Glen Cook Books In Order

The Black Company

Some feel the Lady, newly risen from centuries in thrall, stands between humankind and evil. Some feel she is evil itself. The hardbitten men of The Black Company take their pay and do what they must, burying their doubts with their dead.

Until the prophesy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more.

There must be a way for the Black Company to find her…

Shadows Linger

Mercenary soldiers in the service of the Lady, the Black Company stands against the rebels of the White Rose. They are tough men, proud of honoring their contracts. The Lady is evil, but so, too, are those who falsely profess to follow the White Rose, reincarnation of a centuries dead hero*ine. Yet now some of the Company have discovered that the mute girl they rescued and sheltered is truly the White Rose reborn. Now there may be a path to the light, even for such as they. If they can survive it.

The White Rose

She is the last hope of good in the war against the evil sorceress known as the Lady. From a secret base on the Plains of Fear, where even the Lady hesitates to go, the Black Company, once in service to the Lady, now fights to bring victory to The White Rose. But now an even greater evil threatens the world. All the great battles that have gone before will seem a skirmishes when the Dominator rises from the grave.

The Silver Spike

…
embedded in the trunk of the scion of the godtree, it contains the essence of the maddest of the Ten Who Were Taken…
The Dominator. Defeated by the Lady and cast from this world, all that was left of him was a foul trace of lingering evil. But the graveyard that was once the Barrowland contains more secrets than dead. All who would possess the power of the Dominator are drawn to the spike. A foolhardy band of thieves is the first to reach it, and a rapacious and malign spirit is unleashed on an unwary world. The forces gather, sides are drawn, and mortal men can only die as the Dark Lords battle for domination.

Shadow Games

After the devastating battle at the Tower of Charm, Croaker leads the greatly diminished Black Company south, in search of the lost Annals. The Annals will be returned to Khatovar, eight thousand miles away, a city that may exists only in legend…
the origin of the first Free Companies. Every step of the way the Company is hounded by shadowy figured and carrion eating crows. As they march every southward, through bug infested jungle, rivers dense with bloodthirsty pirates, and cities, dead and living, haunted by the passage of the Company north, their numbers grow until they are thousands strong. But always they are watched by the Shadowmasters a deadly new enemy: twisted creature that deal in darkness and death: powerful, shadowy creatures bent on smothering the world in their foul embrace. This is the first round in a deadly game, a game that the Black Company cannot ea hope to win.

Dreams of Steel

Croaker has fallen and, following the Company’s disastrous defeat at Dejagore, Lady is one of the few survivors determined to avenge the Company and herself against the Shadowmasters, no matter what the cost. But in assembling a new fighting force from the dregs and rabble of Taglios, she finds herself offered help by a mysterious, ancient cult of murder competent, reliable, and apparently committed to her goals. Meanwhile, far away, Shadowmasters conspire against one another and the world, weaving dark spells that reach into the heart of Taglios. And in a hidden grove, a familiar figure slowly awakens to find himself the captive of an animated, headless corpse. Mercilessly cutting through Taglian intrigues, Lady appears to be growing stronger every day. All that disturbs her are the dreams which afflict her by night dreams of carnage, of destruction, of universal death, unceasing…

Bleak Seasons

Murgen, the battle scarred standard bearer of the Black Company, chronicles the exploits of the Company during the siege of Stormgard, a fortress of the evil Shadowlanders, as the mercenaries risk their lives and their souls to claim victory.

She is the Darkness

The wind whines and howls with bitter breath. Lightning snarls and barks. Rage is an animate force upon the plain of glittering stone. Even shadows are afraid. At the heart of the plain stands a vast grey stronghold, unknown, older than any written memory. One ancient tower has collapsed across the fissure. From the heart of the fastness comes a great deep slow breath like that of a slumbering world heart, cracking the olden silence. Death is eternity. Eternity is stone. Stone is silence. Stone cannot speak but stone remembers. So begins the next movement of Glittering Stone…
. The tale again comes to us from the pen of Murgen, Annalist and Standard Bearer of the Black Company, whose developing powers of travel through space and time give him a perspective like no other. Led by the wily commander, Croaker, and the Lady, the Company is working for the Taglian government, but neither the Company nor the Taglians are overflowing with trust for each other. Arrayed against both is a similarly tenuous alliance of sorcerers, including the diabolical Soulcatcher, the psychotic Howler, and a four year old child who may be the most powerful of all.

