Cook, Glen

• Series: The Black Company
  • The Black Company (10 r)
  • Shadows Linger (9 r)
  • The White Rose (9 r)
  • The Silver Spike (8 r)
  • Shadow Games (8 r)
  • Dreams of Steel (6 r)

    • This is a series recording the history of a company of mercenaries as written by the physician, Croaker. The first three books and the fourth book are somewhat related, while the second series, starting with Shadow Games, occurs at a later time but with mostly the same characters. The final book, "Glittering Stone" has been due out Real Soon Now since approximately 1986 (!!!). Anyway, this is a great, great series, and I can't recommend it enough. If you want to read the full-length review of the first series that I wrote for rec.arts.sf.reviews, it should give you a feeling for what all the books are like. If you can find them, BUY THEM! (and READ THEM!)

• Series: The Dread Empire
  • The Shadow of All Night Falling (7 r)
  • October's Baby (6 r)
  • All Darkness Met (6 r)
  • The Fire in His Hands (6 r)
  • With Mercy Toward None (6 r)
  • Reap the East Wind (5 r)
  • An Ill Fate Marshalling (5 r)

    • A surprisingly well-written series (surprising that almost nobody knows it exists) about a desert-born religious cult figure in a medieval setting...similar to what Muslims from Africa invading Southern Europe and the Holy Lands must have gone through. Anyway, written from the point of view of the messiah (rather than the European-style leaders, as is the usual in the history books). Very good characterization and fast-moving plot. The last few books take place after the "end" of the messiah's empire and focus on some very interesting politics and wars among some small kingdoms in the same world. The main character in these books, Bragi Ragnarson, is sort of a spin-off character from the series. All of these are recommended but HARD to find.

• Red Iron Nights (5 r)

  • This is one of the books in the Garrett fantasy-detective series that I've seen a lot of in the bookstores. I thought I'd try this one out, and it was mildly amusing. I guess the major drawback is that there were 30 pages from my copy of the book that were inserted in a completely wrong place in the book (e.g. pp. 61-90 came after page 180) AND I DIDN'T NOTICE UNTIL I GOT TO PAGE 200! Of course, I was kind of "skimming" the book, but that's how confusing the plot was to me. I haven't tried any of the others out of sheer embarrassment.

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