I know I've told some of this before. I'm a big fan of
Ken Kelly's paintings, whether for
KISS, for
Rainbow Rising, or for various fantasy novels. I've followed him since around 1983, when I already owned Destroyer and Love Gun on LP, and started collecting books with his covers by Robert Adams, Robert E. Howard, John Norman, and others. I was aware of Kelly's work when, during 1987, I saw he had done the cover for Glen Cook's Reap the East Wind. It was announced as being "the new Dread Empire novel!"
I wasn't aware of any previous Dread Empire novels. A few months later, An Ill Fate Marshalling was released, with the Ken Kelly cover attached to this post, again as a new Dread Empire novel. Kelly's covers drew me in, and looking through the books made them seem fascinating. I bought them, and they were my introduction to Glen Cook's writing. I started hunting for the earlier Dread Empire novels in used bookstores, and finally found them, after around six months. I recognized October's Baby as one I had seen in stores some years earlier.
Reap the East Wind was great, if short. An Ill Fate Marshalling was better, and quickly became one of my favorite books. I've waited and waited for the story to continue, and gave up hope for a while. Then, Nightshade began their omnibus Dread Empire reprinting, and it was successful enough for Glen to decide to recreate the lost manuscript that continued the story.
I mentioned last time that Nightshade have changed their plan of releasing an omnibus with Reap the East Wind and An Ill Fate Marshalling along with the newly-rewritten Wrath of Kings (my spell-check keeps telling me that "marshalling" is an error, but my paperback dictionary states that "marshaling" and "marshalling" are both acceptable). My guess is that the last book became too large for this. Originally, the sequel to An Ill Fate Marshalling wasn't going to be the final volume in the sequence, but rather the penultimate one. Now, I believe Cook is writing a massive tome with two books' worth of plot. At least I hope he is!
There's reason to believe that the wait for this final Dread Empire book won't be too long.
Reap the East Wind is out in the new edition in October, and now, the reprint of
An Ill Fate Marshalling has been announced for December. No cover has been shown yet, and I haven't seen this anywhere but on Nightshade's site. But it suggests that the new book might be available in February or March of 2012. I'll of course pass along further details as I learn of them. Meanwhile, I need to order Ken Kelly's just-released
2012 calendar, to get my fix of heroic fantasy images!
