Clearly the first book in a trilogy, The Black Company is about a bunch of mercenaries who leave a depressing garrison job to go fight in the north. It feels relatively gritty, with a lot less common magic than most fantasy novels these days. Magic is still mysterious and often grim.
The book was marred by a bad back cover that emphasizes The White Rose, who doesn’t play much of a role in this book at all. The back cover applies to the trilogy– but doesn’t get at the core of this book.
The forces of the Lady and her dark servants (the ten) are appropriately dark, though there is more complexity than I feared. The opposition, fighting under the circle, is well written as grubby and desperate, even if their cause is nominally better.
In the end, as a book it’s interesting but unsatisfying. As book one of a trilogy it does its job– the characters are strong enough that I’d like to read more about them. Even if this book feels adrift, mostly valuable as a signpost to the rest of the series.