Glen Charles Cook (born July 9, 1944) is an American writer of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, known for ''

The Black Company ''The Black Company'' is a series of dark fantasy books written by American author Glen Cook. The series combines elements of epic fantasy as it follows an elite mercenary unit, the Black Company, through roughly forty years of its approximat ...

'' and ''

Garrett P.I. Garrett P.I. is a series of fantasy novels by American writer Glen Cook about Garrett, a freelance private investigator. The novels are written in a hard-boiled detective fiction style, with elements of traditional mystery and dialogue-based humo ...

'' fantasy series.

Biography

Cook was born in New York City."Glen Cook – Summary Bibliography"

ISFDB The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB ...

. Retrieved August 2, 2014. Cook served in the United States Navy from 1962 to 1972 and specifically was attached, for a time, to a Marine Force Recon unit, the 3rd Marine Battalion. During his time attached to the Force Recon Unit, Cook participated in what he called "practice combat", and left active duty, "a month before

he unit He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

shipped out to Viet Nam". He later worked his way through college. Cook began to write in earnest while working for

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

at an auto assembly plant in a job which was "hard to learn, but nvolvedalmost no mental effort", writing as many as three books per year. Cook wrote ''

'', a novel published by

Tor Fantasy Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese scie ...

, in May 1984. It began a gritty fantasy series of the same name (or Chronicles of the Black Company) following an elite mercenary unit through several decades of its history. As of 2016, it comprises the novels published in three subseries 1984–85, 1989–90, and 1996–2000, plus recent short fiction. It has become something of a cult classic, especially among current and former members of the military. When asked about the series' popularity among soldiers, Cook replied: "The characters act like the guys actually behave. It doesn't glorify war; it's just people getting on with the job. The characters are real soldiers. They're not soldiers as imagined by people who've never been in the service. That's why service guys like it." Cook is also known for his

series, which tells the haphazard adventures of

hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

Garrett, and for his

Dread Empire List of complete works by American fantasy fiction author Glen Cook. The Black Company The epic fantasy series features a band of mercenaries known as the Black Company. * Books of the North: # ''The Black Company'' (May 1984) # '' Shadows Li ...

series.

List of works

References

External links

* *
Novel synopses, cover art, and reviews at Fantasy Literature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Glen 1944 births 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers American fantasy writers American male novelists American male short story writers Living people United States Navy sailors