The Black Company

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One needs to play close attention though. While this is not of the same complexity as Mazalan, there is no spoonfeeding either. The narrator knows his world, his fictional audience knows his world too, and as this is a naturalistic story the result is that nothing is explained. The reader has to be sharp enough to fit the pieces together. Most negative reviews I read boiled down to: "this was too difficult for me, I didn't get it" which translates too: "I didn't feel like paying attention", since this book is not about rocket science and perfectly clear if you put in some effort. The fact that Cook takes his readers serious is a welcome diversion from so much recent speculative fiction whose redundant glossaries only serve to signal that its world building tries to be on the same intricate level as Dune. No maps either, by the way.

Another selling point was the magic: none of the overwrought systems like Sanderson, but just wizards being able to do cool stuff just because. Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening indeed. While published in the 1980s, this aspect of the novel felt very fresh somehow: an author not trying to come up with some bullshit convoluted rules to justify handwavium, but instead an author just letting his imagination run where it takes him, invoking awe and good old fashioned fun at the same time. This is not entertainment disguised as something serious, The Black Company is something serious that's also entertaining.

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Please read the full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It