The Stone Within to be published this year

It’s been fairly quiet on the Chung Kuo front these last few months, but Mr. Wingrove has announced on his Facebook page that Book 10: The Stone Within will be published within the year with the exact date to be known hopefully soon. Following the cover art style from the first nine books in the Fragile Books re-release, here’s the ouroboros-themed cover for the volume (click for full size).

Personally, I’ve recently started a re-read of the Chung Kuo saga. This will be my third time on this journey and I’m currently on Book 3: The Middle Kingdom. Part of this is me missing the story and involvement with this site; another part of it is just procrastinating on my PhD dissertation.

Anyone else out there doing another read-through? Feel free to drop a line below.

19 thoughts on “The Stone Within to be published this year”

  1. waiting with the read through until there are more books available. The new re-release is getting so slow, I am getting really worried. I already experienced two cancellations (in Germany and Corvus), never able to finish the series so far…

    1. This guy is such a con man. You can buy all 8 of the original books for a total of $30USD but now he’s selling a half of each of the original books for that price. And all he did was add a few more swear words.

    2. I am also. It’s gone awfully quiet…I hope this is a success for him and things are going well, and that he’s just busy or something….

      If ultimately we don’t get the full series reissued/rewritten – maybe he should have just done the prequels (that were great), reissued the original 7 books as they were and sorted the original last book out (that felt like it belonged to a complete other hard sci-fi series) – whether giving it a couple of extra books to make the abrupt changes work better (and explain a bit more) or just change the original number 8 book a bit to take out some of the things that didn’t work.

      Guess we’ll see…fingers crossed all is ok!

  2. I never got around to reading Master of Time, book 3 of Roads to Moscow. So I am starting a re-read of that series to remind me of what happened in the first two books before I get into the third.

    1. I enjoyed Roads to Moscow a lot. Very different from CK. Faster pacing but less expansive. Have fun on your read-through!

      1. i have to say, that third book. Feels rushed, no? He mentioned 20.000 cut words in the forword I believe…pacing is so different than the first two (which I vastly prefer)…

        1. I was hugely disappointed in master of time, the 3rd book. Absolutely loved the series right up to the end when I was left feeling totally deflated and let down by his decisions over how to finish the series. If a reader finishes feeling that way, something is wrong…

          I won’t say anything more in case anyone hasn’t read it yet.

          1. i actually liked the overall plot of the ending, as it was somewhat unusual. just all rushed, happening too fast….-(

  3. Yeah, as much as I’ve enjoyed Chung Kuo, after buying all the Corvus trades only to have it cancelled on me, I’m not buying anything until all volumes of this new version are published. I’m talking all 20. I’ll get excited when the entire thing is out.

  4. I started re-reading from book 1 at the start of the year in preparation for, what I hoped would be, the spring time release of book 10, and then followed later in the year by books 11 and 12.

    However, it now seems we will be lucky to get book 10 at all this year. So in light of that, I will be postponing my re-read (got up to book 6) until we get a more exact date for the next release.

    If the time between each release stays the same as it is, I might have to do a re-read every year to refresh everything lol. By the time book 20 comes out, in the year 2029, I’ll have read the earlier books some twenty times! Haha.

  5. I am waiting until all the books are released, and the kindle prices are maybe a bit lower. I was interrupted on my first read through when the Corvus publishing halted so don’t plan to go again until all the books are available! I am looking forward to be able to do it in one go though, as even when i was reading through the last time I kept forgetting who everyone was when i picked up the next one. Having read some more large size series (e.g Peter F Hamilton) I have much preferred being able to finish one, and pick the next one up right away (or at least shortly afterwards).

  6. I read the original books way back in the 20th Century. Then started again with kindle editions as they came out. This is getting very old. Just self publish through Amazon and get it done. Nobody really wants to get newly involved {or stay involved} in a 20 volume epic that may or may not ever be published. At this rate, just finish the other 10 or 12 or how many there are and mass dump them on kindle. Drop the price down to $6.99 or less. They’ll sell. Catch up with paper copies later. Finish the thing before writing other books.

  7. Visited Corfe Castle today on a day trip. Was a brilliant sunny day and seeing the ruins of the ancient castle was something truly magnificent.

    Would never have thought to come and see this place if it wasn’t for Chung Kuo.

  8. Got as far as Corvus did before the slope off. Have had ample opportunity to pick up the original pubs up to book 7 in the used shops but have avoided doing so because of the invariable opinion amongst fans that the wrap up was dissatisfying. Don’t know why Wingrove doesn’t hammer through (if he hasnt already) and throw them up on kindle with a simultaneous crowdfund campaign for a uniform box set in either trade or hardback. It’s not like there isn’t the interest, and the series has had decades, literally, to collect fans. Happy to drop bank on something I was pretty sure was gonna come to fruition. Really, after getting the rights back, this drip feed is a bit ridiculous. It’s a magnum opus, magister. Conduct vigorously until the last note triumphantly fades!

  9. I read the series back in the last century & enjoyed them all except Living Dark.I liked the prequel novels but think the expanded relaunch a mistake.Just read Monsterse of the Deep;it is too short though it brought back good memories of the original Book 4 Stone Within

  10. Bought and read the original as it came out.

    Bought and read Corvus release.

    Will buy the books as they come out but not starting to read again from the start until I have all in my hand.
    ( Well maybe start when I get 18:) )

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