Tolkien won his points for ingenuity, obsession, and world building. Cook just plays a variation on a theme, combining grim&dark with classic fantasy. Fun stuff, my favorite of all the writers in that sub-genre so far, but it's still nothing outstanding.

If you like Glen Cook, have you read either Steven Erikson or R. Scott Bakker? If not, then I'll recommend them, their books are excellent. I believe Cook was a big influence upon Erikson.

>>11403
In a bass acwards series of events it was actually Erikson that introduced me to this style of writing. I heard about Glen Cook from his acknowledgments. I'll definitely give R. Scott Bakker a look. I think Erikson's style is better than Glen Cook's in the long-term, but The Black Company had me at the first chapter. It took entire books to fall in love with Erikson's world.

im a big fan of gene wolfe's books of the new sun

>>11502
Been awhile, WK Guy.

>>11505

I don't follow

>a greater influence on the genre than Tolkien

Heh.

At the time Cook was writing the Black Company books (and the Garrett files hard boiled fantasy series), he was a real voice crying in the wilderness, one of only a handful of decent fantasists. Now, though, I'm not sure he'd rate as Top 10, because the genre is so much healthier than it was. Pratchett, Mieville, Martin, Sanderson, Lynch and Bujold are just six off the top of my head I'd rate higher.

But the Black Company is still awesome. Brought me back to fantasy after I gave up on it completely.