June 2018 Wrap-up

Back in May we said we were looking forward to sunny days. We were wrong. God forgive us, but we were wrong. The sun burns down on us with a heat that cuts through the atmosphere like a hot knife through butter. The Earth is a like a chunk of shawarma meat, slowly spinning as it cooks.

And as we burn, we read…

Hiu

June is too bloody hot. Work has been hell, and I swear I’ve spent at least £50 on ice cream this month.

I managed to read nine books in June, which is a lot more than I expected. These were:

• Nightmare Keep & Killer Dungeon by Phil Tucker (ebook) — The sequels to Death March, I was able to pick these up early, having backed Phil’s Kickstarter campaign. Reviews for these will be dropping closer to release.
• We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson (ebook)— This was AWESOME. I wrote a fairly gushing review about it, and you should really check it out if you’re into interesting characters and brutal worlds.
• Forever Fantasy Online by Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach (ebook)— FFO was a fun LitRPG and very readable, even if it wasn’t exactly anything I hadn’t seen before. Looking forward to the rest of this series!
• Here Be Dragons by David MacPherson (ebook) — This was just the perfect book at the perfect time for me. A hilarious comedic fantasy about a middle-aged would-be hero who goes off searching for adventure. I adored it. Hoping that it does well in this year’s SPFBO, though it’s in a tough group!
• Wrath of Empire by Brian McClellan (audiobook) — Sequel to Sins of Empire, this picks up where the last one left off. McClellan seems to get better with every book, and any release of his is a must-buy for me nowadays.
• The Sangrook Saga by Steve Thomas (ebook) — A really interesting and unique anthology of interlinked horror stories. Written by a usually-comedic author, Steve Thomas shows that comedy and horror are two sides of the same coin.
• A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden (hardcover) — I read this for this month’s /r/Fantasy Resident Author Bookclub. Scott Oden tries to insert orcs into real-world history to great success. A dark and bloody book, but with plenty for fans of mythology to love.
• Paternus: Wrath of Gods by Dyrk Ashton (ebook) — Speaking of mythology, hoooooly shiet. This was awesome. So many mythological easter eggs, so many awesome action scenes, and I am in love with this world and these characters. Tam and I have a joint-review of this one which should drop at some point this week.

Coming up next month, I hope to read:

• Iron Gold by Pierce Brown (no comment)
• Gryphon’s Eye by Kevin Weston
• Red Season Rising by D.M. Murray
• A Touch of Iron by Timandra Whitecastle
• Sooooo many new releases. Spinning Silver, Record of a Spaceborn Few, Empire of Silence, The Tower of Living and Dying… lots

Yeah… I’m never gonna finish all of those this month. But I’m gonna give it a good go.

July is looking to be a great month for fantasy.

Jenia

Well… for 99% of the month I was in a reading slump. I finished a history book (Bettany Hughes’s Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities), which I heartily recommend. Aaaand that’s it.

But this Friday I started The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss and it’s freaking amazing and I’m already over half way through it. And a lot of exciting books are coming out in July! So all in all next month should be better than the last. I hope.

Kopratic

Hello! I finished 0 books this month. 😱 Busy busy busy. Learning to read and speak Mongolian. You know, just like everyone else!

But I’m almost finished with one and plan on starting another one soon. So hopefully July’s count will be at least…uhh…3?

Sharade

June has been slow. I did respect the reading plan I made at the beginning of the month, which is…hm…rare, and also a win!

I’ve read:

• Sorcerous Rivalry by Kayleigh Nicol
• City of Lies by Sam Hawke: it will be released on the 3rd of July. I absolutely recommend it, it’s a fantastic debut that effortlessly made it into my top reads of this year.

I am currently reading Christopher Ruocchio’s Empire of Silence. I should finish it in a few days, before its release on July 5th (for Gollancz).

My other plans for July are more vague. I’ll have to catch up on some requests, and maybe actually start one of the books I impulse-bought.

Tam

I’ve read a lot more than I thought I had this month. Due to uni exams, the first half of the month was mostly audiobooks as I walked to and from uni/work, but after exams finished my print book reading picked right up. I’ve apparently been quite slack with finishing and publishing reviews this month, so most of these are still waiting for reviews.

• Lightless by C.A. Higgins – This was an interesting dystopian sci-fi set aboard a ship where two renegades have snuck on board. The book goes through the story of their capture and interrogation and creates the world through their stories. Full review still to come
• Forever Fantasy Online by Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach – The audiobook released this month and I picked it up instantly. It was a great take on the LitRPG genre which I had a lot of fun with.
• A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan – This was a fantastic book. Told in the form of a memoir from a lady defying cultural customs and pursuing her interest in dragons. It was an amazing audiobook, and I’m looking forward to picking up the rest of the series when I have some more audible credits. Review to come.
• The Broken Eye & The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks – Books 3 & 4 in the Lightbringer series. The Broken Eye was great, but The Blood Mirror had a few flaws. Overall I’ve enjoyed the series a great deal thus far, and am looking forward to the release of book 5. Review to come.
• The Ikessar Falcon by K.S. Villoso – A fantastic follow up to The Wolf of Oren-yaro. The scope of the story increased significantly and more was learnt about the characters and the world. I liked it very much.
• Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett – My continuation of reading the Discworld. I enjoyed this one much more than Mort. It was a fantastic book and has made me want to go and read a lot more Discworld books. Review to come.
• Liath Luachra: The Swallowed by Brian O’Sullivan – Heavily inspired by Irish mythology, this was an interesting story about a warrior troupe thrust into a difficult situation. Really well-done world building. Review to come.
• Paternus: The Paternusing Wrath of the Gods by Dyrk Ashton – The soon to be released sequel to Paternus: Rise of the Gods. I really enjoyed this book. The first book was very good, but this just blew it out of the water. I consumed 85% in one night only stopping because it was 1am and I needed some sleep. Great book for fans of mythology. Review to come.

Currently on the go, I’ve got Michael J Sullivan’s Age of Myth in audiobook, and am still picking out my next print book after Paternus. I’m debating Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal, and Richard Nell’s Kings of Paradise. With uni now done my print reading speed has picked up dramatically and I should have more reviews for you all soon.

In Brisbane this week we also had the Lifeline Bookfest, which is Australia’s biggest second-hand book sale, which meant I got quite a few books very cheap. I also took advantage of Amazon US before it stopped posting here and picked up a couple of self-published books in paperback form, so I ended up with quite a few new books this month, which is always good.

Provided that they do not spontaneously combust before month’s end, the crew of the Fantasy Inn will be back in August for another wrap up. Or you could just read all the content that we post every month. Yeah. Go do that. We have fragile egos, and we could be doing with the validation.