A Pitiless Rain – or, The Orphan’s Tale – will be the title of the forthcoming novel of Glen Cook's Black Company series. In a long-awaited update – an interview with Bob Byrne at Black Gate – it has been revealed that A Pitiless Rain will be divided into at least 4 volumes.
No publication date has yet been announced. The narrative will follow on after the events of 2000's Soldiers Live (whereas 2018's Port of Shadows turned out to be an interquel set within the time frame of the first trilogy).
2024 Black Gate interview[]
- Source: interview with Bob Byrne
Glen Cook revealed in his interview with Bob Byrne that A Pitiless Rain will be divided into at least 4 volumes:
As of April 2024, the first 3 volumes have been finished, and the fourth is halfway completed.
2011 Utopiales interview[]
- Source: external YouTube link
For many years, most of the scant details available about the novel was that it will involve "the children" and "the god Croaker" (mentioned shortly after the 20:00 minute mark). It is a near-certainty that "children" refers to Baku and Shin, two youthful supernatural entities introduced in 2018's Port of Shadows who repeatedly claimed to be the children of Croaker and Lady. The pair reappeared with the aliases "Lacksluck" and "Luckless" in the 2021 short story "Cranky Bitch", and still referred to Croaker as "Dad".