She Is the Darkness

Chronicles of The Black Company, Book 7

By: Glen Cook

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

The wind whines and howls with bitter breath. Lightning snarls and barks. Rage is an animate force upon the plain of glittering stone. Even shadows are afraid. At the heart of the plain stands a vast grey stronghold, unknown, older than any written memory. One ancient tower has collapsed across the fissure. From the heart of the vastness comes a great, deep, slow breath like that of a slumbering world-heart, cracking the olden silence.

Death is eternity. Eternity is stone. Stone is silence. Stone cannot speak, but stone remembers.

So begins the next movement of Glittering Stone....The tale again comes to us from the pen of Murgen, Annalist and Standard Bearer of the Black Company, whose developing powers of travel through space and time give him a perspective like no other.

Led by the wily commander, Croaker, and the Lady, the Company is working for the Taglian government, but neither the Company nor the Taglians are overflowing with trust for each other. Arrayed against both is a similarly tenuous alliance of sorcerers, including the diabolical Soulcatcher, the psychotic Howler, and a four-year-old child who may be the most powerful of all.

Listen to more in the Black Company series.©1997 Glen Cook (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Much better

(Audiobook review) Much better than the previous book. The whole gang is back together, and the story advances forward. The weird time-travel-y stuff from the previous book is gone and cleaned up, too. Story is still kinda weird, and sometimes it is confusing what is going on, but this is more par for the course, now.

back on the right path

it's back to a much straighter and fast paced narrative than Bleak Seasons. A bit light on describing new places, but This series has always been that way.

One for the Annals...

After reading so much fantasy over my lifetime, this series has left me firmly at home on the edge of my seat....

Now we’re cookin!

Much love the written series, reread it many times. There are admittedly some rough spots in both the written and spoken previous annals of the Black Company. With this instillation you get EVERYTHING you wanted and more! I’m very much looking forward Water Sleeps and Soldiers Live on Audible.

Ok this book is the series back at it’s best

Great writing, compelling story, and our hero’s getting ground down that little bit more. This book made the previous two worth getting through

Good but confusing

The ghost-walking aspect of the story is interesting, but at the same time kinda breaks the universe. It’s under utilized and under appreciated (by the characters), and is mostly only used as a narrative device (by the author).

best yet., Iv followed the Company since the begin

best yet., Iv followed the Company since the beginning , Saw what was left of the Company after the Barrow land and disparaged the end , oh no it's not ending the journey continues How can it actually get better? it has...

A spectacle of storytelling craftsmanship

You can really tell that Jonathan Davis has settled into his role as Murgen in this entry in the series. He’s smoothed over the minor stumbling blocks he faced with Cook’s writing style in “Bleak Seasons”, especially in his tendency to use frequent small clauses in describing character actions. His voice has also grown into the role, where he subtly distinguishes each character.
As a novel I also have only glowing endorsements for this story. I personally enjoy Cook’s style of offering up large scale summaries of events (such as of the troop movements at the Battle of Charandaprash), but know that you will be in for having to really pay attention to the words to get a clear view of what’s going on. You may have to pause and back up a few times to map out events in your head, since Cook is an author who allows you to deduce the conclusions that characters may act on but not voice specifically. However, the high degree of interiority we get from Murgen helps this story feel very human-scale, where he is a semi-major player in events and is important to the most critical individuals.
Hey, if you’ve gotten this far (past the horrendous reading of Dreams of Steel in particular), may as well keep going.

great

loved this book Glen Cook amazing. Johnathan Davis amazing as well. holy crap listen and enjoy

still going strong

really enjoy this series even after all they been through the company still has lots to offer