After a few lazy days the time has come to start the new year. I would certainly like to win the lottery this year to assure myself of more reading time, but since this is not a very valid goal especially because I don’t buy many lottery tickets I will settle for other goals ;). For the start I’ll try to state a few reading and blogging goals for 2010.
It will be a busy year, at least it looks like this for now, with also the football (soccer) World Cup played this summer so I am not certain how much reading time I’ll have. But this year I will not set a specific goal in the number of books read, instead I’ll be happy to reach once again my average. But as specific goal I will certainly do my best to start Steven Erikson’s Malazan series from this January. Also this year I’ll try to read some of the older titles I didn’t read until now and to read a few books from two of my favorite settings, Forgotten Realms and Warhammer.
For the blogging goals, I would certainly bring back the fantasy art posts, or I hope to do so. I know that the end of 2009 lacked these posts, but I will do my best to bring them back in any rhythm possible. I also have in plan interviews with two of my favorite authors and I hope that these will turn out successfully, but it is no guarantee. Still, I will have new interviews with authors throughout the year. For some time I have a few ideas lingering in the back of my mind for a few new posts on my blog but for the moment they are only in the planning stage. Hopefully at least one will become reality and I can start posting it.
Here is a list of 10 of the most anticipated books for me published this year, in alphabetical order:
Peter V. Brett – “The Desert Spear”
Joe Hill – “Horns”
Guy Gavriel Kay – “Under Heaven”
Jasper Kent – “Thirteen Years Later”
George R.R. Martin – “A Dance with Dragons”
David Moody – “Dog Blood”
Mark Charan Newton – “City of Ruin”
K.J. Parker – “The Folding Knife”Brandon Sanderson – “The Way of Kings”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón – “The Prince of Mist”
May all of you have a marvelous 2010!
9 comments:
Horns was on my list of most anticipated reads. I like a look of some of the others you have listed too so will investigate those! Happy New Year! :)
Mihai, is this coincidence or predestination.
I posted last week that I will read all Malazan Empire books within 2010. One book per month and starting in January!!
Do you have any plans to review the books?
Maybe we can do something together.
Happy New Year! "Horns" sounds very interesting and I can't wait to put my hands on it ;)
Michael, I plan to review the Malazan books. I don't know if I will manage to read the published novels in the series until the end of the year, but I certainly hope so :)
Any hints about the plot of Jasper Kent's book?
Thanks
Here is a blurb I found on Fantastic Fiction:
In the summer of 1812, before the Oprichniki came to the help of Mother Russia in her fight against Napoleon, one of their number overheard a conversation between his master, Zmyeevich, and another. He learned of a feud, an unholy grievance between Zmyeevich and the rulers of Russia, the Romanovs, that began a century earlier at the time of Peter the Great. Indeed, while the Oprichniki's primary reason for journeying to Russia is to stop the French, one of them takes a different path. For he has a different agenda, he is to be the nightmare instrument of revenge on the Romanovs. But thanks to the valiant efforts of Captain Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, this maverick monster would not be able to begin to complete his task until thirteen years later. Now that time has come: it is 1825 and Russia once more stands on the brink of anarchy, and this time the threat comes from within...
I read Robert's review of Thirteen Years Later (tbp later on FBc) and he liked it better than Twelve - and note that Twelve was Robert's #1 book of 2009
I do not have yet, but hopefully will get the arc soon too
That's Robert Plot Summary:
"1825, Europe—and Russia—have been at peace for a decade. Bonaparte is long dead and the threat of invasion is no more. For Colonel Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, life is peaceful. Not only have the French been defeated, but so have the twelve monstrous creatures he once fought alongside, and then against, all those years before. His duty is still to his tsar, Aleksandr I, but today the enemy is merely human.
But the tsar knows that he can never be at peace. He is well aware of the uprising fermenting within his own army, but what troubles him is something far more terrible—something that threatens to bring damnation down upon him, his family and his country. Aleksandr cannot forget a promise: a promise sealed in blood . . . and broken a hundred years before.
Now the victim of the Romanovs’ betrayal has returned to demand what is his. The knowledge chills Aleksandr’s very soul. And for Aleksei, it seems the vile pestilence that once threatened all he held dear has returned, thirteen years later…"
I saw also the Horns review and Robert was more guarded on this one than on Heart Shaped Box
I read Desert Spear and it's all that you want - as good or better than TPM/TWM at its best
I read City Ruin (final draft) and currently reading its final unedited copy and is superb - a let it fly novel with all the sense of wonder you want, darker, grimmer than Villjamur and with flying ships too
Folding Knife is probably the most anticipated fantasy of mine at least for the first part of 2010 - btw for a KJ Parker lover you should try The Left Hand of God/Hoffman which so far is the best 2010 book I've read (in a very, very strong lineup) and which reminds one of the Scavenger trilogy a little bit
I's CR Zafon is a must, YA or not so that one is another asap one for me
You are too optimistic about ADWD I think and I doubt it will be 2010
Wow Liviu, you make burst with envy, you already read some of those titles? :D
"Twelve" was an excellent reading indeed and I am looking forward not only for "Thirteen Years Later", but also for the other novels Jasper Kent has in plan.
I am impressed so far with the Joe Hill's career, so I am really looking forward to "Horns".
I can wait a bit longer for "The Desert Spear" and "City of Ruin" although I would have liked to read them already too ;)
I really like K.J.Parker and I am looking forward not only for "The Folding Knife", but also for all of her works (or I think K.J. is a she). Same goes for Carlos Ruiz Zafon who became one of my favorite authors.
As for ADWD, I know. But I am an optimistic and I hope it will be released this year :D
Mihai, my friend, you are in for a real treat throughout 2010! You too, ediFanoB, as you both read the best fantasy series EVER! I even envy you as you begin The Malazan Book of the Fallen.
I plan on rereading the entire series as soon as I finish book 10 - the first time in 25 years I've reread anything. Be sure to read the novellas too - they're some of the most astute and hilariously entertaining 100 page reads you'll ever come across.
On another note, I am certainly looking forward to your words on Rage of the Behemoth, your current read :)
Jason, you made me even more curious about The Malazan series :) "Gardens of the Moon" is so close to my top of TBR pile.
But not before "Rage of the Behemoth" ;)
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