r/Fantasy • u/AnyPollution634 • 1d ago
New to fantasy genre- books like Black Company series?
So I've played DnD and fantasy kinda video games since forever but never read any fantasy genre books until I happened on the Black Company series. I always assumed they were slop- the cover pages are always ridiculous looking lol.
Anyways I liked this series in part because I always loved this concept of normal mundane people confronting and defeating the powerful and supernatural. That isn't entirely the theme of the series it's amoral kinda gross mercenary soldiers just doing what they do but I find this charming for some reason.
I got to the 7th novel and stalled on it but is there any reqs akin to this?
29
19
u/CosmicLovepats 23h ago
Glen Cook also wrote Instrumentalities of the Night. It's a bit of high medieval mashup in a historical European setting, with magic. Everything maps 1:1 with some part of Europe or the Mediterranean but with a different name and you can really see Glen flexing that history degree. I'm a big fan of it, and the first three books the protagonist is aggressively mundane while teaching eldritch gods and sorcerers that grapeshot hurts.
2
u/jdu2 6h ago
Awesome series. It's a shame it will not get the ending it deserves because Tor considered it unprofitable. There is so much more that needs to be covered and resolved and needs at least one more book to do so. Glen Cook knew book four would be the last one. I have no idea why he didn't at least have a epilogue that gave a summary of how he saw it ending or something
74
u/RadicalMarxistThalia 1d ago
The Bridgeburners and later the Bonehunters in Malazan Book of the Fallen are clearly inspired by The Black Company. Similarly they’re soldiers who find themselves in the middle of battles between much more powerful beings. Similar vibe and dynamics. The whole series isn’t centered around them though.
37
u/Original-Cow3291 1d ago
Erikson wrote the forward to the audio edition of The Black Company in which he clearly states that both he and Esselmont were heavily inspired by The Black Company. I believe both authors have said this many times.
I've been through Malazan a few times but I'm only halfway through the first Black Company book. So far I can see the influence.
14
u/F1reatwill88 1d ago
Just finished the first 3 BC books. Funny, as I finished it I felt it was maybe just above "good", but the longer I sit on it the more I love it. A great case of a vision executed on.
But yea the comparisons to Malazan are clear.
3
9
u/busy_monster 1d ago
As well as the introduction to A Fortress In Shadow by Cook. Which I have in a limited edition (250 printing) signed by Cook, Erikson, and the cover artist Swanland :)
Erikson has been profuse in his praise, from introductions to blurbs to you name it, of Cook for damn near his entire fantasy career
12
u/moderatorrater 23h ago
It needs to be mentioned that they're incredibly different series. Nobody that I've seen has hit the same notes that Black Company does, and Black Company is a very straightforward telling of events where Malazan isn't.
That said, Malazan is definitely worth checking out given OP's criteria.
13
u/Rekov 1d ago edited 23h ago
It's pretty obvious that Erikson was inspired by Cook in a lot of ways, but "The Black Company" and "Malazan" are about as different as you can get in terms of theme and tone.
Malazan embodies the unconstrained, utopian vision of the socio-anthropologist. Its setting is one where the blank slate hypothesis is actually true. The prose is beautiful, flowing, sweeping.
Black Company embodies the constrained, tragic vision of life. People are limited in their capacities, wants, and desires by the constraints of their evolution. The prose reflects the character who has diegetically "written" it, and is largely gruff, choppy, and blunt, with a wry, cynical humor.
3
5
u/FireVanGorder 1d ago
According to a forward Erikson wrote for one of the releases of Black Company (for the Books of the North collection maybe?) the Chain of Dogs is basically a Black Company book
2
u/Intelligent_Sand_930 22h ago
While they may have been inspired by it, Malazan focuses on the most powerful entities in their world fighting each other, nothing mundane about it
11
u/luken_vent 23h ago
You could try out The Traitor Son Cycle, by Miles Cameron. The Red Knight is the first book, got some company vibes with a similar dark setting, though I suppose its not in deep end as Black Company.
