A Book For Every Month of Next Year

[coalescent]

The latest issue of Locus contains, apart from the usual reviews and interviews, lists of forthcoming UK and US books for most of next year. Because I'm desperately sad about this sort of thing, I actually started noting the books I'm going to want to read; perhaps not surprisingly, fairly quickly I had at least one book a month picked out, and I thought I'd share my pickings with the wider world. The caveats: I've tried to stick mostly to UK publication dates, although I know full well there will be some US books I'll want to get; and for several months, there was more than one book in contention (September was a hard choice, and for October I've outright cheated). But now, without further ado ...

January

• The Limits of Enchantment by Graham Joyce

This is simply a measure of how impressed I was by Joyce at the most recent BSFA meeting. He had many interesting things to say and said them well, and now I want to read his books. I could have picked Simmons' Olympos instead but, well, I haven't read Ilium yet ...

February

• The House of Storms by Ian R Macleod

It surely can't be much of a surprise to anyone that the followup to The Light Ages is one of the books I most want to read next year. Amazon says this: "The age of aether still reigns; its pale glow illuminating the land. All bear the mark of aether's extraordinary influence, except the changelings, banished to Einfell, that strange land untouched by the Age of Industry, that lay at England's troubled heart. When Great Grandmistress Alice Meynell, ruthless matriarch of the Great Guild of Telegraphers, brings her son to Invercombe, west of Bristol, she expects him to die there. Though her power and grace are legendary, not even she can halt her son's disease. In desperation she travels to Einfell, to seek favour from one who once trusted her. And Ralph is cured. Far away from the filth of industrial London, he is drawn away from his family responsibilities to the world of nature and to a fisherman's daughter Marion Price. Together they plan to run away, to defy the rule of the Guilds, even to change the world and how it sees itself. But Alice will not let love stand in the way of her in her insatiable lust for power - nor the very land she professes to love - even if it means plunging England into a long and bloody civil war."

March

• A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

The Sparrow is one of my favourite novels, so I was pretty much guaranteed to pick up Russell's next book, whatever genre it was in. A Thread of Grace is an extensively-researched historical novel set against the German occupation of northern Italy in World War II. It doesn't sound anything special; but I suppose that, on paper, neither does The Sparrow.

April

• No Present Like Time by Steph Swainston

The followup to The Year of Our War is the pick of this month, despite the pathetic excuse for a cover, although it was a close-run thing between this, Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson, or Vera Nazarian's much-delayed novella The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass.

May

• Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow

Eric Brown has a fun-sounding novella due from PS in this month; it's called The Extraordinary Voyage of Jules Verne. Amazon is also (optimistically?) listing an 'untitled David Mitchell'. But I like Cory Doctorow a lot, and Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town, with its mix of urban fantasy and wireless internet connectivity, just sounds like something special. Plus, it has that gorgeous cover.

June

• The Cosmology of the Wider World by Jeffrey Ford

Another PS Publishing novella--as usual, I want to buy half their catalogue at some point. Ford's collection The Empire of Ice-Cream isn't due out until 2006, so I'm hoping this will keep me going until then. Also out in June is Adam Roberts' next novel, Gradisil.

July

• Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan

I liked Maul lots, although I thought it was probably about fifty pages longer than it really needed to be. Double Vision has another two-strand narrative: one part set in 1984 New Jersey, one on a world known only as 'the Grid', where an all-female military force is fighting against an enemy it dare not kill, since every foe they slay is replaced by nine more.

August

• The New Intelligence by Ken Macleod

I'll be buying this, unless I buy Learning The World instead.

September

• Transcendent by Stephen Baxter

It kills me that I didn't pick Accelerando for this month, but it would have killed me not to pick the final part of Baxter's current series, so there you go.

Special mention for this month goes to an anthology edited by John Pelan for Darkside Press; it's called The Cthulian Singularity.

October

• Living Next Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson

This is an out-and-out cheat, I'm afraid, since according to Amazon Living Next Door to the God of Love (great title) is also published in September. I wasn't going to not list the next Justina Robson novel, though, was I? In terms of plot, all I know is that it's a prequel to Natural History ...

November

• Ilario by Mary Gentle

A prequel to Ash.

'nuff said, I feel.

December

• Past Magic by Ian R Macleod

Also a cheat, really; Locus listed this under 'books sold' a couple of months ago, but I can't see it in their forthcoming books list this issue, and it doesn't seem to be on the PS Publishing website yet either. There is, I suppose, a chance that it won't appear at all in 2005, but I really, really hope that it does. I love my Ian Macleod short fiction.

Comments

Ever shall I be behind in my reading...

[applez.livejournal.com]

When I make it past my latest backlog, I'll turn to you for my next binge.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

*grumbles* :-p

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

*hugs Niall (around the knees due to extreme height differential)*

*watches Niall fall over*

*runs away giggling*

[wg.livejournal.com]

Ash prequel? Very cool. I really must pick up my own copy of Ash sometime (and her last one too).

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

In Cartonmancy there's a related story called 'The Logistic of Carthages'. And I think the novella she has from PS soon, 'Under the Penitence', is Ash-related.

