Pranav Prabhu's Reviews > Shadow Games: The Fourth Chronicles of the Black Company: First Book of the South

The first Book of the South takes this series in a different but exciting new direction. Following the events of The White Rose, the hugely depleted Black Company sets out on a quest led by Croaker to find Khatovar, the origins of the mercenary group now lost to time in the distant South.

The travelling nature of the story led to an expansion of the world that I really enjoyed — discovering new lands and people and cultures as the Black Company retraces its past. The jungles of D’loc Aloc, the city of Gea-Xle, the sea voyage to the southern continent, and the nation of Taglios are all unique and interesting settings. This shift in focus, however, does not mean that the strengths of the previous instalments: the humour, banter, and military aspects are eschewed. They remain compelling features of the story, and the banter between the old guard of the Company is some of the best in the series so far.

The Shadowmaster Wars were engaging as well, as the Company is hired by the Prince of Taglios. The attempts by Croaker to make sense of the vast cultural and religious gap between them and the Taglian sects were both funny and interesting in how Cook deals with those aspects of the different settings. Croaker’s changing role within the Company was really well-done and promising for the future, although the book leaves off with a cliffhanger at the end.

My only semi-major complaint would be the non-Croaker PoVs, especially in the first half of the book. Once they intertwined with Croaker and the Company’s plot, they began to make more sense, but in this book alone, those characters didn’t really have much personality and did not hold my interest. Overall though, an excellent start to a new arc of the Black Company: great character dynamics, worldbuilding, and plot, with the shocking ending opening up a lot more questions left to be resolved.