Glen Cook to publish four new BLACK COMPANY novels

Glen Cook is returning to the world of his seminal Black Company military fantasy series with a new arc, A Pitiless Rain, consisting of four books. The first, Lies Weeping, will be published on 4 November 2025. Cook has completed the first three books in the arc and is working on the fourth.

Lies Weeping will be followed by They Cry, Summer Grass and Darkness Knows.

Cook published The Black Company in 1984, about a band of war-weary mercenaries fighting for various shades of evil during a bleak war, before discovering a new purpose. It was followed by Shadows Linger (1984) and The White Rose (1985), completing the Books of the North trilogy. A semi-standalone, The Silver Spike (1989), followed, along with the Books of the South duology: Shadow Games (1989) and Dreams of Steel (1990). The Books of Glittering Stone quartet then completed the initial batch of releases: Bleak Seasons (1996), She is the Darkness (1997), Water Sleeps (1999) and Soldiers Live (2000).

The saga was later collected in four omnibus editions: The Chronicles of the Black Company, The Books of the South, The Return of the Black Company and The Many Deaths of the Black Company. A stand-alone interquel, Port of Shadows, followed in 2018.

Also in 2018, actress Eliza Dushku and producer David Goyer optioned the books as a TV series, but sadly failed to find interest from a production company.

Cook has also confirmed that he has a completed new Garrett, PI novel with his agent, under the tittle Last Metal Romance, and has a further book in that series planned, Deadly Diamond Daydreams. A new Black Company roleplaying game is also in the planning stages from Arcdream.

The Black Company has been hailed as a classic of fantasy and was hugely influential on George R.R. Martin and (especially) Steven Erikson.

Cover art for Glen Cook's new BLACK COMPANY book

Tor Books have released the cover art for Port of Shadows, the new Black Company novel from Glen Cook.

Set between the first two novels in the series, The Black Company and Shadows Linger, the story takes us back to the early days of the story when the Black Company was fighting on the "wrong" side of a massive war.

The cover art is by Raymond Swanland, who has also produced the cover art for Cook's Black Company omnibuses as well as his Instrumentalities of the Night series.

Port of Shadows, the first Black Company novel for more than eighteen years, will be published on 11 September 2018.

New BLACK COMPANY novel confirmed for 2018

After many years of rumours, raised expectations and blind hopes, Tor Books have finally confirmed that a new Black Company novel will drop in 2018.

Written by genre stalwart Glen Cook, the Black Company novels began in 1984. There are nine books in the series and Cook has long been promising two more, Port of Shadows and A Pitiless Rain. Port of Shadows, a new "interquel" book taking place between The Black Company and Shadows Linger, is now done and will be published on 25 September 2018. The blurb is as follows:

Years into a campaign against the rebels who have rallied behind the White Rose have left the Company jaded and the fact that the Lady seems to have taken particular interest in Croaker since his stay in the Tower hasn't exactly made his life easier.

Now it looks like The Limper is up to his old tricks and is doing what he can to separate Croaker and the Black Company from The Lady's favor. Now Croaker finds his fate tied to a brand new taken. One claiming to be something impossible but feels uncomfortably familiar. It's going to take all of Croaker's cunning to insure that the mechantions of The Lady and her "loyal" taken, The Limper, don't destroy the company once and for all.

The Black Company has been a hugely influential series, with both George R.R. Martin and Steven Erikson citing it as a major influence on their works.

The Black Company was optioned as a television series earlier this year by David Goyer and Eliza Dushku, but no further news has emerged on it.

Eliza Dushku to produce and star in BLACK COMPANY TV series

Eliza Dushku, best-known for playing Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the lead role on Tru Calling and Dollhouse, is bringing Glen Cook's Black Company series of novels and short stories to the screen. The actress is attached to produce and star, with her taking on the role of the Lady.

