Thirty years ago, Glen Cook changed the face of Fantasy fiction forever with The Dread Empire series, crafting the novels that would eventually comprise the two Night Shade omnibus edtions, A Cruel Wind and A Fortress in Shadow, and the short fiction collection, An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat. A decade later, he would return to this singular and engrossing world to begin its sequel trilogy, The Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire. Two books in the sequel trilogy, Reap the East Wind and An Ill Fate Marshalling were published. The third and final novel remained unpublished… until now.
Today's Free Fridays selection, Reap the East Wind sets its fated, sundry characters on their entwining paths through the deep and dense wood of war, magic, blood-feuds, political intrigue, and revenge—paths that will lead them to heights above the Dragon’s Teeth, and to depths of dungeons and ruin, where spies and the agents of fear conspire through devious means of manipulation and betrayal to shake the Dread Empire down to its foundations. Reap the East Wind is the first step in a sprawling series of high-stakes adventure, continuing with An Ill Fate Marshalling, and culminating in an earth-shattering conclusion with the greatly anticipated A Path to Coldness of Heart—a climax fifteen years in the making.
Glen Cook is one of the most celebrated Science Fiction & Fantasy writers of the 20th Century—and with good reason: his unmatched ability to take twisted, multi-color threads of complicated plots, plans, and schemings of spies, wizards, kings, and necromancers alike, and to weave them on the same loom with the threads of gritty realism, honest human appraisal, and heartwarming (as well as heartrending) care for his characters. It is this talent that has led commentators to liken Cook’s style to “Vietnam War fiction on Peyote,” and has distinguished him as one of the most emblematic modern masters of post-Tolkien Fantasy fiction.
Free Fridays Recommends
Each week, we ask our featured author to recommend a book or author that you may want to check out. Since authors are such passionate readers themselves, we thought you might like to find out what they love to read, too! Here’s what Glen recommends:
I recommend The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Pratchett heads my list of the quarter dozen authors whose new work brings on an instant cessation of all productive activity while the latest entree gets devoured. Not one of Pratchett's Discworld wonders, this nevertheless is one excellent, and often fun, work that does a finer job of exploring the parallel universes idea than I've ever seen before, pointing up logical paradoxes, social impacts, and putting some interesting spins on the physics.
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for ‘Glen Cook’ to download his breathtaking novels.
Thanks once again for the Free Friday selection and Spec's additional list. Anyone who hasn't read the Debbie Viguie book on Spec's list might want to check it out. It is the first in the series and tends to get good reviews. Even if you're not a fan of religious fiction, I think this mystery appeals to a wide audience.
Happy reading this weekend everyone!!!