Water Sleeps

Regrouping in Taglios, the surviving members of the Black Company are determined to free their fellow warriors held in stasis beneath the glittering plain. Journey there under terrible conditions, they arrive just in time for a magical conflagration in which the bones of the world will be revealed, the history of the Company unveiled, and new world gained and lost…
all at a terrible price.

Soldiers Live

When sorcerers and demigods go to war, those wars are fought by mercenaries, ‘dog soldiers,’ grunts in the trenches. And the stories of those soldiers are the stories of Glen Cook’s hugely popular ‘Black Company’ novels. If the Joseph Heller of Catch 22 were to tell the story of The Lord of the Rings, it might read like the Black Company books. There is nothing else in fantasy like them. Now, at last, Cook brings the ‘Glittering Stone’ cycle within the Black Company series to an end…
but an end with many other tales left to tell. As Soldiers Live opens, Croaker is military dictator of all the Taglias, and no Black Company member has died in battle for four years. Croaker figures it can’t last. He’s right. For, of course, many of the Company’s old adversaries are still around. Narayan Singh and his adopted daughter actually the offspring of Croaker and the Lady hope to bring about the apocalyptic Year of the Skulls. Other old enemies like Shadowcatcher, Longshadow, and Howler are also ready to do the Company harm. And much of the Company is still recovering from the fifteen years many of them spent in a stasis field. Then a report arrives of an evil spirit, a forvalaka, that has taken over one of their old enemies. It attacks them at a shadowgate setting off a chain of events that will bring the Company to the edge of apocalypse and, as usual, several steps beyond. Glen Cook is the leading modern writer of epic fantasy noir, and Soldiers Live is Cook at his best. None of his legion of fans will want to miss it. AUTHORBIO: GLEN COOK lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Chronicles of the Black Company

Darkness wars with darkness as the hard bitten men of the Black Company take their pay and do what they must. They bury their doubts with their dead. Then comes the prophecy: The White Rose has been reborn, somewhere, to embody good once more . This omnibus edition comprises The Black Company, Shadows Linger, and The White Rose.

The Return of the Black Company

Let me tell you who I am, on the chance that these scribblings do survive…
. I am Murgen, Standardbearer of the Black Company, though I bear the shame of having lost that standard in battle. I am keeping these Annals because Croaker is dead, One Eye won t, and hardly anyone else can read or write. I will be your guide for however long it takes the Shadowlanders to force our present predicament to its inevitable end…
. This omnibus volume comprises the novels Bleak Seasons and She is the Darkness.

The Many Deaths of the Black Company

Let me tell you who I am, on the chance that these scribblings do survive…
. I am Murgen, Standardbearer of the Black Company, though I bear the shame of having lost that standard in battle. I am keeping these Annals because Croaker is dead, One Eye won t, and hardly anyone else can read or write. I will be your guide for however long it takes the Shadowlanders to force our present predicament to its inevitable end…
. This omnibus volume comprises the novels Water Sleeps and Soldiers Live.

Sweet Silver Blues

It should have been a simple job. But for Garrett, a human detective in a world of gnomes, tracking down the woman to whom his dead pal Danny left a fortune in silver is no slight task. Even with the aid of Morley, the toughest half elf around, Garrett isn’t sure he’ll make it out alive from a land where magic can be murder, the dead still talk, and vampires are always hungry for human blood.

Bitter Gold Hearts

The Stormwarden’s children have been kidnapped and Garrett, P.I. is on the case. But caught between the bewitching beauty of a half elf and the fearsome power of a horde of ogres, Garrett has to think twice before sacrificing all for a fortune in gold after all, even in this enchanted land, he’s only human.

