Glen Cook Puns

I'm 80% of the way through The Dragon Never Sleeps and it is fantastic. It is so blibtky written and doesn't hand you anything. It leaves my imagination running wild trying to fill in the gaps he's left.

I still don't fully understand everything that's happening and will probably need to reread it to clarify everything but it's so good.

I was also blown away by Tower Of Fear.

If anybody has read The Starfisher Trilogy, is it good too? Glen Cook is quickly becoming a favourite author of mine but I'm hesitant to start a trilogy as it's a big investment in time.

I’m looking for recommendations for books written in Cook’s style (or, more to the point, Croaker’s).

I’m familiar with most of the series that were inspired by Cook (Malazan, etc) but have yet to find anything that really captures Cook’s terse, sparse style written in the first person POV.

The Black Company has been my favorite series since I read it back in middle school (a good chunk of years ago).

I've read plenty of fantasy I've loved since then like The First law, The Witcher, and Malazan. But none of it has ever stuck with me as much as The Black Company. I love Croaker, the world, the magic, and the plot. Everything about it is perfect to me.
I'm looking to really scratch that itch again without rereading the series for a fourth time.

If you had to recommend one or two books (or series) what would it be?

Ascender by Jeff Lemire: This is a four-volume science-fantasy comicbook series. It's a sequel to Descender, which is one of my favorite science fiction comibooks. This one isn't as good in my opinion, but it's still good. In some ways slightly rushed, and the water-colour like artwork by Dustin Nguyen, although still amazing, feels a little less detailed/more crude than in Descender. It also is significantly grayer.

All these said the story is interesting, features various characters from Descender I liked, and adds some new ones that I liked as well. And it was a fast and easy read. I'd recommend it to everyone who liked Descender, but not as a first introduction to this world (even though it could work that way).

Bingo Squares:

Published in 2021 (only the fourth volume)

Genre Mashup

Witches (HM)

The Silver Spike by Glen Cook: The Black Company by Glen Cook is one of my favorite fantasy series, but I hadn't read this spin-off so far. I don't know I waited so long, but I'm really glad I finally gave it a go cause I liked this one a lot.

It's trademark Black Company, same dry and dark humor, same interesting characters, same one-of-a-kind terse writing style (maybe too terse some times), etc. Also it had a rather unique and unusual plot for an epic fantasy story. And all that in less than 300 pages, without ever feeling rushed.

My only serious criticism is that I liked two of the POV characters (Case, and Smeds) chapter's significantly more than the rest, but given that the POVs of these two are about 3/4 of the book that's no big deal. Especially since the other POVs weren't bad (or even close to it), just not as engaging.

Finally there is a huge need for a Content Warning: >!One of the POV characters, the aforementioned Smeds is a pedophile. It's not an important aspect of the book, just barely there, and the character is portrayed as a scum for the most part, but I think it's something that some people would like to be aware before going in!<

Bingo Squares:

First Person POV

Witches

The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie: It's possible that I'm going t

I don't enjoy most traditional fantasy books these days, but I do still try a few from the local library (libraries are awesome!) from time to time. Last week I picked up "The Blacktongue Thief" by Christopher Buehlman on a whim. I liked the look of the cover art, and when I turned it over to check out the back I got excited when I saw Glen calling it "Damned good stuff." right at the top.

I read and enjoyed it too. Folks here might like it. That is all.

This is the first book in the series as I got it through B&N.

I got an ebook copy of this novel for a low price a few years ago and I recently got a new Nook Glowlight, so I decided to read this one to check out how the device works and how it navigates pages compared to my old Glowlight.

I don't know what I was expecting, maybe a typical run-of-the-mill fantasy book, but that's not what I got. I found more humor than I expected as I thought this was supposed to be more grimdark than other fantasy titles.

But, I loved it overall and someday I will get to the next book in the series.

The only thing I didn't understand was the bit at the beginning about Moby Dick and the whales.

