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by rmthunter
I was thinking of reviewing Black Company for Eps, but I'm not sure -- there are already a lot of very good reviews.
However, after looking at the reviews and the comments here, I need to point out one thing: the "roughness" in Cook's writing is a deliberate style. Frankly, I admire it simply because he has so seamlessly wedded his style to story, character, and worldview. (His latest, Tyranny of the Night, is, if anything, even rougher.) I don't think you can separate it, and if he smoothed out the writing, I think the stories would suffer.
As for them falling off after the third volume, I have to object to that, as well -- I asked him about it, and he pointed out that the protagonist of the series is the Company itself, not any particular character, which strikes me as more than ordinarily adventurous. I don't know if he's been completely successful, but he says there are a couple more Black Company books that he wants to do, so it's holding up for him, at least. He's not in a position where he has to keep churning them out for the money, and he's not the kind of writer who takes the easy way. From the viewpoint of the Company, rather than Croaker or the Lady or anyone else, being the protagonist, I'm willing to be convinced.
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Nov 29 '05
7:06 am PST
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Re: Glen Cook's best works ever... (Reply to this comment)
by owling
I certainly enjoyed the Black Company and plan to read the rest of the trilogy. Once my book budget recovers I'll look into that other book you recommend. ;)
heather
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May 14 '02
9:38 am PDT
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Glen Cook's best works ever... (Reply to this comment)
by tjolims
...are the series known as the Files of Garrett, P.I. Take your hard-boiled, Mike Hammer style detective...and plop him into the middle of a fantasy world where the neighbor is a dwarf and the sidekick is a dark elf, and you've got the basic idea.
Cook is one of those authors whose writing is good, but when compared to his brilliant ideas, seems rough. I hope you don't let the Black Company scare you off of the rest of his books--and definitely take a look at Sweet Silver Blues, the first installment in the Files of Garrett.
Mel
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May 14 '02
8:35 am PDT
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Re: I feel obligated to warn you (Reply to this comment)
by owling
Agh! I'm SO disappointed! There was just so much talent and storytelling ability in this book. He could have done something fabulous with that!
Sigh. I guess I'll read the original trilogy, then, and only read the others if it's convenient.
Many thank-yous for the info!
heather
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May 12 '02
10:51 am PDT
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I feel obligated to warn you (Reply to this comment)
by lorendiac
You said: There's a whole lot of raw talent here, but it is just that -- a bit raw. I look forward to seeing it sharpen and fine-tune itself in later books of this series.
I felt much the same way about him, once, when I had just read this book for the first time. Unfortunately, my expectations were not satisfied.
I enjoyed the first three books of the Black Company (a complete trilogy in their own right, with a certain sense of resolution at the finale) but by the time I read those first three, I was aware that several sequels existed. When I got around to reading the fourth volume narrated by Croaker . . . I was so underwhelmed that I have never (in the last five or six years) bothered to press forward with #5. Part of the problem was that he didn't seem to know when to quit with certain things and characters which I had hoped had been "settled" at the end of the trilogy, but the whole writing style just didn't grab hold of me the way the first book had done.
A couple of years ago, however, wanting to be fair, I read a novel called The Tower of Fear, also by Glen Cook. A fantasy novel with no relationship to the Black Company stories. It was published at least five years after he published the book you're reviewing, and it was consistently mediocre with occasional flashes of humor or clever plot twists to show that it could have been a lot better. It's on my long list of possibilities to review on here someday, and would definitely get three stars.
Some writers get more polished and more engaging as the years roll past. Others start out pretty strong with their earliest books, and then go into a decline as they stubbornly keep cranking out more and more, often sequels that turn one of their early hits into an uninspired sequence of neverending stories that seem to be recycling stuff from before and hoping for the best. My current suspicion is that Cook sadly falls into that latter category.
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May 12 '02
10:00 am PDT
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