Cold Copper Tears

She was tall, blonde, and offering P.I. Garrett an irresistible fee to take a case that seemed open and shut. But in a town of elves and humans, thugs and swindlers, Garrett had learned to take a long, hard look before saying yes…

Old Tin Sorrows

Someone or something is murdering the employees of retired General Stantor. Now, this growing legion of the dead wants to add the general to their ranks. And it’s up to Garrett and the half elf Morley Dotes to protect Stantor and find the killer…

Dread Brass Shadows

Everyone wants to find it a treasure so rich it makes even a hard boiled detective like Garrett nervous. It’s the legendary Book of Shadows, made of brass and holding secrets no mortal was ever meant to master and Garrett must make sure no one ever has the chance to work its spells on an unsuspecting and unprotected world.

Deadly Quicksilver Lies

When the former mistress of the now defunct king hires Garrett to find her missing teenaged daughter, the human detective gets more than he bargained for in a world full of suspects, sex, and corpses.

Petty Pewter Gods

When real estate becomes a scant resource in TunFaire, the newly arrived gods of the world hold a contest that will award the last available temple to whomever can find its key, and atheist P.I. Garrett is hired by two rival pantheons. LJ.

Faded Steel Heat

Since the end of the war, there had always been bigotry against non humans in TunFaire. Even though many species had sacrificed in battle, some groups of humans thought the ‘Golden Rule’ translated to ‘Humans rule. Now give us your gold.’ With the streets descending into bloody race riots, and the organized ‘human’ brotherhoods flexing both physical and economic muscle, TunFaire was a hairsbreadth from total chaos. Garrett is a wise guy private investigator who speaks loudly and carries a big stick. Backed by a circle of friends no one would wish on their worst enemy Garrett is caught in a conspiracy of hate that pits man against. everybody!

Praise for Glen Cook:

‘Lively homage to Chandler and company, with plenty of suspects, sex, and corpses…
Cook turns fantasy inside out!’ Locus

‘Garrett spouts argot and attitude worthy of the hardest boiled detective who ever pounded mean streets…
fun to read!’ Fantasy Review

‘Fast paced adventure that combines sword and sorcery with hard boiled detective fiction!’ Library Journal

Angry Lead Skies

A series far ahead of its time, now back in print Anyone else would have learned by now: when trouble comes knocking, don’t open the door. But there’s a reason why Garrett’s still in the P.I. business after all these years he’s not one to learn his lessons. Maybe that’s why he lets himself get roped into being a bodyguard for Kip Prose, an obnoxious kid being threatened by creatures that can’t quite be described. But before Kip Prose has a chance to explain what he’s done to get on the hit list of some nameless nasties, the precocious Prose is abducted, and the chase begins…

Whispering Nickel Idols

In TunFaire, a city of gorgeous women, powerful sorcerers and dangerous magic, the beautiful, criminally insane daughter of a comatose crime boss has some lascivious designs on private investigator Garrett who now has to figure out why everyone is suddenly after him.

Cruel Zinc Melodies

View our feature on Glen Cook’s Cruel Zinc Melodies. Garrett uncovers the dark side of the fantasy city TunFaire, where no one is to be trusted especially beautiful woman. When a pack of gorgeous woman knock on his door, Garrett knows it’s too good to be true. The leader of the group is Alyx Weider, the daughter of the largest brewer in town. Her father and friends are opening a new theater in TunFaire and the lovely ladies are there to persuade Garrett to help get rid of the paranormal parasites living in the new construction. Garrett agrees because after all, it means free beer and the company of these beautiful girls. What else could a man want? But Garrett doesn t realize the drama he s stepping into.

