A Path to Coldness of Heart
core novel 2012 Dread Empire
Record
| First published | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.04 (549 ratings, collected 2026-09-12) |
| Page count | 445 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781597803298 |
| Internal chronology | 8 |
Synopsis
Published decades after the earlier Dread Empire novels, A Path to Coldness of Heart continues the series' long-running saga of the western kingdoms, the mercenary captain Bragi Ragnarson and his allies, and the sorcery-driven Empire of Shinsan, carrying forward storylines and characters established across the earlier trilogies. The novel returns to the world's ongoing struggle between mortal kingdoms and the immortal, scheming powers of Shinsan, following the long-term consequences of decisions and betrayals made across the series' earlier wars as old grudges and unfinished business resurface for a new generation of soldiers and sorcerers. As one of the later entries completing Glen Cook's long-gestating epic, it draws together threads the author had left open since the series' first volumes decades earlier.
Where it sits
- Universe: Dread Empire
- Series: Dread Empire core; position 8 of 8 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Glen Cook
Notes
- From the series record (Dread Empire): Original trilogy, two later-written prequels, and a run of sequels; the planned concluding volume was never finished after the manuscript was lost. A ninth title, "Wrath of Kings," was considered but excluded: on inspection it is an omnibus edition bundling books 6-8, not a standalone novel with an independent reader-rating pool.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Dread Empire: position 8 of 8: previous An Ill Fate Marshalling (1988)
Sources
← Dread Empire dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.