Soldiers Live

Glen Cook's 'Soldiers Live' concludes the 'Glittering Stone' cycle within the groundbreaking Black Company series, plunging its cynical mercenary protagonists into an apocalyptic showdown. Four years have passed since the Company's last battlefield loss, with Croaker now a military dictator, yet a fragile peace reigns. This uneasy calm shatters as old adversaries resurface, determined to usher in the cataclysmic Year of the Skulls. Narayan Singh, alongside his adopted daughter (the offspring of Croaker and the Lady), spearheads this dark agenda. Meanwhile, formidable foes like Shadowcatcher, Longshadow, and Howler plot their own malevolent schemes. The Company, still reeling from a fifteen-year period spent in stasis, is ill-prepared when a malevolent forvalaka spirit seizes one of their former enemies. This encounter at a shadowgate ignites a chain of events, drawing the Black Company into a desperate struggle against overwhelming forces, pushing them to the brink of annihilation and beyond, in a narrative that masterfully blends grim military realism with dark fantasy.