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Chronicles of an Age of Darkness #3
The Women And The Warlords
Enhances this fantasy epic collection with swift action, a well-developed world in which an oracle becomes involved in superpower warlord battles for control, and characterization which is realistic."" - The Bookwatch. ""Considers the plight of an intelligent single woman who, as an oracle, enjoys neither a fixed role nor a class niche...Cook's picaresque plot yields abundant adventure, baroque inventions along with a darkly comic edge and, along the way, a measure of rueful insight."" - Publishers Weekly.
432 pages, Paperback
First published December 4, 1987
3 people are currently reading
183 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Cook
44 books67 followersHugh Cook was a cult author whose works blend fantasy and science fiction. He is best known for his epic series The Chronicles of an Age of Darkness.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 16, 2011
Oracle Yen Olass gets embroiled in the inner workings of the Collosnon Empire. Can she survive the madness of war, both the depredations of the Collosnon's enemy and the Collosnons themselves?
Hugh Cook said that this book was the one that made the Chronicles of the Age of Darkness commercially unviable. It's not hard to see why he said that. Yen Olass is hardly the typical fantasy heroine. She's large, mean, homely, and has strong lesbian leanings. Still, her story was very good and showed that Hugh Cook wasn't your average fantasy writer.
Like the two books before it and the two after it, The Women and the Warlords tells of the war between Argan and the Collosnon Empire. Morgan Hearst, Bluewater Draven, and Watashi are the characters from the other books prominently featured. The siege of Castle Vaunting using the madness jewel is depicted yet again, this time from the point of view of one of the denizens. Instead of focusing on heroism and war, this book focuses on the place of women in Collosnon society.
In short, the women of Collosnon are treated like objects for the most part. Yen Olass, an oracle, was treated even worse. Oracles are sexually mutilated when they come of age and sewn shut. No wonder Yen Olass was so angry all the time. Anyway, Yen Olass gets caught up in a web of lies, blackmail, and intrigue, and somehow manages to survive. Not somehow. She's a survivor, used to living on her cleverness.
As always, Cook won me over with his originality. None of the fantasy stock monsters were used. The enemy was primarily human. The wishing machine was extremely creepy and I wondered for most of the rest of the story who or what Monogail's father was. I'm sure I'll find out in later volumes.
One of the most convincing parts of the story was Yen Olass's love for Monogail and Resbit, both very well done, as was Yen olass's heartbreak when Resbit left her for a man.
No review of The Women and the Warlords would be complete without the mention of two scenes. First, four people are nearly stoned to death. It was brutal and masterfully written. Second, without spoiling two much, two characters have a fight to the death that is shocking in its brutality. I've never read another fantasy story where someone has his head dashed in by rocks, is disemboweled, and has his genitals cut off. Brutal, brutal stuff.
Highly recommended, both to fans of the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, and to fans of fantasy heroines who stay away from the chain mail bikini stereotype.
Hugh Cook said that this book was the one that made the Chronicles of the Age of Darkness commercially unviable. It's not hard to see why he said that. Yen Olass is hardly the typical fantasy heroine. She's large, mean, homely, and has strong lesbian leanings. Still, her story was very good and showed that Hugh Cook wasn't your average fantasy writer.
Like the two books before it and the two after it, The Women and the Warlords tells of the war between Argan and the Collosnon Empire. Morgan Hearst, Bluewater Draven, and Watashi are the characters from the other books prominently featured. The siege of Castle Vaunting using the madness jewel is depicted yet again, this time from the point of view of one of the denizens. Instead of focusing on heroism and war, this book focuses on the place of women in Collosnon society.
In short, the women of Collosnon are treated like objects for the most part. Yen Olass, an oracle, was treated even worse. Oracles are sexually mutilated when they come of age and sewn shut. No wonder Yen Olass was so angry all the time. Anyway, Yen Olass gets caught up in a web of lies, blackmail, and intrigue, and somehow manages to survive. Not somehow. She's a survivor, used to living on her cleverness.
As always, Cook won me over with his originality. None of the fantasy stock monsters were used. The enemy was primarily human. The wishing machine was extremely creepy and I wondered for most of the rest of the story who or what Monogail's father was. I'm sure I'll find out in later volumes.
One of the most convincing parts of the story was Yen Olass's love for Monogail and Resbit, both very well done, as was Yen olass's heartbreak when Resbit left her for a man.
