OK, but at this point it's bookshelf filler
I sold it.
There's usually a good thing in every book. I mean, the first 8 Stephanie plum books were fun...but it gets old. The hobbit/LOTR? I'd never recommend those today. I loved thr Thomas Covenant stuff back in the day, but today? No. But The Black Company and Garret PI series are the gifts that keep on giving.
Capturing that in a one dimensional measure is impossible...but it's been Good Enough for years. But you can try to make it better.
- These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars.
I prefer junky fantasy books. I'm really too old and cynical to give a damn what y'all think of me.
I probably liked David Edding's Belgariad series, along with the Mallorean series, the most. I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books, in a couple of weeks. They are an easy read.
Also, Glen Cook's Black Company books are awesome. It's a toss-up, between them. Eleven books, in that series. His Garret PI series are fun, but really kind of "filler."
- I liked the first Belgariad book I got, but after a few more, I felt like reread the same book over and over. Same for Mallorean.
The Black Company is great, especially the first book.
