Glen Cook

Chronicles of The Black Company — (1984-2000) In January 2005, Glen Cook said “I have two more, A Pitiless Rain and Port of Shadows, planned for the future, but I have a bunch of other stuff I have to do first that's under contract. It will be several years before a new Black Company novel comes out.” Publisher: Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hard-bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead. Until the prophecy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more. There must be a way for the Black Company to find her…

The Books of the Glittering Stone

Omnibus editions available. Audiobooks available at Audible.com.

The Black Company

In The Black Company, Glen Cook introduces us to a cast of interesting characters and builds a realistic military organization that makes sense. What makes this a great series is that there is an excellent blend of both honor and pragmatism. It's fun to read because the tempo moves quickly and doesn't get hung up in unnecessary details and description.

I really enjoy Cook's treatment of magic and the fact that the main characters know when to be afraid. These are not all-powerful heroes, but men — soldiers — who make sense doing what they do. As a soldier myself, I really appreciate that. —John Hulet

The Black Company

The Black Company is not for the softhearted. They're a hard-core mercenary unit and whatever honor they may have had in their long-history has been all but lost. (Put it this way: at least they draw the line at killing children). Now it's all about getting a paycheck and — take it from a former soldier — the military jargon and attitude is down pat. Ya' gotta love that.

It takes a few chapters to get used to, because you get most of what's going on from the conversations. Croaker, the medic and the keeper of the companies' annals, tells the whole story. There are a few writing flaws and a little too much sorcery going around for my taste, but there's enough intrigue and plot twists to keep you hooked. —Greg Hersom

The Black Company

The Black Company is an ancient mercenary brotherhood, its members as hard-bitten as skilled. As their ongoing commission in the city of Beryl disintegrates, they escape through the "trap-door" (in its fullest sense) of new employment by a mysterious northern sorcerer; and they soon find themselves the elite unit in the army of the Lady — a legendary figure who, in the eyes of the opposing Rebels, is the embodiment of evil.

The first of Glen Cook's Black Company novels, this one is narrated by Croaker, the company's chief medic and historian. His first-person, PG-13+ account is often vivid — though rarely with regard to settings — and moves quickly (though, due to his hard-boiled voice, not as quickly as one might expect from a paperback barely topping 300 pages); but at the same time, he makes few allowances for readers not familiar with his world. The lack of a map often exacerbates one's sensation of being lost in a fog of war with the company; the reader can only know what Croaker relates, and sometimes even Croaker doesn't know what's happening. (Overall, the remark by author Steven Erikson, whose Malazan series apparently owes this one a huge debt, about this saga and Vietnam War fiction on peyote seems fitting.)

There are also sporadic grammatical errors, such as 'height' being spelled 'heighth' more than once, and one isn't sure whether these really are errors or extra measures by the author to authenticate Croaker's voice. (It did seem careless for a character to exclaim 'Bingo!" early on, when the company's favorite card game involves shouting "Tonk!".)

Finally, the narration runs the gamut from utterly mundane to finely wrought, such as a description of whales "dancing in the iron sea" and the grand entrance of the Lady during the (long) climactic battle:

She was very stylish, in red and gold brocade, white scarves, gold and silver jewelry, a few black accents. Like a rich lady one might see in the streets of Opal. Her hair was darker than midnight, and hung long from beneath an elegant white and lace tricorner hat trailing white ostrich plumes. A net of pearls kept it constrained. She looked twenty at the oldest. Quiet islanded her as she passed. Men gaped. Nowhere did I see a hint of fear.

Overall, this may be a book that one either loves or hates — that either inspires one to re-read it and its sequels or else ditch it during the first chapter (which I followed much more easily on a second reading). (Because the enigmatic — and, at the least, Machiavellian — Lady is about the only woman featured, my guess is that female readers will be less likely to love it.)

Recommended as a paperback purchase for fans of military, dark, or anti-heroic fantasy or sword-and-sorcery. Recommended as a library loan for fans of fantasy in general. Not recommended for fans of literary, character-driven, or high fantasy. —Rob Rhodes

Shadows Linger

“Hard science fiction” focuses on the science of the story, often at the cost of character and plot. “Hard-boiled fiction” often features a cynical, jaded protagonist steadily battling against the forces of evil, but making little overall progress. The Black Company books are often categorized as military or dark fantasy, but perhaps “hard fantasy” would be more accurate, as Glen Cook combines the hard-boiled voice with classic fantasy tropes that we might expect to see in a board game.

The setting could not be any more “sword and sorcery” if it tried. There are ancient emperors of evil struggling to return from the dead. Meanwhile, Croaker and his company are an elite mercenary unit constantly battling for… well, not for good. If anything, they are fighting for an evil sorceress. Humanity is little more than chess pieces in this epic war. So it should come as no surprise that Cook’s mercenaries are a jaded, cynical lot. Cook’s narrator, Croaker, has a tired voice that comes straight out of a hard-boiled detective novel. His companions have few qualms about torturing their enemies. Perhaps the darkest of all the soldiers is Raven, an especially dangerous man.

