Other commenters below nail it, Black Company is complete and utter crap. Trust me, it has nothing to do with the grey nature of the characters, the book just absolutely sucks.

Bestfantasybooks has introduced me to some incredible authors but the presence of black company here is a real challenge to the validity of the site itself. Is this site something special, or just something random? Honestly I'm no longer really sure.

Not everyone likes this book as it isn't a "page turner". While it's addicting, there are far too many slow parts.
That said, it's an awesome and uniquely realistic book.
-excellent plot: unpredictable (to some extent), realistic (ain't got no chosen one or fate, except maybe in the deep south books)
-historic feel. This sounds worse than it is. The books are written from the point of view of an scribe/annalist/dude-keeping-track but as a story. The narrator is also changed several times. This is done extremely well as the writing style changes along with the PoV. It actually manages to shatter some of your strong opinions on characters and events which were explained by another annalist.

The magic system is cool (imaginative and large scale things happen) but isn't well defined (but then, neither is LOTR's).

Characters are great. Lots of development, realistic motives (they're a band of mercenaries, so no altruistic bs), often funny and with unique, believable personalities.

Good and evil switch sides constantly. Scale (size of battles, countries involved, strength of magic, etc) grows AND shrinks (unlike WoT and most other fant novels which only grow). This book builds legends, turns them mediocre and then builds them up again.

Actual battles with actual strategies. And lots. These are very well done with great buildup, twists, unpredictably (either side can lose), betrayals, large scale magic.

The book also manages lots of grit and kills off your favorite characters without warning. Doesn't stray into tragedy though, so don't avoid it cause you think it'll be sad.

Try the first book. Get through it and you'll either be hooked or bored. Despite knowing the south and deep south books would be worse, i would have gone mad if i hadn't read them, and the ending was quite good imo.

This book should be re-edited. That's the key issue, i believe. Shorten the crappy parts and this would be my favorite series of all time (I've read most on his top 25 list).

Subject says it all, just finished the books of the North and ordered the books of the south, gritty, dark, amazing characters and strong plot.

I am speechless. This is such a horrible book. It is poorly written, the narrative is completely unintelligible, dialogue is infantile, names are like a 10 year old came up with them. The reader has no idea what is happening. The company is constantly travelling somewhere having one-sentence fights with god knows who. You cannot identify with any character or for that matter even tell the difference between them. The characters are not even two-dimensional. Don't waste your time on something that never should have being published.

One of the best in dark series but I have to admit that when Cook switched over to Murgen as the chronicler he really screwed up. Murgen is just a royal pain and I hope he gets bumped off in Water Sleeps.

FYI: never compare anything to the Malazan series since Erikson's fans are very fanatical and unforgiving. I found Erikson to be far too sanguinary for my taste. Though he is a master at creating a new Mythology parts of the book read like a Viet Nam war report.

This series is quite possibly the worst written piece of garbage ever written. Worst editing ever.

@ jackball - yes, yes there is an audio version floating about. And yes, the first 4 books are read by a guy with a raspy voice xD.

The black company is a great example of how tone should be used in a fantasy novel. The story sort of meanders around, and doesn't have a really tight narrative, but the tone is gritty and fits perfectly. I actually read parts of it to my infant son, and it comes across verbally very good. I wonder if there is an audio version of this floating around anywhere? Imagine a raspy voiced guy reading it, totally cool.

I would like to start off by saying that the Black Company by Glen Cook is my favorite set of books behind LOTR and WOT. It should be among the top 25. I first read the Black Company when I was 13 and I still enjoy it today. These books are gritty, dark and real. It is especially appealing to military types who can relate to the characters and their relationships with their fellow brothers in arms. Steven Erickson said it best, "Reading his stuff is like reading Vietnam War Fiction on peyote."

I really don't understand the people on this site who complain about WOT being too complex with too many characters and then go one to praise the Malazan books. It took me forever to read The Malazan book of the fallen. I've passed the latest book in the series "Dust of Dreams" several times now at my bookstore and I cannot bring myself to by it. It's so long and so slow. Erikson killed off my favorite characters. I guess he thought it would work for him like it did for Martin. And where do you think Erickson got most of his ideas for his characters from. Take Quick ben for example. He is a lot like the wizards from the Black company, Goblin and One eye put together.

Also, has anyone read Sanderson's new book, "The Way of Kings?" His central character is a surgeon forced to put aside his healing to become a soldier and leader." Sanderson is a great author and his work has garnished great aclaim, but this is very similar to the main character in the Black Company Croaker, who is one of my favorite characters of all time.

SSL, but I thought someone should speek up for the Black Company. You can't judge it by modern books like the Malazan. It was written 30 years ago. Its not trying to be overly complex in plot or characters. Its just good. Erikson himself wrote that the black company changed the face of fantasy and I'm starting to see why.

I agree with the other reviewer, ELC. I loved the Malazan books and found that in comparison the Black Company books are boring, repetitive and lacking in depth.

I found the first person viewpoint that was used throughout the books adequate, if not terribly impressive, however the viewpoint switches from the 'main' character a few books in and I quickly lost interest. I also only read about 3 or so books in the series before giving up (which I very rarely do)!

Save yourself the trouble and read all of the Malazan books instead. They are far more complex but worth every minute IMHO.

I think it is misleading to compare the Black Company with the Malazan... I bought these books with high expectation, and was utterly dissapointed... I bought 3 books all together & quit on the middle of 2nd book...