On The Nightstand – Port Of Shadows – 9/30/2018

“The Life Of The Dead Is Placed In The Memory Of The Living”

Marcus Tullius Cicero

I haven’t read a Black Company novel since 2001 – when the final volume in The Company’s history – “Soldiers Live” – was published.  It’s been so long that I’d actually forgotten most of the details of the extended narrative – stretching across 9 books broken out into 3 story arcs (there’s also a spin-off called “The Silver Spike” – a very good book but unconnected to the Company’s history).  Before cracking this one open, I had to go back and review the plot summaries from the nine volumes that preceded it – just to get myself grounded again and prepared for what was to come.  What I most remembered, though, was how much I enjoyed these books and how very different they were from all the Fantasy I’d previously read.  They were my first real taste of anything not built upon the bones of Tolkein and I loved them.  They opened up a whole new sub genre for me and a whole new way of thinking about and enjoying Fantasy.

I also remembered that while these books were amazing to the end – the very last word of “Soldiers Live” – the experience changed drastically for me with the end of the 1st story arc – The Books Of The North – composed of “The Black Company”, “Shadows Linger” and “The White Rose”.  By the end of “The White Rose”, only six out of the original ~800 – 900 Company veterans remained alive.  At the beginning of the 2nd story arc – The Books Of The South – composed of “Shadow Games” and “Dreams Of Steel” – The Company had left the Domination and headed off into a new and very different part of the world.  Both transitions were challenging but Cook managed to make them work in a pretty amazing way.  Still, finishing The Books Of The North and pushing on into The Books Of The South, I never quite got past the feelings of loss caused by the absence of so many old friends:  The Captain, The Lieutenant, Candy, Elmo – all the other Company veterans you got so attached to over the course of the first three books.  I think I may also have regretted the fact that Croaker, who I’d come to love as the Company Surgeon / Historian, was forced to assume command – no longer allowing him the latitude to be the same simple, curmudgeonly soldier I remembered him to be in the first three books.

Prior to reading the book, I was curious as to why Glen Cook chose to come back to The Company – what part of the story he felt he’d left untold.  Their history was complete and there weren’t really any hanging chads from the 9 books he’d already written.  As you read through the book, however, you realize that Cook wanted to look back to the early years of the Domination and provide a backstory for The Lady.  He does this but in a cagey way that doesn’t provide definitive answers – the realization about what he’s doing sneaks up on you – challenging at first but very satisfying by the end of the book.

Nor does it sound like he’s finished – this is the first of two final volumes he’s planning to write – the other to be called “A Pitiless Rain” – identified as the true concluding volume of The Company’s history.  This story lives inside the 1st story arc – The Books Of The North – and sits chronologically between Book #1 – “The Black Company” and Book #2 – “Shadows Linger”.  While there’s no connection to The Books Of The North narrative, it was still so much fun to get back to the early parts of The Company’s history and get caught up with all those characters that I’d enjoyed so much when I first read these books – Cook basically gets The Band back together.

I mentioned earlier that the narrative was a bit twisty and I have to admit that it proved to be challenging at first.  Cook has you regularly flipping back and forth between the earlier years of the Domination and the era in which the Company is fighting for The Lady against both the remainder of the rebel armies that were shattered in Book #1 and the Resurrectionists fighting to return the Dominator to life.  While I may not be remembering clearly, I think this is also the first time Cook has ever spent any real time describing the early years of the Domination.  It takes awhile to settle into the story and to start putting pieces together.  I think Cook is having fun with his readers, knowing that some probably will find it to be a bit too much work but not caring in the least.

I will say that this is not a book for anyone new to The Black Company.  While I can see someone attempting it as a standalone read, I’d recommend against it.  I don’t know about others but I fell in love with The Company when I read that first book – its people, its culture and its traditions – and you should have taken that fall before you start “Port Of Shadows”.  Trying to get to know and appreciate the Company’s world and its culture through a book whose narrative structure is not straightforward and intuitive would likely be a hard slog for many.  Short to long – don’t cheat yourself out of the pleasure of the 1st book before jumping into this one.

For me, Cook’s Company has always been a family – big, extended, unruly and highly dysfunctional in so many ways – yet at the same time – extremely well led, bound by tradition, loyal to each other and incredibly, competently deadly.  I found it interesting that Cook spent most of this book creating two other families and putting them at the center of the story – Croaker’s weird but very likable group consisting of Mischievous Rain (Kitten, Credence Senjak, The Lady), Shin, Baku and Ankou – and the weird but somewhat repulsive false family of the Necromancer (Papa), Bathdek (Kitten, Credence Senjak, The Lady) and Liassa (Dorotea Senjak).

I need to think about this more – go back and reread several sections – but I think Cook is trying to give us perspective on The Lady – using her first, very twisted faux family experience with the Necromancer and Liassa to illustrate a youth that leads her to becoming the immensely powerful but measured and emotionally nuanced sorceress capable of defeating the Dominator and re-establishing his Empire without resorting to the same level of brutality and terror.  He’s using the second of the two faux families – Croaker, Mischievous Rain, Shin, Baku, Ankow – to show just who The Lady has become over the course of so many years – ruthlessly efficient, terrifyingly capable, absolute in her power yet with soft spots and the ability to care in an all too human way – even if it’s just an indulgence that she knows is fleeting.

I have to say – I loved this book – really loved being back with the old Company – before it was decimated in the remaining two Books Of The North – before it headed South to a very foreign and ugly environment.  Having said that, it won’t be a book for everyone.  I’d recommend this only to those who have already read and fallen for The Company.  It’s not going to be satisfying to a new reader or someone who isn’t a committed Company man.

Best Wishes to all for a great new week.