Glen Cook – The White Rose (1985) Review

8.5/10

The third novel in the Black Company series, and much has changed for the Company. In the first book they were a large and powerful company and hired by, arguably, the side of evil. Now, they are a small gang of veterans, vulnerable, and found new purpose in the protection of the White Rose and are hunted by that very evil that once paid them. Hardly a Company. The series has shaped itself into a form that is more recognisable as a classic tale of underdogs versus evil empire. The turning point for the Company occurred in the second novel, Shadows Linger (1984), and here the consequences of their actions become clear. They are the underdogs now, the rebels, and will they win through? Or will this be the end of the Black Company?

The book has three plot lines and I wasn’t a fan of that, because it made the forward motion of the novel sluggish. Only one of them features the Black Company, and for the longest time they don’t do much except staying holed up in the desert. What the other plot lines do, though, is informing us about some essential background about the resurrection of the Lady in the past by the sorcerer Bomanz, and this information is relevant for the Black Company’s ultimate confrontation with her.

I grew to like that plot line, though. The characterisation of Bomanz and his wife, kid and friends are very well done. His conversations with the people around him are heartfelt and tell us much about their personalities. Cook put such a human face on what used to be a figure of legend, the legendary sorcerer who released the Lady. Suddenly he is a frail old man with a troubled marriage and lost hopes and dreams; suddenly he is a wonderful part of the history of this world, and an equally wonderful part of the novel. But Cook putting so much energy and so many pages into these flashback timelines makes me wonder what the true focus is of the novel. It is not solely the Black Company’s travels that we are looking at now, but the whole timeline of the resurrection of the Lady. We see the comet and the struggle as it happened many years ago, and we see similarly weighty events now, which puts the Black Company in the middle of history.

One thing I like so much about Cook’s imagination is that he adds little twinges of weirdness into his military fantasy. On the one hand, this is a story about a mercenary company and a rebellion, on the other, it has walking trees, talking menhirs, flying carpets and a dog named Toadkiller Dog who gets angry if you don’t pronounce his name in full. Cook adds these fanciful elements to lighten the reading experience of what would otherwise be a bleak story. It also has mysteries to ponder while you’re reading, such as the new character Tracker. What’s his story? And what did really happen when Bomanz released the Lady?

Much of the novel is about holding faith. The Company holds faith in Darling, and hold faith that even though their group has been decimated and on the run, there is still hope. Darling holds faith in the rebellious passions of her followers. And finally, the personal connection between Croaker and the Lady, which is so mysterious for us but shows a side of the Lady that may be seen as human, is also about faith. Croaker is asked to have faith, or rather, is invited to ruminate over it and decide for himself. Loneliness is also a major theme. All the major characters feel cut off from the rest of the people they associate with. There is a constant tension between characters where they wonder how deeply friendships actually go.

The White Rose is once again a fantastic entry in what is becoming one of my favourite fantasy series of all time. Structurally it is the weakest of the first three novels, but it has the most interesting magic and creatures, and some characters like Darling, the Lady and Croaker gain depth. There are revelations that made me jump up in shock, moments of human connection that I found touching, antics between One-Eye and Goblin that made me laugh – I love those guys – and some really strange magical stuff that I’ve never seen anywhere else. And some magic that I have seen elsewhere: the novel has an exact copy of what is known as an Azath House in Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series. The whole story in Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon with the release of the Jaghut Tyrant and his imprisonment in the Azath feels taken in its entirety from the story of the Dominator in The White Rose.