The Black Company

Glen Cook

Mar 1992 · Chronicles of The Black Company Book 1 · Sold by Tor Books

About this eBook

Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hardbitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead.

Until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more.

There must be a way for the Black Company to find her...




At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

This book was hard for me to get into. I got broad strokes of what was going on, but it all felt detached, considering the amount of death involved. The storyteller, himself, seems to have no idea what is going on or why he is picked for anything. He then goes on to absurd adventures with evil beings who may, or may not, be more than they seem at folklore surface. It didn't really wow me I think because it was so detached from everything around the character. I didn't even get a huge insight into the narrator. But it wasn't the most awful thing either.

Initially I thought the book, and series, was just another overly grim shocky stroke for ultra macho egos - I was wrong. The characters make you wonder about them long after you've stopped reading for the day and leave you waking up at 3 in the morning to read just a little bit more.

Father of grim/dark military fantasy. The story is about the company as its hole. I have a bookshelf full of only Glen Cook and his amazing writings. Going through and getting them all on ebook and audio.

About the author

Born in 1944, Glen Cook grew up in northern California, served in the U.S. Navy, attended the University of Missouri, and was one of the earliest graduates of the well-known "Clarion" workshop SF writers. Since 1971 he has published a large number of SF and fantasy novels, including the "Dread Empire" series, the occult-detective "Garrett" novels, and the very popular "Black Company" sequence that began with the publication of The Black Company in 1984. Among his SF novels is A Passage at Arms.

After working many years for General Motors, Cook now writes full-time. He lives near St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Carol.