Monday, April 16, 2012

The Black Company to Ride Again

  This just caught my eye - there are indeed new Black Company novels in the works.  A reader mentioned this news some time back in my negative review of "Tides Elba", Cook's short story in the "Swords and Dark Magic" collection.  The notice linked to above says Cook has already written two short stories to be expanded into a novel called "Port of Shadows" that takes place between the events of  "The Black Company" and "Shadows Linger".  I'm assuming "Tides Elba" is one of the stories.  As part of a book I'd probably give the story at lot more slack.
   There's also a second book, called "A Pitiless Rain" set after the conclusion of the last Black Company novel, "Soldiers Live".  The Black Company books are easily among my favorite fantasy books and I don't want to wait for either one.

11 comments:

  1. I'm way more excited about the new early adventure rather than the later one to be honest. By the time I got to volume 10 I was not particularly interested in the series to be honest. I felt the 4 volumes of the glittering plain simply took waaaaay to long to get going.. I'll give both of them a read anyway.

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  2. Totally in agreement with you on that. I admit I'm jonesing to see the Company and the original players in full action again. Still, I'm curious about what the heck happens after "Soldiers Live".

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  3. Owing to their recent sale, I just ordered/pre-ordered the last three books of the Dread Empire series.. I'm looking forward to reading that after I've finished some other things.

    Glen Cook may not always make admirable characters, but he always seems to create interesting ones..

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  4. I remember Reap the East Wind and Ill Fate Marshalling thinking were messes when they first came out but I guess I need to reread them having gotten the new one in recently. The idea of continuing the series isactually exciting.
    He's really representative of the sort of author capable of the balance I prefer between good, bad and regular characters. Mocker's still one of my favorite characters.

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  5. I cant find books 9 or 10 anywhere!! Ive been drooling over the new world and tobos advancement for years!! Id prefer an audiobook, so i can listen at work, but ill read online, ebooks, or physical books regardless!! Please tell me where to get them!!
    Preference: audio, ebook, physical, online. W.E. way works for me!!
    Fulfilledsuccess @ g mail. Com

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  6. 10&11. Not 9&10. False claims A Pitiless Rain was published already on some websites. Some also claimed reading the next two.

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    1. What do you mean by 10 & 11? There are only 9 pure Black Company books and a single spin-off, The Silver Spike. There are three published short stories, the first really only a preview of the novel, The Black Company.

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    2. 1."Raker"—appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (August 1982). This was a pre-publication excerpt of chapter three from The Black Company, with slight editing differences to make it stand alone as a short story.

      2."Tides Elba"—appeared in Swords & Dark Magic edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders, published by Eos (2010)

      3."Smelling Danger: A Black Company Story"— appeared in the Subterranean Press anthology, Tales of Dark Fantasy 2, edited by William Schafer (2011).

      4."Shaggy Dog Bridge"—appeared in Fearsome Journeys: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy edited by Jonathan Strahan, published by Solaris (2013)

      5."Bone Candy"—appeared in Shattered Shields edited by Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt, published by Baen (2014)

      6."Bone Eaters"—appeared in Operation Arcana edited by John Joseph Adams, published by Baen (2015)

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    3. Those last three came out after I first wrote this - now I'll have to track them down. Thanks!

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  8. Port of Shadows included the short stories "Tides Elba", "Smelling Danger", and "Bone Candy" and took place between The Black Company and Shadows Linger. The next book, A Pitiless Rain, will most likely include "Shaggy Dog Bridge" and "Bone Eaters", and will fall between Shadows Linger and The White Rose. If there is going to be another book following Soldiers Live, I don't think it will be A Pitiless Rain.

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