I have the Fire & Ice series but haven't read them yet. They are next on my list, and they are hefty paperbacks.
Recently I read through the
Black Company series, and they are quite good despite a few dry stretches and some minor inconsistancies. I do say they are unique as Glen Cook doesn't really follow the usual fantasy formula, and I highly recommend them!
Here's a rundown and a list of Glen Cook's
Black Company series of
books:
- The Black Company
- Shadows Linger
- The White Rose
These are the
Annals of the Black Company and are sometimes called the
Books of the North. You can usually find the combined hardback of these first three (titled Annals of the Black Company) on ebaY. Start with these. I will say here that the first two chapters of
Black Company are kind of hard starting. If it seems so, skip to chapter 3 titled Raker. It was a short in a fantasy mag and gets it going. You can always go back and read the first two as a prequel if need be.
Then there is a standalone book that is a 'journal' of one of the characters you get to know in the
White Rose An excellent book that takes place after the
events of the
White Rose where an
evil so dark attempts to arise.
Then there are the
Books of the South:
- Shadow Games
- Dreams of Steel
The first of these accounts the rest of the Black Company as they journey south, minus the members who stayed north and are written about in
Silver Spike.
There are seven members of the Company left, and its a hard time for the Company.
Shadow Games covers what they encounter, and ultimatly, what they get mixed up in as they
travel south, and introduces us to the Shadowmasters who fear their coming. After much intrigue and army-building, There come a climatic battle with the shadowmaster's.
Dreams of Steel continues from the aftermath of the battle, and is the first book written from a different character's point of view. The writing style is seemingly different, which is a great feat for an author to do in my opinion.
Then there is the more recent
Glittering Stone series.
- Bleak Seasons
- She Is the Darkness
- Water Sleeps
- Soldiers Live
The account in
Bleak Seasons is of the annalist protoge Murgen who we get to know starting in
Shadow Games. The account parallels events mentioned in
Dreams of Steel and is again, a bit different from the earlier writings.
She Is The Darkness gets us back to the writings of the original Annalist Croaker, and all he had been through since the end of
Shadow Games. The last couple chapters I noticed a changed writing style, and I felt the story got a little choppy. It seemed he may had let it sit for a time, and now hurried to finish to maybe meet a deadline. The story worked, but I thought it could have used another chapter to smooth it out.
Water Sleeps, and Soldiers Live are follow up adventures and closes out stories of many of the characters we come to know and love. Some new folk are introduced but not really developed, and it leaves open the door for more books in the future me thinks.
As a series, you can feel the morphing of the story through the years it took Glen Cook to write them, and at time I think he dwells too long on things that really didn't require so much verbage, and doesn't go into things I found intriguing. Overall I highly recommend reading this series.
The Black Company Series bookcovers