The Black Company is a series of dark fantasy books and short stories written by American author Glen Cook.
The series combines elements of epic fantasy as it follows an elite mercenary unit, the Black Company, through roughly forty years of its approximately four-hundred-year history.
The series was a forerunner in dark fantasy / grimdark fiction, which includes George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, Steven Erikson's Malazan novels, and Kentarou Miura's Berserk.