The Company

Starred review from August 11, 2008
This exquisitely written novel by a pseudonymous popular author blends gritty military fantasy with the 18th-century “island story” tradition. Seven years after the end of a war between unnamed countries, four friends who fought together have settled back into civilian life. Then their former leader, Kunessin, now a celebrated and embittered general, turns up and reminds them of their old pledge to retire together to a peaceful island. Better yet, he’s found a suitable place and will fund the venture. A local matchmaker finds women smart and desperate enough to be colonists, and they marry the ex-soldiers in a group wedding that sets the tone of the book: humorous, grim and utterly unromantic. The would-be republicans soon reach the island and settle in, but the discovery of gold in a stream changes everything. With inexorable emotional logic and an eye for detail, deftly weaving in flashbacks to wartime, Parker carries the reader on a headlong gallop to the powerful conclusion.

October 15, 2008
The war is long over when Gen. Teuche Kunessin finally returns to his homeland of Faralia, but he's not there to stay. Five surviving comrades from A Company, their last-minute arranged brides, and a motley batch of indentured servants soon make their way to the island of Sphoe, where they hope to settle and become gentlemen farmers. Such a transition won't be easy: these legendary survivors have seen too much, hold differing ideas about the postwar command structure, and carry some dark secrets. The unusual plot gracefully blends developments on the island with flashbacks from the war in a deftly paced mix that's brimming with psychological insights. Parker ("The Engineer" trilogy, the "Scavenger" trilogy) nails the rough banter among longtime comrades and the restless nature of soldiers who experienced too much violence and never expected to come home. There's not the tiniest hint of magic in this muscular stand-alone fantasy, a fine bridge to the genre for action and historical fiction readers. Strongly recommended for all fantasy and popular fiction collections.Neil Hollands, Williamsburg Regional Lib., VA

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2008
After years away, Kunessin returns to Faralia to reunite A Companysomething of a legend in the warand move to an island he has found that technically belongs to the military. Of course, the other four guys join him. By the time they set out, theyre a fairly sizable expedition, what with the former soldiers, their wives, and the indentured men they take on. Its more of a struggle to get their homestead up and running than Kunessin expected, and secrets are left over from the warKunessins, certainly, about how he got the money to do this in the first place, but also those of other company members, the women theyve dragged into the venture, and the island itself. The pseudonymous Parkers unfantastic fantasy inspects what happens to the bonds soldiers make in action after the war is over, and the ways in which the war continues as long as there are people who remember it. It makes some worthwhile points about the repercussions of war and, though occasionally heavy-handed, remains interesting throughout.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)