Tuesday, February 28, 2012

19 Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2012

This is the fifth time I've attempted to put together a list of the books I am most looking forward to in the coming year.  I'm a little bit late on this one, but here you go. 

This is the first year I’ve posted one of these lists without including either a Wheel of Time novel or a George R. R. Martin book. Of course, the only reason for this is that A Memory of Light was pushed back from November 2012 to January 2013. But there it is. On the plus side, we’ve still got some Scott Lynch to look forward to. Maybe. 

More or less in order.  Sort of.

1. Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch: Oh, Gentleman Bastards, how I would like to read more of you. And yet, my real desire is for Scott Lynch’s health and well being. Take care of yourself, Scott. The book will come when it does.

2. Caine’s Law, by Matthew Stover (April): How in the world did I not know this was coming until just now? It’s a new Caine novel! You know, Heroes Die, Blade of Tyshalle, and Caine Black Knife. asskicking awesome fantasy/ sci-fi blend. The usual stuff that you simply must read.

3. Range of Ghosts, by Elizabeth Bear (March): New Fantasy Series. Elizabeth Bear. I am there.

4. Touchstone, by Melanie Rawn (February): I have such high hopes for this book. Rawn is the author of the excellent Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies, but after beginning (and not finishing) her Exiles trilogy, Rawn took a long time off (for a very good reason), but returned to write two books in a now cancelled paranormal romance series. This (along with last year’s Golden Key prequel) marks her return to a more traditional epic fantasy series. Can’t wait!

5. The Coldest War, by Ian Tregillis (July): It’s about time that Tor got their stuff together and finally published this second volume of the Milkweed Triptych. Bitter Seeds was an excellent debut and The Coldest War had been on the shelf for waaaay too long.

6. Redshirts, by John Scalzi (June): New Scalzi.

7. Kitty Steals the Show, by Carrie Vaughn (August): Compulsively readable, Vaughn’s Kitty Norville novels are the ultimate summer crack. This is the 10th Kitty novel and Vaughn shows no sign of losing steam.

8. Arctic Rising, by Tobias Buckell (February): I’ve long been a fan of Buckell’s Xenowealth sequence and while he’s taken off quite a bit of time from that, here he delivers a near future climate-change novel.

9. Existence, by David Brin (July): New Brin! This sounds like it has touches of what made Earth such a cool and prescient novel.

10. ad eternum, by Elizabeth Bear (March): This is, presumably, the final Abby Irene novella from Bear.  I shall miss them.

11. Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal (April): It’s a mark of Kowal’s skill that I’m looking forward to the sequel to a book that could reasonably be pitched as “Jane Austen with magic”.

12. Wake of the Bloody Angel, by Alex Bledsoe (July): New Eddie LaCrosse novel.

13. Red Country, by Joe Abercrombie (November):Another tale told in the world of The First Law. All I really ask for is for some face-in-the-mud unpleasantness and battles as told with the evil snark of Joe Abercrombie. Is that too much to ask for? I don’t think that it is.

14. Inexplicable, by Cherie Priest (Fall): The fourth Clockwork Century novel. I need to read Ganymede, but more Cherie Priest is always a good thing.

15. Lowball, by George R. R. Martin (editor): I still need to catch up on Fort Freak and Books 9 – 17, but a new Wild Cards volume is a happy day for me.

16. Eclipse Five, by Jonathan Strahan (May): Strahan’s name on an anthology is enough to make me take a second look, but his Eclipse volumes are an automatic purchase. It’s a fantastic original anthology series and what I like best is that it’s unthemed.

17. Boneyards, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (January): I loved Diving into the Wreck and then somehow managed to not read City of Ruins (the sequel). Here is book three. I’d better get cracking.

18. Devils’s Wake, by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due: It’s an apocalyptic novel with aliens. And zombies, of sorts. I’m down with that.

19. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, by Nancy Kress (April): I tend to enjoy what Nancy Kress writes and here you’ve got some interesting combination of a post apocalyptic world, aliens, and time travel.

I could probably make another list or three of all the books I'm looking forward to.  Here, I've mostly stuck with the SFF genre.  Step outside of the genre, and the list will grow exponentially.

So.  What do YOU want to read this year?

5 comments:

Kendall said...

You listed two things I plan to read (Scalzi's Redshirts and Kress's short), plus you listed sequels to books that're on my "to read" list...thanks for reminding me I need more reading time! ;-) That would be Bitter Seeds, Bear's Abby Irene books, and Kowal's first novel; I expect to enjoy them and want the sequels. ;-) And you even intrigued me about a book I hadn't paid attention to (Diving into the Wreck); maybe I never read the description before, because it sounds up my alley.

Other books: I'm very much looking forward to Courtney Schafer's The Tainted City and Lynn Flewelling has Casket of Souls. Other than that . . . well, I'm much worse than I used to be when it comes to at tracking books I'm interested in, upcoming releases, etc., so that's all I got. ;-)

Cursed Armada said...

The Unholy Consult by R. Scott Bakker!!!! Hopefully we get to see it in 2012;)

Joe said...

Kendall: I haven't read Flewelling before, but I bought a copy of The Bone Doll's Twin last year. I've heard all sorts of good stuff about her.

Kendall said...

I prefer her Night Runner series, but I enjoyed The Bone Doll's Twin and have been meaning to finish the series, which I hear improves. The only thing that drove me nuts in BDT was that it ended in the middle of a freaking scene (throw-book-across-room), but I'm pretty sure that wasn't her fault, from what I read somewhere.

Ondrej from Hunger Games Summary said...

Obviously Lowball, the world could use another demonstration of Martin's mastery.