Cook Glen - Black Company

nj1 said:
Ooh, guess Gollum's occupation...sounds like a fun game can I play?

International man of mystery?
Ringbearer?
Male escort?
:D
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You forgot the fourth and most important option; All of the above....:p

Seriously though, I can assure you I'm no millionaire, far from it!! I work as a contractor in I.T. and basically support primarily myself and my literary "habit"....I'm currently b/w major contracts, doing a bit of part-time work, hence my recent ability to read more than I would normally be able to do.

Don't forget I also have my own private library, which I'll post some pics of later this year and have been following speculative fiction and more recently world literature for more than 25 years.

Nothing more than that really Jardax.....:)
 
Jardax said:
Thank you Snowdog :D

You also admitting you are confused. So logically ... the explanation was not sufficient. I wish to get a book how it all started from its beginning. How Lady turned into evil beast, how she met Tyrant, how they started wars and so...

Reading this forum...there are so many of great books and just only one life.
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The other explanation being that my little grey cells are not sufficient :) I'm already halfway through the first book so it won't be long before it get to that bit.
 
I've finished The White Rose now, and I now remember the confusing points regarding The Lady's history. I also remember that Cook returns to this question in later books, but I can't off-hand remember all the specifics.

I've seen lots of theories and arguments about it on the web. What is clear, though, is that Cook was being deliberately obscure with the clues he left. I think of all the information given in the first three books there is only one incontrovertible fact - and that is The Lady's true name. Nothing else that is said can be taken at face value.

It's possible that Cook hadn't himself worked it out fully, since he seems to have contradicted some things much later in the series, but that might have just been continuity lapse, or a Croaker memory lapse. Since Cook refuses to answer any questions on such matters, we'll probably never know, unless more is revealed in subsequent books.

If Cook did work it out fully and put some real and maybe some false clues in there for us to gnaw on, there are probably three or four possible theories that could be made to fit what "facts" are known, but I don't want to go into specifics here since they involve spoilers.
 
ladies and gentlemen,
i have just purchased The Chronicles of the Black Company from barnes and nobles:

it consists of: the black company, shadow linger, and the white rose; all in one book.

There's also another TOR compilation called: The Book of the South tales of the black company. Which consists of: shadow games, dreams of steel, and the silver spike.


then there's: The many deaths of the black company; which includes: water sleeps, and soldiers live.

so the entire BLACK COMPANY series is really a combination of 8 books thus far? or are each of these compilation books unrelated... just about the same group of people. but with completely different stories that dont relate to each other?

by the way, i'm excited to have finally purchased the book. can't wait to read it tonight :D
 
There are two books that fall between The Book of the South and The Many Deaths - as stand alones they were:

Bleak Seasons
She Is the Darkness

For a total of 10 books - I'm not sure if the missing 2 have been collected into Omnibus editions yet.

The 10 books recount a portion of the 400 year history of The Black Company - a free company of Khatovar - those years in which Croaker is annalist (company historian).

They are not unrelated in that the series runs in internal chronological order (mostly) so reading them out of order is not advised.

The whole series covers three differnt major events that the Company becomes entangled in - dividing the series into:

The Books of the North
- The Black Company - May 1984
- Shadows Linger - October 1984
- The White Rose - April 1985

The Books of the South
- Shadow Games - June 1989
- Dreams of Steel - April 1990

The Books of the Glittering Stone
- Bleak Seasons - April 1996
- She Is the Darkness - September 1997
- Water Sleeps - March 1999
- Soldiers Live - July 2000

Spin-offs
- The Silver Spike - September 1989
 
Hypnos164 said:
For a total of 10 books - I'm not sure if the missing 2 have been collected into Omnibus editions yet.
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As per a post I made earlier in this thread all 10 books are now in omnibus as I happily own my own copies.

Tor softcover releases:

The Chronicles of The Black Company (collects The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose) (November 2007)

The Books of the South (collects Shadow Games, Dreams of Steel, and The Silver Spike) (June 2008)

The Return of The Black Company (collects Bleak Seasons, and She Is The Darkness) (September 2009)

The Many Deaths of The Black Company (collects Water Sleeps, and Soldiers Live) (January 2010)

Please also note Cook is planning, I think, another 2 Black Company novels moving forward.
 
GOLLUM said:
As per a post I made earlier in this thread all 10 books are now in omnibus as I happily own my own copies.

Tor softcover releases:

The Chronicles of The Black Company (collects The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose) (November 2007)

The Books of the South (collects Shadow Games, Dreams of Steel, and The Silver Spike) (June 2008)

The Return of The Black Company (collects Bleak Seasons, and She Is The Darkness) (September 2009)

The Many Deaths of The Black Company (collects Water Sleeps, and Soldiers Live) (January 2010)

Please also note Cook is planning, I think, another 2 Black Company novels moving forward.
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Thanks GOLLUM (so bloody much) for lengthening my TBB (to be bought) book list once again :p
 
5th book and still excited. The only one thing what seems to be unreal is time in the books.
Of course it is world of magic, but description of events showing there are valid the same physical laws like in our world so what is strange there are for example buildings 100 000 years old. This is a little strange coz even our castles, fortresses when abandoned are ruined usually in centuries and we have numerous examples what can be with buildings after 1000s years of our history. The only one thing i am questioning. So if the author use 1000s in case of 10 000 and 100 000s i would be definitely happy. But it can be just a bad translation. Did you noticed the same in original? Thanks.
 
Hi Jardax,

I have to admit I didn't actually notice this point about no. of years. If I did read it at the time, then like you I would have assumed it must relate to magical properties within the context of the story. It's been quite a while since I read this series.

I do intend to do a reread this year, now that I've got the omnibus edns. but in the meantime maybe someone else will be able to provide further details on this query.

Sorry I couldn't be more help on this one....
 
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