I'm preparing a post on what I've been up to over the past few months. I'm working on a new book of my own, but meanwhile, Glen Cook continues to have his work repackaged and republished.
I was lucky to get a used copy of A Matter of Time thrown in on a purchase from an online auction site. The book was hard to find a couple of years ago, but Nightshade added it to their roster of reprinted Glen Cook titles. I haven't read it yet, but will probably get to it in the next year or so.
Penguin/Roc probably found it difficult keeping Cook's many Garrett books in print. They never did get around to reprinting Red Iron Nights and Deadly Quicksilver Lies (volumes 6 & 7), and have let Cold Copper Tears, Old Tin Sorrows and Dread Brass Shadows slip back out of print (volumes 3-5). Cook's other major series have been collected in omnibus editions, so it is no surprise that Introducing Garrett, P.I. will be out this summer. I'm not fond of that cover, but I like the idea that, in theory, the entire series will be in print again in a year or two. Now, Glen just needs to write two more Garrett books, so that there can be five omnibus volumes!
Finally, a second new Black Company story will be out soon in the anthology Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2. The book sports another "meh" cover, but hopefully the tale is a good one. I enjoyed Tides Elba, the story in last year's Swords & Dark Magic. I never did finish that book, fwiw, but I may eventually return to it.
The latest, and perhaps final, of Del Rey's Robert E. Howard collections came out since my last post. Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures is essentially an expanded, illustrated version of Lord of Samarcand, one my favorite REH collections. Both bring together the tales he wrote for Oriental Stories/The Magic Carper Magazine. They feature Crusaders and Sultans, Mongol hordes and Cossacks, all caught up in some of the grimmest, saddest stories written by a man who excelled at capturing the dark and tragic in his work.
There's moments of humor too, as REH wrote in many styles, and this new volume adds Spears of Clontarf, the "non-fantasy" version of Howard's telling of the 1014 Battle of Clontarf. That Irish battle had its 997th anniversary a few days ago, and while history books don't record that Odin was physically present, REH could imagine him there, when he re-wrote the story as The Grey God Passes. I prefer that version, but it makes sense that a story-collection that is supposed to be rooted in historical works would use the earlier piece. Anyone reading this who enjoys the dark vibe that Glen Cook injects into his Black Company and Dread Empire books will likely enjoy Sword Woman, even if they aren't Conan fans. If the book is your introduction to Howard, and you like what you've read, The Grey God Passes can be found amid many other REH tales in The Best of Robert E. Howard volume 1.
Back to Glen Cook, I hope to learn of a publication date for NEW full books by him soon. Working the God's Mischeif (Instrumentalties 4) and Wrath of Kings (the final Dread Empire omnibus) can't be too far from being announced, can they? I certainly hope not....
