Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Several More Highly Anticipated 2012 Novels (by Liviu Suciu)

Earlier this year, I did three chronological posts about my highly anticipated books of 2012 (I, II, III). I will re-post the titles below with a little extra discussion as I've read two of them, sampled a third and just got a fourth - though for a full discussion you should check my original posts - but in the meantime I have found out about a few asap books I did not know were planned for 2012, while I decided to highlight several upcoming non-sff books of great interest too.

First six titles which are either genre or have sff elements:

Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman
The Ruined City by Paula Brandon (aka Paula Volsky)
Grail of the Summer Stars by Freda Warrington
The Man Who Rained by Ali Shaw
The Treasure of Montezuma by William Dietrich
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

Here we have:

Sequel to the superb Half-Made World.

Sequel to the superb The Traitor's Daughter (and noting that Paula Brandon is a pseudonym for Paula Volsky and that some of her books from the 90's were big favorites of mine at the time, so no wonder I loved The Traitor's Daughter)

Another book from the "Elfland" series by Freda Warrington after the unexpectedly good Elfland and the superb Midsummer Night.

A new offering from Ali Shaw who debuted with the enchanting The Girl with Glass Feet.
Link
Ethan Gage lately married and with a young son, somehow returns in another adventure (I guess by reader demand).

Nick Harkaway who debuted so brilliantly in The Gone-Away World, has another standalone I cannot miss!

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Six titles which are not really sff, but are still of great interest:

The Seven Wonders by Steven Saylor
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruis Zafon
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
Mission to Paris by Alan Furst
Lehrter Station by David Downing

My favorite non-sff author of today brings Gordianus back to youth in seven short story adventures some ten years before his first novel outing, each taking place, well you guess where based on the title. I have already read three of the four that are out in various short fiction venues and they were all outstanding.

I have already talked a little about El Prisionero del Cielo, but the English translation is another asap with a full review on publication, while the sequel to the Booker winner Wolf Hall - now a second installment in a trilogy - will be out too in 2012.

Alan Furst and David Downing will have new WW II and about novels out, while Satantango is a very interesting sounding novel I plan to check out too!

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As the original list of titles go, so far I read A Rising Thunder which despite being a half of a bigger Honorverse installment and ending on the clear tbc:

“Interesting choice, don’t you think?”

has so many goodies in its relatively slim 400 odd pages as well as being the first novel to go into the unknown (for us long term fans, as Mission of Honor essentially dotted the i's and crossed the t's so to speak, while adding some new tidbits only) that it immediately shot to a "hard to displace" top 2012 sf novel for me. Full review in March for the publication date though an e-arc is available to buy at Baen/Webscriptions where you can also read the first 8 chapters for free.

I also read The Daemon Prism by Carol Berg and I plan to have the full review on January 3, but as a very short take, it was a great trilogy ending and will be a top 25 book of mine in 2012.

I sampled Guardian of Night by Tony Daniel from the Baen e-arc offering but it seems to be a standard "superior aliens vs humanity tale" so I will take a closer look on publication.

Just today I got an earc of The Great Game by Lavie Tidhar from Angry Robot and I plan to read it soon. Starts great.

Original List

A Rising Thunder” by David Weber. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by Baen. (SF).
Heir of Novron” by Michael J. Sullivan. Release Date: January 31, 2012. Published by Orbit. (FAN / Omnibus).
The Daemon Prism” by Carol Berg. Release Date: January 3, 2012. Published by Roc. (FAN).
Blue Remembered Earth” by Alastair Reynolds. UK Release Date: January 19, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (SF).
In the Mouth of the Whale” by Paul McAuley. UK Release Date: January 19, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (SF).

The Great Game” by Lavie Tidhar. Release Date: January 31, 2012. Published by Angry Robot. (Steampunk).
2312” by Kim Stanley Robinson. Release Date: February 3, 2012. Published by Orbit. (SF).
Throne of the Crescent Moon” by Saladin Ahmed. Release Date: February 7, 2012. Published by DAW. (FAN).
Guardian of Night” by Tony Daniel. Release Date: February 7, 2012. Published by Baen. (SF).
The Outcast Blade” by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. Release Date: March 26, 2012. Published by Orbit. (FAN).

Sharps” by KJ Parker. Release Date: July, 2012. Published by Orbit. (FAN).
Caliban's War” by James S.A. Corey. Release Date: June, 2012. Published by Orbit. (SF).
The Master of Heathcrest Hall” by Galen Beckett. Release Date: April, 2012. Published by Del Rey. (FAN).
The King's Blood” by Daniel Abraham. Release Date: May, 2012. Published by Orbit. (FAN).
The Night of the Swarm” by Robert V.S. Redick. UK Release Date: May, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (FAN).

The Twelve” by Justin Cronin. UK Release Date: May, 2012. Published by Orion. (SF).
Thousand Emperors” by Gary Gibson. UK Release Date: June, 2012. Published by Macmillan. (SF).
"No Going Back” by Mark L. Van Name. Release Date: May, 2012. Published by Baen. (SF)
Weapons of Flowers” by Liz Williams. Release Date: June, 2012. Published by Prime (SF/FAN).
.“Caine’s Law” by Matthew Stover. Release Date: April, 2012. Published by Del Rey. (FAN)."

The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks (Orbit, Fall 2012, FAN)
The Eternal Flame by Greg Egan (Night Shade, Summer 2012, SF)
Black Opera by Mary Gentle (Gollancz, Summer 2012, SF/FAN)
Jack Glass by Adam Roberts (Gollancz, Summer 2012, SF)
The Coldest War by Ian Tregilis ( Tor, Summer 2012, SF/FAN)

The Air War by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Macmillan, summer 2012, FAN)
The 6th Safehold Novel by David Weber (Tor, Fall 2012, SF)
Cold Steel by Kate Elliott (Orbit, Fall 2012, FAN)
The 3rd Thomas Cale Novel by Paul Hoffman (Dutton, SF/FAN)
The 4th Red Sun Novel by Mark Newton (Macmillan, FAN)

Queen's Hunt by Beth Bernobich (Tor, Summer 2012, FAN)
Black Bottle by Anthony Huso (Tor, Summer 2012, FAN)
Great North Road by Peter Hamilton (Macmillan, Fall 2012, SF)
The Complete Sea Beggars Series by Paul Kearney (see this post on dropped series, Solaris, Fall 2012, FAN)