The Instrumentalities of the Night

Several different Mediterranean eras are portrayed in the stories. In the East you have Mamluk Egypt with Saladin and Syria as separate powers. The Byzantine Empire still exists and there is danger from the peoples of the Eurasian steppes, Huns/Tatars/Mongols. In the West you have the Reconquista and the GrTyranny of the Nighteat Schism of the Catholic Church. The Holy Roman Empire is attempting to dominate Italy and the Papacy. The Italian mercantile republics are trying to maintain their independence and influence and the Papacy is attempting to reunite the Church and stamp out heretics in France and, of course, destroy the Muslim powers and recover the Holy Land. This is all complicated by politics, family politics, dynastic politics and a coming ice age.

The Instrumentalities of the Night is, currently, a trilogy (The Tyranny of the Night, Lord of the Silent Kingdom and Surrender to the Will of the Night, and TBA Working the Gods’ Mischief) by Glen Cook. The story revolves around one Piper Hecht (Else Tage) in a pre-Renaissance Medieval Mediterranean world where God(s), devils and all other supernatural creatures exist, or can exist. And, as Piper has discovered, can be killed.

A major obstacle to understanding precisely what is happening is the lack of a defined geography. If one has a basic understanding of the medieval Mediterranean world, the major regions are fairly easy to pick out:

Dreanger – Egypt
Al-Qarn – Cairo
Lucidia – Syria
Holy Lands – Palestine
Calzir – North Africa/Barbary coast

Eastern Empire/Rhun – Byzantine Empire
Andoray – Norway/Scandinavia
Grail Empire/New Brothen Empire – Holy Roman Empire/Germany
Santerin – England
Direcia – Spain
Platadura – Barcelona/Spain
Navaya – Northern Spain
Artecipia – Corsica/Sardinia (a single island, connected by an isthmus, because of lower sea levels)
Shippen – Sicily
Arnhand – France
Khaurene – France/Toulouse
Viscesment – France/Avignon
Firaldia – Italy
Brothe – Rome/Papal States
Sonsa – Genoa: “The west coast of Firaldia, approaching Sonsa from the south, was the most heavily settled rural land Else had ever seen.”
Aparion – Venice
Dateon – Pisa

While I might have some of these wrong, as I am now re-reading the series, I believe that it is, for the most part, correct. One must also realize that the Mother Sea (Mediterranean Sea) is land locked. The Escarp Gibr al-Tar cuts it off from Ocean (the Atlantic Ocean). The surface of the Mother Sea is several hundred feet below what we would expect. Because of this it is far less extensive than the Mediterranean Sea and the European, Asian and African coastlines extend quite a bit farther than we would otherwise expect. Hundreds, if not thousands, of cities with millions of people exist in areas our Mediterranean Sea would would cover in salt water.Lord of the Silent Kingdom

If you lack a background on the Mediterranean world at this time, and would like some easily readable background, you might try Will and Ariel Durant’s The Story of Civilization series. (Yes, I know there are a lot of books, I own a set, and it’s fifteen million pages long, but each volume has an index and the writing is for the layperson not a dedicated historian.) It will give you a background for all of the “history” in Instrumentalities. For the character and motivations of Sublime V and the other Patriarchs try Barbara Tuchman‘s The March of Folly (the chapter on the Renaissance popes).

In terms of groups of people you have:

Chaldereans – Catholics/Christians
Maysaleans – Chalderean heretics (Albigensians/Cathari)
Pramans – Muslims
Dainshaukins – Jews (Orthodox)
Devedians – Jews
Hu’n-tai At – Huns/Tatars/Mongols

And all of the various nationalities and sub-groups.

In terms of individuals there are dozens of characters with unusual names to learn. A half dozen storylines are active at any given moment and succeeding chapters interweave among them. None of the characters is perfect, including Brother Candle; each has his own virtues, faults and past. Their characters are reminiscent of those in the Black Company books. Moral ambiguity is everywhere; survive at all costs.