Good afternoon fellow lovers of Fantasy stories. I apologise if this has been posted before, I had a good look through previous posts and didn't find any in a similar vein, but I am far from infallible. My question is thus: Is there anywhere where one can find a general background on the Black Company world, without the story being ruined in any way? I'm about 30 pages in to the first book, and though enjoying it, am fairly confused about where things are, what's going on, and who hates who the most. I discovered a Wikia, but right at the start it warns about spoilers, and so I am fairly hesitant to proceed. I've noticed on Goodreads that one or two people couldn't continue due to the lack of world-building in the books. Though I'd like to think I'm not that shallow, does this mean that I can expect the author not to elaborate overly on the details of his world? Basically, I'm just trying to understand the world I have happily dived into, without ruining the story, as so far I'm enjoying it quite a bit, Croaker especially.

https://preview.redd.it/zdcn1c0xu1461.jpg?width=315&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c506c0f66cb3224ba28d1b430345ad7c3a4b43c7

Glen Cook was born in New York City in 1944. After spending time in the United States Navy, the ground work was laid for the birth of his legendary Black Company series published by Tor books. The series is described as a gritty fantasy series following an elite mercenary unit through several decades of its history. It has become something of a cult classic, especially among current and former members of the military. When asked about the series’ popularity among soldiers, Cook replied: “The characters act like the guys actually behave. It doesn’t glorify war; it’s just people getting on with the job. The characters are real soldiers dealing with extraordinary problems in an unforgiving world”. Cook drags us into the trenches, night watches, missions, and supernatural events of the Black Company.

Lets lay some groundwork for how the story begins. The Dominator is an extremely powerful wizard who has the ability to turn his most bitter enemies into his loyal servants, even those nearly his equal in magic. The most potent of his victims are called the Ten Who Were Taken, or just Taken for short. With his wife, the Lady, whose magical skill is second only to that of the Dominator, he founded an empire unrivaled for evil. It was overthrown by a rebellion led by the White Rose, but neither she nor the rebel wizards were strong enough to kill the Dominator, the Lady or the Taken. The best they could do was to render them unconscious and imprison them. Their prison was a place called the Barrowland.

After four centuries, the wizard Bomanz awakened the Lady during a spirit walk into the Barrowlands, in an attempt to learn from her. She manipulated him, won her freedom, and subsequently trapped Bomanz in a quasi-undead spirit state between dimensions. She then unleashed the Taken, but betrayed the Dominator, leaving him where he was, and proceeded to resurrect the empire. As with the old, so it was with the new – a rebellion broke out, spearheaded this time by the Circle of Eighteen. The Circle is made up of magicians not individually as strong as the Taken, but usually united in their goals. The Taken, on the other hand, battle each other as much as they do the rebels.

The Black Company is told through tales of the chronicler Croaker, a medic and historian of the annals which have been keeping the official records of the company fo

I was posting a discussion of the last Garrett book in the r/fantasy forum, and realized that I cannot find any sort of recent interview with Glen Cook, and that he has only published one book in the last 7 years (the black company book in 2018).

Does anyone know news of him? He is 77, so it wouldn't be surprising if he is de facto retired at this point, but I was particularly struck by not being able to find interviews even promoting Port of Shadows when it came out.

the garrett post is here if it matters (spoiler post) https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/nia3kj/wicked_bronze_ambition_the_last_garrett_pi_novel/

Anyone know how to contact him? He seems to have no social media presence, no information on how to go about it from his publishers as well. I have a few questions that I would like to ask before time renders me unable to

I read the entire Black Company series and its probably my favorite series I've read to date. So of course I went searching for more of his work.

I've just finished his stand alone Sci Fi novel called The Dragon Never Sleeps and I believe it's the best book I've read in a long time, the things this man can do in two sentences that would take most authors paragraphs is incredible. I cant recommend it enough. if you use audible there is a great version on there with a strong narrator.

Now I'm deciding on what Glen Cook to read next. He has been quite prolific, so I wanted to get your guys opinions on his other works that you enjoyed. Currently I'm eyeing the Garrett PI series or possibly Dream Empire next.

I have just finished a full re-read of the entire 14-book series over the last few weeks. I still enjoy these books a great deal. I am puzzled by the last book, and would like to discuss my thoughts and ask questions.

this thread will be full of spoilers. replies will likely be full of spoilers. spoilers should be assumed to cover the entire series. spoilers also include the black company series and Sung in Blood-

SPOILER ALERT

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

>! The main puzzling element is the death of Strafa, matched with the appearance and subsequent 'death' of Hagekagome. !<

>!The Hagekagome subplot was what I would call a sucker-punch tear-jerker (and it does make me wonder if something like what happened with Hagekagome and Mikey in the past happened to Glen or someone close to him). I feel like he used the emotional impact of it to keep from having a happy ending while still 'cheating' and bringing strafa back to life. At the same time, we are never told anything about strafa's condition - the book just ends. I also am not sure if we ever ended a story without the Dead Man awake (I didn't keep track this time).!<

