truthlessofcanada's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Hindsight: Shadows Linger goes up, this goes down. In hindsight I just don't like the annalist in this as much. Reading the last 2 made me realize this
Well this was different. I can see why this has a lower rating. This was a somewhat difficult book to get into, but I very much enjoyed that.
It was actually probably my favorite start to a Black Company book. Although I thought the weird structure didn't work as well for the second half, so it ends middle of the pack for the series.
Which means I enjoyed it thoroughly
7.5/10
Well this was different. I can see why this has a lower rating. This was a somewhat difficult book to get into, but I very much enjoyed that.
It was actually probably my favorite start to a Black Company book. Although I thought the weird structure didn't work as well for the second half, so it ends middle of the pack for the series.
Which means I enjoyed it thoroughly
7.5/10
mordekai_david's review
3.0
Book of Murgen
Still enjoying the series but wasn't a fan of Murgen's writing and the disjointed perspective. I understand why...doesn't mean I have to like it.
Still enjoying the series but wasn't a fan of Murgen's writing and the disjointed perspective. I understand why...doesn't mean I have to like it.
lanko's review
2.0
The immediate comparison I had with this was with Feast of Crows and The Dance of Dragons. That's because this book's story runs parallel to the previous, Dreams of Steel (a magnificent book).
In ASOIAF, those two books were originally one that got split in two, with Feast leaving out most of our favorite characters and returning them in Dance.
With Glen Cook this happened in opposite. Dreams of Steel had our favorite characters doing amazing stuff and now in Bleak Seasons we have a POV from a new character who barely just joined the group, but instead of Dance and new stories from new characters, the bulk of this book is telling the same story from a different location.
Which is why this didn't quite excite me.
To summarize without spoilers: In book 5 we had a big battle. The Black Company is surrounded in a city. Character A is given for dead and B is missing, also given for dead. But they are both alive. A is held captive. B raises another army. A villain is killed. A and B find out the other is alive and well. The guy leading the Company in the besieged city is doing atrocities. A and B come back and save the Company.
In book 6... we have the same story, just told from the POV of a guy inside that besieged city. But there are no surprises. This character thinks A and B are dead and agonizes over them, but we already know they are alive and what's gonna happen. They keep a lot of time fighting the villain and thinking how he's going to wipe them out, but we already know how it ends. The guy currently in charge does atrocities in the city to survive the city. We are kept in suspense to what this could be, but from the previous book we already know what it was and how it ended. A and B come back.
Book 6 would be much better if the POV was in-between the other events in book 5, but then book 5 would have been 700 pages and the series has a pattern of short books. So it had to be split.
Murgen, the new narrator, does have a good voice. He meets a love interest, passes through some tough situations and is clearly with PTSD along magical epileptic episodes.
The book then have time jumps from the situations of the past book (that are the majority of the story) and then randomly pops back at present day (actually three years after the main events of book 5) and all these three years are barely mentioned and feels like a long time for the unexplainable reactions of some characters.
The writing is also pretty good and has some beautiful moments.
But basically this volume is a retelling of the previous from a different POV but with all suspense gone and plot twists already known coupled with very little new things to present.
Not to mention the better and most important characters are sidelined. Pretty much this is the Feast of Crows of the Black Company series.
In ASOIAF, those two books were originally one that got split in two, with Feast leaving out most of our favorite characters and returning them in Dance.
With Glen Cook this happened in opposite. Dreams of Steel had our favorite characters doing amazing stuff and now in Bleak Seasons we have a POV from a new character who barely just joined the group, but instead of Dance and new stories from new characters, the bulk of this book is telling the same story from a different location.
Which is why this didn't quite excite me.
To summarize without spoilers: In book 5 we had a big battle. The Black Company is surrounded in a city. Character A is given for dead and B is missing, also given for dead. But they are both alive. A is held captive. B raises another army. A villain is killed. A and B find out the other is alive and well. The guy leading the Company in the besieged city is doing atrocities. A and B come back and save the Company.
In book 6... we have the same story, just told from the POV of a guy inside that besieged city. But there are no surprises. This character thinks A and B are dead and agonizes over them, but we already know they are alive and what's gonna happen. They keep a lot of time fighting the villain and thinking how he's going to wipe them out, but we already know how it ends. The guy currently in charge does atrocities in the city to survive the city. We are kept in suspense to what this could be, but from the previous book we already know what it was and how it ended. A and B come back.
Book 6 would be much better if the POV was in-between the other events in book 5, but then book 5 would have been 700 pages and the series has a pattern of short books. So it had to be split.
Murgen, the new narrator, does have a good voice. He meets a love interest, passes through some tough situations and is clearly with PTSD along magical epileptic episodes.
The book then have time jumps from the situations of the past book (that are the majority of the story) and then randomly pops back at present day (actually three years after the main events of book 5) and all these three years are barely mentioned and feels like a long time for the unexplainable reactions of some characters.
The writing is also pretty good and has some beautiful moments.
But basically this volume is a retelling of the previous from a different POV but with all suspense gone and plot twists already known coupled with very little new things to present.
Not to mention the better and most important characters are sidelined. Pretty much this is the Feast of Crows of the Black Company series.
zoey222's review against another edition
2.0
Heard a lot about the Black Company. Apparently its super popular. Saw this was "The Return" of their crew, and the start of a new Trilogy starring them, so I gave it a shot since I couldnt get ahold of the first book.
