When it comes to listing my most anticipated books for the year, I find it pretty difficult. How am I supposed to restrict my choice to just five or ten books, when thousands are published every year? Instead, I’ve decided to create a comprehensive little guide to the ones I’m most excited about, sorted by genre – with the main focus on science fiction and fantasy, but what else would you expect? 😉 As this post was written in mid-December, by the time it goes live I’ll probably have another 50 or so books I want to add…
Science Fiction
The Massacre of Mankind (War of the Worlds #2) by Stephen Baxter, Empire Games (Empire Games #1) by Charles Stross,
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty,
The Moon and the Other by John Kessel, The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley, The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, Pitch Dark by Courtney Alameda, The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente and Annie Wu, The Wanderers by Meg Howey, All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza, Blight by Alexandra Duncan, Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth, A Perfect Machine by Brett Savory, Proof of Concept by Gwyneth Jones, Ball Lightning by Liu Cixin, Change Agent by Daniel Suarez, New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Fantasy
The Winds of Winter (A Song of Ice and Fire #6) by George R.R. Martin, A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) by V.E. Schwab, The Bone Witch (The Bone Witch #1) by Rin Chupeco, Crossroads of Canopy (Titan’s Forest #1) by Thoriya Dyer, The People’s Police by Norman Spinrad, Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity #2) by V.E. Schwab, Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer #1) by Laini Taylor, Caraval by Stephanie Garber, Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts, Tyrant’s Throne (Greatcoats #4) by Sebastien de Castell, The Heart Of What Was Lost (The Last King of Osten Ard #0.5) by Tad Williams, Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor #1) by Mark Lawrence.
Horror/Thriller
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel, Dreamfall (Dreamfall #1) by Amy Plum.
Historical Fiction
The Dark Days Pact (Lady Helen #2) by Alison Goodman, The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, Now I Rise (The Conqueror’s Saga #2) by Kiersten White.
Contemporary
American Street by Ibi Zoboi, The Gallery of Unfinished Girls by Lauren Karcz, City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson.
Rinn Reads 
Amazing list! I am also super excited to read most of these, and there were a few new ones that of course I added to my list:-) I just finished Six Wakes and LOVED it, and The Bear and the Nightingale is high on my list.
I’m glad to hear that about Six Wakes, to be honest even the cover alone draws me in 🙂
I must admit I felt a jolt when I saw the cover for The Winds of Winter: let’s keep our collective fingers crossed and hope this is FINALLY it! And if it’s not, there are enough wonderful books in your list to make up for it… 🙂
I think the cover has been available for a while now – but let’s just hope it’s not pushed back for the third time!
I have several of those already! Just need to be able to read quicker
Which ones do you have, Paul?
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
have requested a copy of Empire Games too
So jealous!
Sorry!! (Empire Games arrived too!)
I hope they are all excellent 😀
Thanks for sharing your list! I’ve already read The Bear & The Nightingale and City of Saints & Thieves. Both were really good! I hope you get to read them soon. I’m looking forward to quite a few of the books on your list, including Strange the Dreamer, A Conjuring of Light, and Our Dark Duet.
Excellent news 😀 I can’t wait for both of V.E. Schwab’s books, she’s just so fantastic. I might need to do a Shades of Magic re-read first though.
For some reason I thought The Bear and the Nightingale already came out! No wonder I couldn’t find it at my library haha.
I’m excited to check out these sci-fi books you have up there. I think I’m making it my goal to read more adult books along with all the YA I read. Especially when it comes to scifi
It is out, but only just, so maybe they haven’t ordered it in yet. And always happy to provide any recommendations 😀
There’s a lot of good SF coming out from the looks of it. I want to read Six Wakes and The Stars Are LEgion (and MAssacre of Mankind looks good too), and Royal Bastards.
I’m hoping for Winds of Winter in 2017 too.
Fingers crossed! 🙂
I’m so intrigued by Royal Bastards, it sounds very much my thing.
From your list, I’m especially excited about The Collapsing Empire!! I was super excited about Crossroads of Canopy, too, although I didn’t end up enjoying it, sadly. Now I’m psyched for Blacklight Express by Philip Reeve, Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner and Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson! Great list, great post! 🙂
Oh that’s a shame! And I forgot Sanderson… I have so many of his books to catch up on though. If I see one second hand I buy it, regardless of whether I’ve read the ones before.
Thanks for sharing this list! I’m especially looking forward to Tad Williams’ The Heart of What Was Lost (really need to re-read his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy again one of these days) and Six Wakes has me intrigued 🙂
I’ve never read any Tad Williams, but I really need to, especially as he inspired GRRM.
A lot of the sci-fi ones are already on my list. Really looking forward to Six Wakes!
The Bear and the Nightingale was quite good. Read it in January.
I saw you’d read it! I could just stare at the cover for days.