It has been a good year for Glen Cook. He won an Honorable Mention in last year’s NAL prize
contest; he has increased his magazine sales; he has just sold a fine novel to New American
Library; he has married a lovely girl (whom he met at Clarion); and he has written a gripping
account of a future civilization in which loyalties — to lovers, friends, and nations —
conflict very much as they do today.
Of “And Dragons in the Sky” Glen writes: “Sometimes the world sweeps over my dikes and I just have to get alone, with my typewriter, where I can drain off the emotions in a long, hot draught.
Sometimes — sometimes I’m lucky and a story appears on the paper. This is one of those.”
In this frenetic, quick-shift, go, drop-your-friends -possessions -roots -loyalties like
throwaway containers age, heroes, legends, archetypal figures are disposable: as brilliant and
ephemeral as the butterflies of Old Earth. One day some researcher may wrest from Nature a
golden, universe-changing secret, some brave ship’s commander may shatter the moment’s enemy, be
a hero, legend for a fleeting hour — and fade to dust with Sumer and Akkad. Who remembers on
the seventh day? Who remembers Jupp von Drachau rinding those Sangaree? Mention his name. Blank
