Cook - Dreams of Steel review

This volume of Glen Cook's Black Company series begins right where Shadow Games left off. Croaker, while leading the Black Company and the armies of Taglios, made a terrible error against the Shadowmasters' army. His army gets routed, though they are able to hold onto the city of Dejagore. Croaker was hit in the chest by an arrow and left for dead on the battlefield. Later he was carried off by Soulcatcher, one of the great sorcerers known as The Taken. Soulcatcher was thought to be dead, but so were Shapeshifter, The Howler, and Stormbringer, who all appeared in Shadow Games. The Taken are rather difficult to kill, you see. They killed The Limper a few times while still in the north.

Mogaba, the leader of the Company's infantry was able to save his legion and retreat back into the city of Dejagore and takes control of the remaining forces.

Lady was taken down in the battle and also left for dead. She is rescued by an odd bunch of Taglians who survived the battle. Lady, knowing nothing of the fate of any other member of the Company, brought together survivors of the battle and returned to Taglios in order to fulfill the Company's commission and take revenge on the Shadowmasters.

For this volume, Lady takes over the Company's annals and provides much of the narration. The tale is interspersed with third person accounts of the doings of Soulcatcher, Croaker, and the Shadowmaster known as Longshadow. Because the narration shifts from the character of Croaker to Lady, the feel is quite different at times. Lady, left in charge, falls back to the rather cutthroat ways in which she built an empire in the north after being freed from the Barrowlands.

Adding another twist to this volume is the revelation that the odd band of Taglians who helped Lady get away from the battlefield are a cult who worship a goddess of death and wish to bring about the Year of Skulls and resurrect their goddess. They treat her as if she is the daughter of their goddess.

This is another excellent installment in the series. And it's a really fast read. The only problem with this one, much like the last, is that it doesn't end in a clean way. You really need to continue the series to get to a resolution of this part of the story. I intend to start reading the next volume now!


/ [Viking]

   More book reviews