Gilded Latten Bones

For Garrett, P.I., loyalty and love come a close second to survival…
Garrett’s attempt at domestic bliss with the fiery Tinnie Tate is sidetracked when he waylays a pair of home intruders and learns they’ve been paid by an unknown source to kidnap Tinnie. But as Garrett rushes to find out who is trying to push his buttons, his best friend is attacked. Now, Garrett has to track down both malefactors. Unless they’re really one and the same in which case Garrett might be next…

Reap the East Wind

It has ended. It begins again. In Kavelin, Lady Nepanthe”s new life with the wizard Varthlokkur is disturbed by visions of her lost son, while King Bragi Ragnarson and Michael Trebilcock scheme to help the exiled Princess Mist re usurp her throne under their thumb. In Shinsan, a pig farmer”s son takes command of Eastern Army, while Lord Kuo faces plots in his council and a suicide attack of two million Matayangans on his border. But in the desert beyond the Dread Empire, a young victim of the Great War becomes the Deliverer of an eons forgotten god, chosen to lead the legions of the dead. And the power of his vengeance will make a world”s schemes as petty as dust, blown wild in the horror that rides the east wind. This volume marks the beginning of the end. Reap the East Wind is the first step on the road to the long delayed final chapter of Glen Cook”s legendary Dread Empire series.

An Ill Fate Marshalling

King Bragi Ragnorson decides to join Chatelain Mist’s coup against the Dread Empire. Varhlokkur the King’s wizard tries to dissuade Ragnorson from this chosen path, but only the drum beat of war is heard. The King’s Spymaster Michael Trebilcock joins with the wizard to stave off The Ill Fate Marshaling, to no effect. Many of the characters from past volumes take center stage, and the climatic events of this book shake the world of the Dread Empire to its very core, creating A Path to Coldness of Heart. Glen Cook’s final Dread Empire novel was to have been published 20 years ago, but the manuscript was stolen, and the fate of The Dread Empire has been in Limbo until now! Night Shade is proud to present the long delayed final Dread Empire Trilogy, of which An Ill Fate Marshaling is Volume 2.

A Path to Coldness of Heart

At long last, the conclusion to Glen Cook”s Dread Empire saga has arrived! King Bragi Ragnarson is a prisoner, shamed, nameless, and held captive by Lord Shih kaa and the Empress Mist at the heart of the Dread Empire. Far away in Kavelin, Bragia”s queen and what remains of his army seek to find and free their king, hampered by the loss or desertion of their best and brightest warriors. Kavelina”s spymaster, Michael Trebilcock, is missing in action, as is loyal soldier Aral Dantice. Meanwhile, Dane, Duke of Greyfells, seeks to seize the rule of Kavelin and place the kingdom in his pocket, beginning a new line of succession through Bragia”s queen, Dane”s cousin Inger. And in the highest peaks of the Dragona”s Teeth, in the ancient castle Fangdred, the sorcerer called Varthlokkur uses his arts to spy on the world at large, observing the puppet strings that control kings and empires alike, waiting…
For the time of the wrath of kings is almost at hand, and vengeance lies along A Path to Coldness of Heart.

The Tyranny of the Night

Now in trade paperback: the start of a fantasy epic from the creator of the Black Company, rich as history and deep as the night skyWelcome 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?

Lord of the Silent Kingdom

It’s cold. The wells of power are weakening and the forces of Night grow strong. The gods are real, and still have some power, mostly to do harm. The Instrumentalities of the Night are the worst of these.

Piper Hecht, born Else Tage, survived a battle with the Instrumentalities. Now he’s Captain-General of the armies fighting a crusade for Patriarch Sublime V. Intrigues swirl around the throne of the Grail Empire, as the imperial family’s enemy Anne of Menand raises money to help the perpetually indebted Patriarch finance his crusades. To reduce his own vulnerability, sickly young Emperor Lothar assigns his two half-sisters-his immediate heirs-to their own realms.

Now Piper Hecht learns that the legendary sorceror Cloven Februaren, referred to as the Ninth Unknown, is still alive, more than 100 years old, and on Piper’s side. As the dynastic politics of the Empire become even more convoluted, it’s clear that while the old gods may be fading, they’re determined to do everything they can to bend the doings of men to their own advantage.

