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A review by wyrmdog
The Return of the Black Company by Glen Cook
3.0
Quite possibly the most disappointing of the series so far. It isn't that they're bad, just that they're not nearly as compelling as the previous outings have been.
That said, we do get a peek into the background of what happened at the siege of Dejagore and the Nyeung Bao are an interesting mismash of a couple recognizable cultures and are fleshed out some here. Plots come to a head and the end comes again, not quite where it would be in most stories.
There are generally two types of Black Company novels. They aren't clear-cut divisions, but they are how I view the installments. First are the epic-in-scope war stories. Sure they are often fitted with a grounding in characters with myopically personal drives and views but they go batshit crazy, bringing in the fantasy equivalents of gunships and aircraft carriers, missile batteries and double-agents. The second are those that focus on the small people in small ways, and how they and their stories fit into the larger, more epic narrative.
By-and-large, that second sort are the better novels. I love the titanic battles at the climaxes, the way he makes them both personally compelling for those involved as well as expansive and epic in the way they resolve things. But the truth is that the characters and situations are more immediately engaging in the second sort.
That's what really makes this volume so disappointing. Bleak Seasons falls into that second category and by rights should have been the more compelling volume, but the oddity of the time travel and ghost-walking and what it did to both the pacing and accessibility of the narrative. I understand why it was done and it makes sense, but it didn't work for me.
Both included books, though, have moments of almost casually impressive insight, things that take other authors pages to set up and still come off manufactured. Cook also manages to pull off some really entertaining and at times surprising plot twists.
This collection ends on a big cliff-hanger, even if it's one that you may see coming. So yeah, even though this was the most disappointing run of the bunch, I'll be back.
That said, we do get a peek into the background of what happened at the siege of Dejagore and the Nyeung Bao are an interesting mismash of a couple recognizable cultures and are fleshed out some here. Plots come to a head and the end comes again, not quite where it would be in most stories.
There are generally two types of Black Company novels. They aren't clear-cut divisions, but they are how I view the installments. First are the epic-in-scope war stories. Sure they are often fitted with a grounding in characters with myopically personal drives and views but they go batshit crazy, bringing in the fantasy equivalents of gunships and aircraft carriers, missile batteries and double-agents. The second are those that focus on the small people in small ways, and how they and their stories fit into the larger, more epic narrative.
By-and-large, that second sort are the better novels. I love the titanic battles at the climaxes, the way he makes them both personally compelling for those involved as well as expansive and epic in the way they resolve things. But the truth is that the characters and situations are more immediately engaging in the second sort.
That's what really makes this volume so disappointing. Bleak Seasons falls into that second category and by rights should have been the more compelling volume, but the oddity of the time travel and ghost-walking and what it did to both the pacing and accessibility of the narrative. I understand why it was done and it makes sense, but it didn't work for me.
Both included books, though, have moments of almost casually impressive insight, things that take other authors pages to set up and still come off manufactured. Cook also manages to pull off some really entertaining and at times surprising plot twists.
This collection ends on a big cliff-hanger, even if it's one that you may see coming. So yeah, even though this was the most disappointing run of the bunch, I'll be back.