[wg.livejournal.com]

I've got Cartomancy. I liked the mentioned story, though I was a little disappointed overall as I had several of the others in another collection of hers. I think Under the Penitence has to Ash related, sounds good.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

It is related. PS now has this description:

Long ago -- when History was not as it is now -- the North African city of Carthage lay under the eternal darkness of the Penitence...

Ilario, a King's Freak from the minor Iberian kingdom of Tarraconensis, has been raised as both man and woman. Now Ilario is on the run -- as a would-be painter. Ilario desires to paint neither symbols nor formal icons, but simply and scandalously to paint what is.

Carthage is the great capital of the medieval Mediterranean, existing under an aurora-stricken darkness -- anyone who can paint under that light, Ilario thinks, must be taken seriously by the budding New School of painters further east in Rome and Florence and Venice.

But Ilario will not only encounter thieves, slavers, priests of the tophet, the Lords-Amir of Carthage itself, and a questionable eunuch book-buyer from the Royal Library at Alexandria... Murder is hot on Ilario's heels, following all the way from Tarraconensis -- and the truth of the past is not to be denied.

Under the Penitence takes place in the Visigothic Carthage of Ash: A Secret History, but stands alone, and can be read without any reference to the novel.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

oh, this is great. i'm actually doing a few YAs with graham. he's brilliant.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I assume one of those is Twoc? He talked about that a bit; sounded interesting.

[talvalin.livejournal.com]

Olympos is out in January? Woo! I thought it wasn't out until July. Joyce isn't a bad choice by any means, but perhaps you should actually read Ilium to help you make a more informed decision. You've got a month or so... ;)

Hell, what am I saying? Olympos all the way! :)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Amazon still says january 20th ...

[talvalin.livejournal.com]

*pre-orders Olympos*

So, what do you have lined to read this month? :)

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

*pre-orders Olympos*

... although as a caveat, Locus does say June. Hmm.

So, what do you have lined to read this month? :)

I want to re-read The Knight and read The Wizard by Gene Wolfe; finish off Swiftly by Adam Roberts; and get through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I've also got M John Harrison's Things That Never Happen and Peter Straub's latest to read for review. And I still want to read Set This House In Order!

[talvalin.livejournal.com]

Why doesn't LJ have some kind of quote functionality? It's not so bad when it's just plain-text, but the moment someone starts adding in HTML tags it all goes to shit. If I'm missing something obvious, please do enlighten me.

I want to re-read The Knight and read The Wizard by Gene Wolfe; finish off Swiftly by Adam Roberts; and get through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I've also got M John Harrison's Things That Never Happen and Peter Straub's latest to read for review. And I still want to read Set This House In Order!

I see you'll be busy for a while! I've just finished Century Rain which was very good. Reynolds turned down the gonzo inventiveness a little (say from 11 down to about an 8 or so), but finally managed a proper ending. It's probably his best since Chasm City.

I've also got Jonathan Strange Norrell lined up this month, along with The Algebraist (shocking I know! A member of the Culture List and I still haven't read my copy yet) and Stephen Donaldson's The Runes of the Earth. I'm also taking a serious look at buying Stamping Butterflies, but I really need to cut back on the number of hardbacks I'm purchasing these days as they take up too much damn space!

If you have any difficulty picking which one of yours to read first, go with Set This House In Order. It's very compelling and should only take you a day or two to read (you read reasonably quickly right?). Or is constantly mentioning the book going to backfire? That happened once when I kept bugging a friend of mine to watch the remake of Insomnia. His brother hated it, I loved it, and because I talked about it so much he flatly refused to watch it. Even now he won't watch it on Sky Movies. Idiot.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Why doesn't LJ have some kind of quote functionality?

Eh? It does; there's a 'quote' button now, at least in this style. Of course, that uses 'q' tags rather than 'cite' tags, but you can't have everything.

I've just finished Century Rain which was very good.

I meant to mention that, too. Dammit. And the instant_fanzine book of the month ... and Midnight's Children, although frankly I'm almost at the point of giving up on that one.

If you have any difficulty picking which one of yours to read first, go with Set This House In Order.

Thanks, but I think I'm going to have to go with the ones that need reviews. :)

[talvalin.livejournal.com]

Eh? It does; there's a 'quote' button now, at least in this style. Of course, that uses 'q' tags rather than 'cite' tags, but you can't have everything.


Gah, I'm so blind! Then again, having just tried it I can declare that it's still shit because all it does is enclose the text in the "blockquote" tag without including any additional tags that may have been used. I think I'll drop them an email about that. They might even read it.


I meant to mention that, too. Dammit. And the instant_fanzine book of the month ... and Midnight's Children, although frankly I'm almost at the point of giving up on that one.


rparvaaz hates Midnight's Children too, and I believe that she also couldn't finish it. In fact, I don't think she got beyond the first chapter, so you're not alone.


Thanks, but I think I'm going to have to go with the ones that need reviews. :)


Yes. That's usually a good plan. I offered to write a review of Century Rain for TAO, so I need to get cracking on that. I should be done by mid 2005...

[kalorlo.livejournal.com]

There's going to be a follow-up to The Light Ages? Oooh!
*adds to list*

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much my reaction. Shame the cover doesn't match, though ...