2012 Upcoming Releases-Science Fiction

[suciul]

I started looking more carefully at 2012 books and for January - March my top sf expected releases are:

1: “A Rising Thunder” by David Weber. Release Date: March 6, 2012. Published by Baen. (SF).
2.“Blue Remembered Earth” by Alastair Reynolds. UK Release Date: January 19, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (SF).
3.“In the Mouth of the Whale” by Paul McAuley. UK Release Date: January 19, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (SF).
4.“The Great Game” by Lavie Tidhar. Release Date: January 31, 2012. Published by Angry Robot. (Steampunk).
5.“2312” by Kim Stanley Robinson. Release Date: February 3, 2012. Published by Orbit. (SF).
6.“Guardian of Night” by Tony Daniel. Release Date: February 7, 2012. Published by Baen. (SF).

Next would be In the Lion's Mouth by Michael Flynn (3rd in his Celtic Space Opera series of which i read and reviewed 1/2- I actually have a copy of this and will read it soon) and Expedition to the Mountains of the moon by Mark Hodder (3rd in his Burton/Swinbourne alt-hist/time travel/steampunk series of which i also reviewed 1/2 and I have a copy too and will get to it soon)

Next I will look into the April-July/aug releases

[Rob B]

“Guardian of Night” by Tony Daniel. Release Date: February 7, 2012. Published by Baen. (SF).

Good to see a new novel from Tony Daniel, I really enjoyed Metaplanetary.

[suciul]

Good to see a new novel from Tony Daniel, I really enjoyed Metaplanetary.

I was pretty upset that the series got canned after Superluminal and the author could not publish a sf novel until now, though he had some superb ss in various anthologies; maybe at some point there will be interest in reissuing the first two novels and the author could finish that series...

[Rob B]

I was pretty upset that the series got canned after Superluminal and the author could not publish a sf novel until now,..

Was he contractually prohibited from publishing a novel?

[suciul]

Was he contractually prohibited from publishing a novel?

No of course; it's just that Mr. Daniel was very disappointed by the failure to have the trilogy ending published - I remember being shocked at his post about that since it was in the beginning of author' sites and the like, now this stuff - ie authors mentioning how they were dropped, how their last book was not published, etc (see Acacia 3 in the UK as latest such) is much more common.

I was very excited when i saw his ss appearing in various anthologies (I have reviewed at least 2 recent ones in the context of their anthologies - the Cathedral one and the weird garden one)...
btw he is now an editor at Baen since June

I also did a post a year or so ago on FBC about 4 dropped series I really loved and in the meantime Sea Beggars is going to be finished while DK Moran finally released more in his Continuing Time - though that is still far away from the stated ambitions - and I really do not think that the Metropolitan one by WJ Williams has a chance to be continued, but this last one by Tony Daniel just may be finished if Guardian does well since Baen occasionally continues series started somewhere else despite the economical disadvantages - in most series usually the first volume sells most; also the current e-indie scene offers opportunities for continuing dropped series as other authors including most recently Tobias Buckell for example are doing

Another author like that - though he finished his final trilogy but it seemed to have bombed badly - is Sean Russell whose fantasies I used to love a lot in the 90's; he now writes historical naval fiction as S. Thomas Russell but I hope he will return to sff at some point...

[Rob B]

Russell was doing some interesting things in the genre.

I'll be getting the new TD book. What I could see Baen doing is maybe reissuing the first two books in omnibus (or electronically) and publishing the third.

[Erfael]

Another author like that - though he finished his final trilogy but it seemed to have bombed badly - is Sean Russell whose fantasies I used to love a lot in the 90's; he now writes historical naval fiction as S. Thomas Russell but I hope he will return to sff at some point...

Plus, plus on this. I loved his work in his first three duologies, but found books 2 and 3 of The Swans War to be pretty bland. I also hope he returns to (the style of) his earlier works (though I can see how they wouldn't be things that would sell as well, conceptually, as his last trilogy).

[Rob B]

Completely stolen from a post made by Werthead...


Tor's Spring/Summer 2012 Catalogue

Of interest:

John Scalzi's Redshirts, the cover of which doubles as the cover of the catalogue

The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis (Milkweed #2, finally!!)

[Loerwyn]

According to David Weber, the second Stephanie Harrington book should be out next year, this time co-authored with Jane Lindskold. With Weber busy with the movie, Honorverse, Safehold and likely other things, I'm not too surprised by that. Hopefully it'll help even out what could have been a very unbalanced series.

[Pvt]

No of course; it's just that Mr. Daniel was very disappointed by the failure to have the trilogy ending published - I remember being shocked at his post about that since it was in the beginning of author' sites and the like, now this stuff - ie authors mentioning how they were dropped, how their last book was not published, etc (see Acacia 3 in the UK as latest such) is much more common.