Characters

Piper Hecht/Else Tage – Protagonist – Praman captain/soldier (Sha-lug – Mamluk/Janissary)
Anna Mozilla – Piper’s lover/mistress
Pella, Vali and Lila – Piper’s “adopted” children
Muniero Delari – Piper’s grandfather/Eleventh Unknown/Sorcerer
Cloven Februaren – Muniero’s grandfather/Ninth Unknown/Sorcerer
Heris – Piper’s sister
Grade Drocker – Brotherhood of War/Piper’s father

Redfearn Bechter – Brotherhood of War/Piper’s aide
Pinkus Ghort – Mercenary/Commander of Brothen City Regiment
Titus Consent – Deve/Piper’s intelligence director

Johannes Blackboots Ege – Emperor
Lothar – Johannes’ son and heir
Katrin – Lothar’s half-sister/second in line
Helspeth – Lothar’s and Katrin’s half-sister/third in line
Ferris Renfrow – Imperial Intelligence
Algres Drear – Imperial commander and bodyguard

Gordimer the Lion – Sha-lug ruler of Dreanger/Egypt
Er Rashal (the Rascal) al-Dhulquarnen – Sorcerer
Osa Stile/Armand – Sha-lug/Spy
Al-Azer er-Selim – Sha-lug
Nassim Alizarin al-Jebal – the Mountain

Sublime V – Brothen Chalderean Patriarch

Brother Candle – Maysalean Perfect

Starkden – Sorceress
Masant al-Seyhan – Sorcerer
Rudenes Schneidel – Sorcerer
Grimur Grimmsson/Shagot the Bastard – Andorayan sturlanger/viking
Asgrimmur Grimmsson/Svavar – Grimur’s younger brother

 Surrender to the Will of the NightThere are literally scores of other major and minor characters in the story; as I get the time and inclination I’ll add to the above lists. I’ve just finished re-reading the three books and hope number four comes out before I have to re-read them again. If you find something wrong (please, page and quote for evidence) or would like to add to the above, let me know.

 Oh, yeah. I enjoyed The Black Company and Darkwar books. I’m waiting for A Pitiless Rain and Port of Shadows. But, what I’d most like is a sequel to The Dragon Never Sleeps; hands down, this is my favorite Glen Cook book.

 6.1.2013

Retirement – And Time Enough to Read

Bookcase 1 - ReadTime enough to read.

One of the joys of being retired is that I can now re-read all of the old books and stories I have enjoyed through the years as well as read what is new. My wife and I read quite a lot and have a rather large number of books in our house and garage, something over three thousand soft- and hardcover books. They range from her several hundred volumes about teaching reading and English to my books about cosmology and string theory.

We have mysteries, biographies, juvenile and young adult fiction (in addition to the hundreds, if not, thousands, of these books she has purchased for the students in her classroom); however, most of what we read is fantasy and science fiction. From Jules Verne to Isaac Asimov and Anne McCaffrey we’ve read, and are reading, millions of words. As I am writing, typing, this she is on the patio re-reading Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series and on the table beside me I have Jack McDevitt’s A Talent for War; this is the first in his Alex Benedict/Chase Kolpath series.

Bookcase 2 - ReadIn grade school I had to, like millions of other kids, analyze stories, dissect characters and plots, and write book reports. What a way to kill an interest in reading. I cannot remember the name of a single book about which I had to write a report in grade school. I do remember reading C. S. LewisThe Screwtape Letters, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Richard Tregaskis’ Guadalcanal Diary and all of the Tom Swift books I could get my hands on; I first found these in our Holy Angels (Arcadia, California) School library. I also collected hundreds of comic books.

In high school (Don Bosco Tech) we had to read Charles Dickens. I hated reading Dickens. David Copperfield and Great Expectations, gag me with a spoon. They may be classics, but forcing them down my throat didn’t make them palatable. A Tale of Two Cities was readable, and written by someone else, could have been enjoyable. The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I found on my own, was fun.

Bookcase 3 - ReadIf you’ve never read The Scarlet Pimpernel or seen the 1934 film, I recommend them both. Written by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, it premiered as a play in 1903 and, with a re-written last act, became a hit in London in 1905 with the book appearing soon after. If you grew up, as I did, with Zorro/Don Diego de la Vega, Batman/Bruce Wayne, Superman/Clark Kent you might enjoy the story. Sir Percy Blakeney is a foppish English aristocrat (secret identity) who, as the Scarlet Pimpernel (hero), rescues French aristocrats about to meet Madame Guillotine. Unlike Don Diego, Bruce and Clark, who make-do with or without girlfriends, Sir Percy has a beautiful wife. If you like the story, try the sequels.

We seek him here, we seek him there,

Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.

Is he in heaven?—Is he in hell?

That demmed, elusive Pimpernel”

How ironic, here I am writing about books, something I was quite loath to do fifty years ago.

Bookcase 4 - Read some moreAs an afterthought, I also read Robert L. Scott’s God is My Co-Pilot while at Holy Angels; the Huntington Dog Beach organization seems to use the phrase “Dog is My Co-Pilot” as its motto.

4.21.2013