Unfortunately, Raven deserted the Black Company in The Black Company. Unbeknownst to his friends, underneath that thuggish exterior, Raven has a heart of gold. Now, he’s in Juniper, trying to survive the brutal winter and protecting his charge, the innocent barmaid in a world of suffering, Darling. Cook does a fine job of working with this premise. My favorite moment in Shadows Linger finds Raven collecting the frozen dead from Juniper’s snowy streets. He drags the bodies into his wagon and delivers them to a necromancer whose castle is slowly getting bigger. He may be strengthening the forces of evil, but who really has time to think about these things?

And that’s just the beginning. From Juniper, Cook zooms out and we learn that Croaker and his elite mercenaries have become entangled in a centuries old war. The Dominator of old is returning to life and before long, Croaker realizes that Raven and Darling have become caught in the conflict as well.

The Black Company series has become a classic work of fantasy, and of the original three books, my favorite entry is Shadows Linger. Here, Cook begins to invest in his characters without sacrificing the hard-boiled edge that made The Black Company so fun to read. —Ryan Skardal

The White Rose

The final entry in a trilogy requires something special. In fantasy, that usually means finding godly machinery and amassing armies that will face each other on some distant, volcanic plain while a small band of covert heroes pull off a daring, one-in-a-million scheme.

However, up to this point, Glen Cook’s Black Company series has stood out for its noir atmosphere more than its epic company of mercenaries. Surprisingly, in The White Rose, Cook sacrifices his hard-boiled narrative for an epic fantasy storyline. It’s a daring, one-in-a-million scheme.

But it pays off.

Certainly Cook wastes no time trading in the noir for the epic: The White Rose opens in the Plain of Fear with Darling, now the White Rose and a general of her own unusual armies, pitted against the armies of the Taken, a group of elite sorcerers who serve the Lady. They are ruthless, centuries old, and their magic is immensely powerful. Thankfully, the White Rose has the power to nullify magic. The monsters in the Plain of Fear are supernatural and unpredictable, but they are also powerful and they form an alliance with the White Rose against the Dominator and his Lady, who each seek to restore an ancient empire of evil.

Cook’s final entry of The Black Company: The BOoks of the North consistently feels like a classic, archetypal high fantasy. Archetypal stories can invite authors to focus on broad details, but Cook is clever enough to pay attention to the little things. There are many fine details to applaud in The White Rose, but perhaps my favorite part of this novel (and the series) is the characters’ names. When a grizzled man and his dog, Tracker and Toadkiller Dog, show up, readers will hopefully be invested enough in the series to enjoy these names for all they’re worth.

Names are very important in the Black Company’s world. If someone can discover the Lady’s name and speak it, she will lose all of her magical power. Consequently, all sorcerers go to great lengths to keep their childhood secret. All of them are hiding their true identity, which is why much of The White Rose consists of trying to find out the true name of the Lady.

Unfortunately, Raven, Cook’s lone wolf, has messed up his search. So it falls on the other members of the company to figure things out. It’s a one-in-a-million chance that they’ll work out the puzzle of the Lady’s name in time to save The White Rose’s daring band of heroes — not to mention the world — but it does make for an enjoyable fantasy novel and a satisfying conclusion to the first trilogy in what is now recognized as a classic fantasy series. —Ryan Skardal

The Chronicles of the Black Company

The Chronicles of the Black Company, by Glen Cook, is made up of the first three books of a ten-volume series about the fictitious Black Company of Khatomar. There are a few things that separate these books from your regular fantasy. Firstly, there are almost no real heroes or villains, in the sense of good battling evil. Rather, everything is painted in shades of grey.

The Black Company itself is a fairly nasty bunch. Throughout the books the narrator often ponders how people can be classified as being truly good or evil. It seems to trouble him, though he never comes to a real conclusion. There is some confusion for the narrator due to the fact that the deeds of The Black Company are just as dark as those of their enemies. They will sneak into a town and murder their enemies in their sleep to stay alive themselves. He finds wickedness among his comrades and integrity in the enemy and his measure of a person is more along the lines of whether or not they are trustworthy. These books are about a war and the war is not glamourised.

The writing style is sparse and full of colloquialisms. It reminds me very much of the Vietnam memoir Full Metal Jacket. Glen Cook even uses military slang that was used during the Vietnam war era. The battles and military manoeuvring seems very realistic. Unfortunately, that does not make it exciting. The first book in particular is mostly just a string of skirmishes interspersed with a lot of marching and waiting around. I wonder how much of the plot was derived from real life war experiences of the author, because it has a very strong realistic feel to it.

