[2012] What are you reading?

New year, new reading thread. Please try to keep it spoiler free.

You can find the past three years here:

2011 What are you reading?
2010 What are you reading?
2009 What are you reading?

Hopefully it’ll be another good reading year. I have some (too many) novels in hand that I look forward to reading, and I look forward to discovering new authors from recommendations here or reading blogs and via suggestions on Amazon. The biggest reading change for me in 2011 was using a Kindle. I probably read 40 books on it, and I plan on buying the vast majority of future books for an e-reader.

We’ve had some good discussions over the past 3 years about books we’ve read, occasionally veering off into more general book discussion as well. I thought this year we might have a question of the month to facilitate some other book talk than what you’re currently reading.

The January question of the month is timely if not predictable. What novels are you most looking forward to in 2012?

I’ve got four novels that I plan to buy the day they are released. These will be purchased in physical form because I want these gems on my bookshelves.

1) Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak (2012) – The details on this book are sketchy, but when the author of my second favorite book of all time releases something new I get excited. Zusak’s work has matured so much in his last few novels, and The Book Thief was a pinnacle in storytelling with such rich scenes and characters.

All Zusak has said so far is “I'm writing a book called Bridge of Clay - about a boy building a bridge and wanting it to be perfect. He wants to achieve greatness with this bridge, and the question is whether it will survive when the river floods. That's all I can say about it for now - not out of secrecy, but you just don't know what direction a book is going to take, no matter how well you've planned.”

I hope this comes out in 2012. It’s what his publisher seems to think. That’s enough to make it my most anticipated novel of the year.

2) The Providence Rider by Robert McCammon (May 31) – McCammon returns to the Matthew Corbett series with the fourth novel of his gritty colonial American Sherlock Holmes. I love this series. McCammon’s writing style is florid and tense, moving the story along but painting the picture vividly at the same time. Matthew Corbett has grown quite a bit in the three novels, and it sounds like we’re hitting the second act of this 10 book series.

From his publisher:

Spoiler

The Providence Rider is the fourth standalone installment in the extraordinary series of historical thrillers featuring Matthew Corbett, professional problem solver. The narrative begins in the winter of 1703, with Matthew still haunted by his lethal encounter with notorious mass murderer Tyranthus Slaughter. When an unexplained series of explosions rocks his Manhattan neighborhood, Matthew finds himself forced to confront a new and unexpected problem. Someone is trying-and trying very hard-to get his attention. That someone is a shadowy figure from out of Matthew’s past: the elusive Professor Fell. The professor, it turns out, has a problem of his own, one that requires the exclusive services of Matthew Corbett.

The ensuing narrative moves swiftly and gracefully from the emerging metropolis of New York City to Pendulum Island in the remote Bermudas. In the course of his journey, Matthew encounters a truly Dickensian assortment of memorable, often grotesque, antagonists. These include Sirki, the giant, deceptively soft-spoken East Indian killer, Dr. Jonathan Gentry, an expert in exotic potions with a substance abuse problem of his own, the beautiful but murderous Aria Chillany, and, of course, the master manipulator and “Emperor of Crime” on two continents, Professor Fell himself. The result is both an exquisitely constructed novel of suspense and a meticulous recreation of a bygone era.

Sounds like a rollicking fun time. Boo to his publisher for burying an independent Matthew Corbett novella in the $150 limited edition of this novel. I look forward to buying it in two years when their stranglehold on its rights expire.

3) A Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (2012) – It’s not officially coming out this year, but the possibility places it in the top 3 and nearly at the top. I continue to be impressed by Abercrombie. He followed up his entertaining trilogy with a fantasy thriller revenge story then a fantasy war story. I was convinced that last wouldn’t work, but The Heroes was no ordinary war novel. It was packed with Abercrombie’s usual stock of gallows humor, deeply flawed characters, visceral fights, and personal interaction between characters.

Here’s what he has to say about his latest work:

Spoiler

So I’ve finished the first draft of the second part of my latest masterwork, workingly titled, ‘A Red Country,’ or possibly just, ‘Red Country,’ we will see on that score. For those who have failed to follow this blog religiously for the past few months (shame on you faithless scum), it is another semi-standalone set in the world of The First Law, and fusing fantasy elements with western elements, in the same way that The Heroes was a fantasy/war story and Best Served Cold fantasy/thriller-ish. That puts me about 40% of the way through a first draft, though I suspect there’ll be a fair bit of work to do once the first draft is complete. Isn’t there always? Now the terrifying wait for feedback from my editor and readers while I try and sort out what exactly I’m going to do with my next part. I guess one could say that if Part I was a little bit Searchers then Part II rolled into Lonesome Dove territory and Part III has something of a Deadwood/Fistful of Dollars motif.
I feel a fair bit more comfortable with this second part than I did with the first, as you’d expect or at least hope. One generally aims to get a better and better handle on the plot, settings and characters as one goes through a draft, until by the time you’re finishing your first draft you know pretty much exactly what you’re aiming at, and editing becomes largely a case of bringing earlier parts into line with that final one.
I’ve made quite a significant change to the personality of one of my two central characters – or perhaps not a change but a clarification, a shift of emphasis and a refinement of style – and he seems to be working quite a bit better now. In essence, I’ve made him a bit more of a **** than he was before, which tends to be a fruitful direction for me to go in with characters on the whole. Who knew?
It’s taken me a little longer to get this part together than I’d hoped, what with one thing and another, but if I can up the pace a little from here on in we should still be looking at delivery early next year and publication somewhere around late summer early autumn 2012. Such is the hope. But you know what they say about hopes.
Don’t make a parachute out of ’em

And my own personal wish for this novel:

Spoiler

Bring back the Bloody Nine! It’s going to happen in this book or in his upcoming trilogy. How do you top the Bloody Nine vs The Feared throwdown? Have The Bloody Nine take down Bayez!

4) The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch (2012) – Déjà vu here. This book is moving into Martin and Rothfuss territory with a release date that’s been pushed back over two years. To be fair, Lynch lost his mom, got divorced, and went into a very nasty depression. It sounds like he’s put himself back together with therapy and medication, but editing a novel with that other stuff going on can’t be easy. I really hope this novel sees light of day in 2012. I’ve read about 60 pages that Lynch has released on his website, and it hearkens back to the cheeky fun of the first novel instead of the ponderous second one. I can’t wait to see the continuing adventures of Locke and Jean, especially when they cross paths with Sabetha.

That’s all I have. Of course, if Guy Gavriel Kay releases a new novel I’ll be there on release day to scoop that bad boy up.

And now back to A Game of Thrones. I’ve been swearing off Martin for years, but I realize now that I read this book back when it first came out. I remember very little of it, but I’m getting to certain parts and vaguely having an idea where it’s going. I do recall not caring for parts of it back then and getting slammed by Tad Williams on his message board for voicing my dislikes back at the time. Whether it’s that my reading tastes have matured or I’m just more receptive to it now, I’m enjoying the book quite a bit this time around and am looking forward to being able to read the first five straight through.

 

I'll have to check out Ken Bruen. I also spent some of my birthday and Christmas money to buy some David Liss novels, which I am looking forward to reading at some point this year. My collection of unread books shrunk in 2011, but it's still too damn big.

Reading Martin straight through on the Kindle has been awesome. No lost bookmarks (which my kids excel at stealing), no ponderous books to lug around.