reply below ________________________________ From: glencook-fans <glencook-fans-bounces@mailman.xmission.com> on behalf of Richard Chilton <rchilton@auracom.com> Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2018 3:31 PM To: Science Glen Cook: Author, Fiction/Fantasy Subject: [Glencook-fans] Just finished Port of Shadows Spoilers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 So I've held off reading or replying to these threads because I didn't want spoilers... But now I've read it. One thing to point out before I react to this book: this is the first "post word processor" Old Crew Book from Cook. Seriously, reading his books you can tell when he left the discipline of using a typewriter and started typing things up on a computer. All of the books since then, I won't say they are bloated, but they are thick and in some ways the story isn't as tight as when he had to type without copy and place and editing meant getting out the white stripe - and maybe having to redo a couple of pages because the new version was longer and didn't fit on a single page. On to the book: The first thing I noticed is that the language is much cruder. Much more "soldiers shooting the shit" than the earlier books. My feelings on this is that back when The Black Company was published you just couldn't use that language in books. I've read some books from the 70s and earlier where dashes replace the letters of crude words. I half think that Cook wanted to include the cruder, more realistic "this is how I talked when I served and how soldiers still talk" language back then and now feels free to do to so. A second option: this was a first draft of the Annals. Croaker has said that he doesn't like to speak ill of his family (and the Company is his family), to the point where Raven laughs over it. Maybe this is the verbatim, "fix it later" rough draft that was never "prettied up" to be included in the annuals. If he had time to do a formal writing then the rape jokes and swearing would be gone. About those rape jokes - most of them start when they start collecting the untrained sorceresses. All of those girls with power surrounded by rough soldiers - they feared being rape. Those fears were broadcasted, inciting a lot of "let's rape them" feelings. As evidence for this theory, I point to Two Dead's charge into the girl's dorm where they join together to fight him off. Those girls taking on a scary sorcerer? Obviously wish fulfillment, with Two Dead being forced to play his role. The second thing that hit me was that everyone knew everyone back then, but the place was so evil that having a sister often meant having an enemy that you might need to call on when a non family member attacks you. Everyone was so paranoid that Names were hidden from each other, to the point Lady wasn't sure if she was the one who was married to Dominator. If it's accurate... Great Uncle Howler who had a special place in his heart for Lady - that changes the books of the South. That part worked for me. But it isn't how I had pictured the Ten being Taken. I had pictured them as rulers that Dominator overcame and, having defeated, Took. But this background makes sense. Dominator didn't rise in a vacuum, he grew up in a society where the Dark Arts had reached a pinnacle, so it does make sense that some of his rivals were contemporaries as opposed to rival rulers. We know that power can run in families, so that part does make sense. That part worked for me. As for the Senjak family, their role also makes sense to me. Dominator was a "Kick it, kill it, fuck it, or ignore it" type. A conquer, not a ruler. It would make sense that people had to attach themselves to him, administrating his empire in exchange for a share of the power. Maybe effectively ruling everything part of the empire that Dominator wasn't currently focusing on, but always worried about the uncontrollable beast was Dominator. They knew that the empire would collapse without their work, but feared that the insane man whose powers were effectively unlimited didn't know that. The Resurrections getting the details wrong: The sister had been raped by Dominator, her child might be his child, and obviously Papa was related to Dominator (because of the level of his talent), and how else do you make sense of those girls without there being a grand plan behind it? That makes more sense than an insane necromancer raising his kid in isolation and the kid having nothing better to do than finishing his father's work. That part worked for me. Lady would have suspected that the entire "Port of Shadows" thing was wrong, but she wouldn't have been sure until the first girl was shipped back and discovered what it was. After that, the hunt for girls was basically Lady tidying up and maybe distracting the Taken from what was really happening. Parts I didn't like - the whole "everyone forgets" stuff and loose ends. I guess everyone had to forget or this had to be an insignificant story, because it had no impact on any of the chronologically later books, but it meant that none of the character growth mattered. As for the loose ends - Was Lady doing a practice "I'd like to live with Croaker" bit during this book? Maybe, but if so it means she started being interested with him that way back in Charm. That entire part didn't seem to mesh with what happened during the Books of the South. WTF happened to all of the Senjak clones? Did they become the new Taken? The weak sisters of the Old Taken? Or are they the people who aped the Taken in The Silver Spike, hoping to grow into the legends of the old powers? Is that castle still there, having survived the fall of the Empire? What happened to the dead sister and her Taken level (or Dominator level?) necromancer son? Did Lady leave all that in place because her fond memories of that time she was Kitten? Speculation on The Taken War: I'm of two minds about it. Was it Lady destroying the Taken in The White Rose? Someone putting down all of the death of the Dominator's destruction as the defeated Taken aiding the Dominator's return? Or, and I think this is more likely, was it the replacement "Taken" tearing apart the Empire with their infighting? Only the Lady was keeping the Empire together, that and inertia. Without "Mommy doesn't like this" being there to keep the wannabee Taken in line then sooner or later one of them would start throwing his weight around, starting a civil war. Speculation on the Kids: They were a project that Lady was working on. Shadow creatures with intellect from Croaker (Dad) shaped by the will of Lady (Mom). Something she was working on while the battle of Charm raged because she's always planning and building. The Cat was something like Toad Killer Dog, either from another age or Lady trying her hand at creating new servants. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the books. I enjoyed it, reading about the Old Crew was like visiting with old friends, but it had a flaw or two. Richard (a Black Company fan who waited impatiently for the publication of Shadow Lingers, White Rose, and the rest, and pined for "Glittering Stone" for years) ================== And what became of Laissa and Precious Pearl? Just lived out their lives quietly? But Laissa, properly cared for, might last centuries still--and, apparently, Precious Pearl had the Blessing. So, shipped off to the Tower at Charm? Who knows, maybe helped run the Empire after the Lady left. And the Kids? Ditto, maybe. I'm thoroughly taken with the notion of the Lady taking up a family relationship with Croaker--helps explain her penchant for him in later books. It's a fascinating addition to the story of Lady, the most fascinating member of the entire series. Stacey