The Many Threads of [The Black Company]; As Seen on TV!

CaptainNemo

What the shit is the Black Company?

You know that dark fantasy series you like? A Song of Ice and Fire? The Malazan Books of the Fallen? That kinda deally jam?

Yeppers!

This is the weird, scarred, crippled uncle of those kinds of stories, one who smells weird and talks funny but has a ton of stories. And lies. It's the darkest of dark fantasies about a mercenary unit in the employ of the darkest power in the world, an ancient and powerful sorceress called the Lady. The Company has, well, a very high turnover rate. There's a reason why the last collection is called The Many Deaths of the Black Company. Also, wizards are incredibly, stupidly, ridiculously hard to kill in it. And that's awesome.

The main character, or at least the one who narrates the most is the Company's surgeon, named Croaker. Croaker is pretty neat, given that he's a pretty alright swordsman but a pretty good doctor. He's the Company's Annalist, a record keeper who writes the history of the Company as it does what it does. This is a super important job and the framing device of the entire series.

Sounds hip! What are the books? What order do I read them in? Gimme the goods!

Slow down there, sport. Here's a list yanked from good ol' Jimmy Whales website:

The Books of the North
The Black Company—May 1984
Shadows Linger —October 1984
The White Rose—April 1985

The Books of the South
Shadow Games —June 1989
Dreams of Steel—April 1990

The Books of the Glittering Stone
Bleak Seasons —April 1996
She Is the Darkness —September 1997
Water Sleeps —March 1999
Soldiers Live —July 2000

Spin-offs
The Silver Spike—September 1989

To sum up this OP, this is rapidly tieing the Dark Tower as my favorite fantasy series every written, and given Malazan has it's own thread, I thought, what the hell? I do ask that y'all be considerate about slinging spoilers.

davidsdurions

I don't have time for another entertaining series of books.

When does the HBO series start, eh?

CaptainNemo

I have no idea how HBO would put enough nudity in to satisfy their nudity quota. Going by how the Company looks, it's better off not thought about.

davidsdurions

Okay, how about a FX series then?

abotkin

I remember reading the first book, or maybe the first trilogy, way back in high school, ages ago. If I remember right, I enjoyed it/them a fair amount. How does the quality fare as the series goes on? I know a lot of series that started back in the 70s/80s where the quality really falls off, but there are a few standouts that can maintain a high level.

Elvenshae

Man, I love this series. I really need to go back and reread the early ones and then get the rest.

As soon as I finish my Vlad Taltos & Khaaveren reread.

Nobody

IIRC the books shift tone quite a bit once you get into the books of the south, as in, they almost feel like a different series (even the books narrated by Croaker).

Also, wizards are incredibly, stupidly, ridiculously hard to kill in it. And that's awesome.

The funny part is how much this is an understatement.

Lord_Asmodeus

I remember one of the main antagonists of the first series, The Books of the North, is just a huge asshole and I love the hell out of him. He's just such an ornery, stubborn, angry dick the whole time and everyone just fucks with him, and I love the hell out of that guy. You know who I mean.

I need to finish reading the last book (last two books maybe) so I don't know how it all ends. I kind of don't want to. The point I left off at is one where it seems like it can't get much better but it can still get worse and I'm so scared you guys!

And yes I want to watch a series based on this. Seeing them make all the different wizards into characters would be amazing.

Nobody

Lord_Asmodeus wrote: »

I remember one of the main antagonists of the first series, The Books of the North, is just a huge asshole and I love the hell out of him. He's just such an ornery, stubborn, angry dick the whole time and everyone just fucks with him, and I love the hell out of that guy. You know who I mean.

I need to finish reading the last book (last two books maybe) so I don't know how it all ends. I kind of don't want to. The point I left off at is one where it seems like it can't get much better but it can still get worse and I'm so scared you guys!

And yes I want to watch a series based on this. Seeing them make all the different wizards into characters would be amazing.

And then the Silver Spike happened...

The ending works for the series. I can't really go further into it without major spoilers.

Grislo

It kind of would work pretty well as a TV series/movie, or at least some of the books would.

'Band of Brothers' meets 'oh shit oh shit oh shit it's a wizard' ?.

spacekungfuman

I loved these books. As a bonus, they HEAVILY inspired the Myth games.