Sieges, explosions, betrayals, Anti-Patriarchs, and suspicious deaths will ensue as the great chess game plays itself out, with Piper Hecht at the center of it all…

Surrender to the Will of the Night

Piper Hecht’s first and greatest secret is that he knows how to kill gods. What s not a secret is that he knows how to win wars Piper Hecht s secrets make him dangerous, but his skill and his reputation put 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 military gifts for their own purposes. His 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 against his old coreligionists the Praman. 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. As ever, the genius of Glen Cook s storytelling lies in his common touch: in soldiers who are like real soldiers, in men and women who love and laugh and sweat, with real hopes and real fears, united only in their determination to face the oncoming night.

Shadowline

The vendetta in space had started centuries before ‘Mouse’ Storm was born with his grandfather’s raid on the planet Prefactlas, the blood bath that freed the human slaves from their Sangaree masters. But one Sangaree survived the young Norborn heir, the man who swore vengeance on the Storm family and their soldiers, in a carefully mapped plot that would take generations to fulfill. Now Mouse’s father Gneaus must fight for an El Dorado of wealth on the burning half of the planet Blackworld. As the great private armies of all space clash on the narrow Shadowline that divides inferno from life sheltering shade, Gneaus’ half brother Michael plays his traitorous games, and a man called Death pulls the deadly strings that threaten to entrap them all as the Starfishers Trilogy begins.

Starfishers

Starfish: Treasure troves of power. They were creatures of fusion energy, ancient, huge, intelligent, drifting in herds on the edge of the galaxy, producing their ambergris, the substance precious to man and the man like Sangaree alike. In deep, starless space the herds were protected by the great harvestships of the Seiners, or Starfishers the independent, non Confederation people who dared to skirt the deadly boundaries of Stars’ End and battle the Sangaree. It is with them on the harvestship Danion that Confederation agents Mouse Storm and Moyshe BenRabi have to fly and fight, probing mystery and myth. And where BenRabi, man of many names, must surrender his dreams and his mind itself to the golden dragons of space and their shepherds, the gathering…
Starfishers.

Passage at Arms

The ongoing war between Humanity and the Ulat is a battle of attrition that humanity is unfortunately losing. However, humans have the advantage of trans hyperdrive technology, which allows their climber fleet, under very narrow and strenuous conditions, to pass through space almost undetectable. Passage at Arms tells the intimate, detailed and harrowing story of a climber crew and its captain during a critical juncture of the war. Cook combines speculative technology with a canny and realistic portrait of men at war and the stresses they face in combat. Passage at Arms is one of the classic novels of military science fiction.

The Swordbearer

A young boy’s dreams of glory and war turn into a bitter nightmare as his father’s kingdom is overrun by an invading army. Lost and alone in the woods, he finds an ancient sword that promises him the ability to claim his vengeance. As he begins to take that vengeance, he begins to realize the price that the sword will demand of him. Enemies soon become allies and strange bedfellows abound as the prophecies of an age swirl into chaos.

The Dragon Never Sleeps

Glen Cook The Black Company, The Dread Empire delivers a masterpiece of galaxy spanning space opera! For four thousand years, the Guardships ruled Canon Space with an iron fist. Immortal ships with an immortal crew roaming the galaxy, dealing swiftly and harshly with any mercantile houses or alien races that threatened the status quo. But now the House Tregesser believes they have an edge; a force from outside Canon Space offers them the resources to throw off Guardship rule. Their initial gambits precipitate an avalanche of unexpected outcomes, the most unpredicted of which is the emergence of Kez Maefele, one of the few remaining generals of the Ku Warrior race the only race to ever seriously threaten Guardship hegemony. Kez Maefele and a motley group of mysterious aliens, biological constructs, and scheming aristocrats find themselves at the center of the conflict. Maefele must choose which side he will support; the Guardships, who defeated and destroyed his race, or the unknown forces from outside Canon Space that promise more death and destruction.

