Thursday, January 8, 2015

2015's Most Wanted

I love me a bandwagon, so let's talk about a few of my most anticipated releases of 2015.

Some of these are probably wishful thinking, and I'm sure I've forgotten a few frightfully important titles, but I figured I might as well give y'all a snapshot of what I'm looking forward to reading as soon as ever I can.

None of the post-August releases have cover art yet, so I've used author photos to represent those books. All such images were pulled from the authors' websites, Wikipedia, publishers' websites, or Goodreads.

Cover art for Shadow Scale, featuring a woodcut of a bronze dragon in flight before a blue city.
Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman - March 10

This sequel to SERAPHINA was perhaps my most anticipated book of 2014--until it got bumped back a year. Still, the wait is nearly over! Hurray!

I'm so excited about the book that I'm tempted to actually ask for a review copy, but I'm also way too shy/anxiety-ridden to cold-email a PR rep. Since it never showed up on NetGalley (sadness), I guess it's the library for me.

Cover art for The Virgin, featuring a reclining woman's silk-draped posterior in shades of purple.
The Virgin by Tiffany Reisz - March 31

THE VIRGIN is the seventh Original Sinners novel overall and the third in the White Years prequel quartet. Y'all know how much I loved the previous book (THE KING), and if you've ever asked me for BDSM recs, I've surely pushed you to read the series as a whole. (Start with THE SIREN. You won't regret it.)

So, yeah. My excitement for this new offering is sky-high, especially since it sounds like it's half Nora's story, half Kingsley's. I love them both to death.

Cover art for The Philosopher Kings, featuring a roundel in which several Classical figures debate a point before a Grecian building.
The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton - June 30

I loved THE JUST CITY (more on that next Tuesday) and was thrilled to discover that not only is there a sequel, but it'll be out in less than six months, right before my birthday. I'm gonna go ahead and believe Tor planned it that way because they like me so much.

Cover art for Fool's Quest, featuring a pale-skinned man wielding an ax. Pale wings appear behind his shoulders
Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb - August 11

Damn, y'all. Given how FOOL'S ASSASSIN ended, you can bet I'll devour this one as quickly as ever I'm able.

In this case, I was so brazen as to tack on a little "please keep me in mind for the sequel!" note when I filed my review of the first book, so fingers crossed. Also, I really want to know what's going on with those wings on the cover.

Photo of Marissa Meyer, a pale-skinned woman with long brown hair, signing a copy of Cinder
Winter by Marissa Meyer - November 10

Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles have gotten better and better with each book, and they were pretty durned fun to begin with. I can't wait to see how the whole thing wraps up with WINTER.

A photo of Tiffany Reisz, a pale-skinned, dark-haired woman.
The Queen by Tiffany Reisz - late 2015

Look! It's the final Original Sinners book! While I'm terribly sad to see the series end, I trust Reisz to take us out with one hell of a bang.

A photo of Brian K. Vaughan, a pale-skinned bald man. A photo of Fiona Staples, a brown-haired woman of First Nations descent, seated at a signing table.
Saga, Volume Five by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples - late 2015

I'm guessing the fifth arc will wrap up in late fall or early winter, as we Northern Hemisphere types reckon it. A long wait, but there's basically no way it won't be worthwhile. This is the comic, my friends, and I'd follow it anywhere--but I'll tell you, the whole Unlikely Team-Ups hook at the end of Volume Four did an awful lot to pique my excitement, especially with all that Tragedy and Woe in the mix.

A photo of Scott Lynch, a pale-skinned man with shoulder-length light brown hair.
The Thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch - fall sometime, maybe

Now we're into wishful thinking territory. THE THORN OF EMBERLAIN, Scott Lynch's fourth Gentlemen Bastards book after THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES, doesn't yet have a release date or a cover, but rumor says it could be in readers' hands as early as this fall.

Then again, rumor said the same thing last year, so I shan't hold my breath. Regardless of when it comes out, I trust it'll be worth the wait.

A photo of Maggie Stiefvater, a pale-skinned woman with shoulder-length dark hair.
The Raven Cycle #4 by Maggie Stiefvater - fall sometime, maybe

Jenny says she knows in her heart that the fourth and final novel in the Raven Cycle won't be out until 2016, but I pray Jenny's heart is lying. (This, despite my strong suspicion that Jenny's heart arrived at this conclusion after doing serious and detailed research.) I'm desperately worried about these characters, y'all. I need them to be okay--or, barring that, I need to stay close by them so they're not alone at the end.

A black and white photo of Karin Lowachee, a woman of First Nations or Asian descent with shoulder-length dark hair.
The Warboy by Karin Lowachee - maybe this year, maybe not

Karin Lowachee plans to write the fourth book in her Warchild series this year, so I'd guess we won't actually see it until 2016 at the earliest, but it's officially my most anticipated book of whatever year it comes out. Like, it'll be a tie if Robin Hobb's also got a new book out (like she does this year!), and we'll have to make it a three-way if Katherine Addison/Sarah Monette also announces a new release, but otherwise Karin Lowachee's got the title all wrapped up with a bow.

What are you most looking forward to reading in 2015?

12 comments:

  1. I didn't realize the Raven Cycle was going to be four books long....I should get on reading those!

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    1. Yes, you should! The first three are amazing!

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  2. Three of those are in my top most anticipated as well (Shadow Scale, Winter, and the 4th Raven Cycle book).

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  3. Isn't FAIREST out before WINTER? Or is that a different series?

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    1. FAIREST is part of the same series, but I'm 98% sure it's a novella, not a full novel. I'll still read it, but I'm not super-duper excited about it like I am about WINTER.

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    2. hm. I pre-ordered it because I wasn't sure. I guess you are right. It hovers in the page length where it could be a short novel. Oh, well... I still want to have them all. :)

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    3. I just looked up the page count, and it turns out it's much longer than I thought it was! The audio is only 5 hours long, so I expected it to be no more than two hundred pages. Which, now that I think about it, was a silly assumption since I've listened to plenty of six- or seven-hour audiobooks that were around three hundred to three hundred and fifty pages.

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  4. Ahahahah, my heart didn't do serious research. It's just a guess. The manuscript isn't with the publisher yet, as far as I can tell from her tumblr, and it's got to be nine months between submission and publication, right? At least? Right? Unless Scholastic is madly efficient?

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    1. Browsing her Tumblr and estimating publishing timelines counts as serious research in my book. :) Then again, I get really weird about looking for even semi-detailed information on the books I want to read by the authors I love the most, partly because I don't want to learn Bad Things and partly because I feel like I'm invading their privacy or something. Which is silly, since it's the public internet and of course they want to make people aware of their work, but my brain occasionally reaches strange conclusions.

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  5. You have the best taste. Also, I'm itching for my copy of The Just City to arrive.

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    1. I think you're going to love it. THERE IS SO MUCH PHILOSOPHY, ANA.

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