Glen Cook's novel series began in 1984 with The Black Company. It is followed by Shadows Linger and The White Rose, the three books retroactively named The Books of the North (or The Black Company Trilogy). It was then followed a spin-off interquel, The Silver Spike, and The Books of the South, consisting of Shadow Games and Dreams of Steel. The series continued with the four-volume Glittering Stone series (Bleak Seasons, She is the Darkness, Water Sleeps and Soldiers Live). Cook is currently writing Port of Shadows, which is set between The White Rose and the later books in the series.

The Black Company is known for its strong moral ambiguity as the titular mercenary army is hired by the Lady and her Northern Empire to crush its remaining enemies. However, the army gradually realises the threat posed by the Lady and the Empire and betrays her, joining forces with the prophecised saviour figure known as the White Rose. A series of alliances and betrayals follow, until the Lady, reluctantly, is forced to lend her military and magical aid to the Black Company when faced with the threat of an ancient, greater evil known as the Dominator.

The Black Company was dark and gritty at a time when most fantasy was anything but, with a strong cast of memorable characters. Central to the saga is the complex and occasionally tortured relationship between Croaker, the chronicler and sometimes leader of the Black Company, and the Lady, a former arch-enemy turned highly redoubtable ally.

The series is also noted for its profound impact on later fantasy series: Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont have credited it as the primary influence on their Malazan Book of the Fallen series (and, indeed, they "borrowed" Cook's naming conventions for their series), whilst George R.R. Martin has credited Cook as one of several influences on A Song of Ice and Fire.

The TV project is being produced by Dushku and David Goyer (Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy) and will be shopped to TV networks in the coming weeks.

This is interesting and unexpected news, but Dushku could make for an interesting Lady and the series is different enough from a lot of the fantasy genre to stand out from the crowd. However, the series gets more grandiose as it goes along, with larger battles involving more magic appearing. It'll be interesting to see if the developers can get a network interested who'll be willing to spend the money required to do the story justice.

A History of Epic Fantasy - Part 11

1984 represented another shift in the evolution of epic fantasy. Most of the books published up until this point had been adventure stories, either derived from Tolkien or bringing in their own ideas. With the exception of Donaldson, the darker side of fantasy remained relatively unexplored.

That changed with the release of two novels on opposite sides of the Atlantic, both from authors interested in the idea of heroes and morality. Unusually, it was the American author who took the more cynical viewpoint, painting a picture of a dark world terrorised by an amoral and ruthless empire...who the protagonists are working for. The British author also took a downbeat, maybe even more realistic view of war and politics, but also used that to make his heroes shine all the more strongly.

 
The Black Company

American author Glen Cook had served in the US Navy before starting work at General Motors, in an auto assembly plant. The job was not mentally taxing, so Cook was able to spend his work days conceiving ideas for stories and novels. One of these was about a mercenary outfit, the Black Company.

The Black Company worked for money and for something to do: they were not "evil", as such, but had no issues working for more morally dubious employers. Over the course of the eponymous first novel, they start working for the Lady, a powerful sorceress whose armies have overrun the land and now rule with an iron fist. However, as the series continues they discover the fate of the world itself is at stake and, as much out of self-preservation as anything else, decide to take a stand.

The Black Company and its sequels (Shadows Linger and The White Rose in the initial trilogy, with more books following intermittently) dealt with interesting questions of relative morality and how far you can go down the dark path before you can go no further. The notions of there being such a thing as a "just war" and that people can be unaffected by war or suffering are rejected. But there is also room for forgiveness: the primary antagonist of the first trilogy becomes a leading "hero" of the later books and arguably atones for her crimes, but never repents them fully.

The Black Company and its sequels are also notable for combining military tropes with what can also be called flat-out weirdness: magical trees, windwhales and a sentient menhir alarm system contribute to a series whose grim tone and reputation occasionally mask a genuine sense of the fantastic and some whimsical (if dark) humour.

