Originally published by Colin Smythe Ltd 1986.
First Corgi edition published 1986
6th Corgi edition (i.e. 5th reprint).
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd., Reading, Berkshire.
transworld publishers corgi books first uk p/b, first p/b, simultaneous with colin smythe first edition h/cvr.
cover art by steve crisp (uncredited, unsigned; shared with colin smythe first h/cvr edition)
cover price £2.95, aus(tralia) $8.95, n(ew )z(ealand) $10.95
(so should be re-flagged "international" according to respected moderator's rule)
(or not so re-flagged, according to equally well-respected moderator's heartfelt plea...)
552pp? including titles, indica etc, end pp.
second near-identical corgi p/b printing 1987
cover price £3.50, australia $8.95, new zealand $10.95
chronicles of an age of darkness series #1:
the books are not necessarily - indeed, not mostly - sequential, and people and events seen from one point of view in one book may be seen as very different indeed in both significance and character, when viewed from another protagonist's point of view in another book.
aka "wizard war" series (first three only, split into four volumes, usa 1987-1989, and first third of the fourth, usa 1991)
#1: "the wizards and the warriors" (1986) (this novel)
aka "wizard war" (usa 1987), q.v.
#2: "the wordsmiths and the warguild" (1987), q.v.;
split into two mmpbs, the halves accounted "wizard war chronicles" II & III, and retitled:
"the questing hero" (usa 1988), q.v.
"the hero returns" (usa 1988), q.v.
#3: "the women and the warlords" (1987), q.v.;
aka "the oracle" (usa 1989), q.v., accounted "wizard war chronicles IV"...
#4: "the walrus and the warwolf" (1988), q.v.
the first one-third of which was published separately in mmpb, retitled:
"lords of the sword" (usa 1991), q.v.
#5: "the wicked and the witless" (1989), q.v.
#6: "the wishstone and the wonderworkers" (1990), q.v.
#7: "the wazir and the witch" (1990), q.v.
#8: "the werewolf and the wormlord" (1991), q.v.
#9: "the worshippers and the way" (1992), q.v.
#10: "the witchlord and the weapon master" (1992), q.v.
this sold incredibly well for ages - the promise of a twenty book-long fantasy epic had enormous appeal that lasted quite a few years, though the popularity of the series later volumes - say, by numbers six or eight - seems to've waned.°
° - i'm not sure any followers still remembered it was initially promoted by transworld publishers ltd. as a series a full score of books long when the words and wolumes finally stopped with the wombats and the whirligigs°°
°° - and i'm not sure colin - the h/cvr publisher - ever promoted it as the start of a twenty-strong series - though hugh cook certainly spoke/wrote of it so, and conceived of this as the first of three twenty book-long series...