There is a lot of confusion, especially during the battles, that pure fantasy books usually lack, because when someone writes from personal experience there tends to be less of an omnipotent presentation of information, since there was stuff occurring that they just didn't know about. When an author imagines the entire thing, you often find yourself with a clearer picture of what is going on.

One aspect of the writing itself that annoyed me was that Cook would often write in sentence fragments, especially when it came to dialogue. For example:

Just goes on and on. Hunting Rebels. No end to the supply. Even back when we hunted the Syndic in Beryl. We hunted dissidents. And before Beryl.

The book isn't entirely like that, but this sort of choppy structure is on every page.

So, the first book, The Black Company, is ok, though not very complex. The following books, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose, have more interesting adventures and character development. Keep in mind that these are the annals of a tough bunch of close-mouthed guys and the depth and complexity of their character development reflects that. The characters are fairly real and are developed through their actions. I would have preferred a bit more to draw me in to the tale. It is a tad dry for my tastes. It oscillates between spare accounts of their day-to-day doings and the introspection of the narrator about which side is really good or bad and whether he'll get out of the current mess alive or not.

For a military fantasy there are quite a few females in prominent roles. In fact, the three most powerful characters who show up for any more than a passing mention are all women and all in charge of The Black Company at one point or another. And the narrator is a little bit confused by them, too. I guess that's realistic enough as well.

A plus for The Black Company is that there are a load of unique creatures and magical manifestations. No pointy-eared elves waving magic wands here.

So there you go. These books are told in a no-nonsense down-to-Earth way and are filled with action and a little bit of soul-searching. There is not much else going on though. If you can imagine Jack Vance rewriting a David Gemmell novel without the macho posturing you probably won't be too far off. They are a break from your typical fantasy novels and that alone makes them worthwhile. However, I didn't get very involved in the stories and found them a little predictable at times. —Mark Pawlyszyn

Instrumentalities of the Night — (2005-2010) Publisher: Welcome to the world of the Instrumentalities of the Night, where imps, demons, and dark gods rule in the spaces surrounding upstart humanity. At the edges of the world stand walls of ice which push slowly forward to reclaim the land for the night. And at the world’s center, in the Holy Land where two great religions were born, are the Wells of Ihrain, the source of the greatest magics. Over the last century the Patriarchs of the West have demanded crusades to claim the Wells from the Pramans, the followers of the Written. Now an uneasy truce extends between the Pramans and the West, waiting for a spark to start the conflict anew. Then, on a mission in the Holy Land, the young Praman warrior Else is attacked by a creature of the Dark — in effect, a minor god. Too ignorant to know that he can never prevail over such a thing, he fights it and wins, and in so doing, sets the terrors of the night against him. As a reward for his success, Else is sent as a spy to the heart of the Patriarchy to direct their attention away from further ventures into the Holy Lands. Dogged by hidden enemies and faithless allies, Else witnesses senseless butchery and surprising acts of faith as he penetrates to the very heart of the Patriarchy and rides alongside their armies in a new crusade against his own people. But the Night rides with him, too, sending two of its once-human agents from the far north to assassinate him. Submerged in his role, he begins to doubt his faith, his country, even his family. As his mission careens out of control, he faces unanswerable questions about his future. It is said that God will know his own, but can one who has slain gods ever know forgiveness?

The Tyranny of the Night

The Tyranny of the Night has a lot of what one would expect from Glen Cook. A gritty atmosphere, a darkly wry sense of humor, a world-weary cynicism somehow melded with optimism, complex characters, a slowly engrossing story.

What doesn't it have? A map for one. Would it have killed the publishers to spend a few bucks having someone draw one? I'd have taken an editor's six-year-old kid's drawing of one if I could have. This book covers some serious geography and does so in such back-and-forth fashion that not having a map handy is almost unconscionable.

Almost as necessary — a glossary of characters. I almost never turn to them when they appear in other works, but in Tyranny Cook hop scotches among so many people — major characters, minor characters, minor characters who become major characters — that I sometimes lost track a bit of just who was who. Throw in the usual factional infighting, double-crossing, and double-double-crossing and it made things all the more confusing. Not throw up your hands and quit reading confusing, things never got that bad, but stop reading for a moment and try to recall who you're reading about and maybe even page back some chapters to make sure kind of confusing.

But if the major flaws are the lack of a map and a glossary, then one doesn't have too much to complain about. That isn't to say The Tyranny of the Night doesn't have other issues. The story takes a while to get going and one wishes Glen Cook had perhaps winnowed down some of the characters, geography, and storylines at least at the start to allow a deeper sense of immersion for the reader. And magic's use and place in the world never feels quite pinned down, quite all the way there.

