Anticipated 2007 Releases

[Werthead]

I notice that excitement for Erikson seems to have tapered off since last year. Twelve months ago, quite a few people on multiple boards were talking with eager anticipation about The Bonehunters, yet very few have mentioned Reaper's Gale so far, given it is only four months away. Either many others found TBH, as I did, deeply disappointing or there are many other books overshadowing the new Erikson.

For me, of the confirmed releases for 2007, probably Red Sails Under Red Skies is the most promising book of the year, although the new Mieville (Un Lun Dun) should also be worth a look. I won't read the new Jones until it comes out in paperback, which will be summer 2008 at the earliest. Both Bakker and Martin are more-likely-than-not to come out in 2007 (although Bakker definitely won't be out until 2008 in the UK edition, which is already scheduled) which would put them at the head of the queue, despite my disappointment with both The Thousandfold Thought and, to a lesser extent, AFFC.

It is also possible that the recent splendid news about Robert Jordan's health (he has gone into partial remission) may lead to the acceleration of the writing of the final WoT book, though it is still unlikely to come out earlier than 2008 (the previous estimate from Tor was spring 2009).

Pratchett's next Discworld book should also be worth a look, as Making Money is the sequel to the excellent Going Postal featuring much of the same cast.

 

[Mithfânion]

Wert, what is it with you and Red Sails?

Mieville is an author I cannot get into ( tried both King Rat and Perdido) so I'll not be trying his young adult novel.

Erikson, I agree that the enthusiasm has tapered off somewhat on various boards. This may be due to The Bonehunters but overall that didn't get a worse reception than Midnight Tides. I think Reaper's Gale looks like the best one in quite a time though. Speaking for myself, reading Erikson is more and more becoming a chore. I still like the concepts, plots and ideas he works with, but I absolutely cannot get into those characters he writes, they just seem so off. His writing to me is still haphazard, but the main reason why Erikson has become something of a chore is the sheer heft of each and every one of these books. They simply don't merit the size. I seriously start to believe that the number of authors who can pull of multivolume series consisting of volumes of 700/800 pages on average are very, very rare. If you write one very big book, like Clarke did with Jonathan Strange for instance, than I can see why that would need to be so big ( and even there you have long stretches of bloat). But if you are going to tell ten 800-page books, well you need to have an awful amount of tremendously interesting things to say and I feel Erikson's books have way too much padding.

 

[Werthead]

I would agree with that. There are too many ancilliary storylines which don't justify their length. Of the six books published to date, I think only Memories of Ice warranted its size. The rest were overlong, House of Chains and The Bonehunters in particular.

Argh! Red Seas, not Sails. Damnit!

 

[Half-Hand]

Here are some you have missed:

JK Rowling - Book 7 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
2007 I hope

Christopher Paolini - Book 3
Should be out 2007
Great series so far but the movie, yikes! DO NOT SEE THE MOVIE!!!!!

John Flanagan - The Ranger's Apprentice, Book 3 - The Icebound Land
Already released in Austrailia but will be released in the US in 2007

Joseph Delaney - The Spook's Apprentice, the final book - The Spook's Battle
Also called The Wardstone Chronicles

Anthony Horowitz - Power of Five, Book 3 - Nightrise

 

[U-Borat]

Ah.... John Flanagan's Ranger's series.... Very fun YA fiction.

 

[FicusFan]

I just found on Amazon that Morgan Llywelyn has written a sequel to Druids called The Greener Shore: A Novel of the Druids of Hibernia . It is out in HC, but the paper version is due 6/07. Add that to my list.

 

[Beleg]

The biggest one is the seventh HP. aDwD would be a bonus. I am really looking forward to the J. V. Jones book as well. Lynch, Mieville and Kay definitely. Kearney's newest too. Maybe Keyes is also releasing something? I dunno if the fifth Kushiel is going to come up next year, but it's right up there as well. I still haven't read Bonehunters so RG is still far away. The 'Tolkien' one seems like a repackaging of the material found in HOME's, UT and Silmarillion. I'll wait for evidence of substantial new additions (where?) before getting my hopes up.

 

[Werthead]

According to Keyes, he doesn't have any other projects on the horizon to distract him like with the previous Thorne and Bone books, so it does look likely that The Born Queen will be out in late 2007. He did say it could slip into early 2008, however.

 

[Hobbit]

Just a slight update, based on an earlier comment round here somewhere: I've just been told by someone at UK SF Book News Network that Jon Courtenay Grimwood will be writing (presumably has been writing?) some new Ashraf Bey books to be published in the UK in 2007.

LINK to NEW ARTICLE HERE.

Should make some on the Forums happy.

Hobbit

 

[Shadowguard]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Eldest by Christopher Paolini
Shadowplay by Tad Williams
The English translation of Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko. Though I must say I wish this series had a better English-language translator.

 

[FicusFan]

Thanks Hobbit for the news about Grimwood, and for the link to the cool site for UK book news. I also found Sarah Ash has some new books coming out.

In the UK I am waiting for:

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, into mmpb
Translated from German, mystery where sheep are the detectives, trying to solve the murder of their shepherd. recommended by Nimea.

