Gardens of the Moon

To be considered a serious SFF fan these days it appears that there are a handful of ‘must read’ series. One such series is Steven Erikson’s massive Malazan Books of the Fallen. I’d been meaning to read the first Malazan book; Gardens of the Moon, for some time, but had held off for a couple of reasons. One it was a work in progress, believed to eventually complete at 10 books, having been burned by Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time (the author passed away before he could complete the series and it is being finished by Brandon Sanderson) and George Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (Martin is still alive, but the series shows no sign of being completed any time soon, the 5th volume has been coming since 2005) I was reluctant to pick up another long running incomplete series. The other reason was that the concept had failed to really grab me each time I picked it up, and had a look at it.

It popping up on the list as the last of the E’s when it did was pretty good timing. The 10th Malazan book; The Crippled God, came out earlier this year, so I wouldn’t be forced into a wait between volumes.

Gardens of the Moon does require some commitment from the reader. There’s no real coherent storyline in the first volume, it’s largely about participants in a never ending war for control of the continent of Genabackis. These fighters are not only soldiers, citizens and rulers, some of them are all powerful Gods who have chosen to walk amongst men. For instance my feelings towards Erikson’s beloved Bridgeburners changed multiple times throughout the book. They vaccilated between being on the right side and the wrong side depending on whose story you were reading.

Like a growing number of recent epics Gardens of the Moon is rather noirish in feel. I often felt like none of the action took place in daylight. By the end of the book the reader has seen a lot and read a lot, but has only scratched the surface of Erikson’s gargantuan creation. It’s not surprising to learn that when he and friend and co creator Ian Cameron Esslemont hawked the concept around as a TV show or movie they were told that it was simply too grand in scale for them to even contemplate. This is largely why it became a series of books and not a purely visual spectacle.

Two things tended to stand out to me. One was the similarity between Erikson’s band of hard bitten soldiers and mages; The Bridgeburners and Glen Cook’s company of mercenaries; The Black Company, in the series of the same name. Erikson admits to being a fan of Cook’s and it shows in Gardens of the Moon. The Bridgeburners and the Black Company kept putting me in mind of each other, right down to the nicknames they gave their members. At times I felt as if the Bridgeburners hard bitten sergeant; Whiskeyjack was channelling the Black Company’s captain; Croaker. Erikson and Esslemont were both keen gamers and that’s how they came up with the concept, this too is obvious, with some passages reading as if they were right out of game play.

Despite the feeling that this was 700 pages of setup I still felt strangely compelled to keep reading, and while there isn’t always a lot of action, at other times the action is almost overwhelming. The reader can get lost with the sheer cast of thousands that Erikson has chosen to populate his creation, and as he doesn’t write linearly it can become confusing, which is why despite it’s length the reader cannot afford to skim. I found it hard to connect to any of the characters while reading the book and thought that they may be rather two dimensional. Reflecting on it afterwards I found myself finding that they had layers I hadn’t initially picked up on. I did develop some affection for two of the leads; the mysterious and quite often amusing Kruppe, who refers to himself in the third person and narrates his own action, and the young and somewhat naïve thief Crokus.

Despite it’s flaws, and Gardens of the Moon is most definitely a flawed book, it has me intrigued and I know that in the not too distant future I’m going to pick up the equally thick Deadhouse Gates and keep following Steven Erikson’s vision.

The Return of the Black Company

In Bleak Seasons; the 7th book of the series, Glen Cook uses Croaker’s apprentice, and one of the younger members of the original Black Company from the North, Murgen to tell the story. It’s also the first book since the original Black Company novel that only has one point of view, unless you count the marvellous chapter where One-Eye is given the opportunity to try his hand at chronicling. It’s quite a treat for readers (especially me, because One-Eye is my favourite character), although judging by this chapter if the cantankerous old sorcerer were the Company’s annalist then all the books would be about 10 pages in total.
 
