A military fantasy book from a Vietnam war veteran and the father of grimdark. 
 The writing takes some getting used to in the beginning as you are thrown into the world with no idea whatsoever of what is happening and you have to figure it all out on your own while you continue reading. 
 There is no hand-holding and at times I felt like I was watching a David Lynch movie all over again in the sense that I wondered WHAT THE FAKK IS GOING ON. 
 We abjure labels. We fight for money and an indefinable pride. The politics, the ethics, the moralities, are irrelevant. 
 The Black Company is a band of mercenaries who fight for whoever pays them, in this specific case for the ultimate bad girl, the Lady, and against the Rebels, and its members are portrayed as neither really good nor bad here. 
 They have but two principles: Faithfully carrying out their current commission and watching out brotherly for their fellow company members. 
 Apart from that everyone in this book is devious, prevaricating, unpredictable, scheming people, just the degrees vary. 
 The story is told from the point of view of Croaker, the company's physician and annalist, and during the lecture you get the feeling that you are actually reading someone's memories rather than an author's book in spite of the fact that this is fantasy. Brilliant! Croaker is also a good choice as the narrator because he questions their course of actions and it adds further to the shades of grey which are part of what makes this book so good. 
 I am a haunted man. I am haunted by the Limper's screams. I am haunted by the Lady's laughter. I am haunted by my suspicion that we are furthering the cause of something that deserves to be scrubbed from the face of the earth. I am haunted by the conviction that those bent upon the Lady's eradication are little better than she. I am haunted by the clear knowledge that, in the end, evil always triumphs. Oh, my. 
 Then there is Raven. 
 He flicked a finger at a man surveying the gardens. His clothing was grey, tattered, and patched. He was of modest height, lean, dusky. Darkly handsome. 
 I guessed him to be in his late twenties. Unprepossessing.... Not really. On second glance you noted something striking. An intensity, a lack of expression, something in his stance. 
 He was not intimidated by the gardens. People looked and wrinkled their noses. They did not see the man, they saw rags. You could feel their revulsion. 
 Bad enough that we had been allowed inside. Now it was ragpickers. A grandly accoutred attendant went to show him an entrance he'd obviously entered in error. 
 The man came toward us, passing the attendant as if he did not exist. 
 I think I might be in love. 
 Even the most wicked of the company fear him for how cold, lethal and inscrutable he is, (view spoiler)[and his motives remain uncertain until the very end. (hide spoiler)] 
 If you assume this is all dark and grim, it mostly is, but then there are One-Eye and Goblin. Two of the Company's wizards constantly trying to outperform each other at making the other one's life just a little more miserable, and it makes for some good laughs. 
 A herd of minuscule lightning bugs poured out of One-Eye's nostrils. Good soldiers all, they fell into formation, spelling out the words Goblin is a Poof. 
 All of the side characters are interesting in their own way. Take Silent, for instance. He doesn't say a single word throughout the entire book, and yet he works as a side character. 
 Silent drifted into the clearing. He looked at me, at Raven, at the supplies, and did not say anything. Of course not. He is Silent. 
 Because of how the book is written. 
 Do I recommend this book? That depends entirely on you. It is dark, there is no hand holding, and nothing much seems to happen at times. 
 But if you like an author who has faith in the intelligence of his reader, if you prefer shades of grey to black and white, and if you like fun schemes and wicked people, this is a must read.