The wind blows, but nothing moves
in the place of the glittering stone.
After dark, the wind dies.
After dark, silence rules..."Let me tell you who I am, on the chance that these scribblings do survive....
"I am Murgen, standardbearer of the Black Company, though I bear the shame of having lost that standard in battle. I am keeping these annals because Croaker is dead, One-Eye won't, and hardly anyone else can read or write. I will be your guide for however long it takes the Shadowlanders to force our present predicament to its inevitable end....
"I expect these writings to blow away on a dark wind, never to be touched by another eye. Or they might become the tinder Shadowspinner uses to light the pyre under the last man he murders after taking Dejagore...."
So begins the saga of the siege of Stormgard, the chronicle of a desperate conflict between dark sorcery and bare human courage, seen through the eyes of a war-weary, battle-scarred veteran. Spellbinding adventure on an epic scale, this is heart-stopping heroic fantasy at its finest.
Gritty, realistic, rife with compelling characters and sardonic humor, Glen Cook's chronicles of the Black Company have brought a new dimension to epic fantasy. It has been more than five years since the last Black Company novel, and Cook's growing legions of fans have been clamoring for a new volume ever since. Now, at last, Cook has returned with Bleak Seasons, a powerful epic of savagery, sorcery, and courage, the first book in a new Black Company trilogy - Glittering Stone.
This is the harrowing tale of the defense of Dejagore, as told by Murgen, a seasoned veteran of many brutal campaigns. The Black Company has taken the fortress of Stormgard from the evil Shadowlanders, lords of darkness from the far reaches of the earth. Now the waiting begins.
Exhausted from the long siege, vastly outnumbered, and beset by powerful sorcery, the Company have risked their souls as well as their lives to hold their hard-fought-for prize. But this is the end of an age, and great forces are at work. The ancient race known as the Nyueng Bao swear that ancient gods are stirring. The Company's commander has gone mad and flirts with the forces of darkness. Nly Murgen, touched by a spell that has set his soul adrift in time, begins at last to comprehend the dark design that has made pawns of men and gods alike.
Blending gripping military adventure with epic fantasy in the grand tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael Moorcock, and Robert Jordan, Glen Cook's Bleak Seasons is a haunting and unforgettable tale of unspeakable evil and uncommon valor by one of the field's finest writers.
