Morbidly addictive

Gallows humour meets action packed sci-fi narrated with a 5 star performance, cant complain.

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fantastic

great book brilliant performance listening to it over and over getting something new out of it every time cannot recommend enough

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Really different

The words flowed on and on and from them the story. Very unique way of storytelling with to me an unusual delivery. I really like this a lot. The Narrator was excellent.

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OK - this is really good...

If I hadn't read another book by this guy, I'd be googling away looking to see if he did anything similar whilst inwardly shaking with withdrawal symptoms.

Nick writes a battle, comeradery, military jargon, humanity and sci - fi adventure that doesn't sit back and drives forward at a pace of knots. That's a given and an expected backdrop from him. SC doesn't disappoint!

The withdrawals you feel after reading some of his work is just your brain slowing back down and your heart rate returning to normal.

That said, he is also an incredible story teller and I love the books he writes solo and in partnership for that reason, probably more than anything other in fact.

This is a great start to the series, you do end up giving a shit about the characters ( regular readers might be reluctant to do so as Mr C kills quite a few of his heroes, keeping the story and the reader on tenterhooks ) but the concept, where the tale might end up, what's going to happen next ...

LOVE it ! Gimme more, gimme now ! I Want!

Rich

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Sci Fi Black Company Hommage

I have some mixed thoughts about Strange Company. Predominately that it is a severely plagiarised version of Glen Cook's Black Company fantasy series, right down to the naming of characters. My second concern is the narrative style, Strange Company is written in the Hunter S Thompson style of Gonzo journalism, characterised by the constant use of short and often contradictory descriptive passages and first person narration. This was indeed confirmed by the usage of 'pharmaceutical grade acid' and the blatant 'Fear and Loathing' 'bats' reference at the start of chapter 8. While I am not a fan of this 'Gonzo' story telling it can be quite effective, although sometimes very difficult to stay focused on, and Strange Company is, at times, rather slippery in its narrative.

'The Black Company' and therefore 'Strange Company' is a soldiers story about the characters and actions of a morally ambiguous bunch of mercenaries. They don't fight for right, they aren't trying to save the galaxy, they don't care which side they fight on so long as they get paid. Evil overlords and downtrodden rebels are mere background for the actual story. As readers we are rarely given the big strategic picture, nor are we even privy to any plans or course of future action. Instead we get the grunt soldiers perspective drip fed to us on a need to know basis as the story evolves one incident at a time.

I have long believed that someone should write a sci fi 'Black Company' book, I just wish that Nick Cole hadn't made his plagiarism's so obvious. Still I suppose that the majority of Nick Cole's targeted audience will not get the references or be aware of the source materials. Would be a 5 star rating except for the above.

TBH I don't personally like it. I want to like it, but I just don't. I seriously dislike the gonzo narrative structure, and I have gone out of my way to avoid listening to this book. All the descriptive passages may read well on paper, but with audio they obscure the story.

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2 people found this helpful