Up in Canada, a young pair of budding writers named Steve Lundin and Ian Esslemont were reading with interest, and taking notes.

Legend

David Gemmell came from the school of hard knocks. Born in the aftermath of World War II and growing up in a tough part of East London, Gemmell got into trouble in school, was taught how to box by his stepfather and had a number of jobs including a nightclub bouncer and a labourer. Writing was perhaps an unlikely-seeming profession, but Gemmell had a love of reading as a child, particularly of history. His mother arranged for him to have an interview at a local newspaper, but he got the job more for his take-no-prisoners attitude than his actual writing skills.

In 1976 Gemmell was diagnosed with cancer. Believing his time was limited, he decided to write a fantasy story he'd had knocking around in his head. He completed The Siege of Dros Delnoch in two weeks before learning that he'd suffered a misdiagnosis. A friend read the manuscript and urged him to expand it into a full novel. Gemmell completed the book in 1982 and it was published in 1984 under the title Legend (no relation to the Tom Cruise movie released a few months later).

Legend tells a fairly straightforward story: the northern barbarians have united under a new warleader and are now marching on the Drenai Empire, which they believe is weak and vulnerable. The only obstacle is Dros Delnoch, a fortress defending a narrow mountain pass. The defenders are outnumbered fifty-to-one but amongst their ranks is a legend: the great warrior Druss, wielding his axe Snaga. Old and failing, haunted by the prophecy that he will fall at Dros Delnoch, Druss must take a stand alongside his people.

Legend is a book that also has a cynical and dark tone, but is not as nihilistic as Cook's work. Gemmell's philosophy is a shade different, namely that true heroism comes from the darkest hour, that people will be tested and some will fail, but a few will not. He does not believe that heroes are perfect or flawless, but they are heroes because they overcome those flaws to achieve things greater than they are. Legend's message is simple but delivered with brutal, stirring efficiency to make it one of the most well-regarded fantasy novels of all time. Gemmell passed away in 2006 whilst telling another story about a brutal siege (this time at Troy) but his legacy was secured when the David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy, the most popular award for epic fantasy, was named in his honour.

By the mid-1980s fantasy had become a bigger and more successful genre, but one that was dominated by male authors. However, more women were starting to write in the genre and several key works by female authors emerged at this time, drawing on Celtic mythology, Chinese politics and an absolutely massive number of dragons.

Glen Cook gearing up for a new BLACK COMPANY novel

In an interview with SF Signal, Glen Cook has confirmed that he is planning to write two more Black Company novels. The first, Port of Shadows, will take place between the first two novels of the original trilogy. He has already done some work on this book (in the form of two short stories which will be expanded into the novel) and will make this his next project once some other existing commitments are met.

There will be another book, A Pitiless Rain, which will be set after all the other books in the series. He does not disclose a timeline for this book. He also confirms there will be another Garrett, P.I. novel in the future, with the working title Wicked Bronze Ambition.

Cook also expands on what happened to his Dread Empire series, including the loss of the original manuscript (not just for the eighth novel but part of the ninth as well) and how he approached bringing the series to a final conclusion in A Path to Coldness of Heart.

The Silver Spike by Glen Cook

The Black Company has departed into the far south, taking Lady with them. For Darling, Raven, Case and the other outcasts from the Company, their future is uncertain. But when an enterprising band of treasure hunters steals the Silver Spike, within which lies imprisoned the undying essence of the Dominator, the world is again thrown into jeopardy and the heroes of the northern wars are called back into service.


The Silver Spike is a novel set in the Black Company universe, though not part of the main series. It's instead a 'sidequel', picking up after the events of the third novel in the series but taking a different group of characters off in another direction and following their adventures.

It's an interesting book, and I suspect one of the more contentious in the series. On the one hand, it's Cook on form, delivering an epic story of clashing forces ranging over vast distances but contained in a single volume. On the other, it's probably one of the starkest and most cynical books I've ever read in the epic fantasy subgenre.

