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102nd out of 148 books
—
137 voters
The Tower of Fear
by
Glen Cook
The City of Qushmarrah is uneasy under the rule of the Herodians short, balding men whose armies would never have conquered the city had not the great and evil wizard Narkar been killed and sealed in his citadel; had not the savage nomad Datars turned coat and sided with the invaders; had not some traitor opened the fortress to them.
Not many would welcome the return of th
...moreMass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Published
March 1st 1991
by Tor Books
(first published 1989)
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Tower of Fear is a novel by Glen Cook. It is set in a city ruled by an invader. It was won from a tyrant who ruled the land with an iron fist.
The book is a complicated interweaving of plots and plans. The occupier, the Resistance, the supporters of the old regime, the mercenary tools of the invader, and the common people of the city are all represented. As is usual for Cook, it is impossible to pick a side and label them The Good Guys, though there are are a few people who are definitely not.
The...more
The book is a complicated interweaving of plots and plans. The occupier, the Resistance, the supporters of the old regime, the mercenary tools of the invader, and the common people of the city are all represented. As is usual for Cook, it is impossible to pick a side and label them The Good Guys, though there are are a few people who are definitely not.
The...more
4 AND ½ STARS
My first experience with dark fantasy author Glen Cook could not have been more enjoyable. I always look for a good story, solid technical writing that exudes confidence, a strong vocabulary with a unique style, believable and original characters, rich atmosphere, and an overall consistency from beginning to end. It is rare for a writer to have strengths in most of these categories. Glen Cook has them all.
This book is crafted masterfully like the construction of a champion chess g...more
My first experience with dark fantasy author Glen Cook could not have been more enjoyable. I always look for a good story, solid technical writing that exudes confidence, a strong vocabulary with a unique style, believable and original characters, rich atmosphere, and an overall consistency from beginning to end. It is rare for a writer to have strengths in most of these categories. Glen Cook has them all.
This book is crafted masterfully like the construction of a champion chess g...more
Following a slow-ish start, this book has completely blown me away. I love Cook's Black Company stuff (the only other Cook books that I've read) and this might be even better. Cook shows that he's the master of the "gray" character, filling the book with multiple, overlapping POVs from all factions involved. Barring one or two characters who are just plain jerks, there are no real bad guys here; just men and women doing what they feel they need to for a cause that they feel is just.
The plot revo...more
The plot revo...more
This is my favorite novel of all time, followed closely by Cook's "The Silver Spike" (which you shouldn't read until after reading the first 3 black company books). I must have read The Tower of Fear about 15 times now. Each time I'm amazed by what a master he is, and why I had such a hard time with the typical formulaic fantasy books of "group of adventurers goes off to find artifact X".
The gray characters, the interweaving plots, the blindsiding developments...all are truly amazing. Using an a...more
The gray characters, the interweaving plots, the blindsiding developments...all are truly amazing. Using an a...more
Aug 21, 2008
John
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Enthusiasts of Gritty Fantasy
This book reminded me that Glen Cook is a master. He hits the story hard from 4 different directions - all conflicting groups of players and all likeable to some degree. In the end, you're left wondering who you should be routing for, if anyone. Even the most dispicable of characters are likeable in some ways. Very hard to put down. One of his best efforts to date.
The Tower of Fear begins with a war’s conclusion and ends with the seeds of wars’ beginnings. The middle bits are the stories of the lives of players and pieces. The stories begin as separate balls of yarn,and through the process of the telling,these stories knit themselves into a tight and cozy Story. Each chapter brings these separate threads closer and closer and tighter and tighter together. The Tower of Fear accelerates; what begins with a walking pace ends at a full sprint.
This is the firs...more
This is the firs...more
I can see how this guy's military fiction would work well. He's not all that deft at relationships or dialogue, but quite good at setting up characters with compelling motivations and putting them in dynamic situations. This one was a not super easy to get into, but with a little patience it turned into a nice tense political novel. I did appreciate the handling of the antihero-assassin character - not many folks can handle that balance without making the character either completely unlikeable o...more
The city is full of complex and opposing forces.
A study in tragedy from a certain point of view. The constantly wrong headed decisions of a woman passionately in love with her dead husband, a man widely loathed by almost every other character in the book, lead to her final loss of everything he owned and stood for.
Alternatively, the happy triumph of liberty and freedom of the city from the forces of oppression, both of the tyrant and his conquerors.
Alternatively, the hard headed Realpolitik of d...more
A study in tragedy from a certain point of view. The constantly wrong headed decisions of a woman passionately in love with her dead husband, a man widely loathed by almost every other character in the book, lead to her final loss of everything he owned and stood for.
Alternatively, the happy triumph of liberty and freedom of the city from the forces of oppression, both of the tyrant and his conquerors.
Alternatively, the hard headed Realpolitik of d...more
I got to page 76 and had to give up. This saddens me since the premise is good; I would love to see this story done well. The distraction in this book is the characters; the author introduces far too many too quickly with names too similar for the reader to keep track. I spent most of my time flipping back to to try to figure out what character belonged to what faction. A review can be seen on my blog, http://coffeecupthoughts.wordpress.co...
One of the thickest and tightest plots I have ever read in a single tome. Most modern writers would have expounded in 3-5 tomes. Many characters, thoroughly examined - and a fantastical historical setting vaguely familiar. A must-read!
A wonderfully complex book that deals with very realistic characters. He shows a conquered city as the rightly complex place it is, where everyone is capable of acting nobly or shamefully, no matter their side.
A really good book (standalone - another plus for it in my book). It reminded me of Books of South from Black Company in style. A lot of fractions, backstabbing, etc. Very entertaining and worth reading.
The story of a city years after a conquest and the factions vying for control of it. A good, solidly written fantasy from the point of view of the people caught in the event.
Stand-alone novel which hits most of the Cook highlights without requiring a ten book commitment. Very highly recommended.
Normally I'm a huge Glen Cook fan. But just could not get into this one.
I've generally liked everything I've read by Cook.
Mar 19, 2013
Larry Kenney
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fantasy-novels,
military-fantasy
I really wish I had a 3.5 stars rating for this. The start of the book took a while for me to get through. Figuring out all the terms and what was going on made it hard to get into. However, once the plot really got rolling, I couldn't put this book down. So I';d say the first 1/4-1/3 of the book is a 2, and the rest is a 4 for sure.
I really enjoyed the political intrigue as well as all of the interplay of the plots and schemes of the various factions and how they call came together.
Another soli...more
I really enjoyed the political intrigue as well as all of the interplay of the plots and schemes of the various factions and how they call came together.
Another soli...more
Various individuals and factions jockey for position (or just try to live their lives) in a city that was conquered some years before. This book has a fantastic oppressive mood hanging over the city and its residents (and resident aliens) and Cook has not, in my view, written anything tighter (though it must be said it loosens just a touch towards the end. The reader is just thrown into the pot, which just simmers away. Great stuff. Rated M for violence, supernatural themes and moderate language...more
It's been a long time since I read this so I'm going off very vague memories, but I wasn't much impressed by this book; it was a little exciting at the beginning and some excitement at the end, but I remember nothing of what's in the middle.
May 18, 2013
Bahms72
marked it as to-read
May 10, 2013
Phil witvliet
marked it as to-read
May 05, 2013
Lara Klaber
marked it as to-read
May 01, 2013
Katrina
added it
Apr 28, 2013
Christopher
marked it as to-read
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Glen Cook aka Greg Stevens is a contemporary American science fiction and fantasy author, best known for his fantasy series, The Black Company. Cook currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/glencook
More about Glen Cook...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/glencook
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