Scan barcode
A review by warragh
The Many Deaths of the Black Company by Glen Cook
5.0
The last Black Company omnibus collecting Water Sleeps and Soldiers Live
Water Sleeps
The book picks up 15 years after the evens of She is the Darkness. Without its leadership, the Black Company fought hard against Soulcatcher and Mogaba but in the end they were defeated and forced to go underground.
Water Sleeps is a very different book compared to its predecessors. Not only is there a new POV character but the story itself is quite unlike anything else in the series. There are no big battles, no massive armies or bloody conquests. The Company is in a very unsure situation, hanging on to its identity and history and trying to get recover their friends and take revenge on those who betrayed it.
It is very much a "middle" book. We do get some backstory and some more information about Kina and the Glittering Plain but nothing gets resolved and at the end of the day the purpose of the book is to get all the players in place for the last book. That's not to say that it is a bad book, far from it, it actually is a lot of fun and very amusing at times (and very good that it is considering what comes after).
Soldiers Live
So here we finally are, the last (so far) book in the series. The novel picks up 4 years after end of the last one. 4 years of peace, of rest and growth as the Company gathers its strength for its final return home.
Quite fittingly the book sees Croaker return as Annalist/POV character. The book is very much centered on him and his struggles to adapt to a changing world and a changing Company. Page after page more of the world that he used to know is gone and that has a very visible effect on him. More than ever Croaker feels alive. Lady even remarks upon his newfound mantra. Soldiers live. And wonder why. Very few fantasy books deal with such heavy psychological themes (survivors guilt being first and foremost here) but all this comes at a cost, one with which I personally still struggle to deal with.
Soldiers Live, as the title of the omnibus would suggest, is a very bloody book. I would almost argue that it is too bloody. It feels to me that Glen Cook was on a mission to kill as many characters as possible. It feels forced and contrived but at the same time it is exactly why this series is so amazing. People die. Soldiers die. Even more so in wars. Soldiers die without fanfare, without a glorious duel or a blaze of glory, they die and the world moves on. It is painful and heartbreaking and gut wrenching and I want to hate it but this book and this series has made me go through so many deep emotions that I can't help but be in awe with it.
Not everything is bleak though. This series has always been about the Company, above any individual character (save maybe Croaker) and the Company has a future. It has been irreversibly changed but it endured all its trials and had emerged on the other side still strong. It is a message of hope and comfort, that despite everything the Company will live on, carrying with it the memory of everyone who was a part of it. It is immortality of a sort
For me personally Soldiers Live has cemented The Black Company as perhaps my favourite fantasy series. It is both grim and dark but it is also full of hope. It shows humanity at its worst but also it shows how even in the darkest times there is still room for brotherhood, for trust and love.
And it has perhaps the most hauntingly beautiful ending out of any book I've read.
“In the night, when the wind dies and silence rules the place of glittering stone, I remember. And they all live again.”
Soldiers live. And wonder why.
Water Sleeps
The book picks up 15 years after the evens of She is the Darkness. Without its leadership, the Black Company fought hard against Soulcatcher and Mogaba but in the end they were defeated and forced to go underground.
Water Sleeps is a very different book compared to its predecessors. Not only is there a new POV character but the story itself is quite unlike anything else in the series. There are no big battles, no massive armies or bloody conquests. The Company is in a very unsure situation, hanging on to its identity and history and trying to get recover their friends and take revenge on those who betrayed it.
It is very much a "middle" book. We do get some backstory and some more information about Kina and the Glittering Plain but nothing gets resolved and at the end of the day the purpose of the book is to get all the players in place for the last book. That's not to say that it is a bad book, far from it, it actually is a lot of fun and very amusing at times (and very good that it is considering what comes after).
Soldiers Live
So here we finally are, the last (so far) book in the series. The novel picks up 4 years after end of the last one. 4 years of peace, of rest and growth as the Company gathers its strength for its final return home.
Quite fittingly the book sees Croaker return as Annalist/POV character. The book is very much centered on him and his struggles to adapt to a changing world and a changing Company. Page after page more of the world that he used to know is gone and that has a very visible effect on him. More than ever Croaker feels alive. Lady even remarks upon his newfound mantra. Soldiers live. And wonder why. Very few fantasy books deal with such heavy psychological themes (survivors guilt being first and foremost here) but all this comes at a cost, one with which I personally still struggle to deal with.
Soldiers Live, as the title of the omnibus would suggest, is a very bloody book. I would almost argue that it is too bloody. It feels to me that Glen Cook was on a mission to kill as many characters as possible. It feels forced and contrived but at the same time it is exactly why this series is so amazing. People die. Soldiers die. Even more so in wars. Soldiers die without fanfare, without a glorious duel or a blaze of glory, they die and the world moves on. It is painful and heartbreaking and gut wrenching and I want to hate it but this book and this series has made me go through so many deep emotions that I can't help but be in awe with it.
Not everything is bleak though. This series has always been about the Company, above any individual character (save maybe Croaker) and the Company has a future. It has been irreversibly changed but it endured all its trials and had emerged on the other side still strong. It is a message of hope and comfort, that despite everything the Company will live on, carrying with it the memory of everyone who was a part of it. It is immortality of a sort
For me personally Soldiers Live has cemented The Black Company as perhaps my favourite fantasy series. It is both grim and dark but it is also full of hope. It shows humanity at its worst but also it shows how even in the darkest times there is still room for brotherhood, for trust and love.
And it has perhaps the most hauntingly beautiful ending out of any book I've read.
“In the night, when the wind dies and silence rules the place of glittering stone, I remember. And they all live again.”
Soldiers live. And wonder why.