Glen Cook - Chronicles of the Black Company

An omnibus, collecting what are, it seems, the first three books in a ten-book series (The Black Company, Shadows Linger and The White Rose). I staggered into the Brunswick Street Bookstore on my way home the other night wanting to grab a copy of Gardens of the Moon for a re-read; they didn't have it, so I bought this instead, remembering that Cook is often cited as an antecedent and inspiration of Erikson. Having now read them, I can certainly see the similarities, with the focus on a central, legendary mercenary company, with hard-hitting ng renditions of the military campaigns they wage and an emphasis on the moral ambiguities and uncertainties that result from their nature as swords for hire and the results when they become subject to forces greater than themselves. The Black Company books are more straight-ahead, and nowhere near as intricately or well-written as Erikson's series, but they're still very good and genuinely dark in places.