Description:

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. ** ### From Publishers Weekly Skillfully combining noir and military fantasy, acclaimed writer Cook may be concluding the Chronicle of the Black Company in the series's ninth book. Narrated by Croaker, the hard-boiled leader of the company, this book tells the story of the company's search for a path through the shadowgates from Hsien toward Taglios and its home. As they make their way, company members engage in numerous battles. They defeat the murderous forvalka; they assimilate some competent but untrustworthy sorcerers from Vorosh; and they continue to train One-Eye's grandson, the company's principle sorcerer, Tobo. But their journey doesn't end when they get to Taglios. There, they find they have to overthrow Lady's sister (Croaker's sister-in-law) Shadowcatcher, prevent the Daughter of Night (Croaker and Lady's biological daughter) from wreaking havoc and generally put Taglios back togetherAat considerable self-sacrifice. Croaker ultimately keeps his bargain with the guardian of the Glittering Plain, the golem Shivetya, by changing bodies with himAand within the golem body Croaker may have yet more stories to tell. Dark and surprising, Cook's latest is free of pretension, but rich in characters and world building. (Aug.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. ### From Library Journal After a long stay in the land of the Hsien warlords, the mercenaries of the Black Company prepare to return to their former home, a journey that takes them once more through the shadowgates and across the Glittering Stone, where old and new enemies await them. The ninth installment of the author!s popular Black Company novels brings to a conclusion several plot threads while leaving room for new variations on a tried-and-true theme"the trials and tribulations of men and women at war against impossible odds. The author!s wry wit and flair for understatement add a level of realism uncommon to the fantasy genre. Recommended for most fantasy collections. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.