The story is too involved to summarize but think medieval setting plus advent of better weaponry technology plus corrupt church plus crusades plus a Holy Land that fountains magic into the world plus old gods trying to hang on to their shrunken existence even as the new God threatens to swallow them whole and you have a basic idea of the context. Toss in a major character who is sent into the West to infiltrate their counsels and try so sow obstacles in the path of a corrupt Patriarch eager to send a crusading army into the Holy Land, only to find himself rising to higher and higher levels of authority until he ends up commanding an army invading his own people and you have a sense of the major storyline. Not to mention the side-stories involving Norse Gods, Soultaken, creeping ice, once-powerful spirits now feeling threatened by technology, the competition between two competing Patriarchs, internal strife in several major kingdom's, and the main character's fear that his leader that sent him on this mission hopes he gets killed along the way. Ok, we'll mention them but not go into them.

The Tyranny of the Night, with its many characters and places is a tough start, but give it time. Get past the lengthy introduction of just who is who and where is where (did I mention a map and glossary would help?) and the book becomes richly rewarding, leaving you eager for its continuation. Happily recommended. —Bill Capossere

The Tyranny of the Night

I have read Glen Cook's Black Company series and enjoyed them. So, The Tyranny of the Night had some fairly high standards for me to compare it against. I will say up front that I really liked the book.

The story revolves around three (maybe one or two more) characters and their involvement with a major crusader war. The perspectives of the characters are very different — one is a warrior/spy, one's a priest, and one's a barbarian raider who has been touched by his gods as their avatar.

I found the backstory for The Tyranny of the Night to be just a bit incomplete. Magic is around, but it seems to be drawn from manipulating the dark forces, who are also the same forces that the gods spring from. Now it seems the mortals can become gods and that mortals can also kill gods, but the exact how and why remain a bit confusing.

At times I felt like I was reading Erikson without the grand scope and scale. There is some humor, some politics, some vulgarity, just a little bit of everything without boring you with too many details.

I look forward to the next Instrumentalities book and hope that Glen Cook can clean things up just a bit so that the story moves a little faster. —John Hulet

Lord of the Silent Kingdom

Glen Cook’s next installment in The Instrumentalities of the Night is a welcome update to an interesting story. We return to a world that is undergoing dramatic changes and great war is brewing. It was interesting and tense.

The main character, Else Tage/Piper Hecht, is a solid no-nonsense leader who is caught up in a whirlwind of political and ethical challenges. The reader is drawn along as he confronts these problems and is shaped by various influences. The evolution of the man makes sense as he goes through some of these shocks and as his pragmatic personality makes him adapt.

Magic, the Church, political motivations, religious persecution, corrupt politicians, and dithering nobles make up the cast of characters. Cook doesn’t spend much time developing characters who won’t stick around very long, but he does give them enough depth to make sense.

My favorite part of the story is the way that Cook allows his pragmatic hero to react to, adapt to, and overcome the obstacles to his different missions. It’s refreshing to hear someone think along logical lines as they figure out how to accomplish a military mission. Many of the details of the operation are hidden from us, but that’s not a bad thing since it keeps the minutiae from crowding out the story.

On the whole I strongly recommend Lord of the Silent Kingdom as a worthy addition to the series. Cook keeps the story moving forward and develops essential characters without bogging us down with more information and superfluous personalities. Good stuff. —John Hulet

Lord of the Silent Kingdom

Before I get started, just a warning: there will be SPOILERS AHEAD! Due to the complexity of The Instrumentalities of the Night series, I will be summarizing the first book, The Tyranny of the Night, in conjunction with my review of book two, Lord of the Silent Kingdom.

So, let’s recap. Set in a world that is loosely based on 12th–15th century Europe, The Tyranny of the Night follows three main storylines. First, you have Captain Else Tage, a Sha-lug (special services warrior) of the Pramans who control the Wells Of Ihrain (a source of power for the Instrumentalities) amidst the Holy Lands. Else Tage does the impossible: a human using science/technology to kill a creature of the Night, in essence a minor god. From there, Else Tage is sent on a new mission to the West, to prevent the Patriarchy from starting another crusade into the Holy Lands. Along the way, Else Tage assumes a new identity in Piper Hecht, and becomes embroiled in a variety of increasingly improbable adventures involving politics (Patriarch, anti-Patriarch, Principates, King Peter), religion (Chaldarean, Deves, Pramans), soldiering, romance (Anna Mozilla), pirates, the Brotherhood Of War (dedicated to the destruction of the Night), witches, spies, soultaken assassins, sorcerers, Imperials (Grail Empire), and much more. Meanwhile, a second narrative focuses on two Andoran warriors in Shagot and Svavar, who are resurrected hundreds of years out of the past as soultaken by the Old Ones (ancient gods) to hunt down and kill the Godslayer (Else Tage). And lastly, you have Brother Candle, a Perfect Master of the Maysalean heresy who appears in the End of Connec in an attempt to prevent the Patriarch Sublime V from launching a crusade to rid the country of its heretics.

