Mithril Hall

I just finished Glen Cook's novel, Chronicles of the Black Company, which is actually divided into three books: The Black Company, Shadows Linger and The White Rose. It was superb. It was because of this book that I wanted to turn the lights back on in Mithril Hall.

Glen Cook demonstrates the potential of-- Here, let me post a quote from Steven Erikson, another successful epic fantasist:

“With the Black Company series Glen Cook single-handedly changed the face of fantasy—something a lot of people didn’t notice and maybe still don’t. He brought the story down to a human level, dispensing with the cliché archetypes of princes, kings, and evil sorcerers. Reading his stuff was like reading Vietnam War fiction on peyote.”

I once posted the above quote elsewhere, and someone came along and said they couldn't see how this could be true, that they couldn't see how Glen Cook could have changed the face of fantasy literature if nobody noticed.

Well, that's not what Erikson said. He said Glen Cook's "modernization" of epic fantasy, if you will, went unnoticed by 'a lot of people', not everybody. I don't mean to be picky, but words are important to writers, or at least they should be. And that is a very important distinction.

A lot of people didn't notice, but a few people did. Among them was Steven Erikson. And Erikson took Cook's moral ambiguity and his true-life authenticism within fantasy settings to an entirely new level indeed.

Actually, I will grant this "amendment" to Erikson's quote, without being too presumptuous in re-writing the words of a best-selling author. Cook didn't necessarily change the face of epic fantasy literature, as there will probably always continue to be heroic tales that hinge on clear-cut lines drawn between what is good and what is evil. Cook simply broadened the scope of epic fantasy a little bit, pointed out new directions in conflict and characterizations. Not every character has to be as noble and selfless as Frodo, nor as faithful and enduring as Samwise, nor as totally badass and wise as Gandalf. Our characters can be more "human", if you will, more flawed and less pure of motive.

Anyway, that's why I really, really enjoyed The Black Company.