There is a major tonal shift after the first trilogy, but it stays excellent.

CaptainNemo

I'm reading through Bleak Seasons now, and I'm not sure if it's so much a shift in tone as it is in content, if that makes any sense. Like the tone is just as dark and bleak as ever, there's just a really different bunch of stuff to be bleak about.

Grislo

Yeah, it's obvious when you read Cook's Garrett books that he really enjoys shifting tone and style, and trying new genres.

Jragghen

The Silver Spike is also included in The Books of the South, by the by, in your book lineup.

Anyway, they were a very fun read. Don't know how much there is to explicitly talk about them, but good all around.

Man, it's been a while since I finished - I seem to recall there being an unresolved plotline I was curious about, but for the life of me I can't remember what.

e: Also, I'd remove the annalists for the novels from the list, since that's kinda spoilers.

CaptainNemo

Eh, only in the broadest sense.

Jragghen

I meant more in a "certain characters survive to those books" sense.

CaptainNemo

That's fair. I'll edit it out.

spacekungfuman

The black company would make a fantastic setting for a game like the Banner Saga.

Vanguard

I did not care for the book I read but will check it out nonetheless.

CaptainNemo

spacekungfuman wrote: »

The black company would make a fantastic setting for a game like the Banner Saga.

Or even an XCOM type game. Lots of strategy, and narration from the current Annalist as you play ala Bastion.

spacekungfuman

CaptainNemo wrote: »

spacekungfuman wrote: »

The black company would make a fantastic setting for a game like the Banner Saga.

Or even an XCOM type game. Lots of strategy, and narration from the current Annalist as you play ala Bastion.

I mean, it already made a fantastic setting for Myth. . .

CaptainNemo

https://www.themarysue.com/eliza-dushku-black-company-adaptation/

Huh.

Okay. Eliza Dushku is producing this and playing the Lady.

This came the fuck out of nowhere, honestly.

Kristmas Kthulhu

I'd heard this book series mentioned a few times over the years by people on this forum, so I bought the first book and finished it a few weeks ago. It was really cool! I loved how there were so many characters that didn't have their backstories dumped in your lap, and instead you could infer a lot from Croaker's descriptions of them and their nickname.

I think Dushku might be a bit old considering how The Lady is described, but she'll probably be awesome.

My biggest worry about this series is David Goyer being attached as a writer.

Jragghen

It's looking like Dushku's company may have actually optioned the books, so her being involved heavily and pushing this thing would imply she's a fan of the books, and that's pretty damn neat.

Guessing any adaptation is going to be pretty different from the novels, though, as they won't be told via the perspective of a single annalist.

Later books spoiler:

Also, they can have her play Soulcatcher, albeit cloaked and masked, because they're sisters

Also I had no idea new books were getting published in this series. Huh.

davidsdurions

I did not expect this thread to be resurrected!!!! Just look at what I was asking for:

davidsdurions wrote: »

I don't have time for another entertaining series of books.

When does the HBO series start, eh?

Awesome!!!!

CaptainNemo

I don't know enough about Eliza Dushku to make a judgment. I'm just happy to see this IP getting made. I'll be interested to see how they do some of the more out there magic stuff. The Taken alone will be worth the price of admission.

Handgimp

I should re-read the Black Company books, I just did a Garrett PI re-read a while back.

Harry Dresden

CaptainNemo wrote: »

I don't know enough about Eliza Dushku to make a judgment. I'm just happy to see this IP getting made. I'll be interested to see how they do some of the more out there magic stuff. The Taken alone will be worth the price of admission.

She's an ok actress, but this type of IP seems to be a bit above what she's capable of doing. There's a reason among the Dollhouse cast she was the one who was the weakest there. Eva Green would be a better fit for The Lady.

That said, it depends on what type of show they're making this like. Are they going to go full Game of Thrones, or Legend of the Seeker? The latter will make her stand out less.

M-Vickers

I've just bought the first trilogy, thanks to this thread.

Amazon have part of the first book as a free download, if anyone hasn't read them.

Good stuff - I'm in the mood for some morally ambiguous fantasy drama.