Fantasy Book Club – February 2013: The Black Company by Glen Cook

February marks the first month of our new themed and subgenre based book club selections. Since we did a very different steampunk book for December and vampires in January, I looked for a return to the basics and a chance to visit one of the older works that helped build the genre. With the first theme set to Pre-2000 Classic/General Fantasy, readers selected Glen Cook’s The Black Company. We will be reading book #1 in the series next month.

“Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead.

Until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her…

So begins one of the greatest fantasy epics of our age—Glen Cook’s Chronicles of the Black Company.” – Amazon

Buy on Amazon US
Buy on Amazon UK

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Want to join in?

If you would like to join us you can visit our forums and add your name to the list here. Want to know how our Book Club works first? Read on!

Choosing a Book

All books are nominated and voted on by our members. Each month we will have a theme or subgenre for the nominations. Anyone can nominate a book and everyone can vote. To see what we’re reading in March click here. And check back soon to help pick a book for April.

Suggesting A Theme/Subgenre For Upcoming Months

We want to make sure to put out themes/genres that people are interested in and cover a wide selection of books. We are happy to get suggestions and ideas for upcoming months. If you have something you would like to see us do in the future, please share it here.

Spoiler Free Discussion

Fantasy Book Club begins on the 1st of every month. Once a book is started, we discuss it in a way that will not spoil the story. We limit how much you can discuss and when, and break it down by week.

Week 1 – You may only discuss the first 1/4 of the book
Week 2 – You may only discuss the first 1/2 of the book
Week 3 – You may only discuss the first 3/4 of the book
Week 4 – Anything goes

We are going to go based on page count. So for example, if a book has 500 pages then week one you can discuss up to page 125 and then week two 250 and so on. Each week will have a separate thread, so as not to spoil the story for people who fall behind or come in late.

What if you want to read faster than that?

Not a problem at all. You are more than welcome to read ahead, but when discussing things just remember to post in the appropriate thread. And if you’re not sure when something happened you can always use the spoiler tag to hide your post.

Should you not want any spoilers or discussion during the reading process, then just come after the end of week three and start discussing the book once you have finished. (This is how most book clubs operate anyway.)

We would love for you to join us! You can sign up for this month’s book club here or visit our book club section to see all our past selections here.

Happy Reading!

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