Sumant's Reviews > Shadow Games

This book was some what let down for me as it did not live up to the standards set by first three books in the series, this book basically consists of journey of company back to Khatovar where they are going to place the annals of the company.More than 25% of book consisted of traveling different regions up to Beryl, where everything actually began in the first book.I forgot to mention in my last review but got to give credit to narrator of books Mark Vietor so far he has done an awesome job and he manages to convey the darkness associated with the black company books.

The story basically begins after barrowland where the company was almost decimated and now only seven of company men are left, having being elected captain Croaker decides that he needs to take the company back to Khatovar joining the ranks of company is the mysterious lady who lost all her magical powers after Silent took her name in the last book.The initial part of the journey where they head to Castle at charm to collect the annals was really enjoyable especially the way they tackle bandits.The journey after that gets interesting when they finally manage to reach Gea-Xle where they basically discover The Nar.

The Nar are basically somewhat like universal soldiers or perfect soldiers and they have been birthed by company men when they stayed in Gea-Xle for the longest duration of 56 years.Company helps fight the pirates for Gea-Xle but on their way they meet up with Radisha Drah,Willow Swann an imperial from the battle at charm and Cordy Mather and after traveling up river they arrive at Taglios where people seem to cheering for them.Croaker finds this suspicious from the start but things start getting clear when Prahbrindrah Drah tell him his real motive which is basically to fight the shadow masters who are a threat to Taglios.

The story definitely picks up after Taglios and ends definitely in a bitter state for the company, Cook has a penchant for writing fast and engrossing endings.The the issue I had with this book was basically all the haphazard names which he uses they are definitely hard to remember.The story also picked up for me at the ending of the book for me so i give it 3/5 stars.