Rating: 
Summary: Great conclusion to the trilogy
Review: "The White Rose" concludes the Books of the North, which is the first mini-series in the story of The Black Company. Read the first 2 novels first, then get this one. The whole trilogy is excellent and deserved much more commercial success than it got.
Rating:
Summary: Great conclusion to the trilogy
Review: "The White Rose" concludes the Books of the North, which is the first mini-series in the story of The Black Company. Read the first 2 novels first, then get this one. The whole trilogy is excellent and deserved much more commercial success than it got.
Rating: 
Summary: Good concepts
Review: A better written book than some of the others. The White Rose was an interesting character concept.
Rating:
Summary: End of the Books of the North
Review: Glen Cook's "Black Company" certainly isn't for everyone, but for those who enjoy unusual characters who are not so much "heroes" as they are the "lesser" of two evils, then this is the series for you.There are times when his writing gets a little complicated, and it can be hard to follow, but you can forgive this flaw because the story and the characters are unique and engrossing. Highly recommended for fans of noir fiction, Roger Zelazney, dark humor, or Steven Brust. You won't want to read this book if you haven't read the two previous to it. You *can*, but you won't want to -- you'll simply miss too much. This concludes the first three books in a very satisfying ending. No, these aren't "deep" books -- but they are original and refreshing. Glen Cook is a thumb to the eye of the typical square-jawed hero, and a welcome one at that!
Rating:
Summary: The end of the beginning.
Review: Hey do you want a fast action book that will sweep you into another world, without all the fairy dust and slow moving plot points of Tolkien? TRY THIS BOOK, Its hot.
Rating:
Summary: The pinnacle of a masterpiece trilogy...
Review: I just don't find many books that purely entertain me like this very often. Here again, Cook mixes in several plotlines separated in time all culminating in one of the best "show-downs" I've ever read. I just can't say enough good things about this book. The ending was totally unexpected and Cook drove me insane with curiosity about: the Lady's real name, what Bomans was looking for and what happened, who Corbie was, which Taken were loyal to the Lady, who would ultimately win in the end. One is never quite sure who's playing who until the very end. This is the capstone to one of the best trilogies in any genre.
Rating:
Summary: The pinnacle of a masterpiece trilogy...
Review: I just don't find many books that purely entertain me like this very often. Here again, Cook mixes in several plotlines separated in time all culminating in one of the best "show-downs" I've ever read. I just can't say enough good things about this book. The ending was totally unexpected and Cook drove me insane with curiosity about: the Lady's real name, what Bomans was looking for and what happened, who Corbie was, which Taken were loyal to the Lady, who would ultimately win in the end. One is never quite sure who's playing who until the very end. This is the capstone to one of the best trilogies in any genre.
Rating: 
Summary: "Books Of The North" Concludes
Review: One has to give Glen Cook credit for variety in approach: each of the three books comprising "Books of the North" has been presented in a different format, the first episodic and often temporal swings from chapter to chapter, the second short, abbreviated chapters following multiple storylines and more linear than the first, with "White Rose" continuing the structure of the second, but utilizing the new device of unattributed messages sent to the main narrator that take the reader back to events a hundred years prior to the book's present and ongoing circumstance, and delivered to the protagonist with a regularity that allows the author to reconstruct the past, propelling two trips to the Barrowlands, the reappearance of players long thought dead, as well as setting up the book's final conflict. In my opinion the use of this device is not as successful structurally as those used in the past, only enhancing the at times parenthetical and peripatetic shifts of focus that to date have dominated the narrative. Despite the active and often engaging storyline and characters of Cook's saga, there is a sense of the author patching his tale together as he goes, events and incidents occurring in a rapid and summary succession that oftentimes lack explanation, or are dispensed with in the most cursory manner once they have fulfilled their function. Action is the primary driving force of this series, its primary strength, and, despite some delightful characterization, it becomes clear everything else is secondary to moving the plot along. Characters appear and disappear and events take place in circumstances never fully clarified or realized, and in some cases, such as Tracker and Toadkiller Dog, the reader is left almost completely unclear as to their actual identity. This treatment of characters and events keeps the author's tale very much at the surface of things, action the raison d'etre of the entire tale, with a level of substance barely rising above the contemporary action cartoon. And, while there was evidence in "Shadows Linger" that the author was toying with using his narrative to explore themes of good and evil, personal responsibility and the relativism of virtue, these intentions were absent here. Despite the rather one-dimensional quality of these stories---an action/entertainment value analogous to the best pulp fiction or films such as "Starship Troopers"---they do offer the reader pure escapist pleasure, written with some skill and imagination, for moments of unexamined recreation. Just don't look too closely.
Rating:
Summary: If you like Jordon or Cherryh...
Review: The lack of enthusiastic reviews of this book breaks my heart. I recently spent some hours reading reviews of the "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordon, where almost everyone wants more action and less "sit around" character development. Well, I love the Jordon books too. But if it's action you want, start with The White Rose. You'll be sated with action, with war at its worst and best, sorcery both terrible and humorous, love that is both tender and terrifying and people and situations so real (even thought this is fantasy) that you can taste (and smell) them. When you finish. Don't despair. You can't cram all the sequels into your book-bag. Read every one. At this time, "She is the Darkness" is the latest, but don't skip any. This guy can write good... suck you right into the book and have you believing stuff that- never mind. Go for it.
Rating:
Summary: A fabulous end to a fantastic trilogy
Review: The White Rose is the third volume in the opening trilogy of the "Black Company" saga. Buy this book right now. But then click on Cook's name and buy the first two volumes of the series as well: Black Company and Shadows Linger. 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 pure good guys and really bad villans--the Black Company (contra its name) lives in gray. Indeed, Cook puts the following words in the mouth of Croaker (the principal viewpoint character and narrator in the early volumes): "I do not believe in evil . . . . I believe in our side and theirs, with the good and evil decided after the fact, by those who survive. Among men you seldom find the good with one standard and the shadow with another." Me too. In early novels of the series, the Black Company was toughest, nastiest, scariest outfit around. "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!" could have been the Black Company motto. In the White Rose, their numbers have shrunk and the warriors are starting to show their age. They survive now by guile, rather than brute strength. In the White Rose, the Company also must grapple with its code of ethics, which previously was focused almost wholly inward. Honor vis-a-vis the outside world consisted of keeping one's contracts. Otherwise, honor was focused on one's relationships within the Company. But now the Company has decided that honoring its contract with Lady is not worth its collective soul. Almost against its will, the Company now finds itself serving the greater good. Many reviewers of White Rose and other Black Company novels have commented on the sparse nature of Cook's prose. In fairness, the White Rose is even sparser than most of the other novels in the series. We have almost no sense of Toadkiller Dog's appearance, motivation, attitudes, or aptitudes. Yet, in a curious way, I think of this as one of the strengths of Cook's writing. Reading Cook's novels is sort of like listening to an old-fashioned radio serial. You have to use your imagination to fill in the gaps. I suspect that my mental picture of Toadkiller Dog is a lot scarier than anything Cook would put down in print. I like that sort of novel, but your mileage may vary.
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