<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Written by acclaimed fantasy author Glen Cook, the nine-volume The Black Company series chronicles the adventures of the Black Company, last of the Free Companies of Khatovar. Already an old and storied mercenary company at the beginning of the series, the first novel, entitled The Black Company, is written from the perspective of the unit’s current Annalist, a surgeon nicknamed Croaker by his compatriots. It is the Annalist’s job to record the unit’s exploits and the names of its brothers in addition to his regular duties, and when the story begins, the company has accepted a contract with a mysterious and evil cabal of sorcerers called the Ten Who Were Taken. Led by an immortal sorceress called simply The Lady, the Taken hire the Black Company to combat a rebellion against their tyrannical rule in the far north. The first three books in the series, collectively referred to as The Book of the North, chronicle the Black Company’s exploits with (and against) the Taken, as Croaker and the mercenaries first confront the forces of the rebellion and then begin to secretly aid their cause once it becomes clear that the Taken intend to sacrifice the company to serve their own interests. By the end of the series the power of the Taken and their Empire has been destroyed, and the few survivors of the company leave the north to search for the lost annals of the unit’s history that were left behind in the south. Croaker (with his new wife, the fearsome Lady) hopes that these annals will lead him to Khatovar, the fabled birthplace of the Black Company itself.

The chronicles of the Black Company continue in The Book of the South, where the surviving mercenaries (seven in all), now led by Croaker, journey through the steamy jungles of the southern continent in search of the company’s lost annals and in so doing discover more of the Black Company’s mythic past. Hounded by mysterious figures called the Shadowmasters, the company’s ranks swell with each battle they fight, until a disastrous battle all but destroys the mercenary force. With Croaker believed dead, his wife Lady takes over and restores the company to its former power. In doing so, however, Lady incorporates members of a mysterious assassin-cult into the company’s ranks, and at the conclusion of The Book of the South the Deceivers kidnap Lady and Croaker’s daughter, believing her to be the Kali-like Daughter of Night.

Cook continues the adventures of the Black Company in The Book of Glittering Stone, whose four volumes continue Croaker’s quest for Khatovar and his simultaneous struggle to save his daughter from the clutches of the Deceivers. At the end of Glittering Stone the company passes through a sorcerous gateway and leaves the world behind, continuing their search for lost Khatovar. At least two further books are planned for the series, titled A Pitiless Rain and Port of Shadows, but no publication date for these books have been set.