No review of The Women and the Warlords would be complete without the mention of two scenes. First, four people are nearly stoned to death. It was brutal and masterfully written. Second, without spoiling two much, two characters have a fight to the death that is shocking in its brutality. I've never read another fantasy story where someone has his head dashed in by rocks, is disemboweled, and has his genitals cut off. Brutal, brutal stuff.
Highly recommended, both to fans of the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness, and to fans of fantasy heroines who stay away from the chain mail bikini stereotype.
October 29, 2020
Another stunning fantasy novel from author Hugh Cook in his under-appreciated epic series, Chronicles of an Age of Darkness. Apparently Cook himself said that this was the novel that would end up making his series commercially unviable. At a time when most fantasy authors (except for a few like Le Guin) were focused on heroic male warriors for their characters, Hugh Cook chose to have a female oracle of humble birth for his third novel. I can’t help but think his strong, quick-witted female lead, Yen Olass, would have been much more of a hit now than she was then. Fantasy has exploded onto the mainstream at this point, and has many more female heroines (and anti-heroines) than it ever had before. Hugh Cook was a couple decades ahead of his time it seems.
July 26, 2016
Where the previous book in this series was a fairly humorous parody of the 'Questing Hero' mode of sword-and-sorcery fiction, The Women and the Warlords is a grimmer work, filled with menace and tension. The protagonist, Yen Olass Ampadara, is an oracle in the service of a semi-barbarous empire bent on world conquest. Her status as an oracle accords her a few privileges, but her status as a slave and a woman means she has few if any rights. Her journey through this novel is a high-wire act as she navigates her way through the company of assorted dangerous and ruthless men who could dispose of her at a moment's notice. Her quick-thinking and resourcefulness, and a lot of luck, keep her alive throughout the story but there's a constant sense of foreboding, as if all the skill and talent in the world can't ultimately save her from a society where everything is stacked against her. In this sense I was reminded of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, as our hero keeps finding new ways to fight against what seems to be her inevitable fate as a victim.
Yen Olass is a great, rich character and the people she meets along the way, with their shifting loyalties and morally grey agendas, are well drawn too. All of the characters seem to be constrained by the society they live in in different ways - Lord Alagrace as the native governor of a conquered kingdom, who might be a decent man but is forced to constantly compromise to a higher authority. Nan Nulador, the thuggish soldier whose thinking is rigidly bound by superstition. Every character seems to be struggling with their own internal crises which lead them down surprising paths. Every character feels like they could be the subject of their own novel (indeed one or two of them are - I've already read the mercenary Morgan Hearst's story in book #1. The Wizards and the Warriors).
I'd strongly recommend this novel to anyone who might have an interest in fantasy literature beyond the world of sub-Tolkien (and now, sub-George RR Martin) fiction that dominates the market.
Yen Olass is a great, rich character and the people she meets along the way, with their shifting loyalties and morally grey agendas, are well drawn too. All of the characters seem to be constrained by the society they live in in different ways - Lord Alagrace as the native governor of a conquered kingdom, who might be a decent man but is forced to constantly compromise to a higher authority. Nan Nulador, the thuggish soldier whose thinking is rigidly bound by superstition. Every character seems to be struggling with their own internal crises which lead them down surprising paths. Every character feels like they could be the subject of their own novel (indeed one or two of them are - I've already read the mercenary Morgan Hearst's story in book #1. The Wizards and the Warriors).
I'd strongly recommend this novel to anyone who might have an interest in fantasy literature beyond the world of sub-Tolkien (and now, sub-George RR Martin) fiction that dominates the market.
October 3, 2018
This book for me confirmed what a gifted writer Cook really was. Dense with political themes, both machivellian and sexual, this really is a feminist novel, something I didn't fully appreciate reading as a boy.
Hugh magnificantly portrays the need of many men to control women out of sheer machismo, and the brutality by which they achieve this manifesting at all levels of society. I was particularly fond of Lord Algrace, a man determined to bring civilization to barbarians yet failing due to his inherent rationality and empathy; he is one of the few characters who is not an outright misogynist and see's the cultural dead end of relentless violence. Oddly even the brutal Emporer Khamar displays a similar humanist side, albeit briefly.
Yenn Olass is a true hero, as a slave and especially a women she is treated as less than human, surviving the most appalling circumstances yet never losing her own sense of dignity. Her brutal slaying of York was particularly memorable. Also welcomed back are Morgan Hearst, the pirate Draven and Watashi. Truly an epic and a classic of the genre IMHO.