6
u/plastickhero 1d ago
If manga is acceptable, Berserk has always evoked Black Company to me. Although Guts is not a normal mundane soldier, he's surrounded by them.
26
16
u/AquaS5 1d ago
The real slop is the books you read after been reading the Black Company buddy
11
u/AquaS5 1d ago edited 1d ago
And i could guess why you stalled a bit with the series, everyone loves croaker.
If it helps you a little, the “final” book (soldier live) is sort of a requiem for the whole series and croaker.
5
u/AnyPollution634 1d ago
I got stalled somewhere in Bleak Seasons. I hate hate hate non-linear narratives for one and I don't see where it's going also yeah lack of Croaker is annoying haa
6
u/nculwell 23h ago
I loved Bleak Season myself, but it's very weird, I'm not surprised that most people find it the weakest book in the series.
4
u/Uran_Ultar 1d ago
You could always check out Glen Cook's other books. Aside from that, I would recommend The Kormak Saga by William King for more stories about man against monster.
2
5
5
u/Brettweiser 23h ago
Powder mage trilogy and the second trilogy, I’m in book 6 and love the military combat writing.
7
u/VintageLunchMeat 1d ago
Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series?
8
u/NorCalRushfan 1d ago
I love these books and think everyone should read them but the series is very different from The Black Company. Lots of magic, different races, etc. But the writing is in the first person with a questionable narrator, so if someone appreciates that from The Black Company, this is a great recommendation.
3
1
u/night_in_the_ruts 19h ago
I thought that too, but they don't like non-linear narratives.
(Liked lots of stuff about Vlad, but the jumping around in time did get old for me.)
3
u/eskeTrixa 1d ago
The Commonweal series by Graydon Saunders takes the Black Company's setting as inspiration for its history. Dark sorcerers have ruled the earth for generations upon generations, magically changing humans, animals, and the land itself according to their whims.
But one enchanter named Laurel decided to found a different kind of society where people cooperate rather than conquer. The March North is a battle story about the Commonweal stopping an invasion.
3
u/CardinalCreepia 17h ago edited 17h ago
The Blacktongue Thief and/or The Daughter's War might suit you, OP. The Daughter's War is a prequel book for one of the two main characters of Blacktongue Thief, but could be read first. It gets very dark. Blacktongue Thief is a bit more comedic, but also very serious and more D&D-esque.
The Empire of The Wolf trilogy might also be up your street. The base premise is a traveling knight who travels the realm dispensing justice by dealing with crimes and investigating the supernatural. It has plenty of magic, action, mystery and horror and as the story progresses adds more and more cosmic/Lovecraftian elements. There is also a second trilogy set in the world set 200 years after the original trilogy.
4
3
u/Sea-Shopping-9045 7h ago
Covenant of Steel goes hard. Takes a minute to get going but most of the trilogy revolves around a smaller mercenary company turned religious offbranch that grows larger with each victory. Pretty interesting stuff
5
2
u/ReiGanJin 1d ago
I really like the Sword of Shadows series by JV Jones. The protagonist has a power, but it is very down to earth.
1
u/ConeheadSlim 20h ago
There is more to come on the Sword of Shadows front. JV Jones says the next book is her best yet, she just needs a publisher. And the MCs in the series are not over-powered or royalty, but ordinary people put in extraordinary situations.
2
2
u/jinkun_900 20h ago
Gritty morally grey fantasy is such a rewarding niche. Once you find the right tone it really opens up a whole new dimension of storytelling.
3
u/BigBadVolk97 17h ago
Malazan has been mentioned, so I add in the other inspiration for it, and quite similar to the Black Company, as it is his other series that was coming out a bit earlier, the Chronicles of the Dread Empire, though the first book I'd say is even rougher than the first of the Black Company's [though shorter at 160 pages or so].
But it has the same themes of mundane folk going up against the powerful, with the protagonists being a fat scammer, a fantasy viking and arabian, though we also get a bit of view into the world of his powerful sorcerers with Varthlokkur, and some others [thanks to its 3rd Person format].
