Port of Shadows: A Novel of the Black Company

“The Life Of The Dead Is Placed In The Memory Of The Living”Marcus Tullius CiceroI haven’t read a Black Company novel since 2001 – when the final volume in The Company’s history – “Soldiers Live” – was published. It’s been so long that I’d actually forgotten most of the details of the extended narrative – stretching across 9 books broken out into 3 story arcs (there’s also a spin-off called “The Silver Spike” – a very good book but unconnected to the Company’s history). Before cracking this one open, I had to go back and review the plot summaries from the nine volumes that preceded it – just to get myself grounded again and prepared for what was to come. What I most remembered, though, was how much I enjoyed these books and how very different they were from all the Fantasy I’d previously read. They were my first real taste of anything not built upon the bones of Tolkein and I loved them. They opened up a whole new sub genre for me and a whole new way of thinking about and enjoying Fantasy.I also remembered that while these books were amazing to the end – the very last word of “Soldiers Live” – the experience changed drastically for me with the end of the 1st story arc – The Books Of The North – composed of “The Black Company”, “Shadows Linger” and “The White Rose”. By the end of “The White Rose”, only six out of the original ~800 – 900 Company veterans remained alive. At the beginning of the 2nd story arc – The Books Of The South – composed of “Shadow Games” and “Dreams Of Steel” – The Company had left the Domination and headed off into a new and very different part of the world. Both transitions were challenging but Cook managed to make them work in a pretty amazing way. Still, finishing The Books Of The North and pushing on into The Books Of The South, I never quite got past the feelings of loss caused by the absence of so many old friends: The Captain, The Lieutenant, Candy, Elmo – all the other Company veterans you got so attached to over the course of the first three books. I think I may also have regretted the fact that Croaker, who I’d come to love as the Company Surgeon / Historian, was forced to assume command – no longer allowing him the latitude to be the same simple, curmudgeonly soldier I remembered him to be in the first three books.Prior to reading the book, I was curious as to why Glen Cook chose to come back to The Company – what part of the story he felt he’d left untold. Their history was complete and there weren’t really any hanging chads from the 9 books he’d already written. As you read through the book, however, you realize that Cook wanted to look back to the early years of the Domination and provide a backstory for The Lady. He does this but in a cagey way that doesn’t provide definitive answers – the realization about what he’s doing sneaks up on you – challenging at first but very satisfying by the end of the book.Nor does it sound like he’s finished – this is the first of two final volumes he’s planning to write – the other to be called “A Pitiless Rain” – identified as the true concluding volume of The Company’s history. This story lives inside the 1st story arc – The Books Of The North – and sits chronologically between Book #1 – “The Black Company” and Book #2 – “Shadows Linger”. While there’s no connection to The Books Of The North narrative, it was still so much fun to get back to the early parts of The Company’s history and get caught up with all those characters that I’d enjoyed so much when I first read these books – Cook basically gets The Band back together.I mentioned earlier that the narrative was a bit twisty and I have to admit that it proved to be challenging at first. Cook has you regularly flipping back and forth between the earlier years of the Domination and the era in which the Company is fighting for The Lady against both the remainder of the rebel armies that were shattered in Book #1 and the Resurrectionists fighting to return the Dominator to life. While I may not be remembering clearly, I think this is also the first time Cook has ever spent any real time describing the early years of the Domination. It takes awhile to settle into the story and to start putting pieces together. I think Cook is having fun with his readers, knowing that some probably will find it to be a bit too much work but not caring in the least.I will say that this is not a book for anyone new to The Black Company. While I can see someone attempting it as a standalone read, I’d recommend against it. I don’t know about others but I fell in love with The Company when I read that first book – its people, its culture and its traditions – and you should have taken that fall before you start “Port Of Shadows”. Trying to get to know and appreciate the Company’s world and its culture through a book whose narrative structure is not straightforward and intuitive would likely be a hard slog for many. Short to long – don’t cheat yourself out of the pleasure of the 1st book before jumping into this one.For me, Cook’s Company has always been a family – big, extended, unruly and highly dysfunctional in so many ways – yet at the same time – extremely well led, bound by tradition, loyal to each other and incredibly, competently deadly. I found it interesting that Cook spent most of this book creating two other families and putting them at the center of the story – Croaker’s weird but very likable group consisting of Mischievous Rain (Kitten, Credence Senjak, The Lady), Shin, Baku and Ankou – and the weird but somewhat repulsive false family of the Necromancer (Papa), Bathdek (Kitten, Credence Senjak, The Lady) and Liassa (Dorotea Senjak).I need to think about this more – go back and reread several sections – but I think Cook is trying to give us perspective on The Lady – using her first, very twisted faux family experience with the Necromancer and Liassa to illustrate a youth that leads her to becoming the immensely powerful but measured and emotionally nuanced sorceress capable of defeating the Dominator and re-establishing his Empire without resorting to the same level of brutality and terror. He’s using the second of the two faux families – Croaker, Mischievous Rain, Shin, Baku, Ankow – to show just who The Lady has become over the course of so many years – ruthlessly efficient, terrifyingly capable, absolute in her power yet with soft spots and the ability to care in an all too human way – even if it’s just an indulgence that she knows is fleeting.I have to say – I loved this book – really loved being back with the old Company – before it was decimated in the remaining two Books Of The North – before it headed South to a very foreign and ugly environment. Having said that, it won’t be a book for everyone. I’d recommend this only to those who have already read and fallen for The Company. It’s not going to be satisfying to a new reader or someone who isn’t a committed Company man.

