Customer Reviews

The Tyranny of the Night: Book One of the Instrumentalities of the Night

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Okay, first off I admit I'm an old fan of Cook from the first trilogy and the first Garret book and through the Black Company. No other writer has a better grasp of the front line warrior's attitude: bloody, brutal, confused as hell eternally pissed off at and wary of Gods and Kings and Sorcerers. He has a wonderful grasp of the confusion of war and how chance deals with the best laid plans. And how the grounded cynicism of soldiers can humble the most grandious of nobles.

This is the beginning ground work of a grand epic I believe. He lays down the structure and without maps (maps would be nice) takes us into a wholly new universe of magic and old nasty gods and men and women just trying to deal with the hand they get. It is up close and funny and vast in scale. And he throws out some of the best zingers and hilarious observations of human nature out there. Nothing is sacred but life and love. It will take some patience and an aquaintanceship with how Cook operates would help, but by the time you get to the end you will be cursing because it will be some time before you get to hear the rest of the story, dammit. This man is a master. No-one, Erikson, Jordan, Feist, does epic sword and sorcery better. No bs here just a hell of a fun read. Bring your brain.

I've been reading Glen Cook's novels for about fifteen years now, and have been consistently impressed with his writing. What makes his novels - especially the Black Company series - so engrossing is the attention to the life of the characters. From darkly humorous to violent to poignant scenes, Cook manages to get you heavily invested in his characters, makes you care about them beyond reason.

This is where Tyranny of the Night diverges from books of the past. In the Black Company novels there was always an idea of a larger world outside of the characters, but that larger world was never fully realized or explored. In this novel, the world Glen Cook has created becomes a major character; a complex, complicated and sometimes infuriating character.

I found that getting into the novel was more difficult than in past books, primarily due to the deluge of information in the first 100 pages. Names, locations, history, cultures and divergent chronologies come pouring out for the first quarter of the book. Only dedicated readers will make their way through the morass, which is very unfortunate. To my surprise, Tyranny of the Night is probably the most accomplished book in Cook's very long history.

The world he creates is rich in culture and history, taking cues from real life history and making it his own. The mythology of the Instrumentalities - the faeries and gods-at-large of the world - are at once vague and immediately menacing. The political intrigue is actually intriguing, and the ebb and flow of the luck of nations is solid and sensible.

Above all of this, the main characters (all of whom are antiheroes of a sort) keep the same dry, hilarious wit Cook's fans had come to expect from the jaded soldiers of the Black Company. Yes, the world is big and complicated, but when push comes to shove Cook's book is about the little guys who get out of the way when the elephants dance. It's with the characters of Else and Shagot and Pinkus and many others that the heart of the novel beats strong. They are every bit as likeable as Croaker, Raven and the Company.

I can't convince anyone to read a book they geniunely dislike, but the 'pain' of the first 100 pages of Tyranny serves dividends later in the book. I highly recommend you stick with the story. Future books will likely not have such a steep learning curve. It really is worth learning this new, fascinating world, and I'm grateful to Glen Cook for creating yet another incredible realm to visit.

Some folks were upset at the lack of a map. The map of Europe and the Mediterranean will do just fine. The parallels with real medieval history somewhat mixed in time but very close in a lot of ways. Pope vs Antipope looks like 12th C. You have Ottomans from the late 14th or 15 C (assuming the Sha-lug are Janissaries) with Western Europe at the beginning of the Albigensian Crusades in the early 13th C. Early gunpowder would say 14th C. Crusader Kingdoms 12th - 13th.

