The Silver Spike

Chronicles of the Black Company

By: Glen Cook

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 11 hrs

Publisher's summary

....embedded in the trunk of the scion of the godtree, it contains the essence of the maddest of the Ten Who Were Taken...The Dominator.

Defeated by the Lady and cast from this world, all that was left of him was a foul trace of lingering evil. But the graveyard that was once the Barrowland contains more secrets than dead. All who would possess the power of the Dominator are drawn to the spike. A foolhardy band of thieves is the first to reach it, and a rapacious and malign spirit is unleashed on an unwary world. The forces gather, sides are drawn, and mortal men can only die as the Dark Lords battle for domination.

Listen to more in the Black Company series.

©1989 Glen Cook (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Great book!

I loved the performance of this great book!
The story is really well written, especially if The Black Company has already been read.

Angst and glory

I’d forgotten how painful this book was when I first read it thirty years ago. It says it’s a standalone, but I don’t see how you really understand what the Black Company has been through without it. Plus, Toadkiller Dog is a great character.

The narrator’s voice is a dream and his voice-acting skills are among the best I’ve heard. Since he’s not speaking from Croaker’s pov, it blends beautifully with the first books.

What follows in the next paragraph is kind of a spoiler. I won’t give it away completely, but stop here if you don’t want to know anything at all before you read this one.

This book broke my heart with so much character loneliness and death, including that of a man whose whole life had been loneliness and death. If you know the Black Company, you know who it is. Damn you, Glen Cook, for making me feel that one so much, I cried into my pillow.

Good book

Great series . Glen Cook writes fantasy with realism. Audible has had two great speakers perform this series with extreme talent

perfect

oh I wished the book wouldn't end. What a story. The Limper! Sheesh, I'm down to just the last sequel yet to be released. (Hope it's not the last Glen, Plz keep them coming.,)

Great spinoff book

First of all, I like Mr. Davis way more as Case than as Murgen. Even though he eventually comes into the latter role, his performance in this book is solid from the very start. Secondly, I didn't notice this book at first, and finished the whole main series before coming back to this. I was not disappointed. Another great story from Glen Cook, and one that satisfies my wonder for what was going on in the north as the Company headed south.

it's a story

I'm assuming you've gone through the first 3 books. with that in mind it's a good story that wraps up the Darling story line from what I can tell (I have gotten to the rest of the main story yet). I'd recommend you give it a go even though it isn't main story. with that all in mind I'm a bit sad that Darlings story ended in a side novel that is easily missed.

Best of the Series

I have to preface this by saying Croaker is awesome, and Mark Vietor was born to read the Black Company.

However, now that I have finished the entire series, I look back at this one as my favorite. Johnathan Davis does an excellent job as the narrator, and it is a worthwhile departure from Croaker's voice and tale. I liked the new characters (notably toad killer dog's POV), and the plot was concise and interesting. This did feel like a later insert (which it was chronologically), but it flowed with the overall arc well.

If you only read the Books of the North, and SS, that may be good enough. The Books of the South and especially Glittering Stone slow the plot waaaay down, and although you find out more history of the Company, they just aren't as good as these four ~10 hour books. The plot just flies by.

A refreshing side tale

This is a side tale to the chronicles of the Black Company, however, it really sings and it is possible it has the most satisfying conclusion of all of them. This is one to get.

Liked the old narrator

I never thought the narrator mattered that much. I really liked the old one and I just can’t get into it without him.

Awesome.

The only way I can describe this series, the only way to do it justice, to give you a sense of the scope of the story is this: it's like reading a Vietnam War story set in a world of fantasy.