Croaker doesn’t know everything that is going on and so the complete picture is never revealed to the reader. As such he provides us with only a partial account, which is one of the most pleasing aspects of Cooks's novels. He isn’t a grunt but he isn’t brass either he provides us with the surprisingly rare perspective (in fantasy) of a professional soldier. Our narrator is Croaker, the physician and Annalist of the Black Company. The rest of the book is one long slog of a campaign, covering hundreds of miles and dozens of battles before culminating in a gigantic siege that leaves a quarter of a million men dead. For reasons of expediency they tie their colours to a different mast and leave the city in the service of the Lady, a powerful sorceress, to put down a rebellion that threatens her rule. It synchs very nicely with the weird cities of the contemporary authors I mentioned earlier, but it doesn't last long.

We meet them in The Black Company parked in a coastal city propping up the unloved ruler whilst strange creatures prowl the night. A sense of entropy hangs over them: they are the last of the great companies, their numbers are dwindling, new blood is rare, and they are none of them getting any younger. The eponymous Black Company are a band of mercenaries. He then infuses this with a pragmatism, modernity, and-most interestingly-a sort of cryptic oddness that is very much in keeping with the new wave of commercial fantasy writers. He blends the urban, intimate, slightly seedy tradition of sword & sorcery with the pastoral, epic, expansive tradition of heroic fantasy.

I’m not particularly familiar with the history of fantasy, but it does seem that Cook was going against the grain when he produced these novels, writing something new and innovative. This is a bit puzzling considering that the plot of all three of these novels hinges heavily on the existence of, er, an evil sorcerer, but his wider point seems right. Steven Erikson-not part of their stable but part of that cohort-provides a cover quote on this edition of The Chronicles of the Black Company to the effect that Cook 'single-handedly changed the face of fantasy' by moving the genre away from clichés like evil sorcerers. They have established themselves as the new school fantasy imprint of choice. Redick and, most recently, presided over Richard Morgan's switch from science fiction to fantasy. (This omnibus first appeared last year from Tor in the U.S.) In the past few years, Gollancz have published Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, and Robert V. It is no surprise that it is Gollancz who are publishing this omnibus of Glen Cook's first three Black Company novels- The Black Company (1984), Shadows Linger (1984) and The White Rose (1985)-in the U.K.

The black company novel