Most Anticipated Releases of 2016

It’s the time of year where we all gather around and share the books we’re most looking forward to, so here’s my contribution.

The ten books listed below are all things I’m terribly excited about, rather than things I have some small interest in. They’re also a representative sample only, as I’m sure I’ve forgotten at least one super important title. It's how I roll.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold - February 2nd

I’ve spent the last year and a bit listening to Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga in and around other audiobooks, and I should catch up within a month of this most recent installment’s publication. I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the later novels, so I’m super excited for this one--especially since it’s about Cordelia, who is awesome and who hasn’t had a protagonist’s role in quite some time.

(Unless she takes centre stage in CRYOBURN or CAPTAIN VORPATRIL'S ALLIANCE. I never more than skim jacket copy before I read a book, so I barely know what either of them is about, but I'm gonna guess CAPTAIN VORPATRIL is more focused on Ivan than anyone else.)

I think Miles is gonna be there too, but obviously Cordelia is more important. Sorry, Miles.

Skip Beat Vol. 36 by Yoshiki Nakamura - March 1st

SKIP BEAT is thirty-six volumes in and I still love it so much that I’m tempted to learn Japanese so I can read it as it comes out instead of waiting for the English translations. Alternately, I'd probably buy each chapter upon its release if Viz started simulpubbing it in English. And I don’t even buy SAGA (ie, the comic of my heart) in issues.

That speaks for itself, I think.

I’m also desperate for Vol. 37. It’ll be out in English on September 6th.

Half Lost by Sally Green - March 29th

Y’all know how much I love dark, difficult things filled with magic and bisexual love triangles, so you'll be unsurprised to hear I’m almost as excited for the final book of Sally Green’s Half Life Trilogy as I am for the final book of Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle.

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater - April 26th

OMG OMG OMG RAVEN CYCLE FINALE OMG.

I want it so, so much, but I’m also not sure if I’m ready. I mean, people are gonna die, and they might stay that way. Even worse, people might scatter to the wind and stop being friends.

In all truth and honesty, I think I’d rather some of them stayed dead than they voluntarily stopped being friends. I feel that strongly about this five-way fictional friendship.

I don’t know how I’m gonna deal with saying goodbye to them, y’all. I really don’t.

The Bourbon Thief by Tiffany Reisz - June 28th

Anything Reisz writes is automatically worthy of Most Anticipated status, but this one sounds fabulous from any angle. A sprawling and dangerous family saga with a million-dollar bottle of bourbon at its heart? HELL YEAH.

Saga Volume 6 by Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan - June or July, I’d guess?

As I write this, we’re two single issues into the sixth arc of the comic of my heart, so I’d guess the collected edition will be out around the middle of the year. Bring it on.

Necessity by Jo Walton - July 12th

My goodness, but 2016 is a big year for series conclusions. NECESSITY is the final book in the trilogy that began with THE JUST CITY, and I’m beyond excited to see where Walton takes things now the characters’ circumstances have changed so much.

Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb - July 14th

Oh look, another series conclusion I’m simultaneously desperate for and terrified to read. It sounds like this’s the absolute, definite last book about Fitz, who is one of my favourite literary characters, so I anticipate much wretched sobbing and therapeutic dog-cuddling on my part.

The Thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch - July 26th

This fourth book in the Gentlemen Bastards Sequence finally has both a release date and a cover, so dare we hope it’ll be available this year?

I dare. I dare so hard.

No worries if it’s not, though. I can be pretty durned patient with books, and Scott Lynch’s health is the most important thing here.

The Warboy by Karin Lowachee - maybe late 2016?

Sometimes I wish I kept tabs on favoured authors so I’d know more about their works in progress, but I feel weirdly creepy when I do stuff like that. (I know, I know. If they didn't want the info out there, they wouldn't put it out there. It's strange and irrational.) So I let news drift towards me on the winds of rumour, and the last I heard Lowachee was writing THE WARBOY in 2015. Maybe she finished it? Maybe she didn’t? Whenever it appears, you can bet I’ll chuck everything else aside so I can wallow in a massive series reread/catch-up.

And that's my top ten (minus whatever I forgot). What're your most anticipated releases of 2016?