As soon as the year ends, I’ll post my 2011 reading list, but I thought I’d start and maintain a thread on my most anticipated reads for the new year. Though there are a lot of books still sitting unread by my bedside, these are the books for which I’m anxiously awaiting release.

I’m incapable of ordering anything, though, so… in no particular order.

1. Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal. Release date: 4/10/12. This is a sequel to Shades of Milk and Honey, which I thought was a perfectly lovely self-contained story. I’ll be the first to admit that regency fiction doesn’t do much for me (I thought Pride and Prejudice was much better with zombies), but I loved MRK’s magic system and how she explores the possibilities of weaving glamour. Although it’s seen as nothing more than a feminine art in the first book, I’m hoping she’ll begin exploring how that may change things.

2. Range of Ghosts, Elizabeth Bear. Release date: 3/27/12. One of the things I enjoy most about Bear’s blog is her honesty as she chronicles her daily tribulations with whatever piece she is working on. This will be the first book of hers that I will have read after watching her blog its progress. And I have an inherent interest in Central Asia, so seeing that an alternate Central Asia is the setting, she pretty much had me either way.

3. Ad Eternum, Elizabeth Bear. Release date: March 2012. The final (?)  novella in her chronicles of Don Sebastien de Ulloa and Abigail Irene Garrett, forensic sorceress. I was hooked since New Amsterdam, and have followed this series’ progress eagerly. In addition to the great stories, each book in the series has had an amazing cover, with art by Patrick Arrasmith, whose art I’ve been a fan of for a long while.

4. Tricked, Kevin Herne. Release date: 4/24/12. (Bonus for being released on my daughter’s birthday!) I found Kevin Herne this year and eagerly devoured the first three books of his Iron Druid Chronicles. I love the snarky voice of Atticus, the protagonist. Although he does get away with a lot seemingly consequence-free, the ending of book three seemed to indicate that his worry free days are over. I’m hoping the title also alludes to an interaction with Loki.

5. Starpilot’s Grave, Book 2 of the Mageworlds, Jim McDonald and Deb Doyle. Release date for ebook edition: UNKNOWN. You are killing me, seriously. I met Jim and Deb at Viable Paradise over a year ago and looked forward to finally reading one of their best known series. But book 1, 3 and 4 in e-book, and not book 2? I’m putting this on my list even given that the original was published in 1993. I’m not going to read forward until I can get book 2, but book 1 was exactly the kind of classic space opera that I grew up reading.

6. When Maidens Mourn, C.S. Harris. Release date: 3/6/12. Previous comment on regency era notwithstanding, my wife and I have really been enjoying this mystery series. The protagonist, Sebastian St. Cyr, uses his upper class connections to get to criminals the police can’t touch.

7. Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon, Mark Hodder. Release date: 1/24/12. (Although Amazon seems to think it’s already available, so maybe it doesn’t belong on this list.) Third in Hodder’s Burton and Swineburne steampunk detective series.

8. A Memory of Light, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. Release date: sometime in 2012. Because once it’s done, I can actually go back and read the last few books. The Eye of the World was a major reading investment since college, but as they got more spaced out, it got harder and harder to catch up. I reread the first 10 or 11 a few years ago, but I have waited to read the last few until the whole thing is out and done. I just can’t handle that much aggravation and waiting.

9. Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe, Nathan Bransford. Release date: 4/12/12. I’ve read Nathan Bransford’s blog for awhile now and I really enjoyed his middle grade debut, Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow. My 4th grader thought it was awesome too, and we wait for the sequel, together, with baited breath.

10. Flora’s Fury: How a Girl of Spirit and a Red Dog Confound Their Friends, Astound Their Enemies, and Learn the Importance of Packing Light, Ysabeau Wilce. Release date: 5/8/12. A totally unexpected entry on this list in that I wasn’t aware a third book was coming out! I really enjoyed Ysabeau Wilce’s first two books, Flora Segunda and Flora’s Dare, and the completely bizarre setting. Complete with alt-Aztecs! And a hummingbird god!