The titular Dread Empire is barely mentioned in the first book but plays a larger role in the second & third. Also, there's a major shift in viewpoint characters between the first book ( A Shadow of All Night Falling) and the second & third ( October's Baby and All Darkness Met) - the main viewpoint characters in 2 & 3 (and in the books collected in the second omnibus) were secondary charaters in book 1. The structure is interesting - each book alternates between contemporary chapters, and chapters that flash back to events decades or centuries in the past that laid the groundwork for current events. pre-Black Company) Glen Cook - an omnibus collection of the original trilogy in his other major fantasy series, The Dread Empire. His latest work is Working God’s Mischief, fourth in the Instrumentalities of the Night series. His other series include Dread Empire and and the Garrett, P.I. He is best known for his Black Company series, which has appeared in 20+ languages worldwide. He has three sons (army officer, architect, orchestral musician) and numerous grandchildren, all of whom but one are female. He met his wife of 43 years while attending the Clarion Writer's Workshop in 1970. He began writing with malicious intent to publish in 1968, eventually producing 51 books and a number of short fiction pieces. He started writing short stories in 7th grade, had several published in a high school literary magazine. He worked for General Motors for 33 years, retiring some years ago. Navy and attended the University of Missouri. Glen Cook was born in New York City, lived in southern Indiana as a small child, then grew up in Northern California.

Though end is but a wizard-word for new beginnings.

The Star Rider's dread secret is at last revealed, where All Darkness Met. Nepanthe finds new lovers in the fields of blood and bone, while the war-child wields the sword of truth. Nepanthe and Mocker wait, but for what, they do not know.Īt Empire's end, Mocker finds old friends in the halls of death. The princess bears a child to the winged thing and the cries are heard far beyond the peaks of Dragon's Teeth. A time for doing things dark and strange the time of October's Baby. When the leaves turn blood and the wind turns bone, it is time.

The love of a woman called Nepanthe, princess to the storm kings. Across the mountains called Dragon's Teeth, beyond the chill reach of the werewind and the fires of the world's beginning, above the walls of the castle Fangdred, stands Wind Tower, from which the Star Rider calls forth the war that even wizards dread. The war that even wizards dread begins with A Shadow of All Night Falling. A Cruel A Chronicle of the Dread Empire collects the legendary Dread Empire A Shadow of All Night Falling, October's Baby and All Darkness Met.

A Cruel Wind by Glen Cook