Some of the places appear to be:

Brothe = Rome

Andoray = Norway

Connec = Langeudoc (Southern France)

Friesland = Denmark

Arnhand = France

Calzir = Moorish North Africa

Holy Lands = Holy Land

Dreangar = Ottoman Turks

Antieux or Khaurene = Toulouse

Firaldia = Italy

Santerin = England

Sonsa = Venice

Plemenza = probably Florence or Milan

Vieran Sea = Adriatic

Creveldia = Greece

Eastern Empire = Byzantine Empire

Mother Sea = Mediterranean

Navaya = Spain or one of the pre-unification Spanish Kingdoms

People and Organizations

Sha-lug = Janisssaries

Grail Emperor = Holy Roman Emperor

Patriarch of Brothe = Pope of Rome

Principates of the Collegium = Papal Legates

Chaldarean = Christians

Brothen Patriarchy = Roman Catholic Church

Deves = Jews

Pramans = Muslims

Maysalean Heresy = Albigensian Heresy = Cathars

Duke Tormond = Raymond VI of Toulouse

Braunsknechts = Landsknechts

Brotherhood of War = Knights Templars and/or Hospitallers

Johannes Blackboots = Frederick Barbarossa (Redbeard) with some changes

Patriarch Sublime = mix of a couple Popes

Glenn Cook is something of a marvel. There are few fantasy writers who have maintained the output he has and done it consistently well. His stories range from space opera to the battlefield and even detective fiction with no noticeable degradation of writing skills. He manages to maintain several different styles and narrative voices so that no one would mistake Croaker of the Black Company for Garrett of TunFaire. He is noted for gritty writing that often echoes the Viet Nam war and dark city streets, and he spends as much time on character development as most writers do on their plots.

So in one sense The Tyranny of the Night is struck from the same mold as the tales of the Black Company. In a world where the powers of magic - the Instrumentalities of the Night - contest with religious powers that are every bit as corrupt and powerful as is the medieval church. Religion and politics are the great dividers, and looming in the distance or the great walls of ice that threaten to bury the human world forever.

This first volume introduces us to a number of characters who will play key parts in the volumes to come. A special services warrior named Else who carries out clandestine missions for the warlord of the kingdom of Dreanger is sent into the lands of the West to observe the inner political conflicts and keep the powers there focused on battling each other rather then mounting a crusade against the west. To Else's surprise he is wildly successful. So successful that he rises steadily in the ranks of the very people who might plot against the Empire. And in the ranks of the people who plot against them. Inevitably, he must deal with the issue of biting at least one of the hands that feed him.

Caught up in the same struggles is Brother Candle an adherent of the Maysalean heresy who appears in the End of Connec to try to stop the Patriarch at Brothe from purging the country of all sinner and unbelievers. And two Andoran warriors, Shagot and Svavar, are resurrected by their ancient gods to track down and kill Else, who has found a way to destroy them. Threaded among these main stories are countless other characters who give this story the remarkable density which sets is aside from the current taste for pure action. This is a book intended for the reader who relishes finely grained detail, although there is plenty of action as well.

Cook has always excelled at getting the reader to see the characters' views of a gritty, political, well developed world, and "The Tyranny of the Night" is no exception.

Even more than Cook's other work, it jumps right into the story full speed and expects the reader to keep up with the extensive background of people and places that are mentioned. In this case it is almost too much of a leap in the first several chapters, but is definitely worth sprinting to keep up with. [I was tempted to take a map of the crusade-era Mediterranean (on which it is loosely based) and pencil in where the names of the kingdoms and rulers seemed to fit best.]

In terms of plot elements, long time readers of Cook's work will recognize some events that hearken back to his Black Company, Dread Empire, and Garrett novels, but nothing that hurts the story. If anything the actual writing, pacing, and "world feel" are improved over the earlier works.

The only things stopping me from giving it a five are: the steep learning curve early on, a character's odd choice of transformation, and a relationship that seems to be developing too artificially. I eagerly await the next volume.

If you sort these reviews by Lowest Rating First, you'll get a good idea of what's wrong with this book. Essentially, it reads like a text book on Medieval History with all the names changed (except Iceland, oddly). Plus, it has WAY too much geographical, historical, genealogical, political, and religious information in it. After a while, your eyes sort of glaze over and you end up skimming through things. Even after reading the 500 pages in the book, I still couldn't keep the players straight. Also, the secondary characters aren't consistent in their behavior. This is especially bad because it's hard enough to pull up any one name out of the dozens presented. If the characters don't even act the same from appearance to appearance, you're not sure you're thinking of the right person.

