Yes, it is excellent.  It is actually the first of a series called "Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin.  All of them are great.

1. Game of Thrones
2. Clash of Kings
3. Storm of Swords

And there is going to be a couple more before he's done.  The books are [i]brutal[/i].  He is not afraid to kill off characters, even more brutally than Glen Cook.  Speaking of whom, it sounds like he might write some more Black Company books.  I thought he was done after [b]Soldiers Live[/b].


Wow it is not often that I come across Glen Cook fans.  It's surprising that he isn't more popular!  Maybe his stuff is just too dark for popular consumption?  But then again, Martin's series has done quite well, I believe.

Have you read Cook's Dread Empire series?  That was very good too.

These are on the shelf next to my desk:
Starting out with C++
HTML 6th edition
HTML 4 (peachpit press)
Learning HTML Visually
Flash MX (peachpit press)
Sams MySQL
Sams PHP4
Sams Java2
Java Gently
Sams JavaScript
Adobe Photoshop 7 User's guide
Introduction to Information Systems
Advertising on the Internet
Internet Marketing
E-commerce
How to do everything with Frontpage
Webster's dictionary
Holt Grammar Handbook
Prehospital emergency care textbook
AHA Pediatric Advanced Life Support
Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers
Brady Essentials of Emergency care text book
Bible
Edgar Allen Poe Complete Tales & Poems
all of Shell Silverstein's books

Damn, I really don't have a life to have just listed all those... oh well

I am waiting for a reprint, so I can read the whole series in order. Glen Cook is fairly prolific, but reprints are rare. Out of print copies of his older works are expensive, and usual in poor condition from repeated reading.

If you can find a copy; [i] The Dragon Never Sleeps[/i] is one you won't be able to put down. My copy was destroyed, still waiting for a reprint.[:(!]

The [i] Black Company[/i] books are excellent, he gives nothing away easily. Very good continuity. [^]

Yep. He believes it, too!

Eric The(NeverHaveISeenSuchFaith)Hun[>]:)]

Here's the top shelf of the bookcase nearest my desk in my home:

I, Claudius - Robert Graves
Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
The Holy Grail - Sir Thomas Malory
Holinshed's Chronicles
Boswell's Life of Johnson - Globe Edition
Undaunted Courage - Stepehn E. Ambrose
Der Richter und Sein Henker - Friederich Duerrenmatt
Plutarch's Lives (Dryden's Translation)
On the Sublime French Revolution - Edmond Burke
Chronicles of Frossart
Kim - Rudyard Kipling
The Strawberry Apple Tree - Grace Daniel Patterson (my Great Aunt; written about my mother's family)

That's the first shelf...

And there's four more shelves in that book case, and five shelves in each of the remaining four bookcases.

And then at my office.....

Eric The(ButLawBooksAreNotTheSame)Hun[>]:)]

Yes, I agree about the Black Company.  In my opinion it got a little slow around the last book of the south and into the first one or two glittering stone books, but he wrapped things up nicely with [b]Water Sleeps[/b] and especially [b]Soldiers Live[/b].  That's why I was surprised that he was planning on doing more of them.  Soldiers Live was such a good stopping point.  Maybe he'll do something that fits in at a different spot on the timeline.

As for finding old Cook, I have had very good luck with ebay and also Amazon's used books.  I picked up all of my dread empire that way, except for one which I found in a used book store.  But like you said, some of those are beat up.

Now I'm going to have to pick up [b]The Dragon Never Sleeps[/b], thanks.

There was a time in my life when I would be reading 3-5 books at a time.

The last book Read? The Bible KJV. But that really doesn't count as I have been reading it since I was 7 or 8 years old.

The last great peice of Fiction I read: Atlas Shrugged.

The last Great piece of History(Currently Reading):
"One of Jacksons Foot Cavalry"  By Lt. John H. Worsham, Circa 1912 ,A History of F Company Richmond Va. 21st Regiment Virginia Infantry, Second Brigade Jackson's Division, 2nd Corp, A. N. Va.

The Next Book I am going to Read:
"Campaigning with Grant" , by Porter, Aide de Camp to Ulysses S. Grant , Circa 189x?? A History of the Campaigns of U.S. Grant.