LIES WEEPING A pitiless rain

After 25 years, Cook returns to the grim world of his cult classic Chronicles of the Black Company series (last visited in Soldiers Live) with an exhilarating spin-off launch. The focus is on the next generation of an elite group of mercenaries that doubles as "a sad, constantly squabbling, dysfunctional makeshift family." Seeking a degree of safety and a chance to regroup, the Company heads to its old refuge of Hsien in the Land of Unknown Shadows. Once there, however, they are treated as a threat by Hsien's warlords, who fear that members of the Company plan to become Shadowmasters, "wicked and capricious sorcerer-kings" who once ruled the city. Cook's characteristically luminous prose elevates the ensuing military fantasy drama ("We chip off the jagged edges and polish up the rest of our memories... thus do we create nostalgia for a place that never really was"). This volume also makes clear that there are plenty of fascinating corners of this sprawling world left to explore, especially given a reference to the "ten thousand examples of evil behavior" not yet recorded in the Company's annals. Cook's cadre of fans will find this well worth the wait. (Nov.)