Hugh magnificantly portrays the need of many men to control women out of sheer machismo, and the brutality by which they achieve this manifesting at all levels of society. I was particularly fond of Lord Algrace, a man determined to bring civilization to barbarians yet failing due to his inherent rationality and empathy; he is one of the few characters who is not an outright misogynist and see's the cultural dead end of relentless violence. Oddly even the brutal Emporer Khamar displays a similar humanist side, albeit briefly.
Yenn Olass is a true hero, as a slave and especially a women she is treated as less than human, surviving the most appalling circumstances yet never losing her own sense of dignity. Her brutal slaying of York was particularly memorable. Also welcomed back are Morgan Hearst, the pirate Draven and Watashi. Truly an epic and a classic of the genre IMHO.
February 11, 2014
My favourite kind of hard bitten, individual focused, fantasy. The story sticks with Yen Olass through all her scramblings to stay alive in a male-centric Empire not unlike Ghengis Khan's. This is truly as shitty as things can get for women, and Yen Olass might be consider one of the lucky ones! Or as a women who rejects finding a male protector/dominator for protection she is a believable female character out of step with her own times.
I loved the lulls in the book where the narrative went into the characters heads. A general marchs very, very slowly to what he believes is his doom while thinking over his life. A different female character savours a moment of freedom at a lakeside where for once she doesn't have to fear assault and wonders what it would be like to have a life entirely like that.
A wonderful book. I'm reading this series about one book each year cause I want to make it last.
I loved the lulls in the book where the narrative went into the characters heads. A general marchs very, very slowly to what he believes is his doom while thinking over his life. A different female character savours a moment of freedom at a lakeside where for once she doesn't have to fear assault and wonders what it would be like to have a life entirely like that.
A wonderful book. I'm reading this series about one book each year cause I want to make it last.
August 7, 2024
Book One - We need to grab the evil artefacts to save the world!
Book Two - I need to grab the artefact to save my girl!
Book Three - Man I really want to avoid getting raped!
LOTS OF CAMPING AND WILDERNESS SURVIVAL
Because in the Age of Darkness, State Power is breaking down, armies are marching and invading, mountains are moving and swarms of alien bug-things are advancing, everyone spends a fair amount of time either at sea, or yomping through the northern mountains. Often they are yomping to their doom as, being Pirates, Oracles, pseudo-Mongols or random teenage boys, they are not well prepared for wilderness exploration.
I'm not sure if I have a point here other than; there sure is a lot of wilderness travel in the Age of Darkness and Hugh Cook must have really liked Hiking. The travel, techniques, environments, wildlife, and in particular, the deep and well-painted sense-impressions of wilderness travel and survival all resound with the ring og truth and subtle perception. If he is just making this stuff up from books he is doing very well. I suspect northern Estar bears a lot of resemblance to New Zealand in its geography and environment. Though every area does have its own distinct feel. The Ravilish Lands in book two feel a LOT like the Cumbria of my youth.
DAMN I REALLY WANT MY CLITORIS BACK
This is less brutal than I expected it to be, but maybe I am just a cold and unmoving person.
The above trio of statements is in part in jest, but is also true. Lots of terrible things have happened to Cooks male heroes so far, but only one, a young teenage boy, has had to worry about sexual assault. The story of Yen Olass is not *entirely* about the fear of rape and physical dispossession, but it’s the major, fuming dragonlike antagonist. Living in an extra-misogynist empire which views women as slaves, in a pseudo-early modern setting with no state power and general chaos everywhere, Yen Olass is working harder than a Questing Hero just to stay afloat and safe. Her Dragon is society and the greatest period of safety she gets is when she can be as far away from it as possible, surrounded by fog men.
Yen Olass does achieve her 'Hero's Journey' by the end of the book, having quite literally regained her womanhood via a suspicious wishing machine, experienced a (reasonably) loving relationship in safety, at least for a while, having carried and birthed a daughter who seems happy and healthy, (though she may be alien psi-child), and ending up with some kind of husband, not the one she wants because she would prefer none, but he seems to actually like her and she has persuaded him to bathe. She also gets to absolutely brutally murder a would-be child rapist and outwit, (with a fair amount of luck), imprison and exploit a would-be child murderer.
