Soldiers live. And wonder why.This book is the culmination of all the Taglian centered Black Company novels. It is a fitting end to the book of Croaker, as we have slowly seen the old guard phased out over the novels since the White Rose.Much to my enjoyment, Croaker is finally back as Company Annalist. Too old to be Captain, he has returned to his old duties as medical expert as well. As much as I enjoyed Sleepy's narration in Water Sleeps, it was nice to come full circle for this last chapter.After briefly setting the stage, we are treated to immediate action straight out the [shadow]gate. A bounty of old and new enemies await the return of the Company. Old nemeses including Soulcatcher, Mogaba, Narayan Singh, and the goddess Kina are all back to vie for our heroes' ire.All of the protagonists have grown significantly during their years of downtime in the Land of Unknown Shadows, a world adequately explored but not lingered on for too long. Most noticeably, Tobo has developed into a formidable sorcerer, wielding control over countless unseen shadows. Yet his power is constantly tested against his own corruptible youth. His struggles with maturity and emotions in the face of his immense capabilities is one of the highlights of this book.Croaker has become the grumpy old man he always feared he would. Sidelined in decision-making, it is almost a return to the original trilogy where his activities run parallel, but not overlapping, with the Company's interests. His relationship with a severely aged Lady is much more domesticated, although we still see flares of passion from both. Lady has mellowed some, but she still retains her cold-hearted core which makes her such an intense character.Sleepy is now every bit the hardass Captain we foresaw in Water Sleeps. She is unbelievably driven towards goals more suited to the old guard members. Croaker seems correct in assuming that she is still running from the pain of her own past.However, the true highlight of this book are the POV chapters from Mogaba. He, too, has aged and matured greatly over the course of the Taglian books. In my opinion, he is the strongest character in the entire series. Finally, we are given insight into the mind of a brilliant general who is filled with a lifetime worth of regrets. He holds no malice or hatred toward his former brothers; there is only disappointment in himself. We see him actively fighting his own arrogance, which still haunts him like a demon, as he is cursed to serve incompetent masters one after the other. However, though Mogaba's conclusion is satisfying and appropriate, it was a little frustrating to be denied a final confrontation between him and Croaker/Murgen.The only other complaint I have about the book is that Soulcatcher is completely underused. Her presence is overshadowed almost entirely by the other villains, though her tumultuous relationship with her sister and Croaker is maintained throughout. The upside to this is it allows for Mogaba to act as the main antagonist for the majority of the book.Soldiers Live is an excellent ending to the old guard of the Black Company. There is plenty of action and intrigue throughout, capped off with a surprisingly touching and downplayed final act.
This is the best book I've ever read. If you think of the movies, "The Godfather" 1 and 2, and think of your favorite scenes. If the Black company series were "The Godfather" 1 and 2, this book contains all of your favorite parts. I could gush for pages and pages and pages about how good this book is. Let me instead focus on a couple specific elements. One of the best things about the Black company is their ability to take someone prisoner or hostage, and after hanging out with the company for a while, the prisoner is interested in joining up. This isn't Stockholm's syndrome from systematic abuse. It is more about the inherent freedom in the Company. Joining up is a way to escape your past, and see the world. Spending time with the company will show you this, and also show you enough of the world to understand how crappy your little piece of it used to be. There is a group of teenage brats that end up prisoners of the company. Some of them stick, some of them don't, but the character growth of those who do is very rewarding.Another great thing about the Black Company is the interpersonal relationships. The love affair between Croaker and The Lady is so non-traditional that it can take you off guard. It doesn't follow the predictable formula of "True Love" as it has been define by modern pop culture, but the great feelings between the two, and their inability to express them touched me in a way that I never thought would come out of such Cynical, gritty novels as this. When Croaker adopts the brats mentioned above, they are not a traditional family. But, somehow that just makes the bonds so much more impressive. When you put the unwanted and unwilling together and let them grow, it is so much more impressive than a growth from more fertile soil.I love this book. You should read it. My opinion is that you should read the entire series starting with Shadow Games. Go back and read the Books of the North later.
What do You think about Soldiers Live (2001)?
This finishes out the story arc involving the dark goddess Kina and the South, and it's a very good entry in the series, though a lot of its emotional power (tho by no means all of it) is derived from familiarity with the characters gleaned from previous books. I can't think of a loose end that the book didn't at least touch on. Many, many people die, and some seemingly randomly... But in a way that's realistic for a war, and the characters so disposed of were ones who were just drifting along for the ride anyway, having served their narrative purpose in previous books.The book comes full circle, with Croaker finally returning as the narrator. It's good to hear his voice again, familiar but very much changed by all the things he's experienced and his advancing age. And it's not all tying up loose ends: Even this late in the game, new characters and situations (particularly those involving a family of sorcerers they discover on one world connected to the Glittering Plain) become very important in terms of resolving the action. The characters of Arkana and Sukrat are particularly amusing, IMHO...Overall, I'd say the Southern story arc is very good and very satisfying. My only quibbles are it's perhaps overlong (several books longer than the original White Rose story arc) and the big, big stumbling block that is the first book with Murgen as narrator. (In fact, I didn't mourn Murgen at all when he passed away...)
—Kirt
A weirdly quiet and sedate ending to the entire series.It's great that we have Croaker back so the series begins as it ended, but the plot is just too odd and incomplete. Everything happens too easily - I began worrying as I started the book, there were too many loose ends and nothing set up for a grand ending, and that's exactly what happened. We have the Black Company at the start overpowered as usual, as it has since Smoky started napping, with the further assistance of an even more overpowered demon; they slice through resistance with the greatest of ease, enemies like Soulcatcher or Booboo or Goblin go down trivially, and even the final defeat of Kina comes as trivial anticlimax (how the deuce did it make a lick of sense that the ancient gods couldn't destroy Kina if a little hedge wizard's spear and an exploding airplane can do the trick?!). The 'twist' ending is not shocking or compelling, and my reaction was 'oh. Well, that's nice for Croaker, I guess.' I'm sure there's all good explanations in-universe along the lines of 'the demon was helping them the entire time and eg. that's why the forvalaka dies so easily', but an explanation is just an explanation and it doesn't rescue a bad story.I'm left just shaking my head, wondering what went wrong. Why did Cook go to such lengths to introduce a character as powerful and hence game-breaking as Tobo while implying a narrative of power-corrupts which never goes anywhere besides one or two instances of revenge? Why did he make the demon so cooperative? Why did he make the Howler die, in what must be the *only* instance in the entire damn series where a Taken dies and stays dead?! And so on and so forth. Reading through some interviews with Cook, I find myself wondering if he just wanted to stop the series and didn't really try hard on the ending - he certainly comes off as cynical and mercenary about writing, with little of Croaker's faith in the power of the Annals. Looking back, many of the books in _The Black Company_ were weak enough that I can't really blame him for intending to stop with the first one, but now that I'm done, I'm not sure I'll bother with any future books in the universe (apparently he has one or two in the pipeline).Although the title is excellent and used well.
—Gwern
3.5 stars.Soldiers Live marks the end of the Glittering Stone sub series. I liked the way the book was written, it goes back to Croaker as being the narrator. I have always enjoyed his point of view the most. I do find it amazing that the author is able to write books differently based upon which character is narrating. I wasn't a big fan of the ending, it seemed kind of anti-climactic to me. Whatever else you say about it one thing is for sure, this book marks the end of an era. It's just as well this is currently the last book written as I am ready for a break from the series. I will probably return to it at a later time.
—Bookman
