Chronicles of the Black Company

The Omnibus Edition

So I bit the bullet one fine evening last month, and on impulse purchased the first volume of Glen Cook's "Black Company" series. This is the omnibus edition of the first three books in the (thus far) ten book sequence from Cook, comprising the books "The Black Company", "Shadows Linger", and "The White Rose". I read the Kindle edition.

My interest in Glen Cook is explained in large part by my being an unabashed fan-boy for the works of Steven Erikson (SE) and Ian Cameron Esselmont (ICE), who are the co-creators of my favorite fantasy series - or universe, really. SE's Malazan Book of the Fallen is a true magnum opus, and ICE's Novels of Malaz are great additions to the vast universe they've gamed out. Time and again, I had heard that SE and ICE owe a great debt of inspiration to Glen Cook (they even admit themselves that there are elements in their books that they ripped off of Cook wholesale!)... I thought it was about time I started tracing the antecedents for SE and ICE's work. Who knows? Doing so might even inspire me to complete my abortive "Malazan Mediation"...

This then is a reflection (not quite a review) on my first run-in with SE and ICE's genre daddy! At the risk of giving away the gut punch of this article early, let me say this: as soon as I finished "The White Rose", I ordered the remaining seven published books in paperback from Flipkart, because they don't seem to be in the Kindle store!