With Mercy Toward None
core novel 1985 Dread Empire
Record
| First published | 1985 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.97 (493 ratings, collected 2026-09-12) |
| Page count | 336 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780671559250 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
With Mercy Toward None continues the story begun in The Fire in His Hands, following the desert heretic-turned-warlord as he presses his mission to unite his people and impose his own harsh vision of order and righteousness across the fractured desert tribes. As his authority grows, so too does the resistance against him, both from rival factions among the desert warriors who refuse to bow to his rule and from outside powers unsettled by the rise of a single, uncompromising leader on their frontier. Framed as a prequel to the main Dread Empire sequence, the novel traces how the ambitions, cruelty, and conviction of this rising religious and military figure lay the groundwork for the wider conflicts that will later engulf the western kingdoms.
Where it sits
- Universe: Dread Empire
- Series: Dread Empire core; position 2 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 and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Dread Empire: position 5 of 8: previous The Fire in His Hands (1984) · next Reap the East Wind (1987)
- Internal chronology, within Dread Empire: position 2 of 8: previous The Fire in His Hands (1984) · next A Shadow of All Night Falling (1979)
Sources
← Dread Empire dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.