As the Company is still stuck halfway to their intended destination I felt that the story has stagnated a little. The Company isn’t even really fighting the Shadowmasters anymore, they’re more concerned with the power struggle between various factions within the Company itself. To spice things up a little, Cook introduced a new race of people; the Nyueng Bao. They seem to be a permanent under class in the South of his world. The names and appearances make them sound as if they’re based on the Vietnamese, but the descriptions of how they fight and the warrior code that they adhere to was more of a cross between the Chinese Shaolin monks and the Japanese Samurai.
 
I enjoyed reading Murgen’s take on things, he’s definitely a fresh voice and I appreciated having to follow one point of view, rather than multiple stories, but even so it was still somewhat confusing and disjointed. Murgen seemed to able to enter a trance like state and obtain visions of the future and the past. At times it wasn’t really clear which time he was in. It was rather like trying to read a novelised version of Christopher Nolan’s Memento. It ended on a typically bleak note.
 
Despite it’s flaws, it left me wanting more, but I also want to see some sort of forward movement from the Company itself.

She is the Darkness picks up where Bleak Seasons left off. The title could refer to a number of characters; the Taglian Goddess of Death, Kina, Croaker and Lady's stolen baby, who has been promised to Kina and does her bidding, it could be Lady or even Lady's sister the former Taken Soulcatcher. Murgen is again the narrator and only his point of view is seen throughout the narrative.

To show more of the story outside of where Murgen can be, Cook reuses the technique from Bleak Seasons of having Murgen put in a trancelike state which allows him to go places and see things he shouldn't be able to. He does not seem to travel through time in this installment, but only space.

For most of the book they were stalled, locked in a seemingly endless struggle with Kina, her followers, a breakaway division of the Company and Soulcatcher. There was one somewhat extraordinary exchange between Croaker and Murgen where the former annalist critiques his replacement's work. It's almost as if Cook had heard some criticism of recent books and decided to air it in the storyline. It was rather surrealistic.

I found Murgen's devotion to his dead Nyueng Bao wife somewhat unbelievable. There had just never been that level of affection between them. If anything he seemed closer to his horrible mother-in-law than his wife.

The Company did move forward and they may have finally reached their fabled home of Khatovar. That won't become clear until the next volume. There's still reasons to read as there are a lot of unresolved issues.

The Chronicles of the Black Company

The Black Company is the first of the fantasy series of the same name, written by Glen Cook and published in 1984. While Glen Cook did not start what is known as ‘gritty’ fantasy, The Black Company is one of the first examples of the sub genre which has now been introduced to the current generation by writers such as Joe Abercrombie.

The Black Company is the story of a campaign undertaken by a mercenary company in a magical war. It is told in first person and narrated by the company’s medic and annalist; Croaker. Croaker gives the impression that the Black Company is quite a large concern, but readers only get to know those that he associates with most closely. Men such as the wizards: One-Eye, Goblin and Silent. The competent sergeant Elmo. The mysterious Raven, and the Company’s two officers: the Lieutenant and the Captain. The officers are never given names, but are known only by their rank. There are only two female characters of any note: the Lady herself and a mute war orphan called Darling who is taken under Raven’s wing.

The Company are in the service of a godlike woman who is known simply as the Lady. The Lady is currently battling with a group called the Rebels in search of the reincarnation of their own saviour The White Rose. Both sides have the services of immensely powerful sorcerors often referred to as The Taken. Croaker faithfully relates what happens to the Company and it’s members in this war, it is often brutal and made more so by the matter of fact way that Croaker sometimes records the facts. This is not standard fantasy for the time, no elves or dwarves here, but there is magic. Some of the humour is created by the magical battles between the cantankerous One-Eye and the practical jokester Goblin.

It’s a well told story and readers get a sense of the rough camaraderie shared by the Company and the trust they have in each other as they put themselves into deadly situations to earn their pay. Cook doesn’t shy away from giving a warts and all depiction of a land torn apart by a senseless war, he’s also not afraid to kill major characters. One character who I thought would play a major part was dead before the end of the first chapter, he had been so well created in such a short time that I was little annoyed he was killed so early, because I’d grown to rather like him. It’s no surprise that Cook was in the US military (the Navy) or that the books are very popular amongst serving members of the forces or veterans. I was often reminded of Leon Uris’ Battlecry (the story of a WW II regiment from boot camp to the grim aftermath of Guadalcanal) when reading The Black Company.