The Tower of Fear

The City of Qushmarrah is uneasy under the rule of the Herodians short, balding men whose armies would never have conquered the city had not the great and evil wizard Narkar been killed and sealed in his citadel; had not the savage nomad Datars turned coat and sided with the invaders; had not some traitor opened the fortress to them. Not many would welcome the return of the old religion, the bloody return of wizardry…
but there are some patriots who would accept the return of the devil they know, if it meant the return of independence.

Sung In Blood

Protector Jerhke has kept Shasessrre peaceful for hundreds of years. After his brutal murder, his son Rider tries to discover his father’s murderer. Rider is helped in his search by his companions, as they battle against the agents of the mysterious Kralj Odehnal. But the murderous dwarf turns out to be an introduction to greater terror, as they match wits with Shai Khe, the powerful sorcerer who wants to rule Shaesserre.

The Dying Earth / Mazirian the Magician

The stories included in The Dying Earth introduce dozens of seekers of wisdom and beauty, lovely lost women, wizards of every shade of eccentricity with their runic amulets and spells. We meet the melancholy deodands, who feed on human flesh and the twk men, who ride dragonflies and trade information for salt. There are monsters and demons. Each being is morally ambiguous: The evil are charming, the good are dangerous. All are at home in Vance’s lyrically described fantastic landscapes like Embelyon where, The sky was a mesh of vast ripples and cross ripples and these refracted a thousand shafts of colored light, rays which in mid air wove wondrous laces, rainbow nets, in all the jewel hues…
. The dying Earth itself is otherworldly: A dark blue sky, an ancient sun…
. Nothing of Earth was raw or harsh the ground, the trees, the rock ledge protruding from the meadow; all these had been worked upon, smoothed, aged, mellowed. The light from the sun, though dim, was rich and invested every object of the land…
with a sense of lore and ancient recollection. Welcome. The Dying Earth and its sequels comprise one of the most powerful fantasy/science fiction concepts in the history of the genre. They are packed with adventure but also with ideas, and the vision of uncounted human civilizations stacked one atop another like layers in a phyllo pastry thrills even as it induces a sense of awe at…
the fragility and transience of all things, the nobility of humanity s struggle against the certainty of an entropic resolution. Dean Koontz, author of the Odd Thomas novels. He gives you glimpses of entire worlds with just perfectly turned language. If he d been born south of the border, he d be up for a Nobel Prize. Dan Simmons author of The Hyperion Cantos.

Cugel’s Saga / Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight

‘Vance sees himself in the tradition of popular fantasy writers, but his classic writing style is also comparagle to Homer’s Odyssey, and Cervante’s Don Quixote. Though the Cugel tales may lack the scope and pathos of the greatest adventure yarns, in the twenty-first century, they may be as close as one gets to the celebration of epic human perseverance.’–editor, Brilliance Audio Cugel’s Saga, published 17 years after Eyes of the Overworld, is the second novel that features the scoundrel and trickster, Cugel. Again, Cugel tests wits with Iucounu and acquires rudimentary powers himself. ‘Cugel the Clever [is a rogue so venal and unscrupulous that that he makes Harry Flashman look like Dudley Do-Right. How could you not love a guy like that?…
. Judging from the number of times that Cugel has come back…
you can’t keep a bad man down.’ -George R.R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire. ‘Cugel the Clever [is a liar and thief in a doomed world of liars and thieves…
. Probably the least attractive hero it would be possible to find, struggling through a universe like a Hieronymus Bosch painting, a hero only in that nearly everybody else he encounters in that universe is on the make too, and yet the Cugel stories are howlingly funny.’ -Kage Baker, author of Empress of Mars.

