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The chronicles of a mercenary company in a fantastical world ravaged by wizard wars…
Most of the story is told by the company’s annalist, or occasionally by other characters, in the form of a journal. As a result, there’s practically no description of the protagonists. For example, in volumes 2 or 3, we learn the captain’s age, and that’s about all we’ll find out about him. It’s quite disorienting.
Yet, I’m completely hooked on this series, but I can’t explain why. Objectively, not much happens. There are few dialogues, the battles are briefly recounted and after the fact, since it’s a logbook.
The narrator still shares his moments of doubt with us, using a cynical, disillusioned tone. The style is fairly concise and laced with dark humour.
While the story is original, the characters themselves are human. They’re clearly eaten up with doubt, tired, dirty, and mean. Each of them could be killed at any moment. You also wonder if the author knows where he’s taking us. Several times, I got the impression that he was writing with a pair of dice, given some of the rather abrupt developments. I’m especially thinking of a certain badass wizard who we see (hear!) intervene sporadically throughout the series, patiently awaiting his moment of glory, only for the author to have him scandalously dispatched in half a line at the end of the final volume…
Bastard!
Note that in the original version (in English), it’s tough to read (for a non-native English speaker), and the usual rule for the genre applies: the quality drops as the books go on (I find, starting from the fourth and with the change of narrator).
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The Black Company
La Compagnie Noire