Glen Cook

I discovered Glen Cook after I read an interview with Steven Erikson back in 2005.  At the time I had just gotten into the Malazan series and had yet to discover Jack Vance or Gene Wolfe.  I did a search for Glen and up came the Black Company books.  So that very day, off I went to my (semi) local bookstore and bought the first three books in the BC series.

I was instantly infatuated.

The first book was a revelation to me, who had only read "fat" fantasy before that.  Writers like Jordan, Martin, Tad Williams.  The fact that Mr. Cook had accomplished the world and characters of the Black Company in so few pages was amazing to me. I hadn't been so enthralled with a book since Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice. What do you mean there are no lame descriptions of clothing?  Where is the braid-pulling, the sniffing, the farm boy with his painfully slow realizations and country bumpkin sensibilities?  Why, they're nowhere to be found!

 I quickly devoured the second and third installments, Shadows Linger and The White Rose.  In the coming days I located a few more in used bookstores and the remainder online.  And before I knew it, there was no more BC.  Damn, I thought.  Now what?  Easy answer: More Cook!  I found The Swordbearer, The Tower of Fear, the Dread Empire books (before the omnibuses by Nightshade), and the Garrett books (from the old SFBC).  I also discovered The Tyranny of the Night quite by accident, and bought it in hardcover without a second thought.  I had enough Glen Cook to last me...

...THREE WEEKS?!?


Fairly recently, Mr. Cook had a BC story in an anthology titled Swords and Dark Magic (which contains many good S&S short stories by many great writers).  To my surprise the story took place sometime after the first book and before the second.  The Limper was back!  And the Captain!  This was great.  And a few months after I had said goodbye to the North, I watch an interview with Glen Cook on You Tube, and learn that the next BC book, in its entirety, will take place in between books one and two.  Wow.  I, for one, cannot wait.

For those of you who have never read Cook, I'm sure this post seems rather fan-boyish.  It is.  I am.  And you should stop reading this and go read some Glen Cook.