The Company

by K.J. Parker

Book Overview

Hoping for a better life, five war veterans colonize an abandoned island. They take with them everything they could possibly need - food, clothes, tools, weapons, even wives.

But an unanticipated discovery shatters their dream and replaces it with a very different one. The colonists feel sure that their friendship will keep them together. Only then do they begin to realize that they've brought with them rather more than they bargained for...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316038520
• ISBN13: 9780316038522
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Orbit
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.6" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

What a strange, very well written book!

The five men, veterans of a war where they served as "line breakers' are embarking on a plan to create a colony. Financial shenanigans when they were in the service have given them money. They have an urge to follow their leader, Teuche, and their post-war lives have been very unsatisfying. So, procure some wives, some supplies, and off to the island. Where they discover that one wife is a serial killer; where they strike gold; where they discover that the military never forgets; where their service together unravels in the discovery that one of them has a secret. This book is written in a compelling manner, and is hard to put down. The secrets unfold, sometimes well plotted and other times coming in from left field. The book is alternatively thrilling and irritating. This is certainly unlike most fantasy novels, and is very well written.

Beautiful...until the last little bit.

The Company was the first book I picked up by K.J. Parker, browsing along until the cover art cot my eye on a shelf in a bookstore. It was an impulse buy and it was worth the price paid. I found this one of the better books I have read recently, Parker keeps a solid tempo throughout the whole thing, does a great job at explaining the past of the characters and the characters (though their names get confusing here and there) are a nice mix of high-and-mighty and I'm-here-to-be-here. The main character is likeable, and his intentions are for the best. The plot is pretty straight forward and Parker does a decent job at moving along. The whole thing boils down to the last few chapters that really made me scratch my head. It was as if the whole book had been written in a nice orderly fashion, nicely laid out...then the deadline hit and Parker had to throw together an ending. I finished the last few chapters in one night and was eagerly anticipating an epic ending, but sadly there was only an ending...no epic-ness about it. All in all, a great read (and a good size novel at that, nothing too gargantuan, yet something that will take a few nights to read). I look forward to diving into more of K.J. Parker's works soon enough.

J.G Ballard x David Gemmell

The enigmatic K.J. Parker has done it again with The Company - a one-off, strangely-philosophical fantasy. Parker has already proven his/her ability to write deeply-troubling low fantasy (including occasional dives into the outright macabre), but in The Company, Parker consciously sets out to explore the more depressing aspects of the human spirit. The Company is composed of a half-dozen ex-soldiers. As 'linebreakers', they were in some of the wildest and most dangerous battles of the war - constantly at the front line, only surviving through luck, skill and a bit of barbarism. Now that the war is over, the soldiers have drifted back to their civilian lives - only to find that they're no longer comfortable away from the battlefield. Lead by Kunessin (the only one to stay in the army after the conclusion of the war), the group re-assemble and set off to forge their own, special peace. By settling an island out in the middle of nowhere, they hope to create their own private sanctuary - someplace they can be on their own. From the start, their plans are ruined by the harsh necessities of the real world - they need servants, they need wives, the weather is terrible, the transport is unreliable... Under the strain, Kunessin and the Company soon realize that the connections between them might not be as strong as they once believed. The Company is fantasy only in that it isn't set in the 'real world'. Parker invents battles and geography as he/she sees fit, in order to make the story as compelling as possible. Still, The Company could work in a modern, futuristic, historical... any sort of setting. The characters, their conflict and the ultimate resolution - it is about the people, and not where they are. As a result, the best comparison would be to the existential science fiction of a writer like JG Ballard, who used science fiction or fantasy settings/analogues to explore the darker aspects of human nature. Parker isn't perfect, but The Company is an ambitious, aggressive book, and the author deserves a lot of credit for making it an absorbing read, as well as an overtly meaningful one.

Parker's Company Entertains

In a fantasy novel without the usual trappings--magic, elves, dragons or orcs -- K. J. Parker has crafted a medieval novel of extraordinary depth. Four veterans of a war, 7 years in their past, join their former general in an attempt to form a peaceful colony on an isolated island. A matchmaker quickly finds brides for the men, willing to join the expedition either willingly, or out of desperation. Stocked with everything they think they need, they go to the island, and begin to create the utopia they'd dreamed of during the war. A stream of disasters derail their plans, from rebellion from the indentured servants and then their wives, to a discovery of gold that stresses their friendships and bonds. Parker (a pseudonym) continues her (suspected gender) string of well-crafted novels.

dark gripping military fantasy

The war ended seven years ago. Many soldiers left the military to return to civilian life. This includes four friends who never see one another anymore as that reminds them of comrades who died when the Confederation needed them; now stoic over being alive but struggling with adjustment as many other vets are doing too. Their former commanding officer General Kunessin visits the quartet to remind them of the pledge they made while still uniform. They honor their vow to settle on a peaceful utopian island that Kunessin has found for them. He will fund their colonization. The men find wives financially desperate enough to willingly marry them in a group exchange of vows and accompany them to Kunessin's paradise. Everything is fine until gold is discovered. THE COMPANY is a dark gripping military fantasy that is a parable on the life of vets when the war is over. The story line is fast-paced from the onset as the audience gets a taste of how society turns its back on those who risked their lives when they are no longer needed for combat. The island is their escape from a reality they cannot adapt to, but even there society intrudes once gold is found as once again they are expendable. K.J. Parker will have readers pondering whether we are truly doing all we can for vets and their families. Harriet Klausner