NOT REALLY STORIES BUT SLICES OF TIME
A Hugh Cook character is either the protagonist and a callow youth, in which case they emerge fresh from the pupae, or they are an adult, and they walk onto the scene as if exiting another.
This is an adult story, really a middle-aged story, and everyone in it feels like they begin the book after the end of a deep sequence of tales we don't get to see.
This has a good effect on character because absolutely everyone in a Hugh Cook story feels like a real, specific person with a distinct, strong personality and a complex set of motivations which spring from articular circumstances. When they turn up as a side character in a future book, or as a deuteragonist in a book after that, or a villain or sage in a book after *that*, the continuity and distinctness of their personality will still be present - clearly the same person, not frozen in time, but growing and changing with their circumstance.
So this is good for character, and good for the *world* and the story-sequence as a whole. (As I read more it becomes clear that the main life of the series is in the world and the sequence, not any individual book).
But it is not necessarily great, (depending on taste, for single individual books, as, just as in life, nothing ever ends. Yen Olass begins the book being dragged into the Dynastic dramas of the Colloson Empire and ends the book being dragged into the Dynastic dramas of the Colloson Empire. Of course now she is the mother of a prospective Empress, and possible alien miracle child, and possibly the wife of a freshly-scrubbed Pope of the Horse Cult, and she managed to magically grow her clitoris back, so definitely not *exactly* the same.
In a Hugh Cook story the only real and satisfying ending for a character is in death. So unless we follow someone all the way to their death, their story is not done, and does not *feel* done, and that can be a little frustrating.
COLD BUT NOT UNEMPATHIC
There are lines in many long books or series where it seems like the author is talking to us directly or describing themselves. This quote stuck out to me;
"Though Yen Olass had never entirely lost the ability to play like a child, there was nothing childish about her appreciation of power, sex and the manipulation of one human being by another."
That describes the 'Chronicle of and Age of Darkness' pretty well. A D&D-esque, carefully made post-post-post collapse exquisite sandbox of a world, with an extremely cold and "realist" view of power dynamics, individual ambition, greed and desire, and internation and ethnic relations.
Despite this Cooks work is almost never cynical, though many of its characters are cynics within themselves. There are very few utterly evil people, not do his characters exist across the scales of 'fall' and redemption that we might see in more Manichean paracosm. Instead their souls and motivations act more like those in a 19C social novel, but one set in an age of catastrophe and violence, where heroic natures of both light and dark tones are needed to survive and to carve out brief moments, a year here, a year there, of safety and comparative freedom. If a character remains "on-screen" for a reasonable period of time, Cook will usually find something interesting about them, perhaps not a "sympathetic element" but a particular and distinct inflection of humanity that could make them, in some circumstances, the "villains" of a chapter, and in others, the "heroes" of another.
That said, in 'Women & Warlords' - the Emperors Sons are fucking evil and stupid, or evil and civilised.
I get why Cooks books didn't sell. It’s not just because the second book was a feminist epic about a woman avoiding rape, it’s because the complexity, tonality and morality of his stories is all slightly 'off', (or very 'off') from popular taste and from the way normal people like their stories told. You can tell a story about a wise prophetess, enslaved from her destroyed people, who is threatened with rape and child murder by the sons of a dark emperor, who is also carrying the child of that dark emperor, having teased from him before his death, a few moments of humanity, and who avenges herself violently on those whom wouldst destroy her and her sacred child, destined to be Empress! And those events do technically happen in this book, but Cook is morally sly, always asking us to view things askance from the (arguable) main moral thrust of what would, in other hands, be a melodrama, and he is historically cheeky, showing is what feels like a bunch of unpredictable catastrophes with characters desperately trying to survive and adapt - more like history feels as you are living it, than as it is presented in the legends afterwards.
But legends are what people want to read for fun.
I am not saying Cook is wrong to do this. I have a huge amount of sympathy for him. But I am saying his books didn't sell big numbers because of it. As many other reviewers have pointed out, much worse writers at the same period, with much less ability than Cook, sold much bigger numbers and are still talked of, while Cook is nearly forgotten.
I cannot tell what is right or wrong for an artist to do but only how things are.
Book Two - I need to grab the artefact to save my girl!
Book Three - Man I really want to avoid getting raped!
