I noticed on the web this weekend that Locus shows for its August issue that Cruel Zinc Melodies was the best selling mass market paperback Sci Fi/Fantasy title in the reporting bookstores for the previous data collecting time (probably June, realistically). This makes sense when you consider that the book has quickly gone to a 2nd printing (you can tell a book's printing at the bottom of the copyright page, unless the book is a rare example of a mistake, such as current copies of Sweet Silver Blues, which show themselves as 1st printings from 1987!). Cruel Zince Melodies was released in early May this year, even though copies were on the shelf in late April (like many of you, I spotted copies for sale as early as April 25 or so). For various reasons, I didn't purchase a copy until early August. I got it at a Borders, and it is a 2nd printing with a sticker on the back indicating that Borders accepted it as inventory on July 9. The book was of course printed at least a couple of weeks earlier, so the 2nd printing was made less than 2 months after the books debut, which is quite impressive for a 21 year old series! FWIW, I see that The Tyranny of the Night mass market edition and the trade paperback of A Cruel Wind have both gone to 2nd printings, and the first Black Company omnibus is on to a 5th printing in less than a year! So Glen Cook is moving a lot of books these days, and good for him! I have seen some internet lists of books that Sci Fi/Fantasy editors have been dealing with, and it shows that Patrick Neilsen Hayden at Tor worked on Surrender to the Will of the Night, the third volume of The Instrumentalities of the Night. A related list shows the book due at some unspecified date in 2009. I e-mailed Patrick, asking if he could shed any light, such as if Tor was aiming for a spring or summer release date, but have received no reply thus far. Finally, I have an amazon gift certificate ready to use, but I've been waiting for the trade paperback of A Fortress in Shadow to become available. Nightshade indicated they would receive it from the printer on September 29, and they now show it in a featured place on their website. So I expect Amazon to get copies in any day now, but as I write this Monday afternoon, October 20, I have yet to see it in stock anywhere.