In the earlier books in the series (published in the 1980s before this kind of thing became par for the course) Cook overthrew a lot of the conventions of the subgenre. The good guys sometimes did evil things and the bad guys sometimes showed compassion or mercy. The principal villain of the first three books is a hero (or at least a protagonist) in the next two. There was a high degree of cynicism, but also the apparent presence of hope .

The Silver Spike has little truck with that. There are masses of death and destruction, conveyed in a wearying tone that is at times genuinely depressing. The costly victories of our 'heroes' in the first trilogy are revealed to be brief as new villains (albeit of lesser magnitude) arise to replace the ones defeated first time around. One of the antagonists in this volume and (SPOILER WARNING!) one who gets away scott-free at the end is a murderous paedophile (apparently Cook's angry commentary that sometimes the worst people prosper). Those who do put their lives on the line to save the world end up fading into obscurity in a backwater, uncelebrated and unremembered.


It's a dark and grim novel that is not a happy read, for all of Cook's excellent writing skills. It's the epic fantasy equivalent of one of those 'difficult' albums that you listen to for the technical accomplishment or emotional power but you wouldn't in a million years put on at parties. It's an angry, harsh and raw book.

Characterisation is pretty good, with the 'antihero' cast of thieves and adventurers well-drawn, for all their nauseating habits. Raven is a bit more one-note than in previous books, but Case (our part-time first-person POV character for this volume) develops into a more complex, interesting character, as does Darling. There is a degree of repetition in the volume that regular series readers might find a tad predictable (Darling's use of the weird creatures from the Plain of Fear as her own personal army, yet again) but otherwise Cook's reliable powers of characterisation and plot development are in full force.

The Silver Spike (****) is a dark, grim and at times rather nihilistic read, but one that remains engrossing thanks to the author's writing skills. It may leave you wanting to read something more upbeat afterwards, though. The book is available now in the UK and USA as part of the Books of the South omnibus.

Dreams of Steel by Glen Cook

The Black Company and its Taglian allies have fought a great battle against the Shadowmasters at Dejagore. Whilst much of the Shadowmaster army was destroyed, the allies also suffered grievous losses and most of their army was forced to retreat into the city, where it now stands siege. Trapped outside and with Croaker missing, Lady is forced to assume command of the routed Taglian forces, attempt to regroup them and forge a new army strong enough to relieve Dejagore, but finds that politics and religious machinations amongst her own troops are as much a threat as the plotting of the enemy.


Dreams of Steel marks a notable change in the Black Company books. For the first time, Croaker is dropped as the primary POV in favour of Lady, who now serves as the main POV character, narrator and 'annalist', recording events for posterity. This shift in structure and approach is successful, with Cook employing a character who is far less prone to moralising than Croaker (it serves to remember that Lady was, more or less, the main bad guy in the original trilogy, and has only repented up to a point) and is still fully capable of using incredibly ruthless and bloody means to achieve her goals.

The book adopts a multi-pronged approach to the plot, with Cook alternating between Lady's endeavours, the situation with the Shadowmasters (who are, refreshingly, a foe of limited resources who themselves are in a bady way following the events of the previous novel), political events in the Taglian capital and the emergence of a third faction who delights in playing everyone off against each other whilst they sneak around in the background. This approach is successful in getting across the full weight of the story but also serves to slow the pace down. Compared to the first four books, which covered thousands of miles, numerous battles and some interesting character and plot developments in relatively modest page counts, not a huge amount actually happens in this book. For the first time, it feels that Cook is falling prey to the curse of the long epic fantasy series, namely the slowing of the pace and the easing off the throttle for more introspective books that may be interesting, but not as energetic as earlier books in the series.

Cook is enough of a good writer to overcome this problem with some solid battle scenes, an amusingly straightforward answer to politicking and some interesting characterisation, particularly of Lady as she realises how she has been changed by her time with the Black Company. However, returning readers may start to feel a little wearied when, once again, an old enemy assumed dead books ago unexpectedly returns to play a role in events.

