Glen Cook’s Black
Company series has been going since 1984, ten books and counting. Cook by and large flying low on most people’s
fantasy radars, his is a cult following.
Unconventional sword & sorcery to say the least, the series is best
represented by moral ambiguity, a focus on plotting (not character or setting),
and a mythic scope on par with the best epic fantasies. The first book, The Black Company, introduces the group that is to be the center
point of the series and sets the tone, even if not all members survive to the end.
Narrated by their doctor, Croaker, The
Black Company is the story of a group of mercenaries
in an alternate world, . Caught in the middle of kingdom-spanning
events, war rages all around the Company, their swords and magicians for sale
to the side most likely to prevail—and to themselves if no other option
presents itself. On one side fights the
Lady and her Taken, a group that centuries previously dominated the land with
powerful magic—a dominance they once again hope to set up with a new
Empire. On the other sits the Circle of
Eighteen, a rebel group with less of the supernatural under their control, but
with stronger unity.
