In the course of my research I found a few books that I would have easily made the list of promising 2011 debuts except for one thing - they don't come out in 2011. Now I don't know a whole lot about these books themselves but I do know enough about the authors from their short fiction to know that whatever they write, it will be worth reading.
Author: Ted Kosmatka
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: January 12, 2012
Synopsis: In the future, genetic engineering becomes an Olympic Sport.
Author: Saladin Ahmed
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: Early 2012
Synopsis: Legendary SF/F publisher DAW books will publish three books set in Ahmed's 1001 Nights-inspired heroic fantasy world The Crescent Moon Kingdoms which is also the setting for his short stories “Where Virtue Lives” and “Judgment of Swords and Souls”
Author: Laird Barron
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Release Date: Late 2011 / Early 2012
Synopsis: "It's about an elderly man who discovers his wife has kept some dark secrets from him over the course of their marriage. Or, high concept: Wilford Brimley Goes to Hell"
"On the surface it’s written in the vein of the quieter haunted house, occult-type novels of the 1970s. There’s something of a Bluebeard and Rosemary’s Baby vibe at play – a retired professor spends the summer alone at his wife’s ancestral farm in Western Washington. He pokes into her family history and begins to discern an alarming and insidious pattern of black magic, ritual sacrifice, and much hairier things. Matters descend into the realm of the untenable.
For anyone out there who has read “The Broadsword” or Mysterium Tremendum, The Croning progresses deeper into that particular subset of my Pacific Northwest Mythos. This isn’t your dad’s haunted house story."
Author: Tina Connolly
Publisher: Tor
Release Date: Early 2012
Synopsis: Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.
It's the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain -- the ironskin.
Now Jane returns to the war-torn country to help a fey-cursed child. Helping the unruly Dorie suppress her curse is hard enough -- she certainly didn't expect to fall for the girl's father, the enigmatic artist Mr. Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio -- and come out as beautiful as the fey.
Jane knows he cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things are true? Step by step Jane must unlock the secrets of her new life -- and discover just how far she will go to become whole again.
I'm reasonably sure that these won't be the only debut novels in 2012 but I do know they are the ones I'll be waiting for most.
If you can't wait that long, I'd suggest taking a look the previous posts in my 2011 Debut series. You can find the full index here.
Thanks kindly for the shout out!
ReplyDeleteTed and Laird and Tina are all very good writers, so I'm geeked to be in their company.
But...Dear God, is that a Saved By The Bell reference up there!?
Why yes... Yes it is.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the lists Patrick. It looks like the fantasy genre will be filled with some great new writers in the next couple of years.
ReplyDeleteThose all sound good, but IRONSKIN? A steampunk JANE EYRE with fairies? I want that one now.
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