On The Shelf – June Releases – 5/28/2018

Seeing as how I made it through the May Releases a bit early, I thought I’d go ahead and line up what’s coming in June.  It’s looking like a pretty good month with a number of titles that I can’t wait to get my hands on.  First, the new authors:

This one popped up on a list of recommendations from Amazon – likely because I’d recently purchased the fourth and final volume of Lian Hern’s “Tales Of The Otori” – THANKS to Bookstooge for letting me know that she’d actually written a fourth – I was under the impression that she’d stopped at three.  I lived and worked in Asia for 10 years and generally like to try new Asian writers.  This paid off for me in a huge way when I found Yoon Ha Lee’s “Machineries Of Empire” Series – consisting at this time of two volumes – “Ninefox Gambit” and “Raven Stratagem”.  I would passionately recommend these two novels to anyone.  I can honestly say that Lee’s Machineries books and Leckie’s “Imperial Radch” books are the two best, most intriguing, most innovative series I’ve read in the last 5 years.

“The Poppy War” is a first novel from R.F. Kuang – currently studying in the U.K. on a Marshall Scholarship – and it features some intriguing elements:  1) a military academy experience, 2) peasant talent vs. privileged bias, 3) national rivalries and 4) divinely driven shamanism.  It actually arrived yesterday – a little early – and I’ll make this my first June read.

I’m also very excited about this one.

I found this one through an ARC review posted by FanFiAddict on May 18 and knew I had to have it.  I won’t provide a summary as I don’t think I could improve on what FanFiAddict has written – I’d just recommend that anyone interested go straight to his review.  He really enjoyed the book and – given the premise – it’s highly likely that I will as well.  This one is scheduled to arrive towards the end of the month and I’ll drop whatever I’m working on at the time to get started on this.

This one also came to me via an ARC review from FanFiAddict on May 11.  At some point, I’m going to have to figure out how to start receiving ARCs – starting to feel a bit jealous.

I’ve never been a big Horror fan but I dip my toe into the water from time to time – most recently with “Ararat” – which I found to be disappointing:

http://booksofbrian.com/on-the-nightstand-ararat-4-7-2018/

Again, I can’t improve on what he’s written – I’ll only say that this one sounds like it might provide the “creep factor” that I felt was missing in “Ararat”.  It’s also scheduled for release towards the end of the month and the only book that would take precedence is “The Grey Bastards”.  My thanks to FanFiAddict for helping to fill up my cart this month.

Now for an old friend – Jim Butcher:

Anyone who’s followed this Blog knows how I feel about Jim Butcher and Harry Dresden – I’ve read every word Butcher has written about one of my favorite characters and one of my favorite alternate versions of Modern America.  While I was a bit disappointed that Butcher didn’t release a new Dresden novel – it’s been awhile since the release of “Skin Game” in 2014 – and by the fact that this is a collection of work in Dresden’s world from multipe authors – there’s still a new Dresden short from Butcher called “Zoo Day” and that’s enough for me.  Short to long – if it’s Dresden – I’m going to own it and read it.

That’s what I have when it comes to new reads but I have a few collection purchases on their way – the most important being a new, comprehensive collection of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser stories:

I’ve read all of these stories – loved them – and used to have the three paperback editions that contained the complete works.  Anyone who hasn’t read these REALLY should – they’re Sword and Sorcery classics and Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser are one of the all time great fantasy teams.  I’ve been looking for a hardcover omnibus collection for some time and when this popped up – I immediately bought it.  It’s scheduled for release on June 19 and, as you can see, there isn’t even an official cover showing yet on Amazon.  This one already has a place on the shelf and I’ll no doubt give it a reread once it arrives – I remember the stories being that good.

I’ll end with two final project purchases – efforts to build out a complete collection of Neal Asher’s Polity Series.

Released in 2015 – a new copy of this volume popped up in my Amazon feed and I picked it up.

First in the “Spatterjay Series” – I found a new, first edition copy that I decided to buy.  I’ve read “Prador Moon” and “Sign Of The Scorpion” – both of which were good enough to leave me wanting to explore the full body of Asher’s Polity work – but I find it to be a complex world built out over many novels and I’m determined to read them in order to ensure that I enjoy the trip as much as possible.  When I see previously released, new condition hardcover volumes – I pick them up – building out the series so that I can work through it over time.

That’s it for June – looking like a pretty good month.  I’ll be starting “The Poppy War” today and I’ll let you know how it was soon as I’m done.

Cheers