I am Murgen, Standardbearer of the Black Company, though I bear the shame of having lost that standard in battle. I am keeping these Annals because Croaker is dead, One-Eye won't, and hardly anyone else can read or write. I will be your guide for however long it takes the Shadowlanders to force our present predicament to its inevitable end. . .

The Many Deaths of the Black Company comprises the novels Water Sleeps and Soldiers Live--the fourth and final omnibus volume of Glen Cook's Chronicles of the Black Company, one of the greatest fantasy epics of our age.