LOTS OF CAMPING AND WILDERNESS SURVIVAL
Because in the Age of Darkness, State Power is breaking down, armies are marching and invading, mountains are moving and swarms of alien bug-things are advancing, everyone spends a fair amount of time either at sea, or yomping through the northern mountains. Often they are yomping to their doom as, being Pirates, Oracles, pseudo-Mongols or random teenage boys, they are not well prepared for wilderness exploration.
I'm not sure if I have a point here other than; there sure is a lot of wilderness travel in the Age of Darkness and Hugh Cook must have really liked Hiking. The travel, techniques, environments, wildlife, and in particular, the deep and well-painted sense-impressions of wilderness travel and survival all resound with the ring og truth and subtle perception. If he is just making this stuff up from books he is doing very well. I suspect northern Estar bears a lot of resemblance to New Zealand in its geography and environment. Though every area does have its own distinct feel. The Ravilish Lands in book two feel a LOT like the Cumbria of my youth.
DAMN I REALLY WANT MY CLITORIS BACK
This is less brutal than I expected it to be, but maybe I am just a cold and unmoving person.
The above trio of statements is in part in jest, but is also true. Lots of terrible things have happened to Cooks male heroes so far, but only one, a young teenage boy, has had to worry about sexual assault. The story of Yen Olass is not *entirely* about the fear of rape and physical dispossession, but it’s the major, fuming dragonlike antagonist. Living in an extra-misogynist empire which views women as slaves, in a pseudo-early modern setting with no state power and general chaos everywhere, Yen Olass is working harder than a Questing Hero just to stay afloat and safe. Her Dragon is society and the greatest period of safety she gets is when she can be as far away from it as possible, surrounded by fog men.
Yen Olass does achieve her 'Hero's Journey' by the end of the book, having quite literally regained her womanhood via a suspicious wishing machine, experienced a (reasonably) loving relationship in safety, at least for a while, having carried and birthed a daughter who seems happy and healthy, (though she may be alien psi-child), and ending up with some kind of husband, not the one she wants because she would prefer none, but he seems to actually like her and she has persuaded him to bathe. She also gets to absolutely brutally murder a would-be child rapist and outwit, (with a fair amount of luck), imprison and exploit a would-be child murderer.
NOT REALLY STORIES BUT SLICES OF TIME
A Hugh Cook character is either the protagonist and a callow youth, in which case they emerge fresh from the pupae, or they are an adult, and they walk onto the scene as if exiting another.
This is an adult story, really a middle-aged story, and everyone in it feels like they begin the book after the end of a deep sequence of tales we don't get to see.
This has a good effect on character because absolutely everyone in a Hugh Cook story feels like a real, specific person with a distinct, strong personality and a complex set of motivations which spring from articular circumstances. When they turn up as a side character in a future book, or as a deuteragonist in a book after that, or a villain or sage in a book after *that*, the continuity and distinctness of their personality will still be present - clearly the same person, not frozen in time, but growing and changing with their circumstance.
So this is good for character, and good for the *world* and the story-sequence as a whole. (As I read more it becomes clear that the main life of the series is in the world and the sequence, not any individual book).
But it is not necessarily great, (depending on taste, for single individual books, as, just as in life, nothing ever ends. Yen Olass begins the book being dragged into the Dynastic dramas of the Colloson Empire and ends the book being dragged into the Dynastic dramas of the Colloson Empire. Of course now she is the mother of a prospective Empress, and possible alien miracle child, and possibly the wife of a freshly-scrubbed Pope of the Horse Cult, and she managed to magically grow her clitoris back, so definitely not *exactly* the same.
In a Hugh Cook story the only real and satisfying ending for a character is in death. So unless we follow someone all the way to their death, their story is not done, and does not *feel* done, and that can be a little frustrating.
COLD BUT NOT UNEMPATHIC
There are lines in many long books or series where it seems like the author is talking to us directly or describing themselves. This quote stuck out to me;
"Though Yen Olass had never entirely lost the ability to play like a child, there was nothing childish about her appreciation of power, sex and the manipulation of one human being by another."
That describes the 'Chronicle of and Age of Darkness' pretty well. A D&D-esque, carefully made post-post-post collapse exquisite sandbox of a world, with an extremely cold and "realist" view of power dynamics, individual ambition, greed and desire, and internation and ethnic relations.
