A Book Review: Port of Shadows by Glen Cook

It is said fantasy stories have this trope:

• An evil overlord who is scheming to unleash chaos upon the world
• The fulfillment of a prophecy, which foretells a hero, a descendant from a special bloodline and therefore wielding a special power, will rise up and defeat the evil overlord and restore order.

It's almost as if:

1. It is almost as if all struggles must be good vs evil and order vs chaos instead of a genuine conflict of interests
2. It is almost as if the overlord can only be defeated by the "chosen one" instead of a well coordinated military attack or stratagem, executed by a unison of multiple parties.
3. It is almost as if the normal, average people cannot help themselves and must wait for a savior from a special bloodline to be born and save them by fulfilling the prophecy.

This is a trope called, "The chosen one", and it is deeply rooted in the western mythologies and legends, which in turn tracing its origins to the stories from the ancient near east. While I find this trope interesting but I am not overly fond of it. I mean, if stories are meant to tell us something about ourselves and therefore instill social values, then I think the "chosen one" trope is sending us the wrong message and it can be quite harmful! How? Because it creates tribalism and then encouraging a culture of personality cults in the society!

This is why, even though I like fantasy, but I do not like the sort of stories similar to Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. In fact, if every fantasy books has a chosen one hero then I would have hated the genre. Fortunately in the last 20 years, fantasy authors are beginning to subvert the chosen one trope while favoring realistic depictions for the nature of mankind and our conflicts. The grimdark movement, in particular, is the most prominent leader in this shift of narrative paradigm.

How did the grimdark genre come into being? The birth of grimdark is sometimes attributed to Glen Cook and The Black Company series. The first book in the series, The Black Company, was released in 1976, and it was the first fantasy story that truly blurred the line between "the good guys" and the "bad guys". The tales of The Black Company followed a band of mercenary, who was employed by the "good guy" to prevent the "bad guy" from being resurrected. The story was narrated by the company's historian, Croaker, who was trying his best to be objective in the company chronicles. However later on the company realized the nature of their employment was not so much about saving the world but rather to help their employer gaining the upper hand in a struggle for power and dominance. The Black Company is told from the perspectives of the "grunts" and it subverted the chosen one trope in every way; there is no prophecy, no chosen one, and there was no evil overlord, but only ambitious warlords who outdid each other with their appetites for power and control. Heck, in the end the so called overlord was even defeated by a company of mercenary soldiers fighting in a well coordinated military attack!

The Black Company was a success and Glen Cook went on to write 8 sequels, and the series became a major influence and source of inspiration in the fantasy genre today. The final book in the series, Soldiers Live, concluded the story with a harrowing line, "soldiers live. And wonder why". In my opinion it is one of the best finishing line in a fantasy series, it leaves the reader pondering and reflecting at the story they just read. Although the 9 book series completed the history of The Black Company, but there is a 4 year gap in the company history between book 1 and book 2, and it had some fans asking questions about it. 20 years later, Glen Cook finally released the much anticipated "midquel" to address that gap. The book is called Port of Shadows, and this is book 1.5 in the series.

The opening chapter in Port of Shadows reunited readers with the series' beloved characters, such as Croaker, One-Eyed, and Goblin. The company was employed by The Lady and they were garrisoned in a small town, in preparation for their employer's campaign in the north. Their order was changed when The Lady charged the company with a new mission to track down and capture an individual called Tides Elba, rumored to be one of The Takens. But the hunt for The Lady's enemy devolved into the strangest chapter in the company's chronicle, when a mysterious woman known as Mischievous Rain, tread into town.

Port of Shadows is not the best in the series, but it is also not the worst. The story is decent but there are some glaring problems with its structures. The book is divided into 3 narrative arcs; two of them explored the history of the Senjak sisters, and one following the company's footstep in the present. The narratives about the past is interesting because we finally have a glimpse into the Senjak family, but it did not transition well into the narratives in the present, and as a result the book felt very choppy and confusing.

Admittedly I had no idea what was going on in the first third of the book. However, about 120 pages into the book Mischievous Rain appeared in the story, and the book suddenly became very interesting and the pace quickened and it was beating at a fast tempo. I can't talk about the story too much without intruding the spoiler territory, so instead let me just say the book's intrigue is figuring out the true identity for one of the central characters as well as the real history about the Senjak sisters. While I would like to believe that I have worked it all out, but the ending left a lot of rooms for ambiguity and further discussions. It suffices to say in this book Glen Cook was playing with the theme of an "unreliable narrator" (i.e. When there are multiple accounts for an event but they contradict each other in some details, then how do you tell which account is more reliable than others, or if any of them is reliable?). Personally I love this sort of stuff, but I also understand this is not everyone's cup of tea. This also means Port of Shadows is likely to attract divisive reviews. Some people will love it, while some will hate it.

The narratives in The Black Company series have always been ambiguous, so I believe long time readers of the series will have no qualm with the narrating styles in Port of Shadows, even though the first third of the book was very confusing. But for a new comer, Port of Shadows is not a good place to start the series. Therefore if you wish to jump on the bandwagon of Glen Cook's famous creation, I would recommend starting from the first book, The Black Company. As for me, I like Port of Shadows, I think it is a solid book, and it is always interesting to read more about The Lady and the Senjak Sisters. Apparently Glen Cook is writing a real "sequel" in the series, tilted, Merciless Rain. There are no words yet about the release date for this book, but Port Shadows has wet my appetite for it. Hopefully the book will be in my grubby hands very soon. Bring it on!