Glen Cook- The Black Company

[derv]

Jan 9, 2016 9:42:07 GMT -6 @rafael said:

The World of Meleon, of course, is my homegrown setting. I can't hide my roots, but I'd say the most direct influence on the setting is probably the classic "Ithkar" series, perhaps followed by my professed love for the gonzo fantasy as Glenn Cook likes to write it.

Hey Raf, I'm 2/3rds into The Black Company. This is the first novel I've read by Glen Cook and I have to tell you, it's been a difficult read for me. Maybe I'm just having difficulty with his narrative style?

He does not seem to fully develop the scenes or characters in the story. This leads to a very disjointed plot progression.

Like I said, I'm 2/3rds through the book and I'm only now beginning to understand some of the differences between characters (like who's who in the pecking order), but I am still not grasping the setting or motives. The whole rebellion is unclear to me.

There's definitely some inventive concepts in the story, but I'm not real keen on how he sometimes blends modern concepts with antiquity.

I must be missing something because there's a slew of Black Company novels produced. Right now, I cannot see myself pursuing the next one in the series.

Is this first book an exception to his others?

[Deleted]

Hehehe, the simple truth is, the novels are innovative... For 1984. In comparison with the usual early '80s fantasy bluebook, think, by authors like Tanith Lee, David Drake, "Black Company" holds its ground well, but in comparison with most modern series, it is not an item that you can compare on the same level.

As to coherence, and clarity of narration, I didn't feel that the books lacked that, too much - I just took the first book more as a parody of fantasy warfare, as the soldiers are, in difference to most series, never concerned about their cause, and certainly no *shiny white knights*. In later books, Cook gets more serious, and tries to bring in more worldbuilding, but the parodistic undertone is always the same.

I think the great moments of the BC series are less in the action, and more in the narrative frame (mild spoilers ahead):

The human sacrifices who escape their disembowelment ceremony with their intestines hanging out. The old wizard so annoyed with his wife that he begins to dabble into necromancy out of pure boredom. The four brothers, all valiant fighters, that were named after houseplants by their stoner parents. The cowardly corpse merchant. ...And so on.

The action itself, outside of, in one sentence, telling the story of a pseudo-Easterling army first serving and then fighting a couple of pseudo-Saurons, nothing very inspired, lamentably. The later books, which are said to be better, I liked less.


If you like the humor in Cook, I recommend you another series of his: "Chronicles of the Dread Empire"; again, not the most engaging of plots, but one of the main protagonists is a fat and pompous jester named "Mocker"... Which makes up for much.

[makofan]

The Glen Cook I prefer is his "Garret, P.I." series. Think hard-boiled detective but in a D&D setting

[rex]

Jan 24, 2016 10:58:52 GMT -6 derv said:

Hey Raf, I'm 2/3rds into The Black Company. This is the first novel I've read by Glen Cook and I have to tell you, it's been a difficult read for me. Maybe I'm just having difficulty with his narrative style?

He does not seem to fully develop the scenes or characters in the story. This leads to a very disjointed plot progression.

Like I said, I'm 2/3rds through the book and I'm only now beginning to understand some of the differences between characters (like who's who in the pecking order), but I am still not grasping the setting or motives. The whole rebellion is unclear to me.

There's definitely some inventive concepts in the story, but I'm not real keen on how he sometimes blends modern concepts with antiquity.

I must be missing something because there's a slew of Black Company novels produced. Right now, I cannot see myself pursuing the next one in the series.

Is this first book an exception to his others?

Derv, you've summed up my own feelings about Glen Cook/Black Company better than I could have. Well done. I felt exactly how you've described it above when I tackled this novel back in the early 90s. Since then, I've picked it up a couple of more times, but could never finish it, only getting, at best, 45 pages into it before putting it down. His narrative style just didn't gel with me at all. 

I also tried his first novel in the Garret series, and after a promising start, began to bore me midway through. I plowed through it and finished but haven't picked up anything else by him. I won't deny he's a great writer. He certainly has plenty of fans and admirers to testify to that, but for me, I suppose, he's just not my cup of tea. 

[derv]

I'm just about finished with the book. It's not that his writing style kept me from finishing it. It's just one of those books that has you going back and re-reading sections to see if you had missed something, only to find that you hadn't.

I may try giving Cook another shot in the future. Maybe another of his series. Not sure.

[Deleted]

Here's what some might read as a nod to Cook, from my PBP game here:

odd74.proboards.com/post/182084

(Not meant as a plug, but I just realized that I a pair of NPCs reminded me very strongly of Chase and the White Rose from the BC series.)

The truth is, though, it is not a nod. The way Cook influenced my take on fantasy in a more general sense, though, is that I am not shying away from portraying whacky characters any more, while in my earliest writing in English, I usually kept things very basic, and Mary-Sue-ish. "Meleon", definitely more influenced by stuff like the Witcher novels. If there's anything I consciously try to copy, then it's Ithkar.

[Deleted]

Gentlemen,

Your mod is happy.

www.tor.com/2017/04/24/glen-cooks-the-black-company-series-coming-to-television-to-star-eliza-dushku/

...And fears the worst, actually. BC, in direct comparison to Buffy. Not good.

#willwatch, though, anyway.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, yes.