Glen Cook has been heralded as the godfather of modern heroic fantasy; his influence on the genre is unquestionable. But long before "Garrett, P.I.", before "The Instrumentalities of the Night", and before "The Black Company", there was "The Dread Empire"..."The Dread Empire", a gritty world of larger-than-life plots, nation-shattering conflict, maddening magic, strange creatures, and raw, flawed heroes, all shown through the filter of Cook's inimitable war-correspondent prose. "The Dread Empire", spanning from the highest peaks of the Dragon's Teeth to the endless desert lands of Hammad al Nakir, from besieged Kavelin to mighty Shinshan, the "Empire Unacquainted with Defeat", with its fearless, masked soldiers, known as the Demon Guard.