Dreams of Steel (***½) is an enjoyable novel, but the shine of the Black Company series is starting to wear off at this point, with the first signs of it falling prey to some of the limitations of the subgenre. The novel is available now in the UK and USA as part of the Books of the South omnibus.

Shadow Games by Glen Cook

The wars in the north have come to an end. The threat of the Dominator has been eradicated, and the remnants of the Black Company are setting out for their ancestral homeland of Khatovar. Unexpectedly joined by their former ally and enemy, the Lady, they strike out across the Sea of Torments and across the vast southern continent. But their return has been foretold and the Prince of Taglios convinces the Black Company to join his war against the enigmatic Shadowmasters, an alliance that will have long-lasting consequences for the Company and its members.


Shadow Games is the fourth book in the Black Company series and marks the opening of a fresh chapter in the history of the mercenary army. Much of the plot baggage from the first three book is jettisoned as new characters, factions and locations are introduced. Some things stay the same, such as Croaker's ongoing first-person narration, but broadly speaking this is the series moving into fresh pastures.

It's a move that is mostly successful. The book covers an enormous amount of ground, combining the Black Company's mammoth journey (of about 7,000 miles according to one estimate) with political machinations in Taglios and military action as the Shadowmasters attempt to invade Taglian territory. It's as busy a book as its predecessors but Cook's mastery of pace wins out as normal, delivering a terrifically entertaining, page-turning read.

It's only towards the end of the book that the first notable problems appear. For the first time Cook seems to have run out of space to tell his story, resulting in a cliffhanger ending and a 'shocking' revelation being made in the final pages. How successful these moves are will vary for each reader (and, given the fact that the book is commonly now published in omnibus, not a huge problem), but it does feel a shame that the book lacks the feel of being a complete novel but also standing as part of a larger tapestry that the first three volumes enjoyed.

Beyond that, Shadow Games (****) is a fine epic fantasy novel and a worthy continuation of the series. It is available now in the UK and USA as part of the Books of the South omnibus.

Wertzone Classics: The White Rose by Glen Cook

The Black Company - or rather the handful of its survivors - has broken ranks with the armies of the Lady and sworn its allegiance to the White Rose, who is prophecised to bring the Lady down. But the Lady's armies have besieged the Plains of Fear, hemming the Company and their allies in. As the threat draws in, Croaker, annalist of the Company, receives anonymous messages relating how the wizard Bomanz awoke the Lady and the Taken in the first place. As events unfold, it becomes clear that the Lady's husband, the evil Dominator, is planning his own return to the world, a prospect that cows even the Lady, and that the growing war will soon develop a third side.


The White Rose concludes the original Black Company trilogy, wrapping up story and character arcs begun back in The Black Company and continued in Shadows Linger. Based on those two books, the reader might go into this novel expecting a massive magical conflageration and battles of mythic proportions. Again, Cook blindsides the reader by crafting something far less predictable and much, much weirder.

Much of the book takes place on the Plains of Fear, an area warped into what can only be called surrealness by the presence of a god manifesting as a tree. Talking, teleporting menhirs warn of strangers on the plain, whilst flying manta rays and immense windwhales pass overhead. These chapters are more akin to the New Weird than anything in the epic fantasy canon, and keeps things fresh and offbeat. After this sequence the story moves to the Barrowland, the prison of the evil Dominator, where an unlikely alliance of convenience must be struck in order to ensure the Dominator's destruction.

The White Rose is certainly not the ending that I think anyone was expecting, but this is a good thing. Scenes where the apparently evil, amoral Taken and their mistress show their doubts and fears in the face of the threats of both the White Rose and the Dominator show an impressive degree of characterisation. Cook also reveals the backstory of the wizard Bomanz which shows that history has been rather unkind to him, and sets the warped version of history that Croaker and his friends are familiar with straight. Cook's succinct but still memorable prose and typical mastery of pace drives the story to a conclusion that it is expectation-defyingly small in scale, but nevertheless logical.

