# Awaiting new sci-fi books
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 23, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577 "2005-06-23T19:06:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/1 "2005-06-23T19:06:11Z")
What new science fiction books are you anticipating?
I’m excited about:
**Olympos** , Dan Simmons (available next week!)
**Judas Unchained** , Peter F. Hamilton (was due this summer but Amazon is now showing February 2006)
**Fledgling** , Octavia Butler (Amazon says October)
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/2 "2005-06-23T19:16:27Z")
> [@Eleanor of Aquitaine](#):
>
> What new science fiction books are you anticipating?
>
> I’m excited about:
> **Olympos** , Dan Simmons (available next week!)
Actually, I got a copy a few days ago, but I don’t think I’ll read it. I found the first book quite tedious and my reading queue is much too long.
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### Author:  [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/3 "2005-06-23T20:23:43Z")
> [@Eleanor of Aquitaine](#):
>
> **Fledgling** , Octavia Butler (Amazon says October)
What’s this one about. I usually like her stuff but havn’t heard of this one.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/4 "2005-06-23T21:56:52Z")
Well, Harry Turtledove has a sequel to Days of Infamy, the next book in his American War series and his first Videssos book in a long time all coming out by the end of the year, so I’m looking forward to those.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/5 "2005-06-23T22:14:30Z")
I’m tickled about **Olympos** as well. I enjoyed **Ilium** – it was my first exposure to the story of The Iliad, so it was all new to me. (I’d heard of Helen and Achilles and a Trojan horse, but that’s about it.) 🙂
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/6 "2005-06-23T22:14:39Z")
**A Feast for Crows** by George R R Martin
**The Protector’s War** by S M Stirling
the aforementioned Turtledove books
and (yes I admit it) the next Robert Jordan tome
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### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/7 "2005-06-23T23:19:10Z")
**Mammoth** by John Varley, until a couple days ago when I picked it up at the bookstore.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/8 "2005-06-23T23:23:25Z")
Turek, you might be saving me a few bucks. Not good?
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### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/9 "2005-06-23T23:59:59Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> Turek, you might be saving me a few bucks. Not good?
No, I meant I WAS anticipating it, but now I’m reading it. 🙂
I’d pretty much read anything Varley wrote down. Hell, I’d read his grocery list if he’d publish it in a paperback. I’m about half through this one. So far it’s been pretty run-of-the-mill. It ain’t an 8 Worlds story, and it seems like it’s kind of missing some of his normal writing style, which is what attracted me to his writing in the first place. (The first thing I ever read from him was _Steel Beach_, and from the opening line of “In 5 years the penis will be obsolete,” he really grabbed me.)
Pick up a copy **Auntie** , and we can talk about it when you’re done.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2005, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/10 "2005-06-24T03:00:19Z")
I had a pleasant surprise two weeks ago when I saw there was a new Lois McMaster Bujold novel out (_The Hallowed Hunt_). I hadn’t known she was due for a new release.
I plan on buying the new Varley book (_Mammoth_)and the new Robert Charles Wilson book (_Spin_), hopefully before I go on vacation next week.
Joe Haldeman (_Old Twentieth_) and S.M. Stirling (_The Protector’s War_) have new books coming soon. (Max, did you see the first nine chapters are posted on Stirling’s website?)
David Brin doesn’t have any new works on the horizon.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2005, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/11 "2005-06-24T03:11:52Z")
> [@Turek](#):
>
> Pick up a copy **Auntie** , and we can talk about it when you’re done.
I will. I haven’t read Varley since Titan, Wizard, and Demon, and that was many years ago, so anything by him will be new to me. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2005, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/12 "2005-06-24T13:30:15Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#):
>
> What’s this one about. I usually like her stuff but havn’t heard of this one.
I have no idea what Butler’s **Fledgling** is about, but I have liked everything else she has written.
> [@AuntiePam](#):
>
> I’m tickled about **Olympos** as well. I enjoyed **Ilium** – it was my first exposure to the story of The Iliad, so it was all new to me. (I’d heard of Helen and Achilles and a Trojan horse, but that’s about it.) 🙂
As much as I like Dan Simmons’s books, I get the feeling I’d like them even more if I were an English Lit major.
