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Glen Cooks The Black Company series


dylan

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Compared to Erikson, the books are pretty damn short and The Black Company is vastly less dense than Gardens of the Moon (and a much better book in general, although I have a soft spot for GotM's enthusiastic ineptness) so I really don't see a problem in comparison.

I need to catch up with the last four Black Company books. I took a break back in 2012 to read something else and still haven't gotten back to them.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thought I'd drop a line. I'm pretty much hooked. I started back from the begining and pushed on. Glen Cook does not tell me everything I want to know, but when he does give me a juicy morsel I gobble it up with much satisfaction. It's a different reading experience than what I'm used to. I'm typically not a big fan of first person but I've grown to like this. 

There are some things he drops (even in the first chapter) that I think "oh he'll address this eventually" but don't think I'll remember. The one bothering me because I don't know if it's simple or complex is at the end of the first chapter:

Quote

One-Eye stared at the [forvalaka] 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.

This is killing me.

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idea for casting :  G. W. Bailey as goblin ! 

He may be a little old but he always seems to have a frog face, like Goblin :D

 

no fracking idea for OneEye, guess Ms Dushku and Cie will have to surprise us all !

 

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Goblin is (surprisingly) probably my fav. The descriptions of him squawking and screeching at all twists and turns (especially regarding One-eye) makes my laugh. Every. Single. Time. I imagine the sounds a pterodactyl would make.

In sum: Goblin's casting better be good.

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On 6/11/2017 at 1:34 PM, Traverys said:

Thought I'd drop a line. I'm pretty much hooked. I started back from the begining and pushed on. Glen Cook does not tell me everything I want to know, but when he does give me a juicy morsel I gobble it up with much satisfaction. It's a different reading experience than what I'm used to. I'm typically not a big fan of first person but I've grown to like this. 

There are some things he drops (even in the first chapter) that I think "oh he'll address this eventually" but don't think I'll remember. The one bothering me because I don't know if it's simple or complex is at the end of the first chapter:

This is killing me.

In one of the later books, the answer of why the forvalaka was different in appearance is implied.  I don't want to suggest that it is a complex answer, but it isn't an answer that a first-time reader approaching the first book would be able to foresee or predict.

One-Eye is not a truly intelligent character.  He is crafty and cunning, but as we learn more about him, we learn that he probably would not figure out the reason for the difference on his own.

 

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11 hours ago, Wilbur said:

In one of the later books, the answer of why the forvalaka was different in appearance is implied.  I don't want to suggest that it is a complex answer, but it isn't an answer that a first-time reader approaching the first book would be able to foresee or predict.

One-Eye is not a truly intelligent character.  He is crafty and cunning, but as we learn more about him, we learn that he probably would not figure out the reason for the difference on his own.

 

Thanks! It's making me feel like I missed something, but good to know I didn't. After

Spoiler

reading that Harden's horse was Shifter, it makes me wonder if he was the forvalaka as well. But I guess I'll see.

Edit for above: Three pages after my bookmark, One-Eye figures it out. Seems like I was right. I don't really get how he figured it out, but he punched a ham (literally).

 

As an update, I'm almost done with the first book... I didn't realize I had a bundled version of The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose. I was scratching my head about how this book could be so long when it seemed like everything established was wrapping up... Makes sense now.

I'm surprised at how likable Croaker is. Or more like how someone so likeable can be found among a den of devils and call them family. 

 

In regards to the show, I've read a lot of people having concern that it would be switched to be more about The Lady than the company. I can see the concern now, at least from a "season one" perspective. Half of the tension in the book comes from the anticipation of Croaker finally encountering her in person... and

Spoiler

when he does, he can't even discern what she looks like. Beautifully anti-climatic. The scene in general was kind of amazing... seeing Limper get tortured and Whisper being turned into a Taken.

It would seem a waste to just shift things and feature her in episode one beyond explaining The Domination and her revival.

From a writer's perspective, it's interesting how she is such an important impact character on Croaker but her presence is only implied or felt. Eerily like Big Brother... Anyways, Glen Cook has a new fanboy.

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@Traverys I would suggest reading earlier posts in this thread as to reading order if you continue with the omnibus versions, namely the Books of the South. That omnibus contains the stories Shadow Games, Dreams of Steel and The Silver Spike, in that order in the omnibus. However, it has been mentioned by other boarders, that The Silver Spike is more a Book of The North and is probably best read first of those three stories. Shadow Games and Dreams of Steel are true Books of the South. 

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2 minutes ago, Astromech said:

@Traverys I would suggest reading earlier posts in this thread as to reading order if you continue with the omnibus versions, namely the Books of the South. That omnibus contains the stories Shadow Games, Dreams of Steel and The Silver Spike, in that order in the omnibus. However, it has been mentioned by other boarders, that The Silver Spike is more a Book of The North and is probably best read first of those three stories. Shadow Games and Dreams of Steel are true Books of the South. 

Will do. Thank you!

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Well... Loved the first book. Intriguing ending. I got a few chapters into the second book and the style is not to my taste. The "chapters" are very short and, in my opinion, arbitrary.

I'm glad I finished the first book, at least.

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  • 4 months later...
22 hours ago, usul said:

She looks vaguely similar to how I imagined Lady. I hope they make it and after that I hope they make a bit more... true to the original, for lack of a better word, than HBO made Game of Thrones. I also wish they don't sugar coat it and leave the Company as black and vicious as brutal as they were in the books. Based on recent TV shows, I can't see them making the good guys do that carnage like The Company did in Beryl, when they slaughtered their enemies while they were asleep.

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  • 1 month later...

Port of Shadows will be published in September 2018. Blurb:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Port-Shadows-Chronicles-Black-Company/dp/1250174570/

Years into a campaign against the rebels who have rallied behind the White Rose have left the Company jaded and the fact that the Lady seems to have taken particular interest in Croaker since his stay in the Tower hasn't exactly made his life easier.

Now it looks like The Limper is up to his old tricks and is doing what he can to separate Croaker and the Black Company from The Lady's favor. Now Croaker finds his fate tied to a brand new taken. One claiming to be something impossible but feels uncomfortably familiar. It's going to take all of Croaker's cunning to insure that the mechantions of The Lady and her "loyal" taken, The Limper, don't destroy the company once and for all.

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I've actually tried to read Glen Cook's books before, only I'm pretty sure the first time was either not a Black Company book, or was one well into the series and I didn't realize it. Maybe it was Instrumentalities of Night. Second time was definitely the first book, because I remember the characters. Third time must be the charm because I'm over halfway into the second book within the omnibus. 

There's a lot to like about the brusque writing style, although I wish there was more description and atmosphere in certain parts. Interesting to find out there's a new story due that takes place in between the first two books. 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 6 months later...

So question - I remember reading a long time ago that Port of Shadows is simply the collected version of all of the Black Company short stories that have been published over the years (like "Shaggy Dog Bridge" from the Fearsome Journeys anthology a few years back, etc). Is this accurate?

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