The White Rose is the third book of ten (so far) in the Black Company series, so obviously there is more story to come, but Cook brings things to a solid conclusion and the book has no cliffhanger for future books, making it an ideal pausing point for those not wishing to plough through the whole series in one go.

The White Rose (****½) shows Cook defying expectations once more and delivering a morally complex, atypical epic fantasy that is compelling to read. It is available in the UK and USA now as part of the Chronicles of the Black Company omnibus.

Wertzone Classics: Shadows Linger by Glen Cook

Six years after the mighty Battle at Charm, the Lady's Northern Empire has expanded further than ever before, carrying the Black Company into the distant lands of the east. However, orders come that will drive the Black Company on a march of thousands of miles to the far north-west, to the city of Juniper where mighty forces will clash as the result of the activities of one dirt-poor innkeeper.


Shadows Linger is the second novel in The Black Company sequence and comes as a bit of a surprise for readers expecting more of the same. The Black Company was a vast war epic, huge in scope. Shadows Linger feels a lot smaller in scale and more intimate, with the bulk of the action taking place in the single city of Juniper and focusing on the troubled life of the innkeeper Marron Shed. This division of focus - between Juniper and the Black Company as they cross an entire continent to get there - requires Cook to adjust his POV structure from the first volume. Whilst the bulk of the action continues to be relayed by Croaker, annalist and physician of the Black Company, we also get third-person POV chapters focusing on Shed. Later it is revealed that Shed recounted his adventures in detail to Croaker, explaining how this structure works.

Cook is at home with the small-scale story as he is with the larger, and he is able to inject real fear and tension into the mundane storyline of Shed's debt worries. As the story continues, we realise how Shed's apparently irrelevant concerns are related to the bigger picture, and once the Black Company reaches Juniper we snap back to a larger, more epic story with far-reaching consequences for the characters (several major characters don't make it to the end of this one).

The story itself unfolds relentlessly, with superb pacing as we flick between Shed's activities, Croaker's narration and the third-hand reports of the Black Company's march on Juniper. There are also hints of genuinely weird and fantastical ideas here, such as the bizarre landscape of the Plain of Fear (which features much more strongly in the third volume) and the black castles which grow from seeds (which Erikson clearly cribbed for the Azath Houses in the Malazan sequence). There's a feeling of constant invention as Cook deploys weird and wonderful ideas and combines them with the more traditional military fantasy shenanigans he has set in motion.

Complaints are few. The timeline feels a little shaky (in order for it to work, Croaker has to spend months and months in Juniper, which doesn't feel the case in the book) but this is not particularly a major problem. A few characters established as major players in the book seem to end their story arcs with damp squibs or rather off-hand deaths, but this may be part of Cook's intended effect - not everyone is a hero and some people do just expire unexpectedly in undramatic fashion. There's also much more of an obvious cliffhanger for the third book, but given that the third book has been out for decades and is combined with the first two in omnibus editions, that's not particularly problematic either.

Shadows Linger (****½) is more than a worthy follow-up to The Black Company. It's a fast-paced, addictive read which sees Cook not resting on his laurels and trying some new approaches and ideas, and succeeding well. The novel is available as part of the Chronicles of the Black Company omnibus in the UK and USA.

Wertzone Classics: The Black Company by Glen Cook

The Black Company is an elite mercenary force whose history goes back centuries. Last of the Free Companies of Khatovar, the Black Company fights for coin, but is also a proud army that is its own master. Accepting the commission of the Northern Empire and its ruler, the ruthless Lady, the Company soon finds itself fighting a war against an oppressed populace struggling to be free...but the leaders of the rebellion seem every bit as ruthless and amoral as the Lady and her senior sorcerer-warriors - the Taken - are. Evil battles evil, a continent bleeds and through it all the Black Company struggles to survive.


