Black Company Week 1: Chapter 1 (Legate)

[DEVILDAVE]

actualy its starting too become easyer to read an understand, tho I'm glad I read erickson before....an really getting into it now, happy days.

[DiscoGobbo]

Disco, it isn't so much that the protagonists are briefly sketched as much as they are passive. Nothing they decide seems to change the story in any direction.

It goes right back into the soldier mentality. You don't go where you want, you go where you're told.

This discussion is great just for the number of times I've read what people thought and said to myself, "Heh. Yeah..." 

This poses a bit of a dilemma for me then. The characters are boring and the result of too much copy/paste and their threatened demise doesn't generate drama. The plot (such as it is) is strictly reactionary and the narrator isn't interested in narrating. There are no women characters thus far. 

I may just read it to watch the train wreck.

Sounds like you've already made up your mind then.

[Arry]

Disco, it isn't so much that the protagonists are briefly sketched as much as they are passive. Nothing they decide seems to change the story in any direction.

It goes right back into the soldier mentality. You don't go where you want, you go where you're told.

This discussion is great just for the number of times I've read what people thought and said to myself, "Heh. Yeah..." 

This poses a bit of a dilemma for me then. The characters are boring and the result of too much copy/paste and their threatened demise doesn't generate drama. The plot (such as it is) is strictly reactionary and the narrator isn't interested in narrating. There are no women characters thus far. 

I may just read it to watch the train wreck.

Sounds like you've already made up your mind then.

Yep, there are all sorts of different styles of books for a reason, everyone enjoys different things, and there is truly nothing wrong with that. I suspect if you feel this strongly at this point, this book is one that will never please you. I haven't read much past Chapter 1 yet, so I can't say how it progresses/develops, but gauging by your reaction, it seems it doesn't matter what it does, just the general style/story line/premise of the book is not going to satisfy what you are looking for.

[DEVILDAVE]

go with the flow it gets better an clicks together an u get used too the style, I don't like to start with but can't put down now

[xiagan]

Interesting. I had no idea we were reading another vampire book And this one with a wereleopard (or man-leopards or forvalakas).

Exactly what I thought! I don't think it plays that big a role, though.

And Mercenaries I guess lessoned learned, if you ever need to sign a contract/commission with some, you should remember to put “Do not allow assassins or creatures such as the forvalaka in to kill me when you want out of the contract”. Especially if you are the sort of leader that needs to hire mercenaries to protect you from your own troops. 

Yeah, it's an interesting world/city. I had big problems getting in because he uses a lot of not so common words (harder to read for me than normally) and because you get just thrown in and know nothing about it.

I’m left with more questions than comments at the end of this. I am liking it. Obviously, we are still piecing together what’s happening.

Absolutely. I'm liking it too and it's starting to get even more interesting in the next chapter.

I'm agreeing with Fellshot about 3rd person, but not about him being dull. I think his viewpoint adds interesting bits, I just would have preferred more than one viewpoint.

So my first impressions: I haven't a clue what's going on! I'm finding the narrative very disjointed and there isn't much description to help, or the description focusses on the minutae rather than explaining things. The end of chapter one gave a hint of more interesting things to follow but I don't know what! Really hoping it picks up.

Yeah, I felt the same, but luckily it got better in chapter two.

[AlmightyZael]

Not reading this as part of the book club, but as I'm reading it while you guys are I might as well chip in

So far I'm liking it. I'm about halfway through chapter 2, and will be done with chapter 3 tonight.

It's a weird one for me. It's so vague, yet so descriptive. You have no idea what's going on but you can follow along easily enough. I really think it's like you've just joined the Company, and Croaker has been assigned to take you through initiation 

I also love the names - they're so obscure and relevant. Must. Read. More.

[Fellshot]

Disco, it isn't so much that the protagonists are briefly sketched as much as they are passive. Nothing they decide seems to change the story in any direction.

It goes right back into the soldier mentality. You don't go where you want, you go where you're told.

This discussion is great just for the number of times I've read what people thought and said to myself, "Heh. Yeah..." 

This poses a bit of a dilemma for me then. The characters are boring and the result of too much copy/paste and their threatened demise doesn't generate drama. The plot (such as it is) is strictly reactionary and the narrator isn't interested in narrating. There are no women characters thus far. 

I may just read it to watch the train wreck.

Sounds like you've already made up your mind then.

Yep, there are all sorts of different styles of books for a reason, everyone enjoys different things, and there is truly nothing wrong with that. I suspect if you feel this strongly at this point, this book is one that will never please you. I haven't read much past Chapter 1 yet, so I can't say how it progresses/develops, but gauging by your reaction, it seems it doesn't matter what it does, just the general style/story line/premise of the book is not going to satisfy what you are looking for.

Considering my ability to get satisfaction out of books for "just what they are" has a truly abysmal success rate, I'll settle for pointing and laughing instead. I like most of the antagonists so far because the people who scare the mercenaries are interesting.

Also I'm more than halfway through. Might as well finish it as I haven't found the rest of my TBR books yet (I just moved).

[Jaedia]

Impressions so far: do not read when trying not to nod off because you really wanted to squeeze in some reading time before sleeping, and YAY WIZARDS!

[Winston]

I'm another one who has struggled with the story voice. I have read chapter to two or three and it is okay.

I like the idea of the story and that has helped me keep going but I put it down and am not sure if I can it back up again.

[Jaedia]

I'm another one who has struggled with the story voice. I have read chapter to two or three and it is okay.

I like the idea of the story and that has helped me keep going but I put it down and am not sure if I can it back up again.

Aww that's a shame. I'm not too far in yet but loving the story voice. Okay so I feel as though some things are skipped ahead, like.. suddenly there are riots, but I'm sure I'll get used to that soon.

[AlmightyZael]

Yeah, this seems to be avoiding the stereotypical line break to indicate a jump in time. One paragraph to the next is a completely different day or week.
The pacing is nice though.
I wish things were explained a teeny bit more, rather than just waiting for you to grasp the concepts being mentioned.

[Jaedia]

I went to bed at about 9 or 10, laid down and got comfy, opened up my copy of the book, read a couple of pages and half an hour later released I'd read the same paragraph several times without taking it in and had mostly been staring at the wall listening to the terrible live music down the road. I'm not giving it up yet, especially after reading some of your comments on how you get used to the writing style and I'm only on page 20, but I'm worried this one might not be for me after all.

[Arry]

I'll be honest, part of the reason why it has remained on my TBR list for so long, is that from reviews I have seen, it seems to be a polarizing (or marmite) book. Seems to be people either love it, or they hate it. But I will say of the people who love it, there does seem to be a consensus that it might take a little while until you get fully absorbed in it, but that they felt it was really worth it.

[Ken]

I found the first part hard to get into as well. I was close to the end of chapter one when I finally realised the narrator is Croaker. I think the first chapter would have helped with a bit more background and context.

At the moment I found myself going with the flow even though I have no idea what's going on.

[Arry]

At the moment I found myself going with the flow even though I have no idea what's going on.

That's exactly what I did/am doing.