Having said that, I've got to say there's an excellent story buried in there. By the time the book ends, either you've absorbed enough of the irritating trivia or you learned to ignore it enough that you become engrossed in the story. Unfortunately, that's when the book ends. It's not a bad ending for a series. It's just that you finally feel like you're reading a Glen Cook book instead of a history book and then it's gone. Oh, well.

For the story alone, I'd give this a four star rating. But, because of the extraneous baggage Cook adds, I'm reducing my rating by one star to an OK three stars out of 5.

First of, lordy, this book needs a map.

Our friend GC is not one to suffer intellectual laggards gladly, and thrusts you into this proto-Meditterranean roman a clef in page 1. You better be familiar with your medieval history - especially the Crusader times - and economics, as well as Norse mythology. If the names like Narbonne and Outremer have no meaning for you, you might want to brush up. Me, I eat that stuff up. That was part of the who's what fun of this book.

That being said, it's a reworking of some themes. Black Company is what I hearkened to, maybe because I like it best, along with the StarFisher series. Spies, Goetterdammerung, and a grand brouhaha like the one outside Oar (here see al-Khazen). Corrupt priests and catamites, and bickering nobles, and good folks trying to get by. The usual "Glen Cook Doom and Gloom", says my better half who still wonders why I recommended the Darkwar series to her while she was recovering from delivery.

It's a good reworking. I liked the Arlensul (Sidrifa/Brunnhild) surprises. The one weakness is that Mr. Cook often uses magic as a deus ex machina, and the magic does not conform to self-consistent rules. Black Company fans will recall how the Taken (and even Lady) occasionally waver between Omnipotence and silliness. The same obtains here. And the ice angle is not fully revealed to us yet. As usual Mr. Cook holds some cards up his sleeve for later use.

After an almost sedate opening with a lot of background - needed later in the story - the book begins cantering midsection and rollicks on to an enthusiastic - doomfilled - climax. Promising good stuff in the next book in the series.

So - get a map of the meditterranean, a good medieval history, and list of corrspondences, and we're all off to the races.

Please, again, can I have a map with the book? Even something as minimal as the Dread Empire series maps.

The Tyranny of the Night (2005) is the first fantasy novel in The Instrumentalities of the Night series. The Wells of Ihrian are dying down and the Night is receiving less food. The Ice around the edges is creeping inward, squeezing humans into the warmer lands.

In this novel, on the Plains of Judgment, Captain Else Tage of the Sha-lug is confronted by a bogon arising from the Night and improvises a killing weapon using a mobile cannon, silver coins and gravel. The bogon is destroyed, leaving behind only something like an obsidian egg. At that moment, the Instrumentalities of the Night begin the slow process of searching for the godslayer.

Else carefully takes his company to the coast and signals a warship to pick them up. Although the ship can take some of the men and their booty, the others have to march to the nearest base. Else accompanies the booty back to Dreanger. There he is given another assignment.

Gordimer the Lion and Er-Rashal al-Dhulquarnen send Else to the West to spy upon the Bothans and to create disruption. Disguised as the returning crusader Sir Aelford daSkees, Else sails to Runch on the Isle of Starlirhod, where someone tries to kill him. Then he sails to Sonsa, where someone else tries to kill him.

In Sonsa, Else is recruited by the local Devedians in defense of their quarter. Although he is their token general, Else can do little more than caution the Deves against overconfidence and provocation. When the big invasion of the quarter comes, his major contribution consists of wielding the portable cannon filled with godslayer shot against the Bothan sorcerers.

In this story, further north, six soultaken warriors are brought before their gods and given a mission. Only their leader Grim is party to the details, which he receives in his sleep. They are deposited upon an old battleground in the southlands, where they find weapons and gear. They join with a southern army heading in the right direction, only to be ambushed by the enemy. After the killing and looting is over, the Soultaken retrace their path, still looking for the godslayer.

