Summer Reads

A few upcoming releases I'm looking forward to reading in the next coming months. Summer 2011 is shaping up to be a great season for fans of the fantasy genre.

A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
Release Date: July 12

The battle of the Seven Kingdoms continues in this fifth installment of A Song of Ice and Fire. I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be the most anticipated fantasy book this year. Longtime followers of this series have been waiting for this book for a long time, and I daresay the success of HBO's Game of Thrones has garnered Martin a significant number of new fans.

I only finished catching up with the series last year, but I'm no less itching to revisit the rest of the characters not featured in the last book and find out how the story continues.

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
Release Date: July 26

I went on a Dresden Files marathon last month hoping to catch up with the series in time for book 13, and it looks like I succeeded with weeks to spare. I'm not averse to urban fantasy, though I haven't been actively seeking out new titles. But Storm Front, the first Dresden book, came highly recommended and after my first taste, I was hooked.

The last book aptly titled Changes held a major turning point, not to mention a bombshell of a cliffhanger. I suspect a new direction for this series, one I'm not sure how I feel about yet, but I guess I'll find out when I read Ghost Story.

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Release Date: August 2
I'm always on the lookout for new authors and books to read, and the buzz around Prince of Thorns has caught my attention since winter.

It has been described with words like "dark", "beautiful", "haunting", "poetic", "disturbing", "exciting"...sounds right up my alley. Certainly the praise this book has gotten thus far has intrigued me, and I gladly added it to my list of summer reads.