Blurb: (From Book 1) Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead. Until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her... So begins one of the greatest fantasy epics of our age—Glen Cook's Chronicles of the Black Company.
Review: This series is what I use to benchmark the grimdark sub-genre. It's setting is grim and violent, many of the characters are in dark places both mentally and physically, and the story itself is dark and gritty. The concept for this series, which follows the same mercenary company over decades, is great. It gives a-lot of possibilities for story direction and character rotations while being very in theme.
This series does a fantastic job of describing a not so friendly fantasy world, and setting up a large interesting plot without using much page count. I believe I consume this style of content slower than traditional fantasy though, so the length definitely balanced out. I found myself losing interest after Book 6, and truthfully slogged through the final sub-series. I'm not sure on why this was the case, because I can't say that the books were bad, I just believe I was satisfied with the story, and what was to come was only more of the same.
I think this is definitely worth reading as you can sample the series as a whole with the first book, which is a great indicator on whether you'd like the series