>!He has done nebulous endings before (Sung in Blood has an ending that nearly constitutes a cliffhanger), but this is one of the more notable ones. It is open season on interpretation since we don't know the condition of Strafa at the end, aside from breathing, though obviously there is an inherent bias toward 'happily ever after.' Alternately, is the ending something based on a classic mystery ending?!<

>!Cook making dead characters come back to life isn't new - Raven died twice iirc in the black company and was still alive later, and the Ten Who Were Taken had reported deaths before (some of them) their later re-appearances. usually the resurrection is in a subsequent novel.!<

>!Finally, hard-boiled detectives have character flaws (that move the plot) but Garrett has become more of a hard-boiled egg the last couple of books. The story could be interesting without him in it, because he doesn't move the story much at all anymore. He daydreams, doesn't pay attention repeatedly the last 2 books, etc. One feels like Cook is setting up some sort of neurological problem, since it is pointed at so often.!<

>!does anyone know if Glen intended to write more Garrett stories when this was published? It has been 8 years now and he is 77 and I assume the series is definitively finished.!<

Another unknown author in sci-fi, but Glen Cook obviously is very well-known for the black company, as well as garrett and dread empire series. that said, he has written a number of sci-fi novels including a couple of series - including

Darkwar series (you would think this is fantasy until a certain point, not sure in which book, it certainly has fantasy elements)

A Matter of Time - contemporary setting, sci-elements, detective story

Starfishers 'trilogy' (I don't believe shadowline has anything to do with the next 2 books)

Passage at Arms - located in setting of and predates starfisher trilogy. the author is quite open about describing this as a submarine warfare book.

Heirs of Babylon - post-apocalyptic fiction.

and my favorite - The Dragon Never Sleeps, a stand-alone novel.

The Dragon never sleeps would make any best-10 book list I make. I have trouble putting it down every time I re-read it. the entire guardship concept is one I have never seen before or after. It just feels like he had a whole stable of ideas and stuffed them all into a single novel, for the most part very effectively.

The dragon never sleeps has overtones of the roman empire, both explicitly (ships are named after roman legions) as well as in the backdrop (look at the plans starbase proposes at a certain point in the book - it is clearly modeled on some of the issues the roman empire and military faced over some period of its history,( I used to be able to nail down details on this but I haven't read history much in over a decade))

this little gem came up a few years ago, but I don't know that he ever did anything with this.

' "As far as The Dragon Never Sleeps goes, for 20 years roughly, I’ve insisted that I would not do anything more, but I do know what the next story is. Someday I may actually write it."

http://www.elbakin.net/interview/exclusive/Glen-Cook-aux-Utopiales-2011-l-interview2

I see dragon mentioned rarely and passage at arms more often specifically offered as a mil sci-fi title often, and the rest seem little-known.

Starfishers in particular had a 1st novel which had little if anything to do with the next 2 - and the third, in my opinion, left more questions than answers on the larger plot issues.

I am on the second book and this feels like such a strange and remarkably unfamiliar story! Yeah there are a bunch of tropes but the way they are handled is like...the author took those tropes and sent them on a hallucinogenic and spiritual journey. The archetypal wizard character is there, but he has one eye, is named One Eye and honestly feels like a wizard more inspired by the cartoon Wizards than Gandalf.

It’s an interesting story so far and I’m invested. It took about forty pages before I was used to the first person limited perspective, I guess because I’m used to more lengthy descriptions of scene that is so often used in fantasy, but once I got who the POV character was a bit better, I really started to enjoy this style of writing.

I’d say it’s worth it to check these books out. The omnibus of the first trilogy is rather inexpensive and actually well made overall.

The last temple of the dread god Gorloch is under siege. Nakar the Abomination, the sorcerous undead warlord, waits in his tower for the right moment to sweep away the invading armies of Herod with a devastating wizardry.

But lo! At the climax of the battle, right when Nakar intended to strike, the heroic assassin Alah-eh-din Beyh has snuck into Gorloch's stronghold. The avatars of Light and Darkness battle with blade and magic even as the Herodians breach the gates. Nakar and Beyh slay each other just as the city-state of Qushmarrah falls.

And now, with that fantasy climax achieved, the actual story may begin.

