The Black Company: Chronicles of The Black Company, Book 1

The story itself is amazing and this is where it all starts. But beware: at the time of purchasing, I bought this thinking I could easily pick up the next installments - I was wrong. Much better buying the collection of the first three novels than this. 5 stars for the reading but better value with the collection.

It is a good but not great book. Very entertaining but it does not have the depth of the work of other authors such as Abercrombie or Scott Lynch to name a few. I felt less attached to the character compared to other fantasy series. I will however continue to read the books of the black company.

I listened to these books years ago , it’s really well narrated and holds you in the storytelling. I love w gorey book that is well written .Scared at times when they really get to the details the small details excellent book

This book good have been great and, perhaps, should have been great.The plot is not overly complicated but ambles along at a resonable place, it would be wholly predictable if ity wasn't for the nature of some of the main characters and specifically the prime character. The mix of strtaightforward plot with more complex characters works well and sustains interest levels.The real problem is the writing style - by which I do not mean the grammar and spelling/typos so much as the disjointed nature of the book. It feels as though it has been edited with a lump hammer and I was left wondering whether parts had been hacked out by an over zealous editor or simply never written.I could not go so far as to say it was an enjoyable read and I doubt I will bother with the sequels, but if you pick it up cheap for a read on the train/plane/whatever then it will fill an hour or so.

This was a quite enjoyable read. The book had familiar echo's from other fantasy fiction that I have read (try Steven Erikson's Malazan books) but was original in its approach and good to read.

This series will always hold one of the highest places on my favorites list

Can be tricky to get into. Cook's style can put readers off. Just stay with it for a couple of chapters and you'll want to read the next 8 volumes (soon to be 9). Utterly, utterly superb. One one those books you'll remember for the rest of your life.

Steven Erikson says on the front of my edition "singlehandedly changed the face of fantasy". Now that's a bold claim, but after reading this first installment I have to say it rings true. First published (I think) in 1984 this is very different to the contemporary questing fantasy like the Belgariad or some such.This is more like a second world war account that happens to be set in a fantasy world. There are all the usual elements, magic, monsters, prophesies and swords and soceries. But everything the writer sees is not conveniently explained by the finding of a helpful scroll or somesuch.Really good. And I'm looking forward to reading more...

Initially hard to read. Nothing connects. Everything feels disconnected. From each other. Just like these sentences.Eventually it starts to get interesting and stays that way. Hard read but it's worth it. I advice you pick up the trilogy though. Now I need to buy the trilogy because I can't find the books seperately.

This is a spectacular book (and series). Here is a word of warning: it takes a good 100+ pages to get into it. You are literally dropped into the long history of The Black Company in the middle of things. Nothing will make sense. You will wonder if you should bother to keep going. The characters are wacky. The geography is confusing. The magic doesn't follow any of the rules or conventions offered by other authors. And if there are any rules, the main character doesn't bother sharing what they are. Why would he?But push through. You won't read another book like it. I'm on the fourth book in the series now (in a row, which says something) and loving them. Cook is immensely clever and offers a refreshingly pragmatic and entertaining read. You will laugh out loud and really feel empathy for characters that... you wouldn't normally feel empathy for. Enjoy.

If you like dark fantasy - stories that are not about sterile clean ever-happy heroes and people where all ends well and nice - The Black Company is for you.They are not goodie-two-shoes, no knights in shining armor. They have done terrible things and compassion isn't exactly a trademark. But at the same time the characters of the Black Company are authentic and they grow on you with their crooked charme. And they carry a weird kind of honor and pride with them.I was looking a while ago for darker fantasy with questionable heroes or main characters. Ever since I got my hands on R.R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice (many many years ago, before Amazon existed in Germany) I hungered for plausible, barbaric and dark fantasy stories.A few weeks ago I found The Black Company and fell in love with the series.What do I like in particular:The characters.They are as I mentioned before, authentic. Everyone of them has his quirks, dark secrets and viewsEach of them has a well fleshed out background - revealed more and more throughout the story. And the best of it, I couldn't really find any boring stereo-types.Dialogues:The story all in all is very well written - especially the dialogues.It's always hard to write an ongoing dialogue between multiple characters - Glen Cook mastered it.Many of the dialogues had me laughing.What can I say more... eloquent - sarcastic - pun after pun or simply interesting when the story takes a slower pace.Story iteself:At the beginning I was a bit worried... it starts out a bit slow and harmless. But soon after that it picks up pace and I couldn't put the "e-book" out of my hands. Next day I looked like an old owl with deep dark rings under my eyes ;-)It's dark, it deals with nasty things - tender souls shouldn't read it unless they are masochists...The combat scenes are nice to read - no exaggeration - just plain realistic combat yet exciting.No epic Drizzt-Do'Urden-Super-Hero beat them all Hack&Slash. In this story, people lose their life or body-parts and life still goes on.I wish there would be much more of that kind of fantasy on the market.

I've been reading fantasy on and off for years now and was frankly getting a little tired of the genre. But I read this book with delight. Unlike most other "dark fantasy," this book managed to walk the marvelous line of maintaining likeable characters; I never felt ham-handedly manipulated or jerked around, and I never wanted to throw the book down in disgust (like I do when I read, for example, George R.R. Martin, whose idea of "dark fantasy" is "Haha, you like that character? I KEEL HIM!") The plots were clever and relatively original; the author communicated a real sense of the personalities of all the major characters, and they moved in a world that felt "real." The book was good enough to suspend my disbelief; it got me and took me in. The closest parallels in tone I can think of are perhaps the old Fritz Leiber Lankhmar books, or what the Theives' World series wanted to be but didn't manage. Maybe some of the earlier, better Michael Moorcock stories. Is this book as polished as some of the stuff that's coming out now? No. Heck, there isn't even a map, much less detailed historical accuracy in the weapons, or completely invented languages, or whatever else. That's not what this is; it's closer in spirit to Robert E. Howard than it is to Robert Jordan. A little primitive; a little rough around the edges. But good, worth reading, and unique.

Well written. Can't call the maincharacters evil but more like I imagine real soldiers and i like it. It's a refreshing style of storytelling.The best part for me, which may puts of other Readers, is that the author hinted at the bad stuff. Giving enough information to understand what happened but without unneeded Details.