Port of Shadows

A Novel of the Black Company

By: Glen Cook

Narrated by: Brian Troxell

Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

Port of Shadows is the newest dark fantasy audiobook in Glen Cook's esteemed Chronicles of the Black Company series. 

The father of Grimdark returns....

The soldiers of the Black Company don’t ask questions, they get paid. But being “The Lady’s favored” is attracting the wrong kind of attention and has put a target on their backs, and the Company’s historian, Croaker, has the biggest target of all. The one person who was taken into the lady’s tower and returned unchanged has earned the special interest of the court of sorcerers known as "The Ten Who Were Taken". 

Now, he and the company are being asked to seek the aid of their newest member, Mischievous Rain, to break a rebel army. However, Croaker doesn’t trust any of the Taken, especially not ones who look so much like the lady and her sister....

The Chronicles of the Black Company:

1. The Chronicles of The Black Company
2. The Books of the South
3. The Return of The Black Company
4. The Many Deaths of the Black Company

©2018 Glen Cook (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

No disrespect but I personally prefer Marc Vietor

I'm just here to piss and moan about the narrator. Ostensibly the reason Marc was not casted for this project was because of the change in publishing- Audible V. Macmillan. The new narrator gives the story a feeling of Black Company fanfiction. I started following the Black Company after book three of the Malazan series when they replaced Ralph Lister with Michael Paige and this juxtaposition is just as jarring. Paige is phenomenal in the Lies of Locke Lamora, as I'm sure Troxell is in other series, but this ain't it chief.

Lacking

The Black Company series is one of my favorites; right up there with Tolkien imho. This one fell short. Too few tricks. Too few tactics. Not enough grit. The humor was off. It just didn't feel like I was a member of the Company. Add to that a completely different narrator, and it just wasn't there. The redeeming quality? The epilogue. I like the was the story was "discovered." I hope more turn up, but are more like the originals.

Just not good

I am a huge black company fan. The story was bad. It made no sense to me. I honestly feel like mr. cook wrote it because he was obligated to buy contract. It had the feeling of not wanting to be written and just thrown together for the sake of putting out the book. When I reread the entire series, as I have three or four times already. I will completely skip this book and act like it was never written.

Good Story not so Good Ending

I enjoyed the story, there is a lot going on in here and a lot of additional backstories. The same kind of creative imagination I'm used to jumping into from the other Black Company books. There is a noticeable absence of first hand accounts of the battles, but I personally did not need that to enjoy the book. I enjoyed all the new characters introduced. My only gripe is the choice the author made at the end of the story, which I dont want to spoil the ending so I won't spell it out. I understand that he was trying to shoehorn this in between the other books, but I felt that he went a little overboard with the manner that he did it. Overall, I still like the book, and think it is worth reading if ur a Black Company fan.

fanfiction...

This book didn't have any of the same feel as the others and seemed like fanfiction.

This is an add on book. Doesn’t follow timeline

This book does not follow the timeline of the black company. Apparently, it was written many years later. It is unnecessary. The story is rambling and some of it doesn’t make sense. You can skip this one.

It's fine, but forgettable.

If you can get it for free than give it a listen, but honestly it isnt that great, either compared to his other work or stand alone.
I just started re-reading the Black Company and I had forgotten just how engaging the first few books are. So comparing this, which is set between two of the books, is justified. It doesnt have the same magic and falls flat like most of the other books later in the series.
Wanted to like it, I just cant.

Another amazing book!!!

If you like the Black Company you’ll love this one!!!

I love all of Glenn Cook’s work!!!

Not The Same

The voice actor is taking away from the story. The story is fine but the overall performance just sucks. Croaker doesn’t sound like Croaker. Bring back Mark V. For Croaker.

Not great - Kinda Sick

Though I love the earlier Black Company books, this is not a good heir to the series. There is little action, almost no Black Company tickery or strategy and very bland revisiting of the characters.

Probably most important, the pedophilia in this book is strong. It's got a lot of perverted old man lusting after children themes and underthemes. It's like Nabokov took a hundred viagra.