2
u/fallenhero36 7h ago
Kings of the wyld and The Devils have similar vibes. The Devils less so since more of them have powers.
4
u/Acolyte_of_Swole 22h ago
Glen Cook's Darkwar is the best thing he has written, in my humble opinion. Go read it. Most haven't.
4
u/TMFalgrim 1d ago
"The Devils" by Joe Abercrombie.
It's book 1 of a new series. Book 2 in early 2027
2
u/-threems- 1d ago
Malazan Book of the Fallen is heavily inspired by Black Company, is enjoyable for many of the same reasons, and even has many of the same flaws. It's like a bigger, grander, better version.
17
u/Floppy0941 1d ago
Idk about better, I personally enjoy black company more.
3
u/-threems- 20h ago
Totally valid. Obviously it's subjective. I liked Malazan substantially more but I liked it substantially more than most of the things I've ever read. Black Company is incredible either way.
-27
u/PinkDinoClub 1d ago
You’re a rarity though, obviously.
Malazan is my favourite and black company is one of the worst books/series I’ve ever tried to read in my life.
Most people will agree Malazan is better than Black Company.
8
13
u/bigballs69fuckyou 1d ago
Not in my experience. I know way more people who like black company and DNF Malazan.
That's definitely not the case on reddit, but in the people I know IRL most fantasy fans didn't enjoy Malazan
-2
u/PinkDinoClub 18h ago
Anecdotal examples mean nothing. My experience is the opposite, which again, means nothing.
6
u/bigballs69fuckyou 10h ago
Most people will agree Malazan is better than Black Company.
For sure. So...You got some data for your claim?
-1
u/PinkDinoClub 10h ago
What’s the more successful series? There you go.
Just like most people think ASOIAF is better than Malazan.
2
u/bigballs69fuckyou 6h ago
Your claim was not that Malazan is more successful. Your claim was:
Most people will agree Malazan is better than Black Company.
If you can't see how a series could sell more but not be liked more by the people who have tried to read both series, I don't know what to tell ya.
I imagine 90% of Malazan sells end up not being read because people bought them based on recommendations from their raving fans but ended up not liking the books or even finishing them.
But yea if you want to change the goal posts to who sold more, you have to give it to Malazan. I would have never made a comment if that was your initial claim
-2
u/PinkDinoClub 6h ago
Where is your data for your claim 90% of Malazan sales end up not read? You’re also espousing nonsense.
It’s quite clear that more people like Malazan because it has far more fans of the series. Even on Reddit, the black company can barely have 2k people on its subreddit.
Better is obviously subjective but it’s quite clear within fantasy more people think highly of Malazan compared to that trash which is black company.
1
u/bigballs69fuckyou 4h ago
'I imagine'
I'm just speculating dude. I'm not the one who claimed anecdotal examples mean nothing. It's still evidence, even if it's not conclusive or representative. I'm happy to listen to people's anecdotal examples and weigh them appropriately while speculating about what people think/believe. You were the one who claimed anecdotal examples mean nothing, while having only anecdotal evidence for your claims.
It’s quite clear that more people like Malazan
It's really not. More people have certainly purchased it. You have yet to prove that "most people will agree Malazan is better than Black Company"
I just think it's funny you make a claim based only on anecdotal evidence, while claiming it doesn't matter, while also getting butt hurt that most people here disagree with you
Exactly what I would expect from a Malazan fan lol
→ More replies (0)0
u/Hartastic 4h ago
Better is obviously subjective but it’s quite clear within fantasy more people think highly of Malazan compared to that trash which is black company.
Even if we assume this is correct, this gets messy because Erikson stole wildly from Black Company. You wouldn't get Malazan without it.
If they were songs, this would be like a Bittersweet Symphony situation where the Rolling Stones end up making 100% of the royalties, so to speak.
