Description:

From Booklist

In the Wells of Ihrain lies--perhaps--the magical key to resisting the Dark, whose walls of ice are advancing against human holdings. The humans have settled into an uneasy truce with the Pramans, who possess the wells, as a result of the crisis, but, in gross violation of the truce, the Pramans are about to send a spy, the warrior Else, to the human Patriarchy of the West. Else has defeated a creature of the Dark in battle--an outcome that was supposed to be impossible, and on the principle of "Do a little more, and you will be given still more," he is tapped for the espionage assignment, which by the end of this book, at least, hasn't become the suicide mission it seems to be. Whether it will in the next book assures plenty of fantasy readers for the immediate sequel to the first volume of the Instrumentalities of the Night, which promises to be a grim and sweeping epic, indeed. Roland Green
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Review

"Timely and timeless…The author of the 'Black Company' series brings a stark realism to his tales of imaginary lands." --Library Journal (starred review) on The Tyranny of the Night

"A complex and compelling tapestry…It is a powerful fantasy, combining a fast-moving plot with an introduction into this world of patriarchal schism, greedy churchmen and nobles, and cynical soldiers bent on survival." --VOYA on *The Tyranny of the Night

"The thing about Glen Cook is that with The Black Company he singlehandedly changed the face of fantasy--something a lot of people didn't notice and maybe still don't. He brought the story down to a human level, dispensing with the cliché archetypes of princes, kings, and evil sorcerers. Reading his stuff was like reading Vietnam War fiction on peyote." --Steven Erikson, author of Gardens of the Moon, on The Tyranny of the Night*

"Cook's talent for combining gritty realism and high fantasy provides a singular edge."
--Library Journal on Water Sleeps

"Cook provides a rich world of assorted races, cultures, and religions; his characters combine the mythic or exotic with the realistic, engaging in absorbing alliances, enmities, and double-crosses."
--Publishers Weekly on Bleak Seasons

"Sheer page-turning fun!"
--Robin McKinley on Bleak Seasons