Upcoming Books

Because my book queue is not long enough*, it seems some of my favorite SF authors are releasing new novels in 2012. Yay**. Here are the most exciting ones, in order of anticipated publication:

  • The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel by Stephen King (4/24/12)- I just found out about this one… Apparently Stephen King is returning to his Dark Tower series and doing another quasi-prequel… actually ,it’s a sorta sequel to the oddly placed yet strangely compelling Wizard and Glass, a novel I now consider one of my favorites in the series. That book sorta told the origin story of Roland the Gunslinger, and this one sorta continues his early adventures. Stephen King has never been one of my favorite authors, but I’m on board for this one…
  • The Mongoliad: Book One (The Foreworld Saga) by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, and others (4/24/12) – I’ve written about this experiment before, and to be sure, most of this content is already available, as it was serialized via custom apps on various mobile devices, but they’re now collecting the first completed story in a paperback… I played around with the iPhone app, but never purchased a “subscription” as the concept of serialized books does not really appeal to me (heck, I’m the guy that doesn’t catch up with TV series until the season is over), but I’d like to check out a completed story.
  • Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi (6/5/12) – I have to admit that I find the title of this sorta kitschy, but I always find myself entertained by Scalzi, and it’s not like this is an actual Star Trek novel or anything. I’m holding out hope that he’ll be able to bring something unique to the tired old red-shirt cliche.
  • Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing by Neal Stephenson (8/7/12) – I have no idea what these “Remarks” are going to be, but I’m guessing this will end up being a collection of previously published writing (like his awesome, long, rambling essays in Wired). I’m hoping that it will contain at least some new stuff though. Of course, I’d love another epic essay like In the Beginning…was the Command Line, but I’m not actually expecting that…
  • Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold (11/6/12) – I’ve only got one book left in Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga and was prepping for withdrawal pains, so this book will be perfectly timed to keep me addicted… Still, I’m very much looking forward to this novel, a spin-off featuring Ivan Vorpatril, one of the long-running side-characters of the series. I’m actually pretty excited about this book and I’m hoping Bujold will continue to play in the SF space in the future…

And that covers the big books I’m most excited about this year. Of course, there’s bound to be others that I’m missing, and the queue is constantly growing, but the above will probably keep me busy for a while.

* Sarcasm!

** Not sarcasm!