First things first – I really enjoy Glen Cook. I’ve read all his Black Company novels as well as his Instrumentalities Of The Night series. These are all good books but The Black Company has a very special place in my heart. I think I found these books in the early 90’s and they were like nothing I’d ever read before – dark and heartless and completely captivating. It was one of the first fantasy series I’d read that broke hard from the Tolkeinesque High Fantasies that had been my mainstay – along with the Thomas Covenant books. I’ve always considered these to be very important books for the genre and anyone who hasn’t read them needs to do so.
What I’m struggling with is a collection issue similar to that I have with Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series. I’ve found hard cover editions of the last 4 Black Company novels: “Bleak Seasons”, “She Is The Darkness”, “Water Sleeps” and “Soldiers Live”. I also have hard cover editions of the four Instrumentalities Of The Night books: “The Tyranny Of The Night”, “Lord Of The Silent Kingdom”, “Surrender To The Will Of The Night” and “Working God’s Mischief”. Nightshade Books is even releasing hard cover omnibus editions of all his Dread Empire stories: “A Cruel Wind”, “A Fortress In Shadow”, “An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat” and a final volume – “Wrath Of Kings” – release date pending. What a collector can’t get in hard cover – which I find to be completely bizarre – maybe it’s out there and I just haven’t found it – are the first five novels in the series: “The Black Company”, “Shadows Linger”, “The White Rose”, “Shadow Games” and “Dreams Of Steel” or the spin-off novel “The Silver Spike”.
How does this make any sense? These are some fairly important additions to the genre and publishers have managed to get the rest of his work out in hard cover – but we’re still waiting for hard cover editions of his best known and most meaningful work. These are the kinds of things that just kill me as a collector. If anyone can explain this to me or if I’m just missing something, please let me know. I really need these books in my library.