Signal boost: In the Company of Night · 9:27pm Feb 1st, 2017
I usually don’t do this, because comparatively few people read my blog in the first place, so the impact of this is going to be disappointing. But there are times when you see a story well exceeding the levels of quality you see in the feature box, but still languishing in near-complete obscurity, and go “huh, maybe even the level of exposure I can provide will matter.” It’s one of those times.
This story is a crossover of the fusion variety – that is, rather than entities, ideas and plot lines transfer, which makes familiarity with the source material irrelevant – with a famously grim dark fantasy novel series, The Black Company by Glen Cook, which is obviously not everyone’s cup of tea.
I know it isn’t mine. I honestly tried reading the Black Company books, but for me it turned out harder than reading William Gibson, so I dropped it after the first one. Not because I didn’t care to see what’s next, but because the style of prose didn’t agree with me.
“In the Company of Night” starts out in a near-perfect imitation of that style, but around twenty or thirty chapters in, it settles into its own voice, which I find considerably more agreeable, – everything is just better with ponies – while faithfully maintaining all the things that kept the Black Company series interesting: a realistic portrayal of a war in a fantasy setting, without either glorifying it, or reveling in the guts and bloodshed, with an epic plot that revolves around a rich mythos of thestrals, Nightmare Moon rebellion, and a large multi-world universe.
You know, all these nice things canon insists never existed.
I’ll be tracking it, and I think you should give it a try too, if you have the stomach for the subject matter at all, because it’s definitely one of the best stories in this category that I’ve seen on Fimfiction to date.
In the Company of Night by Mitch H
Yes, the character tags are correct, and Mr. and Mrs. Cake play significant roles in the story. :)
P.S. I wish I could write that well that fast.
Added to read later currently working my way through a rather cool steam punk fic, as well as this fic, which might well be the best slice of life on the site.
It will be nice to have this recommendation for when I'm done. I shall look forward to it.
Glad you boosted it, thanks! I'm now following it, but probably won't start reading it until it finishes. I've been burned way too many times by 100k+ words of story that get abandoned. I really hope it does finish, because I love the Black Company novels!
Awesome, thanks for the recommendation. I've read the entire Black Company series, and many other Glen Cook stories. This series is the first version of basically an epic tale about evil minions and what its like to be one of them, though it certainly grows from there.
I always figured your followers were a rather elite, prestigious group, with outsized impact on this site relative to their numbers. It would be interesting to look at the average number of followers each of your followers has, compared to the average user, or the average user with an equivalent number of followers as you.
Noted, and filed away in a list somewhere. If you can persuade Titanium Dragon to stop adding to my "to read" pile ten times faster than I can get through it, I might even find the time...
4405876 I finished the first fic you linked about a week ago. And it is awesome. Currently working through Silver Glows Journal.
Oliver, this is going on my read later. I may move it to tracking till its done. My list is over 20 pages long. It doesnt seem to get any shorter no matter how many I finish. But that probably woudnt happen if I didnt keep adding the authors other works after I finish one.
Funny enough I started reading In The Company of Night a few days ago. Then after I reached the newest chapter I spotted your recommendation. That was a pleasant surprise.
To any undecided readers: Give it a shot, this piece is rather good.
P.S. I only found Gibson's style really grabbing in Neuromancer. His other works didn't seem to work quite as well.
Sadly, I honestly doubt I'll ever get to it, but... on the list it goes regardless.
Oh hell yes. You had me at "The Black Company crossover".
Thank you for the rec!
Tracked it on your recommendation alone, so there you are re: impact.
I'm a yet another fan of the Black Company books, so I really need to give this one a look. Thanks for pointing it out!