Connie Willis has a new novella coming out, **Inside Job** , but it’s a hardback priced like a full-sized novel.
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### Author:  [@Armilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Armilla)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/13 "2005-06-24T20:47:54Z")
I’m also looking forward to the release of _Olympos_ - I read _Ilium_ and the tie-in short story, _The Ninth of Av_, and it was enough to get me hooked.
Quite apart from the tantalising references to the Voynich manuscript and the mystery of the final fax, how can you not look forward to a war between the classical gods and an army of men and literature obsessed robots?
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### Author:  [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/14 "2005-06-25T00:09:10Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#):
>
> I had a pleasant surprise two weeks ago when I saw there was a new Lois McMaster Bujold novel out (_The Hallowed Hunt_). I hadn’t known she was due for a new release.
I read this a couple of weeks ago. I liked it. If you liked her other books (Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls) set in this universe, you should like this one.
It didn’t knock me over, but I liked it.
I read on the boards a while back that Robin Hobb had a new book coming out in the fall, but I haven’t seen any other info about it yet.
I think Connie Willis has a new novella coming out before too long.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/15 "2005-06-25T01:43:45Z")
> [@Archergal](#):
>
> I read on the boards a while back that Robin Hobb had a new book coming out in the fall, but I haven’t seen any other info about it yet.
Shaman’s Crossing, due out in the US on September 1. Hobb’s website has a book tour starting in July, in Australia and thereabouts, so the UK edition might be out sooner than that.
There are some reviews up on the SFF World site, where Hobb has her own forum on the message board.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/16 "2005-06-25T02:13:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I read this a couple of weeks ago. I liked it. If you liked her other books (Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls) set in this universe, you should like this one.
You underestimate my threshold for buying books. I took home the Bujold book and read it the next day.
I pretty much agree with your opinion. I didn’t like it as well as CoC but thought it was better than PoS. But overall, I prefer her science fiction novels to her fantasy work.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/17 "2005-06-25T02:56:19Z")
I’m most interested in John Crowley’s latest: **Lord Byron’s Novel: The Evening Land** , which looks like an alternate history fantasy novel (that is, a fantasy novel written in an alternate history, with commentary). I love that sort of literary game.
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### Author:  [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/18 "2005-06-25T03:05:46Z")
Can anyone recommend a good online source of news about upcoming science fiction/fantasy books? I know about **Locus** , but that’s about it. I’m way out of the loop on new genre fiction, and I’d like to have an ongoing source of news about it.
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### Author:  [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/19 "2005-06-25T04:02:05Z")
I doubt there’s a better source than Locus, but this is the place to ask – someone will know. 🙂
I get most of my fantasy and SF news from [here](http://www.sffworld.com/)
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### Author:  [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2005, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awaiting-new-sci-fi-books/309577/20 "2005-06-27T05:42:31Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#):
>
> You underestimate my threshold for buying books. I took home the Bujold book and read it the next day.
>
> I pretty much agree with your opinion. I didn’t like it as well as CoC but thought it was better than PoS. But overall, I prefer her science fiction novels to her fantasy work.
Everybody has an opinion. 🙂 I liked PoS better than either CoC or THH. However, I thought the intricacy of the plot in THH is pretty terrific. Further this is a new (to us) culture in the Chalionverse. And a _fascinating_ one, to anyone who has studied either anthropology or religion - much less both! Dunno what Sayers would have thought about how Lois has used her guidelines, but she’s certainly used them consistently.
I suspect that she had a purpose in having one of the featured characters with a link to Chalion that we will see in a subsequent book. After all, there will be at least two more books in this universe. Dunno whether the next book will be about the Mother or the Father. I do most devoutly hope she’ll take us back to Chalion. I do want rather badly to find out how the Royina’s Traveling Circus fares. :dubious:
Will she ever return to the Vorkosiverse? I dunno. I don’t think she does, either. I do think she’s entitled to give it a rest. I dare anyone to name another equally long series in which the writing is even half as good.
Sorry to be a bit late commenting on this, but I just found it.
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