Black Company Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Black Company Wiki

Port of Shadows is the eleventh novel in the Black Company series. Published in 2018, it hit the shelves 18 years after the release of the previous novel, Soldiers Live. It is an interquel which chronologically takes place during the six-year gap between the first two Books of the North: The Black Company and Shadows Linger (both published in 1984). Some chapters describe events of questionable veracity from the distant past of the Domination-era. Meanwhile, the contemporary events narrative (occurring in Croaker's lifetime) introduces Baku and Shin, and describes a "lost history" that would be forgotten by the Black Company before the beginning of Shadows Linger. Despite its place in the timeline, Port of Shadows is intended to be read after Soldiers Live for contextual and thematic reasons.

Port of Shadows incorporates edited versions of three short stories which were published beforehand: "Tides Elba" (2010) as chapter 3; "Smelling Danger" (2011) as chapter 6; and "Bone Candy" (2014) as chapter 9.

From the back cover[]

The soldiers of the Black Company don’t ask questions, they get paid. But being “The Lady’s favored” is attracting the wrong kind of attention and has put a target on their backs, and the Company’s historian, Croaker, has the biggest target of all.

The one person who was taken into The Lady’s Tower and returned unchanged has earned the special interest of the court of sorcerers known as The Ten Who Were Taken. Now, he and the company are being asked to seek the aid of their newest member, Mischievous Rain, to break a rebel army. However, Croaker doesn’t trust any of the Taken, especially not ones that look so much like The Lady and her sister…

Global publication and translation history[]

List of editions[]

Polish[]

Polish Port of Shadows front
  • Title: Port Cieni
  • Page shown: Front cover
  • Author: Glen Cook
  • Language: Polish
  • Translator: Tomasz Nowak
  • Publisher: Rebis
  • Pub date: October 2019 (both paperback & e-book)
  • Cover art by: Raymond Swanland
  • ISBN: 9788380625242 (paperback); 9788380626539 (e-book)


Russian[]

Russian Port of Shadows front
  • Title: Портал Теней
  • Page shown: Front cover
  • Author: Глен Кук (Glen Cook)
  • Language: Russian
  • Translator: Юрий Павлов (Yuri Pavlov)
  • Publisher: Азбука-Аттикус (ABC-Atticus)
  • Pub date: 2020 (hardcover); July 2020 (e-book)
  • Cover art by: Raymond Swanland
  • ISBN: 9785389171220 (hardcover); 9785389183575 (e-book)



Audiobooks[]

English digital audiobook[]

Audio digital Port of Shadows
  • Title: Port of Shadows
  • Author: Glen Cook
  • Language: English
  • Narrated by: Brian Troxell
  • Length: 15 hours 14 minutes
  • Format: Digital audiobook
  • Publisher: Macmillan Audio
  • Pub date: 11 September 2018
  • Cover art by: Raymond Swanland
  • ISBN: 9781250299567


English CD audiobook[]

Audio CD Port of Shadows
  • Title: Port of Shadows
  • Author: Glen Cook
  • Language: English
  • Narrated by: Brian Troxell
  • Length: 15 hours 14 minutes
  • Format: CD
  • Publisher: Macmillan Audio
  • Pub date: 11 September 2018
  • Cover art by: Raymond Swanland
  • ISBN: 9781250299574

Continuity and trivia[]

  • The youthful supernatural entities Baku and Shin – who inexplicably claim to be Croaker's children – reappear in the 2021 short story "Cranky Bitch" under the aliases "Lacksluck" and "Luckless". The events of "Cranky Bitch" take place at least 2 years after Port of Shadows.
Advertisement