Rating: 
Summary: An awesome series
Review: It's best to start at the beginning of the series with the first book "The Black Company". This series is well written, with excellent characterization, and well thought out plots.
Rating:
Summary: An awesome series
Review: It's best to start at the beginning of the series with the first book "The Black Company". This series is well written, with excellent characterization, and well thought out plots.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining read...
Review: No one, and I mean no one, understands the potential darkness contained in every man's soul. Along with book two of the Annals, this story delves deeply into that region any man, given the right circumstances, is capable of falling. Cook knows human nature better than any of those 'flowery' authors who tend to over-romanticize the evil villain. True evil remains within the hearts of everyday people...like all of us. Very realistic....
Rating: 
Summary: Dark as Night
Review: Poor Raven. That was one of my fist thoughts as I finished this book. I must agree with some of the other reviews here. If you have not read the first part books of the Black Company series at least, don't pick this one up. If you have, read it, but be forewarned: this is one of the darkest books Cook has written yet.The book is sort of an aside to the series up to this point. It answers the questions of what happened to Darling and Raven. Raven has become a tragic figure. He has drunk himself into oblivion for many years straight. His companion begins to keep a journal inspire by Raven's stories of Croaker. Raven, Silent and Bomanz are the main subjects of this journal. Of course something happens to cause Raven to clean up and act the part of the hero to defend Darling, with the usual unusual twist to it. In the meantime, Cook also follows Toadkiller Dog and his sometimes unwilling allies in a purely narrative style. As usual evil is relative and the reader finds themselves favoring one over the other. The reader, like Raven hears rumours and catche glimpses only of Croaker. This is not about the Black Company per se, but rather a wrap up of some characters and their futures and the beginning of a mystery for later. I personally liked the book a great deal, but missed the rest of the Company.
Rating:
Summary: Dark as Night
Review: Poor Raven. That was one of my fist thoughts as I finished this book. I must agree with some of the other reviews here. If you have not read the first part books of the Black Company series at least, don't pick this one up. If you have, read it, but be forewarned: this is one of the darkest books Cook has written yet. The book is sort of an aside to the series up to this point. It answers the questions of what happened to Darling and Raven. Raven has become a tragic figure. He has drunk himself into oblivion for many years straight. His companion begins to keep a journal inspire by Raven's stories of Croaker. Raven, Silent and Bomanz are the main subjects of this journal. Of course something happens to cause Raven to clean up and act the part of the hero to defend Darling, with the usual unusual twist to it. In the meantime, Cook also follows Toadkiller Dog and his sometimes unwilling allies in a purely narrative style. As usual evil is relative and the reader finds themselves favoring one over the other. The reader, like Raven hears rumours and catche glimpses only of Croaker. This is not about the Black Company per se, but rather a wrap up of some characters and their futures and the beginning of a mystery for later. I personally liked the book a great deal, but missed the rest of the Company.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad.
Review: Pretty good book. The Black Company is a nice idea that probably has been a bit over-written.
Rating:
Summary: Loose ends tied up
Review: Silver Spike is the fourth book in a series on the the Black Company, a mercenary band in a sword and sorcery world. The Black Company is one of the great creations of modern fantasy. In a genre in which most stories are starkly black and white--really great good guys and really bad villans--the Black Company (contra its name) lives in grey. In a genre in which heroes are all-knowing and all-powerful, the Black Company is filled with fallible, vulnerable humans. Yet, they nevertheless are the baddest outfit around. Remember how we reworked Psalm 23 back in the '60s? "Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil--for I am the baddest SOB in the valley!" That could be the Black Company motto. One of the things I like best about Cook's novels is that the story line is more important than the individual characters. There are no Gandalfs here--no powerful wizards (who never seem to do anything with their power) that are all-good and all-powerful. Characters die--just like in real life. Good guys turn bad--just like in real life. Bad guys turn out to have socially redemming qualities--just like in real life. The first three novels told the story of how the Company came into the service of Lady, a sorceress of great power who rules a purportedly evil empire in the northern part of the Company's world. Eventually the Company rebels against the Lady and joins the White Rose, a reincarnated hero who opposes the empire. At the end of book three, the Rose, the Lady, and the Company join forces to defeat an older evil known as the Dominator. A long (nine-plus) series of sequels follows the subsequent adventures of the Company. In contrast, the Black Company is off the stage in Silver Spike, which follows the subsequent adventures of the Rose. The initial trilogy introduced a number of characters and plot lines that were not resolved. Here, Cook wraps up many of those loose-ends. Fans of the series will definitely want to read Silver Spike. Those who have not yet discovered the Black Company should NOt start here--you'll never get it. But I envy those folks--they get to discover the Black Company for the first time. My advice: buy this book, but pick up the first 3 Black company novels and read them first.
Rating:
Summary: The perfect companion story
Review: This book is perhaps the perfect example of the parallel story line, as it happens between two of Cook's impeccably executed Black Company novels. I damn near died from enjoyment as I revisited Mighty Events from a totally different perspective. The story was so well matched to the mainline that it significantly strengthened the fabric of the whole.
Once again, Cooks' considerable skills are used to elevate unlikely candidates to hero status, whether they like it or not. And once again, we see absolute evil (or madness, as the case may be) pitted against far less than absolute good.
If you've even HEARD of the Black Company, then you absolutely must read this book. Preferably after reading the First Book of the South, to get the context right
Rating: 
Summary: Silver Spike (spoilers)
Review: This sideshow to the Black Company main show didn't work quite so well for me. I like Raven, and was glad to read a book following up with him. It didn't surprise me that he comes to a bad end, though I would have liked a bit more characterization along the way. I had some issues of believability with this one. The whole windwhales/menhirs thread has never been my favorite -- a bit too whimsical and surreal for me. As well, I struggled to believe that the layabout Smeds could somehow become a hardcore assassin, killing person after person with a single stab. There was something more than usually vague and skipped-over about the writing, too. Exile, a potentially interesting character despite coming out of nowhere, gets only a scant glance before he's taken out (killed or wounded? we aren't told). More than once, Cook left it unclear whether a character had actually died in a scene. To sum up, the book has interesting elements but feels a bit sloppy and rough. However, people who have been following the series will want to have a look at it.
| 