This was mediocre at best, but the more I think about it, the less I realize I enjoyed it. There are almost no characters in this book. The Black Company is just an amalgamation of various adjectives and crass jokes. They are smelly, drink lots of beer, and make poop jokes. At the same time that all of this is going on, they are "suffering through horrible conditions." But we never actually get a real taste of the horrific experiences involved with surviving a siege in this gothic, metal-esque world. Its just "They starved, and it was miserable. Anyway--"
The characterizations, especially the women, suck.
And there were dozens of spelling errors, double-words, such as "then then this happened," and an entire page got printed twice instead of the next page, so you are missing one entire page of story right in the middle.
All the awesome moments that we build up to through the plot happen off screen, and as such there was really no actual resolution. I guess the siege ended, so thats the end of the book. Time to set up for the sequel.
Glen Cook's style has some promise--at times he reminded me of a gross-out grimdark version of Pratchett, which was very enjoyable--but the bad far outweighs the good, and I wont be reading anymore Black Company. I am SO surprised at how much praise this series gets.
This was mediocre at best, but the more I think about it, the less I realize I enjoyed it. There are almost no characters in this book. The Black Company is just an amalgamation of various adjectives and crass jokes. They are smelly, drink lots of beer, and make poop jokes. At the same time that all of this is going on, they are "suffering through horrible conditions." But we never actually get a real taste of the horrific experiences involved with surviving a siege in this gothic, metal-esque world. Its just "They starved, and it was miserable. Anyway--"
The characterizations, especially the women, suck.
And there were dozens of spelling errors, double-words, such as "then then this happened," and an entire page got printed twice instead of the next page, so you are missing one entire page of story right in the middle.
All the awesome moments that we build up to through the plot happen off screen, and as such there was really no actual resolution. I guess the siege ended, so thats the end of the book. Time to set up for the sequel.
Glen Cook's style has some promise--at times he reminded me of a gross-out grimdark version of Pratchett, which was very enjoyable--but the bad far outweighs the good, and I wont be reading anymore Black Company. I am SO surprised at how much praise this series gets.
voeggroll's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
There's a lot of timeskips in this one that don't make much sense until you're too far to quit. After reading 4 BC books from Croaker's perspective, Murgen is an interesting change of pace. He's not Croaker, but that's not a bad thing. It's a neat trick Glen pulls of showing us the same world and characters from another's perspective.
vaderbird's review against another edition
3.0
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
chaotic_cowboy's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyed this book, but experienced a lot of typos and improper spell corrections at the end. At least I think that is what happened. Suddenly a character's name was spelled 2 different ways or the author was referring to two different people. Kind of confusing.
Sahra and Sarie? Anyone?
Sahra and Sarie? Anyone?
kylelorey's review
4.0
SO, this book was very impressive on a technical level – it tried out some playing around with time and such on the level of form, and it was very well-executed, not gimmicky at all – but i still had very little patience for it, because i wanted to get to the next part of the plot. this book felt transitional, like not much forward ground was gained, but instead threads were wrapped up from prior movements in readying for the next stage of the series. as such, the the level of technical precision in its writing – however impressive – was somewhat wasted, in my view, on an entry that is subordinated in importance to the novels that precede it (and, i suspect, to those that follow).
in any case, it was quite good, hence the rating. but i enjoyed it less than most of the others. my enjoyment was probably only a 3 star situation, but out of respect for the prowess evinced in its writing i’ve bumped it up to 4 stars.
oh also it had some meta-commentary on previous entries in the series, which was pretty dope.
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Guide to my Rating Scale, based on the Storygraph Rating:
* 5 Stars: This book was more or less flawless. One of the best things I’ve ever read.
* 4.75 through 4.25 Stars: This book had slight flaws, but I REALLY loved it. Marked as 4 stars on Goodreads.
* 4 Stars: This book had slight flaws, but I loved it.
* 3.75 through 3.25 Stars: This book had significant flaws, but I REALLY liked it. Marked as 3 stars on Goodreads.
* 3 Stars: This book had significant flaws, but I liked it just fine.
* 2.75 through 2.25 Stars: This book was extremely flawed, but I thought it had some merit. Marked as 2 stars on Goodreads.
* 2 Stars: This book was extremely flawed, but I didn’t actively dislike it. It was a waste of my time but not odious.
* 1.75 through 1.25 Stars: This book was irreparably flawed, and I actively disliked it. Marked as 1 star on Goodreads.
* 1 Star: This book was irreparably flawed. I actively hated this book and am worse off for having read it.
————————————————————————-
in any case, it was quite good, hence the rating. but i enjoyed it less than most of the others. my enjoyment was probably only a 3 star situation, but out of respect for the prowess evinced in its writing i’ve bumped it up to 4 stars.
oh also it had some meta-commentary on previous entries in the series, which was pretty dope.
———————————————————————————
Guide to my Rating Scale, based on the Storygraph Rating:
* 5 Stars: This book was more or less flawless. One of the best things I’ve ever read.
* 4.75 through 4.25 Stars: This book had slight flaws, but I REALLY loved it. Marked as 4 stars on Goodreads.
* 4 Stars: This book had slight flaws, but I loved it.
* 3.75 through 3.25 Stars: This book had significant flaws, but I REALLY liked it. Marked as 3 stars on Goodreads.
* 3 Stars: This book had significant flaws, but I liked it just fine.
* 2.75 through 2.25 Stars: This book was extremely flawed, but I thought it had some merit. Marked as 2 stars on Goodreads.
* 2 Stars: This book was extremely flawed, but I didn’t actively dislike it. It was a waste of my time but not odious.
* 1.75 through 1.25 Stars: This book was irreparably flawed, and I actively disliked it. Marked as 1 star on Goodreads.
* 1 Star: This book was irreparably flawed. I actively hated this book and am worse off for having read it.
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