A review by lanko
Bleak Seasons by Glen Cook
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.