Bleak Seasons (seventh novel in the Black Company series)

(Originally posted on Saturday, 19 September 2009)

My rating: 8/10 (high re-reading value)
Please read my post from April 2009 to find out about my rating.
Please read my post from May 2009 to learn about Glen Cook’s style of writing.

[Short review]

What’s bad:
1) strange narration in the beginning (the first impression of Bleak Seasons is bad);
2) the timeframe is roughly the same as Dreams of Steel (the overall plot of the series stands almost still);
3) the narrator suffers from strange “attacks” and it seems as if he was travelling in time without any explanation to it,
4) toward the end of the book the narrator uses some magical “tool” to see things that are happening far away or things that happened in the past (silly and unrealistic idea even in a fantasy book, although it helps explain some issues and move the plot forward).

What’s good:
1) Glen Cook’s style of writing (except for the beginning);
2) the plot is interesting and gripping (this book was a page-turner to me);
3) it’s good to see what was happening to the core of the Black Company in the timeframe of Dreams of Steel;
4) realistic atmosphere in a besieged city;
5) I enjoyed it especially when the narrator was getting close to a family, which was not native to the besieged city and had nothing to do with the ongoing war, but was caught within together with everyone else.

I know that some readers hate Bleak Seasons and think it’s the worst book in the whole series. I totally disagree. It’s not the best but it’s not the worst either. Ignore the beginning and the rest is more than just good.
This is the only Black Company novel I want to re-read beside the original trilogy.
(8/10)