Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Tor Books (1997), Edition: 1st, 384 pages
Description
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 fastness 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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member TadAD
We continue with Murgen as a narrator, who just doesn't work for me. The story is a mass of loose ends.
LibraryThing member saltmanz
This the third book in a six-volume saga, begun in Shadow Games, that is richer and more rewarding than the original Black Company trilogy. Unlike those stories, these books don't stand on their own; instead, each book builds on previous volumes, slowly revealing the threat of the plain of
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Glittering Stone and the Company's fate. With that in mind, I think this is the best book of the series thus far. I enjoyed Murgen as narrator and am sad to see him go (by which I mean only that he's not narrating the next book.) The last couple of pages contain a whopper of a cliffhanger ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member iayork
It Is Immortality Of A Sort: She is the Darkness is the second of the 'Murgen' chronicles, which tell the story of the Black Company's final struggle with the shadowmasters and the factions fighting for power in Taglios. The latter, almost without exception, would like to see Croaker's band of
Murgen is a pure storytelling device. Unlike other narrators or annalists, Murgen is separated from the action by his role as ethereal spy. A paranoid sorcerer called Smoke lies in a coma, and the company has found that it is possible to ride Smoke's spirit like a spy plane. Murgen spends his time visiting both the present and the past and actually gets to do remarkable little. As a result the reader is one extra remove from what is actually going on. He's not spectacularily bright or talented either, so there are moments when the reader has a better idea of what is going to happen and can even tell it better. Murgen thinks the book is about him, and that he is a victim of circumstance and the plotting of others. The truth is that he brings many of his woes down on himself, and when offered opportunities to take his own action, he just retreats into Smoke.
In a sense Glen Cook has done the same thing. The story is richly detailed - a gritty fantasy with a Southeast Asian setting. The main characters are vivid with complicated problems to solve, but Cook keeps too many secrets, always introducing more questions than he resolves. She is the Darkness has a lot of loose ends to tie off before it comes to its grand cliffhanger of an ending. However, once embarked on this strange journey, the reader will find this a hard book to put down. But don't expect pat answers. Cook has never been one to lead you to the obvious.
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mercenaries dead and gone. They only argue about exactly when the gala event will occur. Driven by a desire to return to their origin in Khatovar the company is really intent on reaching the Shadowgate and finding out what is beyond it. Unfortunately enemies old and new seem determined to get in the way. Murgen is a pure storytelling device. Unlike other narrators or annalists, Murgen is separated from the action by his role as ethereal spy. A paranoid sorcerer called Smoke lies in a coma, and the company has found that it is possible to ride Smoke's spirit like a spy plane. Murgen spends his time visiting both the present and the past and actually gets to do remarkable little. As a result the reader is one extra remove from what is actually going on. He's not spectacularily bright or talented either, so there are moments when the reader has a better idea of what is going to happen and can even tell it better. Murgen thinks the book is about him, and that he is a victim of circumstance and the plotting of others. The truth is that he brings many of his woes down on himself, and when offered opportunities to take his own action, he just retreats into Smoke.
In a sense Glen Cook has done the same thing. The story is richly detailed - a gritty fantasy with a Southeast Asian setting. The main characters are vivid with complicated problems to solve, but Cook keeps too many secrets, always introducing more questions than he resolves. She is the Darkness has a lot of loose ends to tie off before it comes to its grand cliffhanger of an ending. However, once embarked on this strange journey, the reader will find this a hard book to put down. But don't expect pat answers. Cook has never been one to lead you to the obvious.
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LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
She is the Darkness was a bloody slog. It follows a long, boring, mostly uneventful military campaign from the eyes of the recently-bereaved and endlessly whiny Murgen. I know you're sad, dude, but I don't want to hear it any more. There's yet more hinting and mincing around the mystery of the
I kept reading, but it was tough.
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Company's origins, but it still doesn't really go anywhere - even at the end, when they're presumably on their way home. They do idiotic things like keeping terribly dangerous enemies around in handcuffs instead of sensibly chopping them into small pieces, with predictable results (over and over again! These people never learn,) and since the viewpoint character is neither in charge nor actually on the front lines, at least 75% of the action is at least one step removed from immediacy.I kept reading, but it was tough.
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LibraryThing member malexmave
This book did not work out for me at all. It consistently failed to hold my attention, and I found myself going back to podcasts or music again and again, instead of listening to the audiobook. I think this means that I should drop the series for now and possibly come back later, if at all.
LibraryThing member Lucky-Loki
A terrific read, and one of the stronger books in an already strong series. It takes full advantage of having had the table set in the previous two volumes, and the pace is brisk and exciting as a result, even by the Black Company's already fairly high standards in that regard. My main gripe is
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that the book continues past its natural conclusion. It's all about the siege of Overlook and the fight against Langshadow, until that plot is (satisfactorily) resolved, and then, the book just continues, with a big chunk of pages yet to go. What follows is really all just set up for the next book, I imagine, and it continues on until a huge, exciting cliffhanger can be set up for the next installment. It's not that the novel is weak in this section, it's just that it feels a bit tacked on after what seemed the novel's natural conclusion. Though there are spoiler reasons why it probably had to be like that, I imagine. And otherwise, this was great. I even mostly enjoyed the dream sequences, and that never happens. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1997-09
Physical description
384 p.; 5.9 inches
ISBN
0312859074 / 9780312859077