Despite this Cooks work is almost never cynical, though many of its characters are cynics within themselves. There are very few utterly evil people, not do his characters exist across the scales of 'fall' and redemption that we might see in more Manichean paracosm. Instead their souls and motivations act more like those in a 19C social novel, but one set in an age of catastrophe and violence, where heroic natures of both light and dark tones are needed to survive and to carve out brief moments, a year here, a year there, of safety and comparative freedom. If a character remains "on-screen" for a reasonable period of time, Cook will usually find something interesting about them, perhaps not a "sympathetic element" but a particular and distinct inflection of humanity that could make them, in some circumstances, the "villains" of a chapter, and in others, the "heroes" of another.
That said, in 'Women & Warlords' - the Emperors Sons are fucking evil and stupid, or evil and civilised.
I get why Cooks books didn't sell. It’s not just because the second book was a feminist epic about a woman avoiding rape, it’s because the complexity, tonality and morality of his stories is all slightly 'off', (or very 'off') from popular taste and from the way normal people like their stories told. You can tell a story about a wise prophetess, enslaved from her destroyed people, who is threatened with rape and child murder by the sons of a dark emperor, who is also carrying the child of that dark emperor, having teased from him before his death, a few moments of humanity, and who avenges herself violently on those whom wouldst destroy her and her sacred child, destined to be Empress! And those events do technically happen in this book, but Cook is morally sly, always asking us to view things askance from the (arguable) main moral thrust of what would, in other hands, be a melodrama, and he is historically cheeky, showing is what feels like a bunch of unpredictable catastrophes with characters desperately trying to survive and adapt - more like history feels as you are living it, than as it is presented in the legends afterwards.
But legends are what people want to read for fun.
I am not saying Cook is wrong to do this. I have a huge amount of sympathy for him. But I am saying his books didn't sell big numbers because of it. As many other reviewers have pointed out, much worse writers at the same period, with much less ability than Cook, sold much bigger numbers and are still talked of, while Cook is nearly forgotten.
I cannot tell what is right or wrong for an artist to do but only how things are.
Read
March 6, 2025It meanders quite a bit and ends a bit suddenly. I’m beginning to think the author has a bit of a thing for lonely, spartan, but remote and coastal idylls - there’s been at least three or four in the series now and two in this book alone. It’s pretty grim at times and yet light hearted too. The references to the first book are fun and characters returning. Not sure I like what’s in store for some. The wild invention of (particularly) The Wizards and the Warriors ( or vice versa - not sure all the Ws in the titles of these books do them any favours) isn’t really there - actual magic doesn’t play a big role and the part with it almost seems a bit unnecessary.
While the society portrayed is very much not the book is notably progressive in its variety of characters- especially for the time of writing. The main character has much depth and charm, others have their own drives and conflicts within and without.
To be honest, this review is a bit all over the place because I’m pretty unsure what I thought about the book in general. Especially given how long it’s taken to track down a copy. I suspect I will read it again before too long and will have more firm an idea then.
It is, in my opinion and if my memory serves me correctly, not up to the standard of the first two thirds of the first book; but it’s far from the worst book I’ve read. I suspect it might be pretty good.
PS: I’m reading GRRM now and his prose is remarkably laborious in comparison.
PPS: most of this book was read suffering insomnia. This review subsequently suffers from suffering such as well, but I have decided to record my thoughts on my reading more, if only to shake my head in bemusement and shame in the future at reading back the nonsense I have produced.
While the society portrayed is very much not the book is notably progressive in its variety of characters- especially for the time of writing. The main character has much depth and charm, others have their own drives and conflicts within and without.
To be honest, this review is a bit all over the place because I’m pretty unsure what I thought about the book in general. Especially given how long it’s taken to track down a copy. I suspect I will read it again before too long and will have more firm an idea then.
It is, in my opinion and if my memory serves me correctly, not up to the standard of the first two thirds of the first book; but it’s far from the worst book I’ve read. I suspect it might be pretty good.
PS: I’m reading GRRM now and his prose is remarkably laborious in comparison.
PPS: most of this book was read suffering insomnia. This review subsequently suffers from suffering such as well, but I have decided to record my thoughts on my reading more, if only to shake my head in bemusement and shame in the future at reading back the nonsense I have produced.
June 30, 2022
4 stars - English hardcover
Review follows later. In book with my daughter.
Review follows later. In book with my daughter.
