β Scribed by Glen Cook
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Welcome to the world of the Instrumentalities of the Night, where imps, demons, and dark gods rule in the spaces surrounding upstart humanity. At the edges of the world stand walls of ice which push slowly forward to reclaim the land for the night. And at the world's center, in the Holy Land where two great religions were born, are the Wells of Ihrain, the source of the greatest magics. Over the last century the Patriarchs of the West have demanded crusades to claim the Wells from the Pramans, the followers of the Written. Now an uneasy truce extends between the Pramans and the West, waiting for a spark to start the conflict anew.
Then, on a mission in the Holy Land, the young Praman warrior Else is attacked by a creature of the Dark-in effect, a minor god. Too ignorant to know that he can never prevail over such a thing, he fights it and wins, and in so doing, sets the terrors of the night against him.
As a reward for his success, Else is sent as a spy to the heart of the Patriarchy to direct their attention away from further ventures into the Holy Lands. Dogged by hidden enemies and faithless allies, Else witnesses senseless butchery and surprising acts of faith as he penetrates to the very heart of the Patriarchy and rides alongside their armies in a new crusade against his own people. But the Night rides with him, too, sending two of its once-human agents from the far north to assassinate him.
Submerged in his role, he begins to doubt his faith, his country, even his family. As his mission careens out of control, he faces unanswerable questions about his future. It is said that God will know his own, but can one who has slain gods ever know forgiveness?
In the Wells of Ihrain lies--perhaps--the magical key to resisting the Dark, whose walls of ice are advancing against human holdings. The humans have settled into an uneasy truce with the Pramans, who possess the wells, as a result of the crisis, but, in gross violation of the truce, the Pramans are about to send a spy, the warrior Else, to the human Patriarchy of the West. Else has defeated a creature of the Dark in battle--an outcome that was supposed to be impossible, and on the principle of "Do a little more, and you will be given still more," he is tapped for the espionage assignment, which by the end of this book, at least, hasn't become the suicide mission it seems to be. Whether it will in the next book assures plenty of fantasy readers for the immediate sequel to the first volume of the Instrumentalities of the Night, which promises to be a grim and sweeping epic, indeed. Roland Green
Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved
Praise for Glen Cook
"Cook's talent for combining gritty realism and high fantasy provides a singular edge."
--Library Journal on Water Sleeps
"Cook provides a rich world of assorted races, cultures, and religions; his characters combine the mythic or exotic with the realistic, engaging in absorbing alliances, enmities, and double-crosses."
--Publishers Weekly on Bleak Seasons
"Sheer page-turning fun!"
--Robin McKinley on Bleak Seasons
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
Welcome to the world of the Instrumentalities of the Night, where imps, demons, and dark gods rule in the spaces surrounding upstart humanity. At the edges of the world stand walls of ice which push slowly forward to reclaim the land for the night. And at the worldβs center, in the Holy Land where t
EDITORIAL REVIEW: Welcome to the world of the Instrumentalities of the Night, where imps, demons, and dark gods rule in the spaces surrounding upstart humanity. At the edges of the world stand walls of ice which push slowly forward to reclaim the land for the night. And at the worlds center, in
Welcome to the world of the Instrumentalities of the Night, where imps, demons, and dark gods rule in the spaces surrounding upstart humanity. At the edges of the world stand walls of ice which push slowly forward to reclaim the land for the night. And at the world's center, in the Holy Land where t
EDITORIAL REVIEW: Welcome to the world of the Instrumentalities of the Night, where imps, demons, and dark gods rule in the spaces surrounding upstart humanity. At the edges of the world stand walls of ice which push slowly forward to reclaim the land for the night. And at the worlds center, in
Welcome to the world of the Instrumentalities of the Night, where imps, demons, and dark gods rule in the spaces surrounding upstart humanity. At the edges of the world stand walls of ice which push slowly forward to reclaim the land for the night. And at the world's center, in the Holy Land where t