Else is now Piper Hecht, a mercenary from Duarnenia. He falls into the company of a group of young men hoping to find lives of adventure as mercenaries. Although quickly disillusioning them of their thoughts of adventure and romance, Piper becomes their mentor and implicit leader. When they find a recruiter outside Ralli, Piper stays with the group as they join the Brotherhood of War and later becomes captain of their company.

Pincus Ghort is a career mercenary who also joins the newly formed unit. He too becomes a captain, for few have had prior experience. Ghort can always be depended upon to suspect the worst of any situation.

Osa Stile is a former Sha-lug who was selected to be a spy prior to Else's mission. Although he is almost twenty years old, he still appears to be only eleven due to Er-Rashal's magic. He is spying for the Bothan Emperor as well as for Gordimer the Lion.

This story is set in a medieval world somewhat like Europe and the Middle East during the time of the crusades. The Sha-lug, for example, are slave troops similar to the Turkish Janissaries. Yet Dreanger appears more like the Egypt of that time, but with three Kingdoms.

The religion and culture of Dreanger is Praman, which is much like Islam. The religion and culture of Bothe is Chaldarean, which is much like Christianity. The Devedians are similar to Judaism. Still, these religions and others are not exactly the same as the medieval equivalents. After all, other gods -- or demons -- are demonstrably present in the world.

The Holy Land in this story is significant for the upswelling magic from the Wells of Ihrian. The Night is powered from the Wells, but did the gods create the Wells or were the gods created by the Wells? In either case, the Holy Lands have generated many religions and humans have been fighting over these lands for millennia.

Else Tage is mostly blind to the Instrumentalities of the Night. He is even more blind to the ramifications of destroying the bogon. Else is a wanted man, but doesn't know it. Yet he casually spreads this crucial technique as he travels.

Highly recommended for Cook fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of supernatural spirits, well-developed magic, and casual competence.

-Arthur W. Jordin

If you liked the Black Company series, but wished for something maybe not quite so dark, then this book is for you.

The Instrumentalities of the Night is the first novel in a new fantasy world, and it's written in Glen Cook's style of oblique exposition, so expect to be confused. The political landscape is a complicated mish-mash carefully designed to _almost_ resemble the medieval world. There's a Patriarch (read: pope), and an impostor Patriarch. They send true believers on crusades to the Wells (holy lands), which are controlled by various paranoid Kaifs (Caliphs/Sultans), and everyone schemes against everyone else.

You feel like you need a scorecard to keep up, but you really don't. Cook's strength is showing characters struggling to survive in a complicated world much bigger than themselves, and if you end up feeling a little lost, that's okay. This looks like a great new series in the making.

Miss this one at your own peril.

This is like Cook's usual output, gutsy, in your face, no nonsense story telling from the point of view of the guys who do the dirty work.

In this tale, we experience the world through the eyes of Else the Shalug, in a world where magic is still a factor, and where "instrumentalities," mostly unseen atrocities, still haunt the night looking for prey, usually the human kind.

Else, with his deadpan view of the world, works his way through a series of insane episodes and Chaotic adventures, endig up in an unlikely place, while all the while serving several different masters at different stages of political intrigue.

Along the way, we meet the usual rogues, along the lines of Hagop and Otto in The Black Company, and the inevitable older woman with interesting abilities.

As other reviewers have said, it is a bit challenging at the start. But what others are not saying, and this is a key point, is that as the book picks up speed, so does your interest, as the plot lines start to merge into an unexpected finish.

Cook, like others in the genre, such as Jack Chalker, likes to toy with the idea that Gods are just people from other dimensions whose powers are more of a hindrance than a gift. And this one is no exception, as the element of folly and blind ambition leads to an interesting set of consequences.

I'm looking forward to the next installment, although Croaker, Murgen, and The Lady will always be number one in my Cook-Book.

It would be nice to get one more installment of The Black Company, where things are not left so disheartening.