September 16, 2011
Although I actually gave this one 4 stars at the time, in hindsight it was the best in the series. It goes to places that most Fantasy novels fear to tread and unflinchingly examines the very, very, very raw deal that women get in warmongering misogynist post-hunter-gatherer societies newly emerging into oppressive medieval imperialism (i.e. the kind of cultures that uncritically feature in a large number of contemporary fantasies). I have never read anything quite like it in the genre and it is about as far from Tolkien as you can get. There are no elves or shiny knights or noble heroes, just brutality and oppression and characters flailing beneath the weight of power structures that they have no hope of influencing. It isn't a pleasant read and it isn't escapism, but I would put it up there as one of the classics of the genre.
May 21, 2018
It’s probably closer to 4.5 but no fraction stars.
According to the author the book that killed his career and series.
The reason is of course at the time it was written the genres main readers were male and not ready for women having the genitals unmutilated.
Again I feel sorry for the author. His series was wonderful and ahead of its time breaking the mold of mindless formula fantasy.
For it to be so forgotten by literary time is saddening and a loss for future fantasy readers.
The whole series should be reprinted.
Oh wait that’s part of what killed the series.
Dumbass foreigners who couldn’t handle the complex naming scheme so the books got bundled edited renamed and killed for North American release.
Shame.
According to the author the book that killed his career and series.
The reason is of course at the time it was written the genres main readers were male and not ready for women having the genitals unmutilated.
Again I feel sorry for the author. His series was wonderful and ahead of its time breaking the mold of mindless formula fantasy.
For it to be so forgotten by literary time is saddening and a loss for future fantasy readers.
The whole series should be reprinted.
Oh wait that’s part of what killed the series.
Dumbass foreigners who couldn’t handle the complex naming scheme so the books got bundled edited renamed and killed for North American release.
Shame.
August 20, 2021
Chronicles of an Age of Darkness: volume 3
Wow, a fantasy book in which women are not just whores, scheming queens, gormless princesses or armoured bikini warriors.
Whilst I will preface this with the obvious, that the author is a male (or assumed to be), the tale of Yen Olass I found to be a very well considered depiction of what it must be like to be a "normal" woman in not just a misogynistic world, but one in which females are merely chattels to be used by males for whatever purposes they decide. The fact that Yen's entire wellbeing, status, and ultimate happiness rises or falls on the blade of the men around her is both shocking and all too familiar to any student of human history. Indeed, with the current situation in Afghanistan (20/08/2021), heartbreakingly so.
Again in the series, this is the personal history of a single character as fate takes her on a tour of the various kingdoms, empires, rulers, and nations of the world. Characters, with their strengths, weaknesses, passions, and drives are wonderfully written into life, along with the ebb and flow of the intertwining relationships on both micro and macro levels: personal, familial, communal, cultural, and political.
What I am coming to like is how the tales thread through each other, various characters whose adventures have already been documented cutting across the current focus, and allowing them and their actions to be seen from very different perspectives. As I move through the series, I am hoping that this continues, with a complete and magnificent tapestry coming into view as the final page is closed.
Highly recommended.
Fleecy Moss, Author of the Folio 55 SciFi fantasy series (writing as Nia Sinjorina), End of a Girl, Undon , and 4659 now available on Amazon.
Wow, a fantasy book in which women are not just whores, scheming queens, gormless princesses or armoured bikini warriors.
Whilst I will preface this with the obvious, that the author is a male (or assumed to be), the tale of Yen Olass I found to be a very well considered depiction of what it must be like to be a "normal" woman in not just a misogynistic world, but one in which females are merely chattels to be used by males for whatever purposes they decide. The fact that Yen's entire wellbeing, status, and ultimate happiness rises or falls on the blade of the men around her is both shocking and all too familiar to any student of human history. Indeed, with the current situation in Afghanistan (20/08/2021), heartbreakingly so.
Again in the series, this is the personal history of a single character as fate takes her on a tour of the various kingdoms, empires, rulers, and nations of the world. Characters, with their strengths, weaknesses, passions, and drives are wonderfully written into life, along with the ebb and flow of the intertwining relationships on both micro and macro levels: personal, familial, communal, cultural, and political.
What I am coming to like is how the tales thread through each other, various characters whose adventures have already been documented cutting across the current focus, and allowing them and their actions to be seen from very different perspectives. As I move through the series, I am hoping that this continues, with a complete and magnificent tapestry coming into view as the final page is closed.
Highly recommended.
Fleecy Moss, Author of the Folio 55 SciFi fantasy series (writing as Nia Sinjorina), End of a Girl, Undon , and 4659 now available on Amazon.