Just based on the above synopsis, which is really only a taste of what the book has to offer, it’s obvious that there’s a lot going on with The Tyranny of the Night. So, there’s no surprise that there’ve been some complaints about the book’s intricacy. After all, there’s a lot of information to process, not just the huge cast of characters involved, but also all of the political, religious, geographical and historical data that is thrown at you. And considering the many variant viewpoints and an obvious lack of a map or glossary, The Tyranny of the Night can be a hard book to follow. Still, if you were one of those readers that persevered through to the end, then you were treated to a very enjoyable convergence of events that satisfactorily concluded the first chapter in the Instrumentalities series.

With Lord of the Silent Kingdom, the story picks up not long after the end of The Tyranny of the Night, once again following the narratives of Piper Hecht (Else Tage), now the Captain-General of the Patriarchal army, and Brother Candle who continues his vigil in Connec. Providing the third viewpoint this time around is Helspeth Ege, Princess Apparent of the Grail Empire. First, to allay any fears, Lord of the Silent Kingdom is a much less confusing read than its predecessor. After all, the foundation was already established in the first book, and aside from a few new faces and locales, the story focuses mainly on those players and locations we already know. Plus, the viewpoints strictly adhere to Piper, Brother Candle and Princess Helspeth with only the occasional deviating narrative or long-winded exposition.

Now, of the three main storylines I found those of Piper Hecht to be the most engaging, as was the case with The Tyranny of the Night, and, appropriately, Hecht gets the most face time. For avid readers of Glen Cook — particularly his Black Company novels, which helped establish the author’s trademark for writing gritty, militaristic fantasy grounded in cynical realism and punctuated by acerbic humor — Piper Hecht’s adventures are the most closely related. While the escapades this time around aren’t as ironical or off-the-wall as they were in The Tyranny of the Night, you can still expect plenty of assassination attempts, war campaigns, backstabbing, the Ninth Unknown Cloven Februaren, family secrets, politics, Instrumentalities and engaging interactions with the likes of Pinkus Ghort, etc., to occupy Piper throughout Lord Of The Silent Kingdom. Brother Candle’s narrative remains dry in tone, reinforcing his role as mainly an observer of the events that befall Connec. Meanwhile, Princess Helspeth gets the least face time, and I felt that her narrative was more of an introduction, not just to her, but also to the court that she inhabits, which I believe is going to play a much bigger role in future volumes.

Compared to its predecessor, Lord of the Silent Kingdom is an improvement in some areas and a fall-off in others. On the plus side, the book itself is much easier to follow, part of it due to the format and writing, but mostly because the reader should already be familiar with the world that Mr. Cook has created. Speaking of which, the characterization of the world and the variety of peoples who populate it continues to be deftly realized and is definitely one of the high points of the book. What I felt was a weakness, was that while a lot happens in Lord of the Silent Kingdom, the reader is not always involved in the thick of the action, and the book lacks the epic, supernatural action of The Tyranny of the Night. In fact, the novel feels more like a setup piece between The Tyranny of the Night and the forthcoming volumes in the Instrumentalities series as a lot of threads are left unresolved. So, from a personal standpoint, I did not enjoy Lord of the Silent Kingdom as an individual book as much as I did The Tyranny of the Night, even with all of the latter’s faults. That said, I feel that The Instrumentalities of the Night is one of the more ambitious and dynamic fantasy epics out there today. What’s more, Mr. Cook is still establishing his legacy as one of fantasy’s best writers by continuing to take risks and redefining the genre that he’s been influencing since he first began writing. So, whether you’re a die-hard fan of The Black Company, Dread Empire or Garrett, P.I., or whether you’re new to Glen Cook, take the plunge, read The Instrumentalities of the Night series and be rewarded.
—Robert Thompson

Lord of the Silent Kingdom

In my review of Glen Cook’s first book in the Instrumentalities of the Night series, I bemoaned the lack of a map. Somehow, my opinion managed to go unheard and/or unheeded and so I’ll start again by asking if it would be too much to include a map in a book that jumps among a slew of kingdoms, countries, islands, and petty territories.

As a long-time fan of “epic” fantasy, I consider myself pretty well-versed in how to handle sweeping geography, but there were so many names of so many places playing a major role either in the active plot or in the backgrounds/motivations of characters that I became annoyingly bewildered by who was where and who was allying with whom.

The same is true of the names that get flashed by quite often, especially in the first third or so of the book, sometimes at a whirlwind pace where you might get 8-10 names of new places and new people in a single paragraph then two paragraphs later get another 8-10. Some of this is just background to the world-creation, pointing out that a larger world exists beyond the canvas of the novel’s plot, but many of the places and people are important based on geopolitics — which queen is supporting which king who has sent which knight to lead which county lord against which king fighting in support of which prelate, and so on. Not to mention of course that some of these characters have multiple names due to their being undercover agents or having a separate nickname used by some characters but not others or, like many aristocrats, they have both names and title which gets used or not. And then there are the sects and sects within sects who often act as characters in their own right, as in “the Brotherhood was making things difficult.” As I mentioned, it all gets a bit bewildering as characters drop into info-dump mode to explain why things are moving as they are and to be brutally honest, for much of the first third I had no idea of why things were happening at all. I knew what was going on — who was fighting whom and who was winning — but why they were fighting this particular enemy? ... No clue.

