Fantasy Book Critic: 12 Highly Awaited SFF Novels from July until December 2012 (by Liviu Suciu)

Here I am not including Sharps by KJ Parker (July) and Great North Road by Peter F Hamilton (September/December) as I have read both with Sharps taking the #1 overall spot for the year for now, while Great North Road a highly recommended 2012 novel but not a top 25 as about 700 of its 1100 pages are outstanding Peter Hamilton, but 400 are boring and superfluous and unfortunately the first 250 pages of the book are mostly of that second kind. Sadly no Cold Steel by Kate Elliott in 2012 as that one would have been here otherwise. Also I am not sure what the status of the upcoming Christopher Priest Adjacent is as it would have been a top 5 here for sure.

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1: “The Hydrogen Sonata” by Iain M. Banks. Release Date: October 9, 2012. Published by Orbit. (SF).

2: “Midst Toil and Tribulation” by David Weber. Release Date: September 18, 2012. Published by Tor. (SF).

3: “Jack Glass” by Adam Roberts. UK Release Date: July 26, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (SF).

4: “The Eternal Flame” by Greg Egan. Release Date: September 4, 2012. Published by Night Shade Books. (SF).

5: “The Blinding Knife” by Brent Weeks. Release Date: September 11, 2012. Published by Orbit. (FAN).

6: “The Air War” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. UK Release Date: August 2, 2012. Published by Tor UK. (FAN).

7: “The Rise of Ransom City” by Felix Gilman. Release Date: November 27, 2012. Published by Tor. (FAN).

8: “Luminous Chaos” by Jean-Christophe Valtat. Release Date: October 2, 2012. Published by Melville House. (Steampunk).

9: “A Red Country” by Joe Abercrombie. UK Release Date: October 18, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (FAN).

10: “Empty Space” by M. John Harrison. UK Release Date: July 19, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (SF).

11: “The Night of the Swarm” by Robert V.S. Redick. UK Release Date: August 16, 2012. Published by Gollancz. (FAN).

12: “The Fractal Prince” by Hannu Rajaniemi. Release Date: September 4, 2012. Published by Tor. (SF).

2:01 AM |

Posted by Liviu |

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8 comments:

shaneo52 said...: Lotsa good ones coming up, the Egan cover is killer. But I want the Chathrand book the most.
Thanks Liviu, you're the man, homeboy!; June 7, 2012 at 2:48 PM
Elfy said...: Red Country is the one I want most in my hot little hand. It's been well over a year since my last Abercrombie.; June 7, 2012 at 9:43 PM
Sebastian Clouth said...: Hi!

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Sclouth@beforeitsnews.com; June 8, 2012 at 12:57 AM
Unknown said...: I love the cover of Jack Glass!; June 8, 2012 at 12:41 PM
Matt said...: Sadly, Pyr is no longer publishing the Shadows of the Apt in the U.S..; June 8, 2012 at 1:35 PM
shaneo52 said...: Yeah those Adam Roberts books have that similar style every book, it is cool.; June 8, 2012 at 1:42 PM
Liviu said...: As covers go, I definitely like the Egan and Roberts ones a lot, but the IM Banks is cool too - the resolution is poor as I could not find better than 300x300 so far, but it is a very classic Banks fell like in his other Culture books.

Also the Gilman cover is interesting in its minimality and if the book itself mimics the Half Made World feel, it would be great as that one felt very special.

Even the Rajaniemi cover is cool as it shows the very fantasy feel of the book (if it's like the first one I expect to read much more as fantasy than sf as all the quantum stuff there read truly like quantum magic more than hard sf, while the boy with the destiny appeared too...)

Do not like the MJ Harrison cover - may look better on the book but as a jpg it looks silly rather than haunting

The rest are traditional stuff though I thought Aurorarama had a cooler cover, but Luminous Chaos takes place in Paris

As for Shadows of the Apt, hopefully Tor will work out something for US publication even if only as ebooks, as Gollancz tends to do with their books that are not picked by US publishers - eg Islanders just got a US edition recently from them; June 8, 2012 at 2:49 PM
shaneo52 said...: Yeah I dont know all the new artists as good as I used too. Yeah the Fractal Prince is nice artwork too. Hopefully all these books live up to their artwork. lol; June 8, 2012 at 2:56 PM