July 27, 2025
Book 3 in the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness. This is actually the second book written in the series and was supposed to come out after The Wizards and the Warriors, but apparently the publishers wanted a bridging book so Cook quickly wrote The Wordsmiths and the Warguild - which has that lighter tone that the author used in his later books in this series.
The Women and the Warlords has a much grimmer tone and is a true successor to the first novel. Like most of these books, it is an odyssey. The main character, Yen Olass, a slave and oracle of the brutal Colosnon Empire, goes through a series of trials and tribulations, nearly gets killed several dozen times, finds love, loses love, gains something, nearly loses something. But what always captures you about Cook's works are the characters. These aren't traditional sword-and-sorcery tales, with a quest against ultimate evil, but character studies. Warped and twisted ones, but still you become involved in the ever-shifting main character.
This one goes a beyond the end of the first book only towards the end. Morgan Hearst appears again, having fallen out with the two other surviving protagonist's from book 1, and becomes involved in Empire building, with typical explosive results.
The Women and the Warlords is not as big as the Book 1 - none of the following books really are - but we hints of future plot points, characters that will become protagonists in later books, and general insanity. I don't know how Cook plotted his books or his world, but the main story of this continent of Argan weaves in and out of every story. A throwaway line in one story becomes a major plot point in another, creating a complex whole.
The Women and the Warlords has a much grimmer tone and is a true successor to the first novel. Like most of these books, it is an odyssey. The main character, Yen Olass, a slave and oracle of the brutal Colosnon Empire, goes through a series of trials and tribulations, nearly gets killed several dozen times, finds love, loses love, gains something, nearly loses something. But what always captures you about Cook's works are the characters. These aren't traditional sword-and-sorcery tales, with a quest against ultimate evil, but character studies. Warped and twisted ones, but still you become involved in the ever-shifting main character.
This one goes a beyond the end of the first book only towards the end. Morgan Hearst appears again, having fallen out with the two other surviving protagonist's from book 1, and becomes involved in Empire building, with typical explosive results.
The Women and the Warlords is not as big as the Book 1 - none of the following books really are - but we hints of future plot points, characters that will become protagonists in later books, and general insanity. I don't know how Cook plotted his books or his world, but the main story of this continent of Argan weaves in and out of every story. A throwaway line in one story becomes a major plot point in another, creating a complex whole.
November 24, 2021
Another interesting tale, with a female protagonist, interwoven with some of the other stories in the series. Fascinating to see some of the events from a female perspective.
April 11, 2024
Read and own - on the hunt to replace these
September 29, 2016
I'm cheating and using this reveiw for all Hugh Cook's Chronicles of an Age of Darkness.
Take almost every fantasy cliche and trope you can think of and give it to Eddings or Jordan and you get 'The Belgariad' or 'The Wheel of Time'- entertaining enough but otherwise souless pap. Give them however to Hugh Cook and you get your tiny mind blown. He turns everything on its head like no other author before or after him. Wizards, magic bottles, monsters and heroes are used in such a fresh imaginative way that you are glued to the story page by page. Humour pervades every book to a varying degree and one of the great disappointments in life is that he never finished the whole set as he saw them- though luckily each book can be read as a stand alone novel, rewarding fans with nods, winks and links akimbo, otherwise complete reads in themselves.
I cannot recommend these books enough- even if you are not a fantasy fan; believe me these books will nothing like you expect and I think represent a truly unique literary experience
Take almost every fantasy cliche and trope you can think of and give it to Eddings or Jordan and you get 'The Belgariad' or 'The Wheel of Time'- entertaining enough but otherwise souless pap. Give them however to Hugh Cook and you get your tiny mind blown. He turns everything on its head like no other author before or after him. Wizards, magic bottles, monsters and heroes are used in such a fresh imaginative way that you are glued to the story page by page. Humour pervades every book to a varying degree and one of the great disappointments in life is that he never finished the whole set as he saw them- though luckily each book can be read as a stand alone novel, rewarding fans with nods, winks and links akimbo, otherwise complete reads in themselves.
I cannot recommend these books enough- even if you are not a fantasy fan; believe me these books will nothing like you expect and I think represent a truly unique literary experience
April 19, 2010
Suffers somewhat from not having read the earlier parts of the series, I think, since the second half mentions a lot of off-screen events which sound cool. I will have to track down more of these, I think.
August 24, 2007
An oracle's life is never easy.
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