Eventually, those packed expositive paragraphs dwindle, the storyline narrows, and it all becomes easier to follow. As in The Tyranny of the Night, the focus is on Piper Hecht, now Captain-General of the Patriarch’s army (though of course Hecht is actually Else Tage, a Praman warrior sent by his king — partially because Tage is so good and partially because the worried king thinks he’s too good — into the West to undermine their ability to crusade against the Eastern (Praman) lands). In Lord of the Silent Kingdom, Hecht leads the Patriarch’s army into the End of the Connect to pacify a religious heresy, learns more about his sponsor — a member of the high council (think Cardinals) and magic user, picks up a lost girl who seems to be someone important politically, evades many, many assassination attempts, learns he has a guardian angel of sorts, is caught up in the political and religious machinations as people battle for the power of the Patriarchy, and does battle with the instrumentalities — the minor and major gods. And that’s not all.

Meanwhile, we get another point of view from Helspeth, Princess Apparent of the Grail Empire whose father has recently died, leaving the throne to her ill brother, who is to be followed by her older sister of questionable capability. Rounding out the three-stranded POV is Brother Candle, a Perfect Master (pacifistic minister of sorts) who observes the battle in the Connecht but from the other side of Piper Hecht.

It’s a hugely complex plot in terms of its politics, religion, character motivations, geography, etc. And as mentioned, it’s all a bit hard to follow for the first third or so. The POV switches aren’t always successful, the writing often feels disjointed, and the POVs are also a bit unbalanced in effect, with Piper’s much more engaging, followed by Helspeth’s (though she gets the least amount of time), and then by Candle, whose character’s passivity makes for relatively uninteresting reading, especially as much of what happens is told rather than shown. Piper’s story, however, is engaging even when one isn’t sure why he’s doing what he’s doing. It has Cook’s trademark realism and dark humor, strong character and dialogue. As events clear up, it becomes even more enjoyable.

The battles with the instrumentalities seem a bit anti-climactic, though it does seem we’re building up to something larger. The grander themes are all fascinating — an encroaching ice, a worsening of the Instrumentalities, the major shifting of geopolitics, the problems with refugees fleeing the ice age effects, Hecht’s gradually morphing from Else Tage, Praman warrior, to Piper, Patriarchal General. It’s an ambitious work that doesn’t quite succeed for a big chunk but then finds its voice and pacing for most of the rest of the book.

Glen Cook is working on a large canvas here and sometimes probably short-changes himself by cramming it all in to a relatively small space, thus leading to problems of clarity of exposition-stuffed prose, but by the end the reader is pulled in thoroughly and looking forward to volume three. Recommended with caveats. And with yet another plea for that damn map. —Bill Capossere

Surrender to the Will of the Night

PLOT SUMMARY: Piper Hecht’s first and greatest secret is that he knows how to kill gods. It is knowledge that makes him dangerous, but also puts him in danger — from his enemies, who fear what he might do, or who want revenge for what he has already done; and from his friends, who want to use his knowledge for their own purposes.

For example, Piper’s sister Heris and his living ancestor  Cloven Februaren, the Ninth Unknown, have made Hecht part of their fight against the return of the dark god, Kharoulke the Windwalker. At the same time, the half-mad Empress Katrin wants him to lead the armies of the Grail Empire eastward on a crusade into the Holy Lands against his fellow Pramans.

Meanwhile, all around them, the world is changing. The winters are growing longer and harder every year, and the seas are getting shallower. The far north and the high mountain ranges are going under the ice, and fast. The Wells of Power, everywhere, keep getting weaker. And the old evils, the Instrumentalities from the Time Before Time, have begun to ooze back into the world...

FORMAT/INFO: Surrender to the Will of the Night is 496 pages long divided over 44 numbered chapters. Narration is in the third-person, mostly via the main protagonist, Piper Hecht. Other viewpoints include the Ninth Unknown, Cloven Februaren; the Maysalean Perfect Master, Brother Candle; Nassim Alizarin, the Mountain; Helspeth Ege, Princess Apparent of the Grail Empire; and Piper’s sister, Heris. Considering the scope and complexity of The Instrumentalities of the Night, it’s highly recommended that readers finish The Tyranny of the Night and The Lord of the Silent Kingdom before attempting Surrender to the Will of the Night, the third volume in the series. Expect an ending in Surrender to the Will of the Night that wraps up most of the major plotlines in the book, but also acts as a cliffhanger/tease for the next volume in the series.

