Rating: 
Summary: Surprised that I liked it
Review: I picked up the first title of the Black Company series almost by accident. I don't usually read this kind of fiction....and then I got hooked. I finished the first book, dialed up Amazon and bought the rest of the series....The books are well connected, the characters are well defined and even better, they grow and change over time. The story travels through time and geography with different central characters but without the old protagonists leaving the story. It is a very clever fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: An incredibly real fantasy/military adventure
Review: I do not usually like fantasy stories, especially not stories in series. I'm a fan of Sci-Fi novels and short-stories and had to be convinced by a friend to even pick up and read this book. I am so glad he was persistant! I never put the book down, I read the whole novel in one sitting and have done the same with each sequel. I'm not sure how a story about magic and sorcerers can manage to come across as realistic as this one does but it makes you feel as if such a world is as normal and natural as the one we live in. It also does a wonderful job of portraying the life and mind-set of true soldiers. I was in the Army when I read this book (10yr veteran) and could empathize completely! (well, maybe not with the magic and what-not, but the life and the characters!). It's a great adventure and you will be happy to be drawn into this story as well as the books that follow.
Rating:
Summary: Oh My
Review: These books are amazing. I actually read The Annals of the Black Company which encompases all of the books of the first series. However you have to go about it, find and read these books. I'm slogging my way through that ridiculous Robert Jordan soap opera, and let me tell you I, long for the fleshed out characters and unique and believable plot turns that one finds from this jewel of an author. Cook truly has a sense of what an epic should be. In following the company one feels a touch of machinations greater than the world around you, and the dreadful choice of altering that which is to come. I felt as though I had been physically moved whenever I finished one of these tales. Glen Cook is a true story teller who has that rare talent of writing in the fantasy genre and making it completely believable. You care about the characters because they're real, you are scared of the bad guys because they are truly menacing and imaginatively evil, and you get sucked in to Cook's world because it is vivid, deep, and detailed. Read them and don't stop with the Black Company until he does.
Rating: 
Summary: On the front lines with ill-mannered roughneck soldiers.
Review: Like the first line says, Cook puts you in the thick of the battles instead of in the towers and parley rooms with the soft handed nobles. These men are quite easy to identify with if you fancy yourself this way too, even though Cook doesn't seem to try to do a thorough character analysis on them, you sort of figure out what kind of lot they are through their mouths and their actions.
I also liked the fact that Cook came up with some totally new stuff-like the Taken for example, and others. And he didn't give the Company the best resources either. Unaccomplished wizards that would rather quarrel and play pranks on eachother than work. And the little romance between the Company's annalist and the omnipotent and beautiful Lady was one of the reasons I kept reading-just to see if Croaker had it in him.
Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Tough, gritty, unglamorous action -- Fabulous!
Review: I recently finished reading the Black Company series of novels, to which I was first introduced in the mid-80's. I have read countless fantasy novels over the years, but this is far and away the best of the best. Glen Cook displays a mastery of combining high-power epic fantasy with the gritty, unglamorous realism of a soldier's life. Glen Cook's characters are wonderfully memorable, unique, and frequently humorous. The dialogue is realistic and often witty, the action is intense, and the plot is engaging, with a neverending variety of unexpected twists and turns. If you love great fantasy, I cannot recommend this book -- indeed the whole series -- too highly. Absolutely addicting!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite boys...
Review: The Black Company have been with me for a long time. I have often repurchased books that have fallen apart with readings. Just because the characters resonate within me. I hate those all good/all bad stories that pit the absolute of one spectrum against the absolute of the other. Who do you know who is completely evil? Or a total saint? That is part of the charm of the Black Company, the characters are flawed, they suffer and work and die just like the rest of us, but we end up cheering for them no matter what. That and you just know, that you HAVE to read what the boys are up to next if only to say, "I can't believe they did that." I love this entire series...
