Every once and a while, there comes an entry into a medium that does something original that impacts the rest of the rest of medium creating a new genre. Such was the case with Black Company. Its a series that combined the grittiness of war logs with fantasy, creating a dark and morose wold where the general atmosphere was oppressive and the protagonists morality was dark grey when it did not plunge into pitch black. Its been cited as inspiration for a number of today's fantasy authors. However, when Black Company is evaluated by its own merits, its actually pretty terrible.
Black Company's world building is awful. Most of its first three books, takes place in the Empire which is currently at war with a group of rebels known as the Resistance. Ugh. While the series tries to be subversive by having Black Company side with the Empire, it seems to neglect important details, like what is the political model of the Empire vs a theoretical Resistance run government? Why has the Resistance rebelled in the first place? Sure, there is authoritarian abuse, but is that it? If it is, the series never bothers to list any important historical events to help the reader understand what's going on. The protagonists should be much better informed about the situation, especially considering how pragmatic they are with their employment.
The plot tends to waste a lot of its material. The series goes on about how badass the Lady's elite unit, the Taken are and then proceeds to kill off nearly all of them in the first book. The Resistance gets clobbered too, reducing them to disposable mooks. When the series predictably has Black Company turn on its employers, it never goes through the trouble of explaining recruitment or long term capture strategies. Instead it introduces a Generic Doomsday Villain which simplifies the plot and allegiances to a boring Enemy Mine scenaro.
Aside from Croaker and Raven, most of the cast isn't well developed. Even the series Chosen One Darling is a plot device for two of the books and a standard military commander for the third, mostly because the plot demands her be one. For a series mired in such dark morality, its surprisingly devoid of internal conflict. What's weird is this isn't a problem when the narrative suddenly switches to perspectives of outside of the main protagonists, such as Shed and Bomanz. These interconnected stories are far more interesting and better fit the series' tone. The worst character is the main antagonist and, sigh, love interest, the Lady. The first two books go into detail about how monstrous she is before having Croaker fawn over her like a lovesick teenager in the third. Making her emotionally vulnerable does not make her sympathetic or erase her awful actions including murdering her sister or summoning demons to rape a woman into submission. The third book describes her as clever, but her use of blind, unregulated, brute force suggest otherwise.
A Pioneer in Fantasy, but a Terrible Book Series.
Every once and a while, there comes an entry into a medium that does something original that impacts the rest of the rest of medium creating a new genre. Such was the case with Black Company. Its a series that combined the grittiness of war logs with fantasy, creating a dark and morose wold where the general atmosphere was oppressive and the protagonists morality was dark grey when it did not plunge into pitch black. Its been cited as inspiration for a number of today's fantasy authors. However, when Black Company is evaluated by its own merits, its actually pretty terrible.
Black Company's world building is awful. Most of its first three books, takes place in the Empire which is currently at war with a group of rebels known as the Resistance. Ugh. While the series tries to be subversive by having Black Company side with the Empire, it seems to neglect important details, like what is the political model of the Empire vs a theoretical Resistance run government? Why has the Resistance rebelled in the first place? Sure, there is authoritarian abuse, but is that it? If it is, the series never bothers to list any important historical events to help the reader understand what's going on. The protagonists should be much better informed about the situation, especially considering how pragmatic they are with their employment.
The plot tends to waste a lot of its material. The series goes on about how badass the Lady's elite unit, the Taken are and then proceeds to kill off nearly all of them in the first book. The Resistance gets clobbered too, reducing them to disposable mooks. When the series predictably has Black Company turn on its employers, it never goes through the trouble of explaining recruitment or long term capture strategies. Instead it introduces a Generic Doomsday Villain which simplifies the plot and allegiances to a boring Enemy Mine scenaro.
Aside from Croaker and Raven, most of the cast isn't well developed. Even the series Chosen One Darling is a plot device for two of the books and a standard military commander for the third, mostly because the plot demands her be one. For a series mired in such dark morality, its surprisingly devoid of internal conflict. What's weird is this isn't a problem when the narrative suddenly switches to perspectives of outside of the main protagonists, such as Shed and Bomanz. These interconnected stories are far more interesting and better fit the series' tone. The worst character is the main antagonist and, sigh, love interest, the Lady. The first two books go into detail about how monstrous she is before having Croaker fawn over her like a lovesick teenager in the third. Making her emotionally vulnerable does not make her sympathetic or erase her awful actions including murdering her sister or summoning demons to rape a woman into submission. The third book describes her as clever, but her use of blind, unregulated, brute force suggest otherwise.