title: Chronicles of the Black Company
author:  Glen Cook 
description: 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 clich archetypes of princes, kings, and evil sorcerers. Reading his stuff was like reading Vietnam War fiction on peyote. <i>Steven Erikson, author of Gardens of the Moon</i>
zlib_text: About the Author
  
   **Glen Cook** was born in 1944 in New York City. He has served in the United
  States Navy, and lived in Columbus, Indiana; Rocklin, California; and
  Columbia, Missouri, where he went to the state university.
  
  He attended the Clarion Writers Workshop in 1970, where he met his wife,
  Carol. ‘‘Unlike most writers, I have not had strange jobs like chicken
  plucking and swamping out health bars. Only full-time employer I’ve ever had
  is General Motors.’’ He is now retired from GM. He’s ‘‘still a stamp collector
  and book collector, but mostly, these days, I hang around the house and
  write.’’ He has three sons—an Army officer, an architect, and a music major.
  
  In addition to the Garrett, P.I., series, he is also the author of the ever-
  popular Black Company series.
  
  1
  
  It was a marvelous winter. My personal favorite kind of winter. An ever-lovin’
  blue-eyed kind of winter that slunk in early and got bitter frigid before
  anybody remembered where they stashed their winter coats.
  
  S