The New Glen Cook Book

[Pants]

Anyone start reading Cook's new book, Tyranny of the Night?

I gotta admit, Cook's name and the cover really grabbed me last time I was in the store. It looks like pretty standard fantasy, but I enjoyed Cook's military-styled fantasy in The Black Company, so I'm thinking about picking this up.

 

[ergeheilalt]

Anyone start reading Cook's new book, Tyranny of the Night?

I gotta admit, Cook's name and the cover really grabbed me last time I was in the store. It looks like pretty standard fantasy, but I enjoyed Cook's military-styled fantasy in The Black Company, so I'm thinking about picking this up.

Hoo boy, I started reading this badboy during finals week and the complex ties between group 1, 2, 3, 4, and etc. all ended up giving me a headache and probably inhibiting my understanding. I liked it lots, but didn't finish reading it - it was a dense read to wrap my head around while taking care of finals, so I dropped it and will pick it up again the week after midterms this summer to attempt a more indepth reading.

 

[mafisto]

Loving it thus far...

I had been wondering if anyone else had taken a look at it...

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Tyranny of the Night right now, and am absolutely riveted. However, the first third of the book is difficult to get through. This is not like Glen's Black Company series, where the world is sketched out in vague strokes, leaving the detail for character interaction. The world is very large, with many different cultures, personalities and defining features. Glen doesn't hold back describing any of that, sometimes to the detriment of the story (or the reader's comprehension). I'll likely read the book again to pick up on the things I did not understand at the beginning.

That said, even having not read the entire book, the story is excellent. The dialogue is hilarious, the narrative has a compelling, dry sense of wit, and the convoluted politics can be a blast to work through. Glen Cook's weird writing style (the guy seems to be adverse to the comma, using a period instead) may not be for everyone, but it's one of the most identifiable styles in the genre - for old fans, this is a good thing.

Thus far I highly recommend for tenacious readers longing for the feel of the good old days of Croaker and the Company.

 

[Rackhir]

It's much closer to his "Dread Empire" books than the Black Company. Which are also a very good read, though unfortunately well out of print. If someone is interested in tracking them down here they are.

• Prequels
  1. The Fire in His Hands (1984)
  2. With Mercy Toward None (1985)
• Main sequence
  
  1. A Shadow of All Night Falling (1979)
  2. October's Baby (1980)
  3. All Darkness Met (1980)
• Sequels
  
  1. Reap the East Wind (1987)
  2. An Ill Fate Marshalling (1988)
• Not yet published
  
  • A Path to Coldness of Heart
  • The Cruel Storm

I got this list off of Wikipedia and I just noticed that it mentions two more books coming!!! "An Ill Fate Marshalling" ended in somewhat of a cliff hanger (nearly 20yrs ago!!), so I'm quite pleased to see this. Hmm, second thought it says "Not yet published" rather than TBA.

Getting back to Tyrany, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I found the bits with the Vikings to be the most interesting. The main conflict though has yet to fully reveal its self and that promises to be very interesting. So I suspect that a lot of this book is backstory and things will really get rolling in the subsequent books. I'm giving it a solid thumbs up.

It's not much of a spoiler (you find out in the first 10 pages or so) that the humans have discovered a way to kill any of the magical entities in their world, including those worshiped as gods. Who needless to say aren't very happy with this development. This really doesn't start to substantially figure into the plot until the last third of the book. Of course all this takes place in the context of sqabbling human kingdoms, what are essentially multiple popes, possible religious crusades and the usual treachery, back stabbing + petty greed, pride and politics you find in such situations.

 

[mafisto]

Excellent, thanks for the nudge to the Dread Empire series. I've been trying to track down the books at my local used book stores, but it looks like I'm going to have use Powell's or Half to get them. I was just going on faith that they would be as good as the Black Company.

 

[Rackhir]

Excellent, thanks for the nudge to the Dread Empire series. I've been trying to track down the books at my local used book stores, but it looks like I'm going to have use Powell's or Half to get them. I was just going on faith that they would be as good as the Black Company.

For people looking for other Glen Cook books to read let me also STRONGLY recomend.

The Dragon Never Sleeps - SF, some very creative and interesting stuff in this one, which is one of his best.

The Swordbearer - Fantasy, pretty much ditto for what I said above. This would make for a wonderful campaign sourcebook. It's a really cool world.

I'm pretty sure both are out of print, but shouldn't be too hard to find used. The Dread Empire books you may have to work at though.

 

[Endur]

I like the Dread Empire better than the Black Company series. Particularly the main trilogy and the prequels.

There are a few short stories set in the Dread Empire series as well.

The Tower of Fear is his best book (stand alone novel).

 

[Eridanis]

I bought TYRANNY and immediately placed it on the shelf to await the next book. I guess I like to read complete series, so with so many other options to go through, the other two books will certainly be published by the time I get around to the first! (Same goes for Julian May's new series. Books 1 & 2 are on my shelf, and I haven't even had a chance to touch them yet.)

 

[argo]

Excellent, thanks for the nudge to the Dread Empire series. I've been trying to track down the books at my local used book stores, but it looks like I'm going to have use Powell's or Half to get them. I was just going on faith that they would be as good as the Black Company.

You might also want to give his Garrett P.I. series a try. I got the first two omnibi (omnibuses?) from the SFBC and absouetly devoured them, the next two omnibi are already on order. The series follows a private investigator in a rather cosmopolitan but sleazy city in a fantasy setting with all the usual trappings. It diverges from the military-fiction of Black Company but has much of the same wit and observational humor from a small fish in a world of sharks.

The books:
Sweet Silver Blues (1987)
Bitter Gold Hearts (1988)
Cold Copper Tears (1988)

Old Tin Sorrows (1989)
Dread Brass Shadows(1990)
Red Iron Nights (1991)

Deadly Quicksilver Lies (1994)
Petty Pewter Gods (1995)
Faded Steel Heat (1999)
Angry Lead Skies (2002)

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

On the one hand, it's a pretty transparent copy of 13th-century Europe and Near East.

On the other hand, it's a really good version thereof, which you don't see very often.

I quite enjoyed it. I need to read it again.

I especially liked, towards the end,

Spoiler

the dwarves telling the God-Killer viking something along the lines of "Hey, you're hurt. Don't change out of that form until you heal up a good bit. Otherwise, you'll die from Con loss if you switch to human form."

.

Brad