The Eyes of the Overworld / Cugel the Clever

The Eyes of the Overworld is the first of Vance’s picaresque novels about the scoundrel Cugel. Here he is sent by a magician he has wronged to a distant unknown country to retrieve magical lenses that reveal the Overworld. Conniving to steal the lenses, he escapes and, goaded by a homesick monster magically attached to his liver, starts to find his way home to Almery. The journey takes him across trackless mountains, wastelands, and seas. Vance s career began when he was in the merchant marine and continued through extended stays in exotic cities. Through cunning and dumb luck, the relentless Cugel survives one catastrophe after another, fighting off bandits, ghosts, and ghouls stealing, lying, and cheating without insight or remorse leaving only wreckage behind. Betrayed and betraying, he joins a cult group on a pilgrimage, crosses the Silver Desert as his comrades die one by one and, escaping the Rat People, obtains a spell that returns him home. There, thanks to incompetence and arrogance he misspeaks the words of a purloined spell and transports himself back to the same dismal place he began his journey.

Rhialto the Marvellous

Rhialto the Marvellous takes up the personal and political conflicts among a conclave of two dozen magicians of Ascolais and Almery in the 21st Aeon. The shocking appearance of the Llorio the Murtha, a powerful female force from an earlier aeon threatens to unbalance nature by ensqualming or feminizing the magicians. This triggers a tremendous struggle for power and the other mages turn against Rhialto. Hoping to reestablish his rightful place, Rhialto travels to other aeons to restore the missing Perciplex which projects the Mostrament, the constitution of the association. In his final adventure, Rhialto must, ultimately, travel to the very ends of time and space to confront an old adversary whom he had wronged and must commit further misdeeds to restore order. Out of this welter of exotic politics, values systems, personal eccentricity, and magic, the figure of Rhialto slowly comes into focus and takes on dimension. He is a vain, apparently superficial man, not ashamed to demonstrate his melancholy to enhance his reputation. But he is courteous, patient, and subtle, even kind. He is self aware and introspective as Cugel never could be the wisest and most sympathetic of all of Vance’s wizards.

Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance

Thank You, Mr. Vance, by Dean Koontz. 2009 by Dean Koontz. Preface, by Jack Vance. 2009 by Jack Vance. The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale, by Robert Silverberg. 2009 by Agberg, Ltd. Grolion of Almery, by Matthew Hughes. 2009 by Matt Hughes Company Ltd. The Copsy Door, by Terry Dowling. 2009 by Terry Dowling. Caulk the Witch Chaser, by Liz Williams. 2009 by Liz Williams. Inescapable, by Mike Resnick. 2009 by Mike Resnick. Abrizonde, by Walter Jon Williams. 2009 by Walter Jon Williams. The Traditions of Karzh, by Paula Volsky. 2009 by Paula Volsky. The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod, by Jeff VanderMeer. 2009 by Jeff VanderMeer. The Green Bird, by Kage Baker. 2009 by Kage Baker. The Last Golden Thread, by Phyllis Eisenstein. 2009 by Phyllis Eisenstein. An Incident in Uskvesh, by Elizabeth Moon. 2009 by Elizabeth Moon. Sylgarmo’s Proclamation, by Lucius Shepard. 2009 by Lucius Shepard. The Lamentably Comical Tragedy or the Laughably Tragic Comedy of Lival Laqavee, by Tad Williams. 2009 by Tad Williams. Guyal the Curator, by John C. Wright. 2009 by John C. Wright. The Good Magician, by Glen Cook. 2009 by Glen Cook. The Return of the Fire Witch, by Elizabeth Hand. 2009 by Elizabeth Hand. The Collegeum of Mauge, by Byron Tetrick. 2009 by Byron Tetrick. Evillo the Uncunning, by Tanith Lee. 2009 by Tanith Lee. The Guiding Nose of Ulf nt Bander z, by Dan Simmons. 2009 by Dan Simmons. Frogskin Cap, by Howard Waldrop. 2009 by Howard Waldrop. A Night at the Tarn House, by George R. R. Martin. 2009 by George R. R. Martin. An Invocation of Incuriosity, by Neil Gaiman. 2009 by Neil Gaiman.