Glen Cook's Black Company books are widely regarded as being amongst the most influential and important epic fantasy novels ever written. Steven Erikson cites them as the primary influence on his Malazan series, whilst George R.R. Martin is a fan. A dozen years before Martin made 'grimdark' cool, Cook was already writing adult stories about wars, soldiers and the causes they fight and die for, with no elves in sight and no punches pulled.

Published in 1984, The Black Company is an object lesson in how to write a large-scale epic fantasy and execute it with razor-sharp focus and nuanced characterisation, and to do so in a relatively modest page count. More happens in The Black Company's 300-odd pages than in many entire trilogies. Empires rise and fall, battles that make the Pelennor look like a playground scrap are fought and all is seen from the point of view of a single medic and historian, who is all to often drawn in to become part of the events he is trying to dispassionately record.

The book is episodic, with each (very long) chapter relating a different incident during the war. As the Lady's empire battles the Rebel, so the different Taken feud amongst themselves and the Black Company are caught up in one of the exchanges (but don't exactly get much gratitude for taking sides), giving the conflict an air of complexity and extremely conflicted morals. This is emphasised by the addition to the Company of its first native northern soldier, Raven, who has his own agenda. Given that we are with the POV of Croaker, the medic, for the entire novel, Cook achieves an impressive depth of characterisation of the other principals. Other well-developed characters include the old, feuding mages One-Eye and Goblin, Raven and his mute ward, Darling, and the Taken Soulcatcher, who may be a servant of darkness but even he needs to unwind and chew the fat from time to time.


The prose is clipped and efficient, though some criticise it for being blunt. Cook skips descriptors in some sentences, or uses a soldier-style shorthand designed to transmit information with maximum efficiency and conciseness on the battlefield. It can be a little odd at first, but once you get into the author's headspace it becomes second nature, and a marvellously effective way of telling a large, epic story in a constrained space.

Problems? The absence of a map makes the geography of the war (which is critical to the plot) sometimes a little confusing. With one exception, we really don't get to know anyone on the side of the Rebel, making them a somewhat faceless and uninteresting foe. Cook also prefers to avoid exposition, starting in media res and pausing for explanations only rarely. However, unlike Erikson (who employs a similar device at the start of the Malazan sequence) Cook's story is actually pretty straightforward, and by the end of the novel the reader should have pieced together everything pretty nicely.

The Black Company (****½) is a novel brimming with verve, confidence and attitude. As fresh and readable today as when it was published a quarter-century ago, it's a stellar opening to the Black Company series. The novel is available now in the UK and USA as part of the Chronicles of the Black Company omnibus (along with its immediate sequels, Shadows Linger and The White Rose).

Major US Fantasy Series Hits the UK in September

In the past couple of years a few major SF and fantasy series long-standing international repute have finally landed in the UK, most notably Celia Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy, which finally appeared sixteen years after its US publication, and Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher books, the English translation of which has been a long time coming. The next big author to arrive is Glen Cook, whose Black Company series has met with tremendous critical acclaim and garnered a legion of fans, not least of whom is Steven Erikson, who admits that the Malazan Book of the Fallen was inspired by Cook's tales.

The Chronicles of the Black Company collects the first three novels in the series, The Black Company, Shadows Linger and The White Rose, and will be published on 18 September 2008. There are another seven books in the series.

Gollancz have more info on this title here and preorders can be made on Amazon here. The book is already available in the USA. Expect a review around the time of publication.

With the simultaneous publishing of Sapkowski's Blood of the Elves on the same day (more details here) and Solaris making a big push for Paul Kearney's underread and underrated Monarchies of God series (available in two volumes, Hawkwood and the Kings and Century of the Soldier, in the late autumn), it's a great time to be able to catch up on some excellent fantasy that's not been available in the UK before, or out of print for a long time.