Highlander's Book Reviews

“The Company“

by K J Parker

Format: Paperback, 436 pages.

Published by Orbit, 2008.

What a strange and pleasant surprise the Company was! I was expecting the usual generic fantasy novel, a bit of heroic fighting, no doubt a quest for a magical ring/amulet/book. Perhaps culminating in a huge battle in the hell pits of doom at the edge of the mirky forest. No doubt copious orc slaughtering would be included, maybe a dragon or two would appear but then a magical wizard would come to our heroes aid and… Well you get the drift.

Instead what I got was a book where practically nothing happens, where it may be a fantasy land but it feels a hell of a lot like earth, there’s no magic, no quests, what was surprising, however,  was how much I enjoyed it. It’s not often these days that you come upon something genuinely unique, something where an author has taken a gamble, ignored the expected and embraced the unexpected, but this is one example. It might not be perfect but it’s pretty damn good.

We meet the main characters going about their daily mundane business in the town of Faralia. They are, of course, all members of the company, a legendary group of soldiers who fought in the wars, gaining heroic reputations. The Company were line-breakers a seemingly suicidal role that involved breaking through a defensive line of pikemen to allow the main bulk of the army to pass. The story begins with the return to the village of their old leader General Kunessin who has a strange proposal. He wants the company to buy and live on their own island, partly to live out the retirement dream, partly to escape from normal society. So he gets the old gang together for one last adventure.

This is the crux of the book, it is a novel concerned with the human condition, trust, companionship and dreams of a better future. Of course these dreams encounter numerous problems, not least of which are the individual members of the company. A friendship seemingly created through the horrors of war, but just how deep is the friendship. At the end of the day does self preservation win out over some Utopian dream.

So the bulk of the story may seem mundane and unadventurous but it is spiced up by both snapshots of the past (the previous battles and lives of the company), the politics of the present and the dreams of the future. Well written and well paced, The Company deserves praise for challenging the generic fantasy novel but of course this will also bring it’s own criticism (where are the orcs!). Personally, I wouldn’t even describe it as fantasy, I would just describe it as an excellent book.

For those looking for something beyond the boundaries and norms of the fantasy genre, K J Parker has created his or her (the authors identity is a mystery) very own sub-genre (psychological fantasy?) and it’s one that I look forward to seeing more of. What starts as an almost comedic road adventure progresses to a Lord of the Flies conclusion but there are no happy endings here, no rescue boat on the horizon. We end with more questions than answers many of them relevant to our own standards of morality and that of our society, this book makes you think and for a fantasy novel that’s a mighty achievement. It doesn’t get bogged down in any kind of moral maze though, instead it just says here are the character flaws we all have, this is the end result. Makes you wonder about some of your other fictional heroes, that Gandalf wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him!

Rating 4 out of 5