Glen Cook biography

Glen Cook was born on the 9th July 1944 and is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy novels.

Cook first began writing in high school, providing the occasional article for the school newspaper. After high school he spent time in the United States Navy before working full time at a General Motors assembly plant. It was while he was at GM that Cook began writing in earnest, producing as many as three books a year. Outside of writing he is an avid stamp collector and enjoys watching the Cardinals play baseball.

Cook's work is known for its realism, Steven Erikson once said that Cook was responsible for single-handedly changing the field of fantasy by removing the stereotypes and cliches that were previously inherant in the genre, replacing them with real, human characters and believable situations. Erikson also went on to say that the Dread Empire trilogy was the biggest influence on his own writing with its grim reality and historical complexity.

Cook was able to call upon his own experiences in the US Navy when writing The Black Company series, making sure that the military characters behaved as they would in real life.