The Lady has no compunction about using her many resources to exert total control over her empire. Take, for instance, The Lady, the central force of the evil empire in the north. For the 1980s, however this was revolutionary. And it allows for the author to explore a more complicated morality that has become commonplace in modern-day dark fantasy.

This focus on power subverts a major trope among fantasy authors, many of whom remained wedded to overarching battles between light and darkness. There is only power: those who have it versus those who do not. And it is this violence that convinces Croaker, the Black Company's physician and Annalist, that there is no good or evil in the world. Instead, it is the violence of Homer or the Eddas, where the deaths, the struggles, the burnings, beheadings, and overwhelming brutality are lenses through which the author explores the issues of morality, virtue, and duty in human nature. But this violence is no mere splatterporn. The world, granted, is extraordinarily violent, with much of the northern continent embroiled in a violent uprising pitting the forces of 'good' (epitomized by the League of the White Rose) against the forces of 'evil.' But the reader soon learns that most who support the League of the White Rose are no less prone to violence, murder, and sacrifice in the name of their broader cause. But there is no hint of grimdark for shock value it is grimdark done right in every respect. The Black Company is gritty fantasy at its grittiest. * - I'm talking about you, David Wingrove: you should be in prison, along with Jack Chalker's corpse and some of the contributors to the Wild Cards series.Was I ever wrong. And if my memory serves me, the Black Company books did break new ground in fantasy, extending the 'dark' trend previously exemplified in Michael Moorcock's Elric books. Yes, there is some darkness, but this series would be a good addition to the library of any fantasy fan from mid-teen to adult.

While not necessarily a deathless classic of the genre, the books are very well written, well-paced, and exciting.

But it is much less horrible than I remembered, in retrospect. How times have changed compared to some of the torture-porn that's being put out under the fantasy and science fiction labels, the Black Company seems almost as tame a Curious George.* And back then (so long ago!) they seemed terribly dark - almost unbearably so.

Although the series was continued, the first three books are an effectively self-contained trilogy. This is the collected first three books of Glen Cook's 'Black Company' series, chronicling the adventures of a famous mercenary company in grim world threatened by all sorts of darkness.

The black company novel