You may have noticed that I’m reading the follow-up to David Weber’s Off Armageddon Reef, but that’s hardly the extent of the sheer number of great science fiction novels that are hitting the bookshelves right now.
John Scalzi’s new novel, Zoe’s Tale, is a continuation of the story in the Old Man’s War universe. It is available as of yesterday in most bookstores. As the title implies, the novel features the precocious daughter of the main characters, telling the events of the The Last Colony through her eyes. I wasn’t a terrific fan of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Shadow (which covered the events in Ender’s Game as told by Bean), so I’m hoping that this one showcases Scalzi channeling Heinlein’s writing karma. I’m expecting a story similar to Podkayne of Mars here.
S. M. Stirling’s Scourge of God is also in stores now. This is a continuation of his Emberverse series. The Sunrise Lands, the previous novel in the series, was one of my personal favorite novels of last year. I have every reason to expect that this one will live up to Stirling’s high standards. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Stirling is likely one of the most underrated science fiction authors of the modern age.
John Ringo’s new novel, The Last Centurion, is a post-apocalyptic novel written blog style. From my perusal in the local bookstore, I saw that Ringo has pulled no punches in his indictment of liberal progressivism, but the writing seemed a bit scattered and heavy-handed at first glance. Still, it’s John Ringo. How can you really go wrong?
Sly Mongoose, Tobias Buckell’s latest novel, fills me with some excitement. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was initially reluctant to read his fiction, but his great sense of adventure and plotting make his novels some of the best diversionary reading I’ve had in a long time. Toby is talking about the world he created for Sly Mongoose over on the Whatever right now. Click through and give it a look.
What are you guys looking forward to?
This post couldn’t have come at a better time.. I’m just finishing off Michael Yon’s new book and don’t have anything queued up on the shelf.
Going to run by the neighborhood Borders at lunch and try to snag Scalzi’s book.