Polity Agent by Neal Asher, into mmpb

Zima Blue and Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds, into mmpb

Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds, into mmpb

End of the World Blues by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, into mmpb

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde, into mmpb

 

[DrBloodmoney1]

Just a slight update, based on an earlier comment round here somewhere: I've just been told by someone at UK SF Book News Network that Jon Courtenay Grimwood will be writing (presumably has been writing?) some new Ashraf Bey books to be published in the UK in 2007.

LINK to NEW ARTICLE HERE.

Should make some on the Forums happy.

Hobbit

Hot Damn! 3 more books! Thanks, Hobbit. Best news I've had all week.

 

[Julian]

I don't believe anyone here - not even JohnH - has yet mentioned:

John Crowley - Endless Things

- which is the fourth novel in his "Aegypt" series. It should be published in April.

For me, this might well be the biggest release this year - and, yes, I agree with those who expect 2007 to be truly fantastic.

 

[redhead]

count me among the army of people who will be waiting outside B&N the day China Mieville's Un Lun Dun comes out.

i'm also awaiting for Gary Wassner's 4th GemQuest book, and hoping i can beg an ARC out of him.

one of my new favorite prophets of scifi, Charles Stross has a few babies due out in the next 12-18 months, including Halting State, where a MMORPG gaming company gets robbed/hacked/head designer kidnapped, and investigators find the robbers are a gang of Orcs who have smuggled the money/data/head designer into the gaming universe. looks like it could be one huge satire of WoW, and a fun Stross flip your brain inside out dealio as well.

if something new by William Gibson hits the shelves this year, i'll be in cyberpunk heaven all over again.

 

[Erfael]

I don't believe anyone here - not even JohnH - has yet mentioned:

John Crowley - Endless Things

- which is the fourth novel in his "Aegypt" series. It should be published in April.

For me, this might well be the biggest release this year - and, yes, I agree with those who expect 2007 to be truly fantastic.

I'm not excited. I've been holding off reading the first three until this got closer. Guess I'll have to start in on them soon now. So is this the final book or not?

Edit: Just answered my own question. It is the final volume. I can begin reading now. I have all three other books waiting on the shelf. Need to be careful with them. They sell for quite a lot.

 

[Mithfânion]

A little tidbit about Gene Wolfe's Pirate Freedom from the man himself:

Wolfe said that the ideal of freedom has been running through his work lately, and "Memorare" is just one manifestation of it. "March's hopper [spacecraft] is a 21st-century version of Chris' pirate ship in Pirate Freedom [to be published in September]," he said. "Chris is the son of a mafioso in Cuba. He slips backward in time to the great age of [western] piracy, lives for about two years as a sailor, a buccaneer and a pirate, then slides forward in time to the time of his own birth."

 

[Julian]

I'm not excited. I've been holding off reading the first three until this got closer. Guess I'll have to start in on them soon now. So is this the final book or not?

Edit: Just answered my own question. It is the final volume. I can begin reading now. I have all three other books waiting on the shelf. Need to be careful with them. They sell for quite a lot.

Belated post - but, yes, they do sell for a lot. In fact, the only copy I've got of "Aegypt" - the first of the series - is non-physical: it's an eBook which I can only read on my PC and my cell phone. I actually chose a cell phone specifically 'cause it could handle this, which probably says enough .

If you've not started on this series yet, just read the first few pages of Aegypt. You'll probably find this either awkward and pretentious, or you'll be utterly hooked. I was hooked - this is, word for word, the best writing I have yet to come across in modern fantasy. Most people, admttedly, won't feel anything like that - they'll just think it strange and difficult and wonder when the action is going to start.

For those who love language though, the action starts at the very first word.

 

[Shehzad]

Anybody know when we might expect Matthew Woodring Stover's next Caine book? I heard book 3 was supposed to be entitled Caine Black Knife, but haven't seen anything since.

As posted on MWS' blog, Caine Black Knife has been delivered to his editor, and entered the editorial process. Things look good for a 2007 release.

 

[Erfael]

Belated post - but, yes, they do sell for a lot. In fact, the only copy I've got of "Aegypt" - the first of the series - is non-physical: it's an eBook which I can only read on my PC and my cell phone. I actually chose a cell phone specifically 'cause it could handle this, which probably says enough .

If you've not started on this series yet, just read the first few pages of Aegypt. You'll probably find this either awkward and pretentious, or you'll be utterly hooked. I was hooked - this is, word for word, the best writing I have yet to come across in modern fantasy. Most people, admttedly, won't feel anything like that - they'll just think it strange and difficult and wonder when the action is going to start.

For those who love language though, the action starts at the very first word.

I can't imagine why I said "I'm not excited" at the beginning of my last post. It was a few weeks back, but it's now a complete mystery to me. It should have read something more like "I'm very excited." I've since read Aegypt (picked up at a secondhand store in good condition for $4). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I knew I would (have liked all the Crowley I've read). I'll start Love & Sleep fairly soon. Aegypt was excellent, but on the dense side.

 

[Hobbit]

Am hearing a lot about The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, due March from DAW (and September in the UK). Tad Williams seems to like it; as does Terry Brooks and Publisher's Weekly.

But look at these two covers:

YUK!

and not so bad, but a little offputting:

(Guess which one I bought!)

Hope the UK covers better...


Hobbit