When I was writing about the Michael Moorcock books that I like I kept trying to remember other fantasy novels that I really loved... I remembered the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories from Fritz Leiber - but they were just not quite 'classics' for me, I have never made it very far into the The Two Towers without loosing interest (either as a teenager or an adult - just not what I love) - but then I remembered Glen Cook's Black Company series! The Black Company follows the adventures of a mercenary unit made up of interesting and questionable characters thru adventures and battles filled with magic and deceit. I think the hook with these books is the continual backstabbing and morally ambiguous situations - somehow they make the stories more interesting and familiar... Besides, how can you go wrong with a series that includes characters named Soulcatcher, The Limper, The Howler, The Hanged Man, Moonbiter and The Faceless Man (among many others...)! I enjoyed the first three books in the series - The Books of the North - the most, and if you like those it is certainly worth continuing with the later novels.

Rating: 4 of 5 First Read Date: Late 1980s

CM