July releases

No big guns next month, although I should receive my advance review copy of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Three books caught my attention in July. One is the third book in a series I'm just starting in audiobook, another is the follow-up to a novel I had mixed feelings about and the last one is an omnibus for a series written by an author I could put on my pile-o-shame for not having read anything by him.

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Imager's Intrigue
L.E. Modesitt Jr.
July 20

I started listening to Imager by L.E. Modesitt Jr. last week after reading a couple of nice reviews. I have never read anything by the prolific author. I'm a 100 pages in and so far I'm not really impressed although I'm still interested enough to continue. This month, the third book in the series named The Imager Porfolio that started with Imager and was followed by Imager's Challenge will be released. Here's the blurb :

Rhenn has come into his own. He has a wife and a young child, and a solid career as an imager. But he has made more than one enemy during his journey from apprentice painter to master imager, and even his great powers won't allow him to escape his past.

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The Office of Shadow
Matthew Sturges
July 6

As I mentioned, I had mixed feelings about Midwinter (my review here). However, I think I could give the second book a chance eventually. Although Silverdun was not the character I connected with the most, he still had the potential to become a compelling protagonist. And also, the narrative seems more focused on Sturges created fae world... Here you go :

If 2009's Midwinter was the Dirty Dozen in Elfland, this thrilling sequel is Magical Mission Impossible. Former lothario Silverdun becomes a priest, but finds himself bored. When his government recruits him as a spy, he takes the offer and is shocked when they demand he learn extraordinary physical and magical skills. Silverdun, scholarly former soldier Ironfoot, and deadly empath Sela are assigned to discover the origin of Einswrath, the city-killing weapons unleashed in the previous Seelie/Unseelie war. Standard spy tropes—training sequences, double agents, betrayals from within—take on new life when melded with high fantasy, and Sturges has an easy ear for dialogue and character. Silverdun's backstory is nicely fleshed out in the process, though fans of the first book should be warned that the other characters appear briefly or not at all.

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Hawkwood and the Kings
Paul Kearney
July 27

Monarchies of the God is Paul Kearney first series (after a couple of stand alones). The five books are re-issued as two omnibus, Hawkwood and the Kings this month and Century of the Soldier in September. I think I ought to read The Ten Thousand soon but I could be tempted by a series with much critical acclaim and Steven Erikson as a fan! Blurb you say?

The world is in turmoil. In the east the savage Mer­duks, followers of the Prophet Ahrimuz, have cap­tured the holy city of Aekir. The western kingdoms are too distracted by internecine bickering to intervene and the Chruch seems more obsessed with rooting out heresy. It is an age where men go to the stake for the taint of magic in their blood, where gunpowder and cannon co-exit with werewolves and sorcerers. It is the turning point when two get reilgions will fight to the death and the common folk will struggle to merely survive.