The Tower of Fear is a 1989 fantasy drama by Glen Cook, and it is an absolutely fascinating exploration of conflict theory in action. There are anywhere from seven to ten factions (depending on how you count) in post-war Qushmarrrah who all want incompatible futures and are willing to get their hands dirty to win. Conflict is such an ingrained part of life that it doesn't occur to anybody to apply mistake theory in any capacity. Only once in the whole book is a character able to sit down and truly think about whether their grand plan is good policy for the city as a whole, and the moment he does his compatriots turn on him. One aspect of the novel that pleases me greatly is that everybody involved has a historical counterpart to use as a reference point, which lets you fill in details about their culture and their look and feel, which never never actually given to us in writing. Herod is a Rome analogue, the Gorloch dead-enders resemble some manner of Phoenician Moloch worshippers, the native Qushmarrans are vaguely Jewish with Qushmarrah being a picaresque version of Jerusalem under Roman occupation, and the Dartar allies to Herod are vaguely Bedouin Arabs. The zealots of yore provide inspiration for the insurgent group of Qushmarran patriots seeking to take back their city.

Six years after Nakar the Abomination died, these groups all scheme and fight to secure the future of Qushmarrah. The mercenary Dartars and the Herodians are allies, but each is trying to outmaneuver the other into doing the unpopular crackdowns against the unruly natives, to spare their own reputations and soldiers from retaliatory terrorist strikes. The Living plot for the apocalyptic day of

Or epic adventure novels with a group of antiheroes

Wrapping up the Garrett series on a reread, and he's a savage af critic of his earlier works.

They are subtle, but peppered throughout the later books.

For instance, a sorcerer named ShadowSlinger as a play of Shadows Linger.

Then there is recurring madman Barking Dog Amato who's famous for ranting lunacy, and he starts his rant with "There have been Signs and Portents" clearly mocking the start of the first Black Company book (don't care if he's embarrassed, I like it).

There's several more, but I wasn't making notes.

Can not reccomend the series enough if you like the humor of the earlier Company books, the characters are classics.

This series has been on the to-read list for a long time, and I finally finished the first book.

The writing is terse, sometimes arguably sparse, but for a novel of this nature I can appreciate it, as well as how it didn't quite linger on why the characters happened to be where they were at a given time; I ascribed that to just routine moving about in war. Between that and the characterizations, which are not deeply delved into, even including main protagonist Croaker's, I can see why the book is apparently popular with military and quasi-military or public safety types.

It's also thoroughly refreshing, at least for me, to read a book from the perspective of one who is fighting for what is very obviously the villain. The sheer level of dread that The Lady inspires even through her own fighting force is tangible, as well as that of her main pawns, such as Soulcatcher.

Basically I'm gushing a bit and I'm really looking forward to reading more. I heard that it's been optioned for a series but there hasn't been much progress. Hopefully that changes soon.

So I just finished The Black Company (I have the first thee books so tomorrow I'm onto Shadows Linger) and I found it a really nice departure from a lot of popular literary styles today.

The book really doesn't care about setting the reader up for much, from the get go you're thrown into a conflict with terms, names, and references that are wholly unclear. By the end of the story the reader has a better idea of what is happening but things like mechanics, the entire world, characters, history, etc. are never fleshed out.

Rather than frustrating I honestly found this a really neat way to tell a story. I can't explain exactly why, but Croaker's journey through the book kept me thoroughly interested. Usually I find lack of description annoying, but in this instance I found it a really useful way to convey character perspective and the chaotic and hum drum moments of being in a mercenary company.

I'm looking forward to book two!

I am looking to get into the Black company world. I see that there are some short stories published but some of them were republished as part of Port of Shadow novel, however those are "edited versions". What is the difference between the original short stories and those that are in the novel?

Also, I am having trouble to get some short stories like Smelling Danger for example.

Is this a new novel? yeah I know it's not BC but it's Glen Cook. I'm not actively advertising for Amazon, this just showed up in my feed and I was curious.

https://www.amazon.com/Heirs-Babylon-Glen-Cook-ebook/dp/B08KGRJCHN

Need help...Anyone from India (Bangalore)?

I bought the Chronicles of the Black Company on the Kindle. Finished reading the book...it's got the first 3 novels in one. Now am looking for Shadow Games. It's not available in India on Kindle or in Bangalore at any store I have tried.

Would appreciate any leads on the rest of the series.

Thanks!!

Strong stupid energy in this question, so many apologies.

I read the original Black Company trilogy years and years ago, and never came back for some reason, even though I really enjoyed them. I'm now trying to read the following trilogy, but the names online don't get me anything on Amazon. Were different names used in the US and the UK? Or am I missing something here.