Best Served Cold
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Book Entry · Fantasy
The Black Company
by Glen Cook · 1984 · The Black Company, book 1
What is The Black Company about?
The Black Company — four centuries of mercenary tradition, its Annals carried like a regimental soul — takes service with the Lady, the resurrected sorceress-empress whose Ten Who Were Taken make the average dark lord look like middle management. Croaker, company physician and Annalist, records the dirty war against the Rebel with a medic's economy: the magic is artillery, the comrades are named like soldiers (One-Eye, Goblin, Raven), the atrocities are logged on both sides, and the prophesied child of light may be standing closer to the company than anyone would like. Fantasy finally written by someone who'd carried a pack.
Why it matters
The founding text of military fantasy and grimdark's true wellspring: Erikson's Malazan and Abercrombie's First Law both descend directly from Croaker's Annals, as their authors have said in as many words.
Where does it sit in the series?
The annals of the last free mercenary company, employed by the wrong side and keeping its own honest records. Military fantasy's foundation stones.
In the Guide from The Black Company:
- The Black Company (1984)
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