The series started with The Wizards and the War-
riors(1986, also published as Wizard War), which
opens in a typical fantasy world with an evil wiz-
ard stealing a magical object that could give him
power over the entire world. A council of rival
wizards sets out to stop him. Nine sequels fol-
lowed, although each is a separate adventure, and
they can be read in any order.
The second volume, The Wordsmiths and the
Warguild(1987), was published in two volumes in
the United States as The Questing Heroand The
Hero’s Returnand is a straightforward quest story.
It was followed by The Women and the Warlords
(1987, also published as The Oracle), actually writ-
ten earlier and featuring a female protagonist
caught up in the war between two magically em-
powered nations. The Walrus and the Warwolf
(1988, also published in abridged form as Lords of
the Sword) follows the episodic adventures of an
apprenticed swordmaker forced to flee for his life.
The American edition contains less than half of
the original novel, which is quite long.
The Wicked and the Witless(1989) is essentially
a return to events in the previous volumes, retold
from a fresh viewpoint. The Wishstone and the Won-
derworkers(1990) and The Wazir and the Witch
(1990) constitute a subset of their own, centered
on one city and its inhabitants and could just as
easily have been set in another fantasy world en-
tirely. If there had ever been a central theme to the
series, Cook had by now lost track of it and seemed
to be adding adventures almost at random. The
Werewolf and the Wormlord(1991) is, as the title
suggests, a werewolf story interesting primarily be-
cause the author chose to set every scene after
nightfall. The Worshippers and the Way(1992) and
The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster(1992) brought
the series to a close, but Cook’s subsequent work,
with the exception of a few short stories, has been
confined entirely to print on demand and other
electronic formats. His published work contains
many interesting elements but lacks the depth or
originality that might have given it broader appeal.
“Cool Air” H. P. Lovecraft(1928)
Although H. P. LOVECRAFTis known primarily for
his Cthulhu Mythos stories, several of his more
generic horror tales are at least as skillfully done.
Lovecraft’s precise, idiosyncratic language helped
create a distinct atmosphere for his horror stories.
One of the most memorable is this very short tale,
which opens with some vague foreshadowing of
the horror to come as the unnamed protagonist,
whose financial situation has lately deteriorated so
that he is forced to seek lodging in a mildly disrep-
utable rooming house, becomes aware of the resi-
dent living above him, Professor Munoz, who is
reportedly very ill, rarely leaves his room, and
maintains it at a particularly low temperature for
health reasons.
He makes the professor’s acquaintance as the
result of a minor heart ailment and finds him to be
intelligent, well-spoken, and neat in appearance,
although there is something indefinable about him
that is equally repelling. Munoz tells him that he
has devoted his life to defeating death and that he
believes the spirit or will can keep the body operat-
ing even when the flesh itself has otherwise failed.
The perceptive reader will take this as a sign of
what has yet to be revealed. The two strike up a
mild friendship despite the narrator’s continued re-
vulsion, amplified by a further physical deteriora-
tion that takes place over the course of several
weeks.
The crisis comes when the cooling equipment
breaks down in the middle of the night. Efforts to
repair it prove unavailing, and a part must be
found on the following day. Munoz orders a con-
stant supply of ice and hides in the bathroom, but
things go from bad to worse. He runs out of ice and
locks himself in his room, from which comes a
pungent odor and a constant sound of dripping.
When the door is broken down, what remains of
Munoz, never described, lies on the couch. The
story ends with the revelation in the dead man’s
last note that he has, in fact, been dead for 18
years. “Cool Air” is an excellent example of a story
that remains suspenseful even though the reader
must anticipate the ending very early on and that
delivers its horror without the necessity of describ-
ing things too minutely. It is one of Lovecraft’s
most effective and memorable stories and was pro-
duced as an episode of The Night Galleryin 1971.
Chiller(1992) by Randall BOYLLuses a very similar
premise in a very different fashion.66 “Cool Air”