First Book of the South

After the devastating battle at the Tower of Charm, Croaker leads the greatly diminished Black Company south, in search of the Lost Annals. The Annals will be returned to Khatovar, eight thousand miles away, a city that may exist only in legend... the origin of the first Free Companies.

Every step of the way the Company is hounded by shadowy figures and carrion-eating crows. As they march ever southward, through bug-infested jungle, rivers dense with bloodthirsty pirates, and cities, dead and living, haunted by the passage of the Company north, their numbers grow untill they are thousands strong.

But always they are watched – by the Shadowmasters – a deadly new enemy: twisted creatures that deal in darkness and death; powerful, shadowy creatures bent on smothering the world in their foul embrace. This is the first round in a deadly game, a game that the Black Company cannot lose – or hope to win.

Welcome to Shadow Games

Published
June 1989
Where to find this book
External links open a book search at the selected retailer. Availability may vary.
A Chronicle of the Black Company

The series

Full series details →

The series follows an elite mercenary unit, The Black Company, last of the Free Companies of Khatovar, through roughly forty years of its approximately four hundred year history. Cook mixes fantasy with military fiction in gritty, down-to-earth portrayals of the Company's chief personalities and its struggles.

Risingshadow

Rating distribution

How reader ratings are distributed across the 1–10 scale.

106
90
83
71
60
50
40
30
20
10
Risingshadow

Be the first reviewer

Sign in and write the first reader review.

Risingshadow

Readers Also Enjoyed