Something else that Cook does very effectively in this book is drop the reader straight into the middle of things. This cuts down on the intricate world building and allows the reader to discover the world and explore the characters themselves, rather than have everything neatly explained for them.

I’m now kicking myself I didn’t read these earlier, because they’re a ripping read and I’ll be following the adventures of the Black Company from now on.

Following the success of The Black Company Glen Cook released a second tale of the mercenary company’s adventures; Shadows Linger.

Cook decided to flex his writing muscles a little with his second novel. It was actually two stories. One was from Croaker’s point of view as the Company continued their work for the Lady. The second story was told in third person and mostly concerned Raven, who had deserted from the Company at the end of the first book. Readers got to meet some more members of the Company; Pawnbroker and Kingpin. The character of the weak willed, cowardly tavern owner; Marron Shed, became the focus of the Raven story.

At some point both stories were going to have to collide and they did as the Black Company was sent to the city of Juniper to investigate a disturbance which had been caused by Raven’s activity. For a long period Cook continued to tell the story from Croaker’s first person viewpoint and also followed Shed in third person.

The final part of the story was all told from Croaker’s point of view and was an important part of the development of the series as the Company parted company with the Lady and actually became their former godlike employer’s enemy.

Partway through Shadows Linger I became aware of how much Cook had gotten me into this story. A sinister money lender in Juniper decided to have a run in with Raven. I read it smiling, thinking to myself: ‘You really don’t know who you’re going up against.’ At other times during fights I was hoping certain characters wouldn’t be incapacitated or even killed.

This is turning into a really enjoyable series and I’m looking forward to the third installment.

Like Shadows Linger, the third volume of the series; The White Rose, runs more than one story concurrently. The major story follows Croaker and is narrated by the annalist as previously. The two secondary stories concern a scavenger cum wizard by the name of Bomanz and the final thread is about a mysterious and dangerous character who is known as Corbie.

I had problems with the two secondary story lines for different reasons. I could never really get into the Bomanz one. I could not see why he was even there for most of it and it didn’t really seem to fit into the series anywhere until the end. I kept being pulled out of it because as I’ve said before I believe Joe Abercrombie was inspired by the Black Company and the magus; Bayaz, in his First Law trilogy, seemed very similar to Bomanz in name and appearance. The Corbie story ceased to have impact as due to the name I very quickly worked out that Corbie was in fact the former Black Company warrior Raven.

The setting for most of Croaker’s story before it converged on the other two was a desolate and magical plain. The White Rose and the Company had holed up there to combat the Lady. The plain itself was a great setting and very well imagined. It was the most magical thing I had seen in the series. It was sparsely populated with large flying creatures such as Windwhales and lightning shooting Mantas, on the ground were formations of land coral, walking trees and talking menhirs.

In the course of the narrative The White Rose and the Company come to realise that they and the Lady were battling the same enemy; the Lady’s former husband, the Dominator. Prior to them deciding to pool their resources the Company went up against the Lady’s most powerful weapons in the Taken. In the previous books I had always looked forward to the arrival of the Taken, because it usually meant that the odds would turn in the Company’s favour. In this book it meant the opposite. One-Eye and Goblin confessed that their skills really weren’t much above those of a carnival illusionist and that Silent was the only wizard they had who stood a chance against one of the Taken. Despite that One-Eye provided one of the most amusing moments when an over zealous city guard attempted to torture him.

We saw another side, a human side to the Lady when she and Croaker came to the realisation that the only way they could defeat the Dominator was to work together. Before this we’d never seen much of a system to the magic in Cook’s universe. It just worked without any explanation as to why. In the case of the Lady and the White Rose the magic seemed to be based around their true names. This isn’t new or revolutionary, but it was effectively done.

There was a definite ending to this sequence and this episode in the history of the Black Company, which is why it was issued in an omnibus. Overall I have to say I enjoyed it and will read more of their stories, but maybe not all in one go next time. The last story was at times a bit of a slog.