The Lady is basically that setting’s big villain. On the other hand, the last events narrated in the novel don’t make sense to be written at that particular time, since The Lady could have easily got access to that information and severely punish everyone involved. But two-hundred pages later, he says how One-Eye “had it figured out” while talking about the same subject – the “never” part of the first sentence, then, loses its initial scope, as if Croaker were referring to that particular moment or day alone. Right at the end of the first chapter, for example, Croaker states how his friend One-Eye “never figured it out”, regarding the particulars of a certain death. The book is narrated in the first person by the company’s medic and historian, Croaker.Ĭroaker writes the events in the annals of the Black Company, but the novel doesn’t double down on this point: the book doesn’t have the form of a diary and it never indicates when Croaker wrote those words, which can lead to some confusion. Sometimes, they are ironic (“ Mercy was our nastiest platoon leader”), sometimes, they are just fitting (“ He just grinned. The members of the Black Company all receive nicknames. The betrayal, however, doesn’t improve their situation by much since they immediately get another irksome contract: they must now work for the Lady, a mystical being that threatens to conquer the whole world.
When the story starts, it’s hired to contain riots in the city of Beryl, but soon the situation in the city starts to escalate rapidly and get out of control, leading them to make a complicated decision: if they want to stay alive, they must toss honor into the fire and betray their employer. The Black Company is a private military group. The book manages to make these things part of its identity, but unfortunately fails to develop most of its characters and to make some parts of the story engaging.
The Black Company is a military fantasy novel filled with unlikable characters and strange worldbuilding.
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