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Sleeps With Monsters: Books I’m Looking Forward To In 2017 (That I Have Heard Of So Far And Remember)

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Books Sleeps With Monsters

Sleeps With Monsters: Books I’m Looking Forward To In 2017 (That I Have Heard Of So Far And Remember)

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Published on December 27, 2016

Art by Victor Mosquera
Art by Victor Mosquera

Right now, with 2017 looking like a bit like an oncoming train, I’m holding on to the hope that art will at least save my sanity while the news continues to provide new updates on the fresh horrors humans inflict on each other. (Art and activism.) Fortunately, the world has seen fit to provide a healthy line-up of literature to look forward to in 2017.

Here are some of the highlights I’ve seen so far.

When I saw that tweet, my heart leapt. Then I saw that Barbary Station by R.E. Stearns is set to be published by Saga in December 2017, and I immediately fell into great despond. The blurb makes it sound just my thing.

A sequel to Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit is to come from Solaris in June 2017. It is called Raven Stratagem. I have no idea what it is about, apart from sequel, but the saying is “Shut up and take my money already,” I believe. (I REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT OKAY?)

Ellen Klages’ Passing Strange. This one is a January release from Tor.com Publishing, and look at it, doesn’t it look lovely? Love and danger, science, art and magic, outcasts from conventional society, it sounds fun.

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April Daniels’ Dreadnought. Out January from Diversion Publishing: a superhero story with a trans girl protagonist and the prospect of human extinction. I am looking forward to this book: I really want it to live up to my hopes.

In February, debut author Laura Elena Donnelly’s Amberlough comes out from Tor Books. It looks like a spy thriller with plenty of twists and turns, betrayals and personal stakes. Fun times!

In March, Angry Robot is publishing A Tyranny of Queens, the sequel to what’s just about my favourite book from last year, Foz Meadows’ An Accident of Stars. Foz is a friend, so I’ve had a wee sneak peak at some of this novel—and damn, people, damn. I am looking forward to this.

I don’t think the on-sale date for Elizabeth Bear’s The Stone in the Skull (Tor) has been finalised yet, but it’s supposed to happen in 2017 too. The Stone in the Skull is the first book in a new series, The Lotus Kingdoms, set in the same universe as the Eternal Sky trilogy. Epic fantasy in a fantastic setting—and knowing Bear, some fantastic characters.

Ruthanna Emrys’ Winter Tide comes to us in April from Tor.com Publishing. Emrys’ “The Litany of Earth” is gorgeous Lovecraftiana. This novel looks set to live up to the promise of her shorter work, and I’m really looking forward to reading it. From the blurb: “Aphra must return to the ruins of her home, gather scraps of her stolen history, and assemble a new family to face the darkness of human nature.”

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Also in April, Marie Brennan’s Within the Sanctuary of Wings (Tor) should be the fifth and final volume in her Memoirs of Lady Trent series. To date, this series has been a complete delight for me, so I’m looking forward to this one with equal parts anticipation and dismay. The end! Why must good things come to an end?

You may or may not be familiar with Serial Box, the outfit who seem to be turning serial literature—after the model of a TV show—into a profitable concern. In 2016, I really enjoyed Season 1 of the fantastic The Witch Who Came In From The Cold, a serial created by Lindsay Smith and Max Gladstone and set in Prague, 1970, at the height of the Cold War. The second season launches in February—and I expect it’ll live up to the high standards set by the first one.

Aliette de Bodard’s The House of Binding Thorns comes out (from Gollancz in the UK, Ace in the US) in April, set in the same decayed and decadent Paris as her The House of Shattered Wings. I thoroughly enjoyed Shattered Wings, and while I understand Binding Thorns isn’t exactly a direct sequel, I’m still really looking forward to seeing what it does.

Ada Palmer’s Seven Surrenders (Tor) is out in February. Too Like The Lightning was a hell of a ride. I really hope Seven Surrenders sticks the dismount—I’m looking forward to it with both high hopes and significant trepidation.

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I wish I could keep track of all the books I want to read. I wish I could keep track of all the books. (Impossible, alas.) I know summer should see new books by Django Wexler and Max Gladstone, Charles Stross and Kate Elliott, that in the autumn there should be a new Fran Wilde book, that K.B. Wagers might be rounding out her Indranan War trilogy and maybe there will be a new Ann Leckie book. New Cassandra Khaw novella! And did I hear that Nnedi Okorafor has a sequel to Binti coming? Why yes, I did!

What books are you looking forward to, friends? Tell me of them. Tell me of them all.

Liz Bourke is a cranky queer person who reads books. She holds a Ph.D in Classics from Trinity College, Dublin. Find her at her blog. Or her Twitter. She supports the work of the Irish Refugee Council and the Abortion Rights Campaign.

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Liz Bourke

Author

Liz Bourke is a cranky queer person who reads books. She holds a Ph.D in Classics from Trinity College, Dublin. Her first book, Sleeping With Monsters, a collection of reviews and criticism, was published in 2017 by Aqueduct Press. It was a finalist for the 2018 Locus Awards and was nominated for a 2018 Hugo Award in Best Related Work. She was a finalist for the inaugural 2020 Ignyte Critic Award, and has also been a finalist for the BSFA nonfiction award. She lives in Ireland with an insomniac toddler, her wife, and their two very put-upon cats.
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