I'm a longtime Glen Cook fan, dating back to when I first read the Dread
Empire books back in 1988. I've lurked around this list for a while, but
recently I finally joined.
I had never read the Garrett books, so this summer I began my project of
collecting them all. Between the reissues and ebay/Abe Books I managed to
acquire all except Petty Pewter Gods and Angry Lead Skies. Fortunately, my
local library has those two, and I've now read through PPG. I'm a few pages
into Faded Steel Heat, but after reading 8 Garrett books in 3 months, it
might be time for something else. Then again, it might not, we'll see how it
goes.
Here's a question for you all, something that a poster on Nightshade Books'
forum brought up, but which got no meaningful response. When Nightshade
began reissuing the Dread Empire series, they announced 4 volumes. The first
was to be A Cruel Wind, with the original trilogy, and this was indeed
released. The next was to be A Fortress in Shadow, with the two prequels,
and this was also indeed released. The third was to be The Wrath of Kings,
with the two sequels, while the fourth was to be An Empire Unacquainted with
Defeat, which was to collect all the short stories in the Dread Empire
universe.
A Cruel Wind was released in hardcover in 2006, and A Fortress in Shadow
came out in hardcover in 2007. Then there was a delay, and finally, An
Empire Unacquainted with Defeat was announced for late 2008 in hardcover,
skipping The Wrath of Kings. This made me wonder the same thing the guy
posting to the Nightshade forum asked, does this mean that when The Wrath of
Kings is finally released, eventually, it will include the long lost (stolen
manuscript) third Dread Empire sequel? The continuation of An Ill Fate
Marshalling? Perhaps the manuscript has been located, or perhaps Cook
rewrote it, now that the series is somewhat popular again? (the papaerback
to A Cruel Wind is on a 2nd Printing in a year of availability)
Does anyone have any background to this, or words from Cook himself? He had
been silent for quite a while, until he answered some questions for a blog
which eere published three days ago. I hope there's something to this rumor
I'm mongering, since why else would Nightshade change the publication
schedule?
