Book Review: The Return of the Black Company by Glen Cook (The Black Company omnibus #3)

“She is the darkness”

- Glen Cook, She is the Darkness

Many fantasy series suffer from “middle book syndrome”, especially the long ones. This is where the quality of the middle book(s) in a series starts to roll downhill. In most cases, the latter volume(s) usually recover some, if not most of what made the series great. It seems The Black Company series is not immune to middle book syndrome either. The third omnibus collection is titled “The Return of the Black Company”, and it collects book 7 and 8, their titles are Bleak Seasons and She is the Darkness. In my opinion, these 2 books are weaker than the previous installments in this series. Today, I will review this omnibus collection.

Synopsis:

With its devout followers, the secret cult of Kina lurks in sinister shadows. It's living legend, Narayan Singh, stole Croaker and Lady's infant daughter at her birth. Singh believed the baby girl would fulfill an ancient prophecy, which foretold the awakening of the evil goddess, Kina, from her sleep.

Croaker and Lady pursued Narayan Singh, wishing to exact revenge upon the man who stole their child away from them. Meanwhile, Croaker continued the quest of leading the Black Company back to its place of birth, the city of Khatovar. To do so, they would need to cross lands occupied by Longshadow, the last surviving Shadowmaster who controlled a large army, Longshadow harbored no love for the men of Black Company.

As the men in the Black Company entangled in a titanic clash against Longshadow's forces, the evil goddess Kina, stirred in her slumber, plotting her coming return to the mortal world with facades of cunning and deceits.

What I think about this book:

I have mentioned earlier, The Return of the Black Company, is an omnibus that collects 2 books, Bleak Seasons and She is the Darkness. In my opinion, I found the books collected in this omnibus to be weaker than previous books in this series.

In these 2 books, the narrator of the story (POV) switched to Murgen, the standbearer for the Black Company. Early in the story of Bleak Seasons, Murgen acquired a special ability where his soul could travel outside of his body while he slept. He called it “ghostwalking”. The story does not explain when, or how Murgen came to possess this ability. It remained to be a mystery throughout the story. This means the author intended to cloth the story in Bleak Seasons in a shroud of mystery. Unfortunately, instead of finding suspense in this method of storytelling, I found Murgen's narrations are disjointed, and I was submerged in mists of confusion as the story unfolded. This is because the scenery constantly changed from place to place in very disruptive manners whenever Murgen “ghostwalk”. This style of storytelling also impaired the pace of the story, making Bleak Seasons a very slow book to read.

However, things got better in She is the Darkness. This book recovered some of the best features in the Black Company series; the interesting political/military tensions, antagonists with complicated motives, plot twists, and depictions of morality floating in shades of gray. While Murgen is still the narrator (POV) here, but the storytelling is not as disjointed as in Bleak Seasons. The pace of the story cruised with more fluidity compared to its predessor. She is the Darkness also ended with a cliff hanger, an ending which arrived in an utterly unexpected way. I closed the book with an eagerness, a urge to find out how the story will unfold in the upcoming book.

In summary, I did not enjoy the books collected in this omnibus as much as the previous ones. Mainly because I found the storytelling in this omnibus too disjointed, making this book cumbersome to read. The disjointed manner of storytelling gradually improved in She is the Darkness, but the improvement was delivered too late to save the day. I think The Return of the Black Company is the weakest omnibus in this series, and I certainly hope this series is just suffering from the typical middle book syndrome, where the next volume will regain everything that made this series great. From this point, with high hopes, I will venture forth to read the next omnibus, it is titled “The Many Deaths of the Black Company”. Until the next time, happy reading!