November 23, 2010 marks the North American Hardcover publication of Surrender to the Will of the Night via Tor. Like the previous Instrumentalities of the Night novels, cover art is provided by Raymond Swanland.

ANALYSIS: After reading The Tyranny of the Night and The Lord of the Silent Kingdom, I felt The Instrumentalities of the Night was developing into some of Glen Cook’s best work yet, and Surrender to the Will of the Night only confirms that thought...

Once again marrying the no-nonsense characterization, military action and dark humor of the author’s Black Company novels with the epic scope and inventive magic of Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen, as well as the complex medieval European/Middle Ages-influenced religion and politics of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire and Kate Elliott’s Crown of Stars, Surrender to the Will of the Night is another hugely rewarding entry in The Instrumentalities of the Night series.

Plot-wise, politics remain front and center, this time revolving around the Grail Empress’ desire to launch a crusade to purge the Holy Lands of the Praman infestation with Piper Hecht leading the charge as the Commander of the Righteous army; Bronte Doneto’s ascension to Patriarch; secret documents declaring the surprising heir to the End of Connec; and Indala al-Sul Halaladin’s attempt to unify the kaifates of al-Minphet and Qasr al-Zed in order to undertake his own crusade. But overshadowing all of the world’s political matters is the looming threat of the powerful Instrumentality, Kharoulke the Windwalker.

Of these numerous storylines, I most enjoyed the one with Kharoulke the Windwalker and those tasked with defeating the Instrumentality, including the Ninth Unknown, Cloven Februaren, Piper Hecht’s sister, Heris, the Aelen Kofer (dwarves), and the ascendant, Asgrimmur Grimmsson, who was largely responsible for freeing the Windwalker in the first place. Mostly taking place in the magical Realm of the Gods where the Old Ones were imprisoned by Asgrimmur in The Tyranny of the Night, this particular storyline felt similar to reading a Tad Williams fantasy novel. However, true to form, Glen Cook provides his own unique spin on such familiar epic fantasy trappings as magical worlds and mythical races, while keeping the reader unbalanced with unexpected twists and turns, like the surprising way Kharoulke the Windwalker is handled. For most of this storyline, narratives are provided by the entertaining Cloven Februaren and the resourceful Heris, who are highlights of the novel.

That said, Piper Hecht remains my favorite character in the series, and once again is awarded center stage in the third volume of The Instrumentalities of the Night. What I love most about Piper is his grounded, no-nonsense approach to everything in his life — his job, family, friends, co-workers, enemies, the Instrumentalities, et cetera — which, more than any other character in the series, embodies the spirit of Glen Cook’s timeless Black Company novels. More than that though, Piper Hecht is just an incredibly interesting individual who has to deal with a ton of intriguing complications in his life from leading a double life as Piper Hecht — complete with a fake wife, fake children and a fake history — that feels more real than his actual life; to enduring the burden of being the Godslayer; harboring a dangerous attraction to Helspeth Ege, the Princess Apparent of the Grail Empire; and being related to a family of powerful magic-users; while new complications include Piper finding a way to prevent Empress Katrin — who becomes more insane over the course of the novel — from launching a crusade into the Holy Lands; Krulik and Sneigon selling godshot and falcons (the weapons used to kill Instrumentalities) to anyone who can afford it; and even more assassination attempts.

Of the other main characters, Brother Candle is once again mainly an observer, resulting in the most boring chapters in the novel, but thankfully the Maysalean Perfect Master is not given very much face time. Nassim Alizarin’s narrative meanwhile, is somewhat similar to Brother Candle’s, as his chapters act primarily as a window for what’s happening in the Holy Lands, including setting up what could be future confrontations with Gordimer the Lion and the sorcerer, er-Rashal al-Dhulquarnen. Disappointingly, the novel only dedicates a few short chapters to Helspeth Ege, but considering what happens to her sister Katrin, the Princess Apparent is primed for a much larger role in forthcoming sequels.

Comparatively, Surrender to the Will of the Night possesses many of the same strengths that are present in The Tyranny of the Night and The Lord of the Silent Kingdom, including a rewardingly elaborate story, unforgivingly complex politics, a huge and diverse cast of characters, and epic action sequences. Unfortunately, Surrender to the Will of the Night also possesses many of the same weaknesses, including a noticeable lack of a map or glossary to help readers process the immense amount of information that is available, a writing style that occasionally does too much telling rather than showing, and prose that is sometimes too sparse for it’s own good: “The children smirked and giggled at breakfast. Hecht ignored them. It was a fine day. He had no obligations. He planned to stay right here and do nothing.”  However, because of the increased roles of Cloven Februaren and Heris; the entertaining Windwalker storyline; and a number of exciting developments involving the discovery of Ferris Renfrow’s secret identity, the deaths of five powerful rulers, and the revelation that Piper Hecht/Else Tage might not be the Godslayer after all; Surrender to the Will of the Night is the best Instrumentalities of the Night novel yet.