I was very excited when i saw his ss appearing in various anthologies (I have reviewed at least 2 recent ones in the context of their anthologies - the Cathedral one and the weird garden one)...
btw he is now an editor at Baen since June

I also did a post a year or so ago on FBC about 4 dropped series I really loved and in the meantime Sea Beggars is going to be finished while DK Moran finally released more in his Continuing Time - though that is still far away from the stated ambitions - and I really do not think that the Metropolitan one by WJ Williams has a chance to be continued, but this last one by Tony Daniel just may be finished if Guardian does well since Baen occasionally continues series started somewhere else despite the economical disadvantages - in most series usually the first volume sells most; also the current e-indie scene offers opportunities for continuing dropped series as other authors including most recently Tobias Buckell for example are doing

Another author like that - though he finished his final trilogy but it seemed to have bombed badly - is Sean Russell whose fantasies I used to love a lot in the 90's; he now writes historical naval fiction as S. Thomas Russell but I hope he will return to sff at some point...

I've heard of the book and it's a good thing I never bothered to read it if there isn't even going to be a conclusion.

[suciul]

According to David Weber, the second Stephanie Harrington book should be out next year, this time co-authored with Jane Lindskold. With Weber busy with the movie, Honorverse, Safehold and likely other things, I'm not too surprised by that. Hopefully it'll help even out what could have been a very unbalanced series.

I think that was the plan from the get go for the YA series, to be written by Jane Lindskold on the DW outline and editing; personally I think the series will not survive too much unless it is a mega bestseller as DW is way too busy with HH and Safehold, not to speak that he is trying to revive the Bazhell series (War Maid's Choice is tbp July 2012) which is a personal favorite of his but did not sell that well so he put it aside for a long time...

[Loerwyn]

I think that was the plan from the get go for the YA series, to be written by Jane Lindskold on the DW outline and editing; personally I think the series will not survive too much unless it is a mega bestseller as DW is way too busy with HH and Safehold, not to speak that he is trying to revive the Bazhell series (War Maid's Choice is tbp July 2012) which is a personal favorite of his but did not sell that well so he put it aside for a long time...

I don't think it has to survive long. I think four books would be long enough. I mean Steph was, what, fourteen at the end? Sixteen? I forget. I can see her becoming a young adult and then what after that? Job interviews with a treecat on her shoulder?

[suciul]

I don't think it has to survive long. I think four books would be long enough. I mean Steph was, what, fourteen at the end? Sixteen? I forget. I can see her becoming a young adult and then what after that? Job interviews with a treecat on her shoulder?

Speaking of Stephanie, there is a very nice reference (which may get expanded in future volumes) to her in A Rising Thunder as the treecats have Memory Singers which literally remember in images and Honor was a little wistful about the eventual possibility to experience first hand scenes from her ancestress' life

[Loerwyn]

Speaking of Stephanie, there is a very nice reference (which may get expanded in future volumes) to her in A Rising Thunder as the treecats have Memory Singers which literally remember in images and Honor was a little wistful about the eventual possibility to experience first hand scenes from her ancestress' life

Oh, cool

To be honest - and apologies for the sidetrack - but I don't think I'll get much further in Honorverse. I peeked ahead at some things, and I think my expression was "what... the...", so I doubt I'll continue too much as it seemed a bit daft.

[suciul]

Oh, cool

To be honest - and apologies for the sidetrack - but I don't think I'll get much further in Honorverse. I peeked ahead at some things, and I think my expression was "what... the...", so I doubt I'll continue too much as it seemed a bit daft.

Fair enough though i think it all depends on what you look for; personally I tend to leave series that focus on a character for too long (which for example are common in UF and Mystery) and the decision of DW to transform the Honorverse from essentially "a one woman and sidekicks", to a fully fledged space opera with tons of important characters, lots of theaters of action and a great three levels (so far though i expect that is all) storyline culminating in the

ultimate fight for the fate of the Galaxy and life as we know it against the EGO-to-be (evil galactic overlord) and his supermen and superwomen bent on transforming humanity in super-humanity whatever the lesser normals want and of course "discarding" the billions or possible trillions unfit in the process - here it is just an unbelievable scene when one of the EGO's main operatives has just literally pushed the trigger on the spark that will start the process and she offers us her musings about what she just did as she finally found out herself recently, and ironically as she herself notes, listening to a Manticoran composer

made it just the best sf around there is...

Yes there is some clunky writing, too many info dumps and a (thankfully played down as time goes by and the logical stuff - Grayson and their peculiar mores saving the day - anyone could see for a mile happens) silly romance, but the detail, the hundreds of characters and their fate on the huge canvas that DW gets to use is just awesome...

And as A Rising Thunder was the first fully "into the unknown" (for longtime fans i mean) book, I will find it hard to have a sf to top it in 2012...