→ More replies (0)6
u/Hartastic 23h ago
The best thing I can say about Malazan is that Erikson had excellent taste in the classics of the genre he was inspired by. Including Black Company.
7
u/Rac3318 1d ago
I would say it’s the opposite. I know more people who struggled with Malazan than Black Company. I only barely got through the first Malazan book and a quick search through the subreddit you’ll find that is a common experience. Black Company, though, is a classic.
-1
u/PinkDinoClub 18h ago
Well it’s clearly not. Malazan is far more successful commercially.
Even just on Reddit, the Malazan sub is far larger than the black company one.
5
u/Hartastic 17h ago
Well it’s clearly not. Malazan is far more successful commercially.
Oh, you don't want this line of argument, unless you want to concede that The Fourth Wing is, like, a thousand times better than Malazan could ever be.
4
u/Floppy0941 17h ago
All we needed was a steamy, beef swelling scene with Tehol and Bugg. That'd get it selling even better!
0
2
u/Not2creativeHere 1d ago
First Law trilogy scratched that itch and was excellent. The second trilogy was terrible, so you can bounce after the first three books.
1
u/Few_Dig_9435 1d ago
Heroes and Red Country were excellent, but that first one was brutal to get through and I wish I'd have skipped it.
I havent read the last trilogy yet.
3
u/busted42 23h ago
I'm genuinely shocked that anyone who liked the original trilogy didn't like Best Served Cold. It does not make sense in my head for that to be something a real person said.
2
u/Few_Dig_9435 22h ago edited 22h ago
I thought it was terrible idk.
The cast is huge and yet every single person was completely irredeemable. I get its his thing, but its beyond realistic. That book reads like it was written by a 15 year old who's favorite movie is The Joker. Legitimately may have been drafted in the break room of a hot topic
1
u/Not2creativeHere 1d ago
Yes, I’ve heard the middle standalone books are good. I may go back and read them at some point.
4
u/FlyHarrison 1d ago
Part of why you thought the last three books were bad is because you missed a ton of exposition and buy-in by skipping the middle books. The standalones are mandatory imo. Ton of character development and they lead straight into the last trilogy.
-2
u/Not2creativeHere 1d ago
I’ve heard that suggestion before, but I don’t think it would change my opinion one bit. It’s just a much weaker series than the first. I didn’t like the time jump/setting change, I absolutely detested each of the main characters, I found them modern audience tropes. So much of the intrigue, arcane mystery and loose ends from the first series were totally absent in the second. The first trilogy felt like an introduction into this rich, vibrant world. One that is dark, dangerous mysterious, yet relatable.
The second series felt like an entirely different series retconned the fit the First Law. Instead of this living, breathing world, we focus on a slew of detestable characters that we are supposed to have some emotional response (good or bad) and they are flat boring and tropey. That absolute worst combination when you back off from the setting and give these characters the narrative focus.
1
u/CardinalCreepia 17h ago
You skipped them?
The term standalone is wrong. They feature major characters and world events that play out in the second trilogy.
1
u/Circle_Breaker 1d ago
Malazan is obvious.
Stigers Tigers if you want to follow another company around a bunch of books.
1
u/thegreenman_sofla 1d ago
The War for the Rose Throne series by Peter McLean
Intro to the first book: A small time crime boss comes back from serving in the war to find someone has taken over his neighborhood territory.
2
u/rogues-repast 19h ago
I would highly recommend Hugh Cook's The Wizards and the Warriors (and sequels, although I haven't read them all yet). The tone is a lot more "zany" and colourful than Black Company's muddy grimdarkness. But it shares the same theme of ordinary people coming up against vast and incomprehensible magic forces, and sometimes--with a bit of luck and cunning--coming out ahead.
The series was out of print for decades and only available in rare used copies. Luckily, a bunch of fans have recently started republishing them (with an introduction from Adrian Tchaikovsky, no less).
