Reviews

Jeux d'ombres by Glen Cook

enbyglitch's review against another edition

5.0

Kinda spooked that roughly two thirds of what I remember from after the Books of the North happened in this book already. Interesting reads ahead hopefully!

Could have used a little more detail on the trip south. The couple anecdotes about Company history were great, and would've been good forshadowing to have peoples' reactions to them change as they progress. Also just more insight into the Lady would've been nice on this year and a half of travel.

Taken/Shadowmasters felt a little cheapened by the continued True Name silliness, but cool to see them nonetheless.

jurdek's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

torchofgordon's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

provaprova's review against another edition

3.0

Moved to gwern.net.

zachedwards89's review against another edition

4.0

I usually like for people who die to stay dead, but regardless it was badass. like the development with croaker and lady

disastrouspenguin's review against another edition

3.0

I wanted to like this, but it's more of the same old. Mildly interesting, moderately sexist. Cook is very consistent about this, in his other series as well. I'm calling it quits after this book even though it doesn't quite wrap things up.

comuni's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

mysticwarden's review against another edition

4.0

I guess each of us, at some time, finds one person with whom we are compelled toward absolute honesty, one person whose good opinion of us becomes a substitute for the broader opinion of the world. And that opinion becomes more important than all our sneaky, sleazy schemes of greed, lust, self-aggrandizement, whatever we are up to while lying the world into believing we are just plain nice folks. I was her truth object, and she was mine.

The gang are down to seven members with Croaker at the helm and they're heading south to Khovatar, where the Black Company was formed some 400 years ago. The Lady is tagging along for the adventure and will hopefully become Croaker's lover because, you know, there's nothing weird about a 45-year-old man dating a woman who's literally a 1,000 years old. :)

The long trip south is a pretty fun read. I haven't seen a map of the vast world Cook built, but I did have a fun time visualizing the gang leaving Europe (the north?) and crossing the Mediterranean (the Sea of Torments?) into Africa (the south?), then going south past the equator and into the Congo, and then even further south to finally reach Taglios (which is... India?).

I mean, all the people south of the equator are either black or brown and they've never seen white folks before, which sounds like pre-colonial Africa. Plus, there was that chapter were Cook pretty much described Zulu warriors with short spears and hide bucklers. I doubt I'm the first (I'm probably the billionth, to be honest) person to note the loose parallels between our world and the Black Company's, but I thought this type of epic world building was a great way to move past the events in the first three books.

The Shadowmasters are the new scary danger the gang has to face, but I personally found these mysterious villains to be a tad disappointing because of their almost unforgivable incompetence. I guess great power and tactical intelligence don't go hand in hand? But overall, it's a great story and a lovely continuation of the series. Onward to book 5!

jamesjaspers's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

gyttja's review against another edition

3.0

Tycker inte att boken kom igång eller var speciellt spännande. Det som var bra med boken är att precis som de tidigare böckerna känns världen fortfarande väldigt gammal och mystisk. Ser verkligen fram emot att läsa nästa då det kändes som att den här boken på många sätt byggde upp för nästa bok, kanske lite för mycket.