Rating: 
Summary: Black Company
Review: This is a gritty, down in the trenches story about an age-old group of mercenaries with nothing to live for. Cook sacrifices the likeability of some characters in favor of realism. This works well for most of the story. After all, who likes everyone they know? He knows how to make a hero out of a flawed character. The story seemed to be more character driven than plot (or world) driven. As a result, the world isn't well defined, and the story is somewhat vague. The story is told in first person, which gives the book a personal feel, keeping it from becoming too heavy handed. For most of the book, the reader is kept in the dark, since we're limited to knowing what the narrator knows. It comes together, more or less, at the end. Another point is that Cook doesn't define the boundaries of magic, so you don't know what wizards can and can't be do until it happens. This is partly a consequence of a first person story, but it maintains an element of surprise. There is a point where an important character attempts to justify (an off screen) rape. After that, I lost much of my enthusiasm for the book. I couldn't bring myself to care about the fate of most of the characters or see them as moral beings. It's one thing for a novel to contain rape, which can add to the realism. Still, it's too much to ask the reader to root for a character who can sympathize with rapists. The exchanges between the characters remained the most interesting parts. There is an amount of infighting among Company members, which adds to the amusement level of the book. The battles between Goblin and One-Eye had me laughing out loud. If not for the unnecessary rape mentioned above, I would have rated The Black Company 3 and ½ stars.
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Summary: Non-Stereotypical Fantasy
Review: There aren't any characters who are pure good or evil, like you normally see in this genre. Instead, what we have are varying shades of gray. (In that way only, would I compare it to George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire) The Black Company is a mercenary army... and they've fallen on desperate times. Some of its members honestly seem like they want to do the right thing. Some simply try to survive. And others will pillage, rape, or murder on occasion. This reminded me of some of the better Vietnam War films I've seen. Such harsh circumstances can lead to diminished morals in some men, and I enjoyed that element of realism. Each chapter of this book reads like a separate mission, with its own conflict and resolution. This approach worked well here in my opinion. Right from chapter one, we are introduced to the Black Company and plunged into action, through the writings of the army's annalist, Croaker. Unfortunately, you may feel like you've missed some important details, as Cook bombards you with names, events, and his advanced vocabulary. He doesn't explain everything very well at first, and it can be quite confusing. After finishing the second chapter, I went and reread the first chapter to iron out some details, and that helped out quite a bit. From then on, it was smooth sailing and well worth my patience. With plenty of action, and a few laughs- this was a pretty entertaining read!
Rating:
Summary: Where is the beef
Review: I agree the story is different from others of the same ilk. I also concur that the viewpoint is original. Cook put the audience in the middle of mercenary army led by a mysterious Captain. They are swords for hire. The hero is Croaker the army's doctor and annalist. The army's current paymasters are the Taken who answers to The Lady. Originality is something but when I read a book I like to have some details. The concept is interesting and that was about the only thing that kept me reading the book. The main character's motivations are a mystery and for that matter so are all of the other characters' motivations. Who really are the Raven and Darling? What drives the Black Company to follow the Taken? Who are the Rebels and what are they rebelling from? Why is Croaker a mercenary? I mean REALLY... the questions are endless. Apparently there are some reviewers that rate this book very high and feel that _Black Company_ is a 5 star fantasy novel but frankly I don't see it. Cook could have added a few more pages of description. After all the book is only about 320 pages.
Rating:
Summary: If you've had it with epic fantasy...
Review: If you have just about had it with epic fantasy and it's mockery--it's parody--of J.R.R. Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings, give Glen Cook's The Black Company a shot. This ain't no weenie fantasy novel. No Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn clones here (Robert Jordan and Terry Brooks take note!). This is a novel about realistic characters. Characters who aren't evil nor good. They're both. Like real people. Like you and me. They are colored gray, not black or white. The novel follows the misadventures of a group of mercenaries. The story is told through the eyes of Croaker, the doctor/annalist of the mercenaries. It's a fascinating little romp--at times, very dark in it's imagery. But it is realistic. There are no knights in shining armor riding white horses to save the day. There is just a bunch of mercenary soldiers trying to make a buck. These are guys like you and me. Just trying to the best they can--sometimes they fail, sometimes they succeed. If you like fantasy authors Roger Zelazny and Steven Brust, you'll love Glen Cook.
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