As 2012's publishing schedule starts becoming clearer, I plan to talk about what books I am looking forward to for the next year. Since I like variation, this time I will do it in several posts for Jan-March, April-July, the rest of 2012 including presumed but unsure titles.

For the full schedule as known to us at a given time, you can visit the Upcoming Releases page. As usually schedules change unexpectedly, wrong dates spread fast online, so while we try to be as accurate as possible, let us know of any mistakes.

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My top five anticipated releases for January-March 2012 are:

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

As the Honorverse is still my number one ongoing sff series, my first choice is obvious.

Heir of Novron's second part - Percepliquis - is the highly-awaited conclusion to the superb Ryria Revelations series of Michael Sullivan of which I have read and reviewed the first five individual volumes so far. As is well known, Orbit acquired the series and will start releasing it in November 2011 as three monthly omnibuses, each consisting of two of the original books with some edits and additions - Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire and Heir of Novron which will have the first ever release of the sixth book in addition to the re-release of Wintertide.

Next on my list is The Daemon Prism with the continuing adventures and intrigues in Carol Berg's excellent Collegia Magica series of which I reviewed both earlier books.

And to round up the top five I have two hard sf/space opera novels, the new Alastair Reynolds novel - as I keep mentioning today's hard sf has two names at the top, namely AR and Greg Egan, so any new offering by either is immediately a high priority - while the new Paul McAuley book which is a loose sequel of his superb The Quiet War/Gardens of the Sun duology is another must.

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The second category has five novels which are more of the "really intriguing" kind than knowing what to expect and they are listed in chronological order from our UR page.

“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).

After the inventive The Bookman was continued by the even more inventive Camera Obscura, I am curious to see if Lavie Tidhar can continue being on a roll.

Never really a fan of celebrated author KS. Robinson whose famed Mars trilogy kind of bored me badly after a book and a half, I am curious to see if his move to Orbit with their style of books that made them my #1 sff publisher of today - see my choices above to note why and more will come for the April-July period - and the very appetizing blurb of 2312 will change my opinion.

Ever since we posted Saladin Ahmed's award nominated story Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela, I have been looking forward to read more of the author's fiction and his debut novel definitely qualifies as a highly awaited 2012 book!

For many years, I have been a huge fan of Tony Daniel's stories and his sadly so far unfinished trilogy that had the potential to be a classic of the genre, so his back to publishing novels is an event and I have quite high expectations of his first Baen offering.

Despite my misgivings about The Fallen Blade, I still consider JC Grimwood one of the best sff writers out there and I hope that the second offering of his series will cohere better and will finally deliver the high quality novel I have got used to in his first 10 books.