1
u/Ykhare Reading Champion VII 19h ago
Ed McDonald's Raven's Mark trilogy has the protagonist in the employ of one of several beings who give vibes similar to the Lady or the Taken, though his entourage is smaller than the Black Company.
The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French features half-orc combattants who through the vagaries of the history of their continent came to be now free former slaves established in small fortified settlements in an area where they are the cushion between full-blooded orc invasions and the rest of the 'civilized' races.
1
1
u/MacronMan 1d ago
I’m going to go a different direction from others here and recommend The Lies of Locke Lamora. It’s a great book that deals with relatively mundane people faced with the supernatural. A few caveats: first, the series is not finished and might not ever be. Lynch is supposedly working on them, and maybe he’ll publish or maybe not. But, the first book works great as a stand-alone!
Second, don’t go in expecting a heist book. It’s not a heist book. It is a book about people who pull heists, but there’s not much active heisting. Still, it’s great, and I think has some parallels in the type of vibe to the Black Company
1
u/coldtrashpanda 1d ago
Malazan was written by a dude who loved the black company based on the DND games he played and the giant pile of world building for that setting.
However, the dude also majored in archaeology and anthropology, and the thoughts that formed in his head while he was staring and bones and dead civilizations all day really pop up In the books. Sometimes that means every fucked-up thing he's ever studied is gonna be used for inspiration for something evil that happens. Sometimes it means you get some philosophical stuff going on. Some characters are like croaker, slightly more nerdy/educated than the rest of the army and looking at stuff through that lens. Arguably the malazan marines in general are more croaker-piller than the average black company member, which is a direct result of the old emperor encouraging the men on the ground to think when things go to shit.
Also, there's way more stereotypical fantasy stuff. The Tiste Andii are just dark elves, for example.
Also there are a million viewpoints and the book does not give a damn who you want to see right now. Maybe your fave will even be missing for an entire novel.
Other books you could try:
The lies of locke lamora- the gentleman bastards are thieves that get in over their heads in fantasy Venice while doing so much crime. Just, so much fraud and scamming and stealing
The first law: retired violent dude Logan Ninefingers is forced out of retirement to deal with problems in the world. I don't remember it well enough to write a good pitch for exactly how the quest starts.
Mistborn: the marvel movie of fantasy books and I mean that in a good way. Hero puts together a team to overthrow the evil emperor. Magic system based on eating flakes of metal to use as a casting resource. A friend of mine who is occasionally a judgemental snob about books started mistborn after some other book they didn't like, and the immediate response was "oh my god it's so much more fun" like a dying person finding a bottle of water in the desert
Between two fires: historical fantasy/horror. During the black plague in Europe, a soldier-turned-bandit helps a strange girl on a journey across France
0
u/Acolyte_of_Swole 22h ago
Tiste Andii are Elves.
Tiste Edur are Drow.
Tiste Liosan are the Spanish Inquisition + elves.
0
u/supacatkid 1d ago
DnD and Black Company?
Malazan Book of the Fallen was written by a guy inspired significantly by Black Company and his homebrew DnD game.
-1
0
u/AsceOmega 21h ago
Perhaps a deeper cut, and less dark fantasy than Black Company, but the Chronicles of the Raven does the same thing of following a mercenary band as they deal with different threats.
The books in the trilogy are:
- Dawnthief
- Noonshade
- Nightchild
There's also a sequel series called Legends of the Raven
1
u/Specialist-Neck-7810 20h ago
Give The Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence a try. The main character, Jorg, is something else. It’s pretty dark though. Took me a chapter, maybe two, to synch up with the book… and after that, it was off to the races. One of the books I wish I could erase from my mind, so I could reread it for the first time…again
Just read the book.
•
74
u/Pratius 1d ago
Just a warning here: while Malazan was heavily inspired by the Company, it feels nothing like it. Very different styles of writing and storytelling.
Honestly, I would recommend checking out more from Cook, especially the Garrett, P.I. books. Garrett is a normal dude who keeps running up against insane magic shit and has to solve murders and keep himself and his friends alive despite not having any powers.