Just finished the Dark War trilogy...
I can see why it didn't sell as well as his later books...
A brief overview:
There is a planet with Meth on it. The Meth are a bit cat like and matriarchal, mostly because the female of the species are larger and tougher than the males. Up in the north of the planet there are the barbarians, then the slightly more civilised folks who live in packsteads... Well, there are the log houses in the packstead... Well, there are your family in the log houses....
No, the Meth don't have much of a "we're all Meth together" outlook. There's you, your family, your log house, your packstead - and maybe the region where you live. That's it. The packstead next door is under attack by barbarians? Here's hoping they live. Us help them? Why? It's not us being attacked. But here's hoping they survive; we'll need their help in hunting next summer.
In the series there are a number of battles, battles that fall into three broad categories.
A) A well planned strategy where the battle could go either way.
B) Something that starts off looking like A) but then becomes a "Um, will anyone survive this one?" situation (hint: don't fall in love with characters - any character!).
C) Someone gets pissed off and everyone on the other side of the battle dies. The opposing army dies, then track down the settlement they come and kill everyone there. Then track down their supporters and kill them too. Dead, dead, dead - just smack, smack until everyone is dead.
Type A) battles look like the training ground for the Dread Empire and Black Company novels. Type B) battles look like the training ground for the climatic battles in those books where few people walk away. The type C) ones... If Lady (at the height of her powers) ever cut loose, just said "Right, they are all going to die now" and went out and killed everyone in her way, then it would look like those "battles". Like if she had command of the Ten and every scrap of power from her empire when her daughter was taken and just cut loose - that's what I was thinking when I read about some of those "battles".
But back to the Meth. The Meth are ruled by communities of Sisterhoods of Silth (also called witches). The sisterhoods look for psychic talents in the young. Girls with the talent are recruited (stolen) into the sisterhood. Any male with the talent is an abomination and destroyed. Later, as the girls grow into women, well you can't have Silth distracted by going into heat can you? And if they have litters they might put their own young ahead of the sisterhood, so all Silth are sterilised. Oddly enough, some of the most powerful Silth come from the edges of civilisation, where the communities don't have iron control and miss some of each generation. Now if a young one with talent isn't spotted and trained then odds are the talent will just fade away (but maybe her daughters might inherit it).
While the sisterhoods sterilise the best of the females, there are the male Brotherhoods who handle tech and get their paws dirty. They do the work that is beneath that of the Silth and take the best and brightest males. Of course you can't have a member of the brotherhood putting his own family ahead of his brothers, so they are all sterilised when they join (or when they reach a certain rank)... Oddly enough, some their brightest and best come from areas where the brotherhoods don't really recruit much.
Um, I seem to be talking about natural selection and how you shouldn't run a society... Now where was I?
Oh yes - into this mix there's a young girl (named Marilka) born in one of the border areas (where it's family, log house, packstead) who has a bright future ahead of her. Her mother doesn't take her to see the witches when she should have and there's a couple of people in the long house who thinks that the girl might have witch powers, but their opinions don't matter. Her mother is the strongest warrior in the long house, just as her grandmother had been, and their people have a saying: "Strength goes". As in "You want trouble with my daughter - then maybe I should rip you into pieces" is how things can work. Oh, there's tradition and the Wise (old females) who advise, but a strong huntress can do what she wants - unless what she wants is to stay warm... For some reason the winters seem to be getting colder and summers shorter, but who really believes in global cooling? Anyway, rumours start flying that the barbarians have been united and as the packstead next door is attacked they send runners to the local community of Silth. It seems that they have been paying tribute for generations and now they need that promised protection...
The good news is that Marilka gets recruited by the Silth and begins to make her way in a world where technology (ground effect vehicles, transport planes, etc) mix with magic (the Silth use magic to power their spacecraft). The bad news? Well, the battle doesn't go exactly as planned.
Now here is why I don't think it sold as well as it could have. Are the below points flaws? Maybe, maybe not, but I can see them hurting sales.
1) It's hard to get the readers to identify with your hero when you're also using her to explain just how different the Meth are.
2) The names. Marilka, Meth, Skiljan, Upper Ponath - I'm not saying that aliens have to good Anglo-Saxon names, but after a while the weird names became a blur.
3) This point is a continuation of point 2: Silths who can use the Dark Side. While writing this I tried to find out if Vader was called "Dark Lord of the Sith" in the first series of movies, but couldn't (google failed me!). The Dark Side was there, and reading about Silths who tap the Dark Side... Well it broke me out of the world of the Meth and got me thinking how a Marilka / Vader battle would go.
4) The powers that be on the Meth world are very, very short sighted. As in "We won this battle! Well, that's it, the war is over, let's get back to our infighting and... Oh, we're being attacked again? Well it's the same faction using the same weapons that almost killed us last time, but obviously they aren't a real threat. Let's keep fighting among ourselves until they make us fight them. After all, they are only males so they can't be a threat THIS TIME" - I capitalised THIS TIME because it happens time and time again and every other time they've proven a threat, but why should we worry about them THIS TIME?
5) There's "We look after ourselves first" then there's fighting over who has the coldest places to sleep as the house burns down around... or looking for the warmest spot to sleep as Global Cooling grips the world. You'd think that threat of global extinction would get everyone working to work together - but see point 4.
6) The ending. As I neared the end of the last book I was wondering where it would go. I mean, this was the last book, right? So how would things work out and ... Oh.... Then I started to think about a certain type of joke - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaggy_dog_story for details. Not that this series is like that, but it did have an empty feeling at the end.
7) Lots of unanswered questions. Lots and lots.
8) Was it sci-fi or fantasy? I've read it and I still don't know. That can be the sign of a good series, but it can also be confusing.
Now there were some great spots in the books - I still laugh when I think of someone broadcasting: "Look, you were boring so we'll leaving your world whether or not you say we can leave. Please stop shooting at us or... Now you've done it. We're sorry we have to defend ourselves and kill the people who were shooting... and those people who just started shooting. And those people who were moving into position to shoot. Sorry about having to defend ourselves this way - we didn't plan on killing all those people. Maybe we can be friends later?", and there were other highpoints. It was gripping, it was... It was Glen Cook. An early Glen Cook but still Cook. If he was to rewrite it I'm sure the series would be different - he has improved his craft as a writer.
If you're looking for something like the Black Company then this isn't what you're looking for. If you're looking for a good tale written by Cook in his early style then this what you're looking for - warts and all.
Richard