In the end, Surrender to the Will of the Night and The Instrumentalities of the Night series is required reading for anyone who loves Glen Cook or considers themselves a true fan of fantasy literature.
—Robert Thompson

Surrender to the Will of the Night

Surrender to the Will of the Night is the third book in Glen Cook’s Instrumentalities of the Night series, and despite its great potential, shares some of the same flaws as its two predecessors.

There are several major plot strands braided together. One involves Piper Hecht’s growing entanglement with the Grail Empire, headed by Empress Katrin, who wishes to hire Piper away from the Patriarch’s army and make him commander of her new Righteous Army, which she plans to send on crusade to rid the Holy Lands of the Praman’s. Luckily for her, upheaval in the Patriarchal hierarchy may make Piper free to consider her request (Piper’s attraction to Katrin’s sister Helspeth doesn’t hurt). Speaking of the Holy Lands and the Praman, a secondary plot involves an attempt by Indala al-Sul Halaladin to unify the Praman into a single kaifate, ending their internecine warfare/raiding and freeing them to focus on liberating the Holy Lands in a counter-crusade. Meanwhile, parallel to all this is a magical battle by Cloven Februaren (the “Ninth Unknown”) and Piper’s sister Heris against Kharoulke the Windwalker, one of the most powerful and worst Instrumentalities. And, as usual in this series, there are a host of other “meanwhiles” one could add.

The most captivating plot involves the book-length campaign against Kharoulke, in which Februaren and Heris have to enter another world, enlist the aid of long-vanished dwarves, find a way across the rainbow bridge into the castle of the gods, etc. The plot-line is interesting and enlivened by the entry of Norse mythology fully into the storyline. This entry is made more complex and rich by the clash of that mythology and traditional magic with the increasingly sophisticated technology beginning to be deployed in this world. This plot strand is also less bogged down by details of geography, political influence, genealogy, and other overwhelming or dry details that hinder the other storylines somewhat. But the largest reason I found this plot most enjoyable, though, was due to those involved. Februaren, Heris, the Ascendant, and one of the leading dwarves all have very distinctive, vibrant narrative voices, and so the story seems to come alive whenever we switch back to this group.

The plot involving Piper’s growing estrangement from the Patriarchy and entanglement with the Grail Empire I found less compelling. One reason is those dry and sometimes overwhelming details of politics, geography, and genealogy. Another is that I never had a sense it wasn’t going to go where it did, so I felt I was reading all these machinations and details simply to get to where I knew I was going anyway. And truth be told, though he’s the main character, I find Piper’s character curiously flat, considering his history. His interactions with his comrades are trademark Cook, wry and gritty, and when we spend some quality time with him he’s an engaging character. Too often, though, he (and thus we) are getting thrown so much information, or being whirled so quickly from place to place or plot to plot, that it loses some emotional depth.

The Praman sub-plot is similarly a bit flat, feeling at times more like reportage to keep us up to date as to what’s happening in that part of the world. It does have its moments, especially when Nassim Alizarin, one of the major players, deals with one of his more unpleasant commands. Brother Candle, from the earlier books, returns here but in somewhat perfunctory fashion, mostly being a conduit for some legal papers. His is probably the least interesting and narratively satisfying storyline, but it isn’t granted too many pages.

Surrender to the Will of the Night, beyond the ups and downs of plot and character, shares a few of the same reading frustrations I had with the first two books. One is the lack of a map. Much more than most books, this is a series where geography plays a major role. Characters are flying (not literally for the most part) all over the place, and when they’re not going to a setting they’re referring to it (often by more than one name). A map here is less a luxury, I’d say, than an essential reading tool to get the fullness of the story. The same holds true for a glossary/reading cast. Not only are there a slew of characters, but many of them are referenced via multiple names: nicknames, real names, titles, land names, assumed names. It can get difficult keeping track of which count/duke/etc is which.

Stylistically, Surrender to the Will of the Night could do with better transitioning between scenes. The book seemed far too stripped of these, making for distractingly abrupt shifts from scene to scene, place to place, character to character, and an overall disjointed reading experience. And there’s a bit too much of the reportage I mentioned, where the reader is told what is happening (or what happened off stage) rather than being shown it.

In the end, Surrender to the Will of the Night continues, for both good and bad, what the earlier two books began. The Instrumentalities of the Night is a truly ambitious series that perhaps mirrors a little too much the complexity of the real world with its infinite events and choices and constant clamoring for attention to a million items, and then throws in an entire other world to boot. It’s frustrating reading at times, dealing with so much underbrush as well as some rough transitioning. While it has so far been rewarding enough, it’s only just so, and the ratio between frustration and reward is not quite what I would like it to be. —Bill Capossere