I've been away from the Company for a long time but it was easy to fall into the familiar setting once again. Many of the regular bits are revisited (cheating at Tonk, crazy One-Eye schemes), but there's plenty of new to discover. Cook does a great job with bittersweet (especially in his Garrett stories) and in this story, there's a strong mix of the soldier never really knowing what the powers that be are planning - always going back to his roots of telling a soldier's story.

Port of Shadows is Fake News: This Black Company installment from Glen Cook (chronologically #1.5, but published >#10) will be enjoyed by long-term fans much more than newer folk reading the books in order. I came from reading only the first book and recommend skipping it (I am still intrigued to read Shadows Linger eventually). As part of group read in the Goodread's Sword & Sorcery group, series fans suggest reading the original trilogy first (Chronicles of the Black Company) and reaffirm that the other books are more engaging.1- The Black Company (1984)1.5- Port of Shadows (2018)2- Shadows Linger (1984)3- The White Rose (1985)Some spoilers follow as I explain why Port of Shadows is alluring Fake News:To quote the main narrator Croaker (physician and official historian of the group): "I had no idea what this ferocious campaign was all about. Well, yes, there were Rebels and Resurrectionists in need of butchering out here. Hints from the wife and kids suggested a possible connection to the Port of Shadows business, but … I could not help suspecting that something more was afoot.The most reliable information about the late empire is not reliable at all. It, too, is consensus guesswork woven from untrustworthy fragmentary records and hand-me-down oral histories."Alfred Hitchcock once said, "The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after but the audience don't care"; the titular "Port of Shadows" is not quite a MacGuffin--but it's pretty close: the mysterious "Port" is the focus of the Black Company's quest/conflict, but ample threads/arcs regarding the danger stemming from it are consistently left unexplained or shown to be not dangerous.Ostensible conflict (excerpt): "…if the Lady had spoken truly, Tides Elba was a threat to the whole world. She could become the port through which the hideous shadow known as the Dominator could make his return. No doubt she was sought by and beloved of every Resurrectionist cultist hoping to raise the old evil from his grave. No doubt she was the prophesied messiah of darkness."We are told (not shown) that the Port is an exposed pathway for the evil Dominator to be resurrected--yet as a reader I was never engaged. For one, the Dominator's evilness is not demonstrated, nor do the flashbacks really feature him or his behavior; secondly, the "Port" and all its possible incarnations are not really dangerous (we are told, not shown, many times that the possible Ports are causing mayhem, but the Black Company and our narrator Croaker never seem to be in any danger); and lastly, any such resurrection (i.e., use of the Port) never seems close. Nothing ever seems to be at stake.A lack luster tale told in a confusing fashion: The tale is told via a weave of historic (long time ago) and present-day chapters. The initial 1/3rd is great, but the mysterious "Just follow my command and do a mysterious task without explanation" [given by the Lady or the Black Co Captain to Croaker] starts to fall flat thereafter. Suspicious activity from the magician One-Eye and the Taken Limper introduced in the beginning are ultimately just snippets for old time fans to relish. Although entertaining, any tension from having untrustworthy companions is not capitalized on.Fake News: We learn lots of what is going via journalistic accounts (not direct witnessing) as characters touch base with Croaker. This makes sense since he is the Annalist, but also keeps the reader distant. The alternating shifts in time also change point of view (first person with Croaker and third person). Within one yarn, there is time travel (forward and back) in which people are transported via time.Everyone is unreliable, either because they are mischievous, possessed/"not acting like themselves," are clones, impostors, twins, or alternative incarnations of themselves (Mischievous rain had at least three version of herself; Laissa at least two, Ankou shapeshifts, etc.). The confusion does not seem to be unfurled intentionally (i.e., in a Phillip Dick story). Instead we are given a huge swath of characters, all unreliable, most only appearing for a short time, most with multiple instances of themselves… and none of them know what is going on (see below excerpts).I am assuming that the following stories in the series follow through and make this feel more complete, but as a standalone novel, and even as a sequel, it feels incomplete.Excerpts (a.k.a., Fake News headlines):The most reliable information about the late empire is not reliable at all. It, too, is consensus guesswork woven from untrustworthy fragmentary records and hand-me-down oral histories.We’re into something unlike anything we’ve ever seen. We don’t know what it is. That’s why we keep talking and talking. I can’t even express it. It’s something that we can’t handle the way we usually do. We can’t trick it. We can’t crush it by being the nastiest killers on the field. It’s all inside. Insidious.Nobody knows what’s going on. Anything that we think we know is almost certainly not…"…You don’t know anything more than I do. And now I’m beginning to think that maybe even the Taken is without a clue.” Our mistress was known for playing lives-long games that only she could fathom.The Captain deployed his ingenuous smile, neither denying nor confirming, just suggesting that he knew something that would remain a mystery to everyone else.Nothing was what it looked like. Nothing stayed the same. Nothing went the way that it should.Somebody keeps making us forget stuffI had no idea what this ferocious campaign was all about. Well, yes, there were Rebels and Resurrectionists in need of butchering out here. Hints from the wife and kids suggested a possible connection to the Port of Shadows business, but … I could not help suspecting that something more was afoot.From the Old Man down to the Third and local kid Gurdlief Speak, folks keep asking me for news they need to make sense of a time that no surviving memories make sensible.the Black Company must have been smacked with a widespread, savage, and utterly, angrily deliberate memory assault.None of the Senjak sisters were described accurately. None of them were identified by their correct names.The most reliable information about the late empire is not reliable at all. It, too, is consensus guesswork woven from untrustworthy fragmentary records and hand-me-down oral histories.

