July is going to be a different kind of reading month for me. I went into June with 6 highly anticipated releases – a decent number for any single month – and those books contributed to 30 days of reading pleasure.
My July release list is actually very short – at this point consisting of only one book: S.M. Stirling’s “Black Chamber” – delivered to my Kindle app last night and already begun. Here’s the thing that puzzles me about this one. Stirling is an incredibly successful author – so many worthy books to his credit – this is the beginning of a new series for him – why would they not release with a Hardcover edition? Makes no sense to me.
Other than “Black Chamber”, I have Glen Cook’s “Wrath of Kings” on order – the last of three Omnibus collections of Cook’s “Dread Empire” stories. This is a collector’s purchase for me. Most readers know Cook for his “Black Company” novels – excellent stories – but his “Dread Empire” stories preceded them and are very good reads as well – some would argue that they’re better books. Nightshade has collected the full body of work in three Omnibus editions:
- A Cruel Wind
- A Fortress In Shadow
- Wrath Of Kings
I’ve had the first two since they were released and have been waiting on “Wrath Of Kings” to complete the set – which happens this month.
That actually leaves me with a fair bit of freedom when it comes to what I’m going to read. Based on some of the reviews I’ve recently read, I went ahead and ordered “Summerland” by Hannu Rajaniemi, “City Of Lies” by Sam Hawke and “Nevernight” by Jay Kristoff yesterday to give them a try.
Other than that, I have a bunch of partly read series that I can go back to or some singletons that have been in the TBR pile for way too long. Still, I’m wide open to suggestion here and would welcome any thoughts any of you might have – this is something of a luxury and I don’t plan to waste it since the August release list is looking pretty long.
Way too awesome to hear that you’ll be reading Summerland and City of Lies soon. I do wonder what you’ll think of those when you get around to it. I personally really need to get around to reading Glen Cook’s Black Company books (I have the first omnibus with the first three books in it) and can’t wait to see what that’s going to be like. Also really curious about that S.M. Stirling book you got yourself. First time I’m hearing about the author too. Happy reading, sir.
I think you’ll love The Black Company. Cook basically invented Grimdark – first with The Dread Empire and then The Black Company. TBC is more coherent and a better place to start. Let me know if you like it – I can send more recommendations. Cheers, Brian