I'm over a week late on the 2009 lists, but I've been pre-ordering some books on Amazon, which got me to thinking about novels coming out in 2009. Some of these don't have concrete dates, but these are my "must buy the day they come out" books of 2009. 1) The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (June 16). This a prequel to 2005's Shadow of the Wind, which is my favorite novel of the past 5 years. It was a dark, haunting tale set in Barcelona in the 40's. This next book apparently takes place in Barcelona 30 years or so before The Shadow of the Wind and will feature some of the same characters or their ancestors as well as locales used in the first book. The author writes in Spanish, so the book has been out for a while in Spain. I wish they'd translate the rest of his stuff soon. If you haven't read Shadow of the Wind, go buy it. 2) Mister Slaughter (TBA 2009) by Robert McCammon. This is the third book in the Matthew Corbett series, which follows the evolution of an American Sherlock Holmes, although much grittier than anything by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first novel was set in the Carolinas in 1697, the next in New York a few years later, and the third will be set in London. The first two books were beautifully written and painted a lush picture of the historical settings, and I've enjoyed the development of Mr. Corbett into an investigator of all matters. This is another series I'd highly recommend that probably doesn't get enough press. 3) The Wise Man's Fear (April 7) by Patrick Rothfuss. 2008 was the year I finally picked up some fantasy again after many years of avoiding it. I'm happy to see some new voices write gripping, character-driven, complex work in the genre instead of the drek they churned out for years. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss was one of the best novels I read last year, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the second book in the trilogy. It follows the story of a man named Kvothe from his early days as a gypsy child through homeless days as a child begger to a lively career as musician and academic to what is hinted as a pretty heroic adulthood. He's currently working as an innkeeper, where a scribe has tracked him down. Kvothe has sworn to tell his life story in three days (1 for each novel in the trilogy), and there clearly are a number of intriguing plot threads in the current day. I'm eagerly awaiting to see how Rothfuss ties it all together. 4) The Rupublic of Thieves (Feb 24) by Patrick Rothfuss. Scott Lynch is working on a seven book series called "The Gentleman Bastards". It's basically the story of a thief named Locke Lamora and his best friend Jean, as they embark on a set of Ocean's Eleven type heists in a fantasy world. They are kind of dark, but utterly gripping. I enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora a lot and the sequel Red Seas under Red Skies not quite as much, although I think the second book set up a number of things in the series. The plot of the third book looks very interesting and hits upon aspects of Locke's past that were hinted at in the first few books. The release date keeps getting pushed back, but I'm optimistic that it'll come out sometime in 2009. 5) Last Watch (TBA 2009) by Sergei Lukyanenko. Russian schlock, but a ton of fun. This is the fourth book of the Night Watch series. The first three were fun reads, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the series ends. I'm curious what everyone is anxious to read in 2009. I know there are definitely other authors I've enjoyed reading in the past with new works coming out, but none are on my radar like the 5 listed above.
Hands down the most anticipated novel of next year...and if it comes out it will rock the NYT Bestseller list for a long time: Dance With Dragons by George RR Martin.
Thought that was the most anticipated book 2008, and maybe 2007. Maybe Martin will make it the most anticipated book of 2010 as well.
I'm intrigued by this series, but I'm waiting for the whole thing to be complete before I sit down to read it. I already find myself in the middle of too many series. I got burned by Robert Jordan on that front and have been reluctant to wade into epic series while they're still being written. I'm also waiting on the Erickson series to be completed. I see that Dance with Dragons got pushed back to October 27, 2009. Hopefully Martin will get it out this year and finish the series soon.
Memory of Light. Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson. Far more anticipated than the Martin one. EDIT: Although, to be fair - it appears it may be broken into two now, as he is estimating 700,000+ words.
what about that dan brown (da vinci code, angels & demons) book about the freemasons? is that scheduled to be out this year?
I don't think they've announced a release date for The Solomon Key (freemason book set in DC). I'm kind of burned out on Dan Brown after blowing through all of his novels. I enjoyed the Langdon books enough in a pulp fiction kind of way, but I wasn't too impressed with Digital Fortress or Deception Point. I'll probably pick The Solomon Key used eventually.
i'm honored to post in a thread where the shadow of the wind is being discussed as the number 1 book. Such a great novel! I'm assuming they will cover more of the civil war conflict in the prequel.
Well, Robert Jordan died from an very rare disease. He made it his purpose to finish the outline of the last book before he passed away and they have hired another author to finish it (Brandon Sanderson). That is the "Memory of Light" that is due out this year. The one main issue I have is how, after rambling for the last 4-5 books, are they going to bring it all together for a good conclusion in one book. I'm extremely interested in seeing if it can be pulled off, despite the fact almost losing interest in the last couple of books (although the last one was actually pretty good compared to he previous couple). I also second Dance of Dragons. George Martin has been dragging on that one. It was initially supposed to be the second part of Feast for Crows but it got so long he split it up. It was supposed to take only part of a year to close out Dance since a lot of work had already been done, but its dragged out for almost 18 months now. I think, especially if you read his website, he gets caught up in all his other works and loses focus on his "money-maker" which is the ice and fire series. His other stuff is decent, but 99% of his fans exist because of ice and fire and I'm not sure he realizes that. With that being said, I am hyped that HBO optioned his work and are working on a supposedly very expensive pilot with a similar budget to the Rome series (which was large). To all avid readers out there, even if you aren't a "fantasy" fan, I still highly recommend the Ice and Fire series. While it has some aspect of "fantasy" and a little bit of magic, it is much larger than that. The war, politics, back stabbing (both literal and figurative), and settings are extremely thought out. Its one of the few series I read and honestly can say that many of the political moves and surprises are, well, actually surprising, and not so cliche that I see it coming before it actually happens. And its not contrived either, because if you re-read it makes sense! I've loaned my copy of A Game of Thrones to about a dozen people and all but 1 of them ended up reading the rest of the series.
At the rate he's running the books out the still-in-discussion HBO series will catch up to him before he finishes the series.
I see that we have similar (nerdy) taste in books. I ALSO enjoy the Erickson books, that series is great. FYI, the books come out in Canada and UK before the US, so if you HAVE to have the new books as fast as possible, you can pay a little in shipping and get them sooner.
From Wikipedia I'm glad to see someone else who loved that book. I've loaned it out to a few people who have all loved it. Apparently Zafon plans on writing 4 books in this overall story, and I can't wait to see what he does. It looks like The Angel's Game will be covering the period under Miguel Primo de Rivera and maybe the civil war. I can't wait to read this book! I'm curious have you read any of his other works. My Spanish is so-so, and there's no way I can read them without translation.
