Port of Shadows
A Novel of the Black Company
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Port of Shadows
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Narrated by:
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Brian Troxell
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Written by:
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Glen Cook
About this listen
Port of Shadows is the newest dark fantasy audiobook in Glen Cook's esteemed Chronicles of the Black Company series.
The father of Grimdark returns…
The soldiers of the Black Company don’t ask questions, they get paid. But being “The Lady’s favored” is attracting the wrong kind of attention and has put a target on their backs, and the Company’s historian, Croaker, has the biggest target of all.
The one person who was taken into The Lady’s Tower and returned unchanged has earned the special interest of the court of sorcerers known as The Ten Who Were Taken. Now, he and the company are being asked to seek the aid of their newest member, Mischievous Rain, to break a rebel army. However, Croaker doesn’t trust any of the Taken, especially not ones that look so much like The Lady and her sister…
The Chronicles of the Black Company
#1 The Chronicles of The Black Company / #2 The Books of the South / #3 The Return of The Black Company / #4 The Many Deaths of the Black Company
What listeners say about Port of Shadows
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dylan
- 2019-07-27
Fits into the series perfectly.
Great story, I hope for more. Time to start re-reading again. More lost Black company annuls
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2021-02-21
Solid Performance - 'Meh' Material - Storyline
NO SPOILERS
Right off the top, I like Marc Vietor's voice best so far for this series and for the subject matter. His voice just jives with the world that you're getting yourself into.... the narrator for this one (while certainly not bad), just didn't do it for me as much as Vietor. However, this is entirely subjective on my part.
As I understand it, this is a later book in the series (having been published much later than the original books) and I only read it because it fits in the Black Company timeline (after doing some research because I want to go through the books in their chronolgical order). I am a bit of a completionist after all.
After going through the first book for the first time in my life (The Black Company: Chronicles of The Black Company, Book 1) and being totally drawn into this gritty world (with great narration by Marc Vietor-- that voice just takes the story to another level and really fits the subject matter), this next book felt out of place. Both the storyline and quality of writing dropped a notch or two for this Black Company adventure. After getting totally rolled over by that first book and how great it was, this was was certainly not more of the goodness that I wanted.
The story is certainly a B or C level plot; only giving you some additional background information (possibly-- nothing is certain here either) on the Lady and on the goings on of the Black Company before the next book. Considering how this book ends, the storyline here will probably have no baring and/or impact on the original books in the series (not to mention the fact that the author put this book out years after completing the original series). In my opinion, you can totally skip this book and go forward with the original books.
I found myself forcing myself through the book at times because I had no interest in the story at about the 25% - 40% mark. While the storyline had sparks of interest for me (more so the flashbacks from the past involving that necromancer character and the Lady's past as a young child in the Dominator's grasp), the current days activities of Croaker and the Black Company were the dullest parts (which were the majority of the book). I would of probably have enjoyed a prequel book of sorts; focused entirely on the past dealings and lives of some of the more iconic characters as opposed to the convoluted, uninteresting story that we got this time around.
I didn't like the soap opera feel of this one either. There is some outright laughable, 'cutesey' dialogue and a sitcom feeling to the whole thing (Croaker's sudden change of situation... familial situation we could say-- which the 'why' is ridiculous in itself) that really takes you out of the Black Company universe. The first book did such an amazing job of establishing a very bleak, morally barren and grim (believable-- no Saturday morning cartoons characters here folks) reality (with Croaker doing his best to navigate around the worst of it) that this book was a jarring change in tone.
Part of the appeal of Croaker is that he just another cog in the larger machine and as such, I like to pretend like I am reading the journal from the soldier's point of view. This book gives Croaker yet more importance that he does not and should not need; he comes off as even more ultra important to the Tower and this kinda kills the aura around him as just another slightly more than average joe (a bit of a thinker surrounded by jocks and soldier types).
The new Taken whom was introduced in this one (and her children) talked and acted in a way that had me disliking them from the start. They did not have any of the mystery or awe that the Taken in the original - first book have exuded. The character (so integral to the plot) was not particularly compelling or interesting and the back and forth between her and Croaker (and her children) felt out of place.
While this author has often been criticized for simplistic prose, I nonetheless found myself liking the first book and his style of writing all the same. While the writing is cut and dry, it is effective in presenting the world to the reader and I have no issues with the first book. Probably because I was so bored by this one, the writing was more glaringly bad and the choice of some of the words (modern vernacular straight out of the urban dictionary such as 'poon-tang') further brought me out of that world.
I think had the book not had any of the soap opera plot twists and had more of the original book's slow burn, suspense, I might've enjoyed the story a bit more.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2023-06-23
felt out of place
not a great storyline, didn't feel like it was croaker narrating this tale maybe because I just finished soldiers live.
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