The other day I mentioned a couple of books I'm looking foward to in 2006; several of you chimed in with your own anticipatory recommendations. Herewith, a chronicle of them:
Dave Schwartz - Brings it right off the bat with Jeff Ford's The Empire of Ice Cream and Doug Lain's Last Week's Apocalypse (both story collections).
Justin Steiner - Seconds The Empire of Ice Cream and raises Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union (unfortunately, now not due until 2007 - Chabon discusses the delay here) and Colson Whitehead's Apex Hides the Hurt.
Chris McLaren - Jumps in and thirds the Ford then adds Justina Robson's Living Next Door to the God of Love, Mary Gentle's Ilario: The Lion's Eye and Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters 3: Blue Noon (the awesomeness of which I can personally vouch for).
Niall Harrison - Enters stage left and says he's not thinking about 2006 books yet, but can vouch for the Robson and that he's looking forward to Ian Macleod's Past Magic (collection) from PS Publishing.
Marrije - Throws a vote to the new Chabon (sadly no longer on the ballot) and adds Caitlin Kiernan's Daughter of Hounds (no release date yet, that I could find; which may mean it's due in 2007) and Justine Larbalestier's Magic Lessons (another one I can personally vouch for -- it's AMAZING). (She also throws in a vote for the third book in the Magic or Madness Trilogy: Magic Magic Magic Oi Oi Oi, but that one is another 2007 book to look forward to.)
John Klima - Boldly puts his titles in a different thread, but the judge is accepting them anyway. He throws in some new blood with Barth Anderson's The Patron Saint of Plagues, Jeff VanderMeer's Shriek: An Afterword and Hal Duncan's Vellum. He also mentions that a bunch of books he was excited about came out this year: Jeff Ford's The Girl in the Glass, Alex Irvine's The Narrows, Tim Pratt's The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Jay Caselberg's The Star Tablet.
My own most highly anticipated titles, which kicked all this off, are Geoff Ryman's The King's Last Song and Alan DeNiro's Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead. And, coincidentally, I'm also excited about everything listed above. A few additions: Kevin Brockmeier's A Brief History of the Dead, Cecil Castellucci's The Queen of Cool (I want you to have read it so we can talk about it), Sharyn November's new anthology Firebirds Rising, Paul Park's The Tourmaline (due the day before my birthday), and it looks like Margo Lanagan's previous collection White Time will be released in the U.S. this summer. And a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting or don't even know about yet.
If anybody else wants to throw some shoulder, I'll keep updating this post for a week or so.
