The tale is told through the eyes of the company’s physician and Annalist. He’s fairly new to the company, and has limited knowledge of some of his more ancient colleagues. He reads and analyzes the history of the Company and attempts to order, in his mind, and in the annals, the story of his own service with the last free mercenary company as they struggle through a war-torn landscape where defeat is far more common than any sort of victory.
Croaker is an astute observer of both his friends and his enemies and struggles, as he writes,to understand motivations and philosophies for those he comes to know. But his colleagues are not men who willingly share their inner thoughts and fears, he has only their actions to use as a measure of these men.
We join the mercenaries as they are involved in supporting ‘The Lady’ against ‘The Rebel’ and are in a long and soul-deadening retreat, as her forces are being assaulted by a far larger and more motivated force attempting to drive her from power. The Black Company is the only group involved who are mercenaries, and are not sworn to fight for one side or the other.
Much of the book involves Croaker trying to make sense of what morality and loyalty involve in light of their situation, and as he sees it, it is mostly to his fellow soldiers and few friends, as well as living up to your word and your contract, no matter what horrors you find yourself facing, even when you realize you are fighting for Evil, or are you? Not knowing who is in the right, who is just, who is the lesser Evil, Croaker swallows his doubts and fears and just does what he’s told, to the best of his ability.
The characters in the piece are complex and interesting, and you never do really get their entire story, particularly not the two newest members of the mercenaries, Raven and a girl he saves from murder and mayhem, Darling.
But through Raven, somehow, Croaker ends up singled out by ‘the Lady’ who is a sorcerer and who is frightening even to battle-hardened men. He tries to understand why and how she chooses him and finds himself far more afraid of her, than he is of a terrifying battlefield.
This is not the sort of book that will appeal to a lot of readers. It is grim and gritty and there are no heroes and no clear winners. But the book held my interest and got me thinking of warfare and its effects on not only the landscape and the civilians but also on the soldiers themselves and their own efforts to justify actions that oftentimes seem inhumane and senseless.
4 out of 5 stars.