I bought the hardback, which should just about tell you in itself how much I wanted to read another Black Company tale, and I've not been disappointed, although I confess to being completely bias in my praise.I can't say any fantasy lover should read the Black Company books because they're a bit dark, and the characters are probably not as well defined as those in GoT, but if you think you'll like your fantasy with a Vietnam war feel to it, then I'd highly recommend.

I love the Black Company, but this was a very tepid offering, with a mediocre ending. If you’re a fan it’s an ok read of new material and nice to see Croaker and the gang. However they need to be in it more and the ending was a tad pointless. For twenty notes I’m left underwhelmed and unimpressed.

Great to be back in Croaker’s company; you won’t be disappointed. Mystery builds across two different time periods as the Company find themselves in a remote outpost of The Lady’s empire, surrounded by a deep & dark Lovecraftian forest.

Can this man write a bad book? To date the answer must be no! Certainly this novel, on the face of it, lacks the impetus of the previous Black Company books. However, this ignores the multi layered plot, which seems much like a great jazz solo. I urge you, read this, open your mind and hone your imagination and you will find a worthy addition to your Company annals. Highly recommended.

I very much enjoy Glen Cook's Black Company series, but this new entry is not one of the best.Like the excellent The White Rose it employs a dual narrative device, with some chapters telling of the ancient past, in this case the Domination era, and the others giving us a present day narrative by Croaker that tells of events between The Black Company and Shadow's Linger.The past narrative is for the most part interesting, sometimes creepy, but runs out of steam in its last three or so chapters. The Croaker narrative has flashes of interest but suffers terribly from it being a "mystery" type story whose overarching theme is that Company are mushroom people (kept in the dark and fed crap) by their wizard masters. As a result, Croaker and the rest of the company have almost zero agency throughout the story, little idea what is going on, and get to make almost no meaningful decisions.The book also gets less detailed and more perfunctory as the story approaches its climax. Perhaps the author was getting tired of it or was hitting a word count limit. This may be an artifact of the narrative having been originally developed from a couple of shorter stories. The final chapters, though, loose a lot of impact, which is a shame.Aside from Croaker, a few new Taken and their associates are somewhat interesting, though none have the crazy edge that the original Taken like Soulcatcher or Limper had. The Company wizards such as One Eye and Goblin spend so much time being mind controlled, brain fogged or off screen that they have none of their old charm; perhaps Cook is simply tired of writing them. No other company members really stand out, and the present day narrative also has few of the desperate everyman characters that made Silver Spike, White Rose, or Shadow's Linger stand out.(It's also a bit odd that one character and their children or familiars have a Japanese-derived name, a choice that makes very little sense when you read to the end of the book and get an inkling of their actual origin.)Good points? In a few places the "old Croaker" voice does shine through, and the past sequences, while they have some continuity problems with earlier Black Company books, contain some interesting storytelling. There's also a few interesting details added to the Company - for instance, the first indication that, at least in the immediate period after the Battle of Charm, that the Company had a small number of women serving as regular soldiers in it.I don't regret buying it, as the past story line, while problematic in several ways, was fun, and a few details are interesting, but an awful lot of the book is Croaker doing very little, being very confused, and complaining about it, and that does not make a good read.