All the Essential Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Coming in 2014

[Penny]

A list of scifi and fantasy books coming out during the course of this year can be found here. Have they left any important ones out?

[Bill]

Maybe they don't qualify as top selling authors but they are missing a fair number of fantasy authors. The ones I noticed are Ian C. Esslemont, Mark Lawrence, Miles Cameron, Django Wexler, Luke Scull and Brian McClellan who all have releases this year.

[Rob]

Bill wrote: "Maybe they don't qualify as top selling authors but they are missing a fair number of fantasy authors. The ones I noticed are Ian C. Esslemont, Mark Lawrence, Miles Cameron, Django Wexler, Luke..."

Obviously they just aren't "essential". Even though I'm eagerly looking forward to books from at least two of the authors you mentioned. ^_^

The Shadow Throne and The Crimson Campaign

[Ben]

I think if the list was complete then it would be too dense to make much use of. It is a good list and there are a couple of titles on there that i am looking forward to.

One of the problems with this sort of thing is it is easy to draw attention to then next book in the series rather than original self contained work that may be more interesting. This list seems a good mix of both established series' and newer and self contained works though.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

The new Kate Daniels comes out in June or July this year. It's not listed and the Andrews are NYT Best Sellers.

I already have that pre-ordered.

[Kim]

I'm looking forward to Words of Radiance, The Thorn of Emberlain, Half a King and The Broken Eye.

[Penny]

The 19 Most Anticipated Science Fiction And Fantasy Books For 2014 from BuzzFeed doesn't even have Words of Radiance on it. I think all these lists miss some books, but I think that's a pretty huge miss.

[Bill]

The best list I have seen for my reading taste is from BestFantasyBooks. I only read a scifi book occasionally so this list works well for me. It is missing two releases that I plan on reading but are from less known authors.

http://bestfantasybooks.com/blog/most...

[Rob]

There is so much stuff out there, I don't really need a list of stuff. Nothing on any of these lists have been a "Oh that's coming out this year, awesome" sort of thing.

As it stands these are the books being published in 2014 I plan to read (in rough pub order)

1) Words of Radiance
2) The Crimson Campaign
3) Skin Game
4) The Shadow Throne
5) Half a King
5) The Fool's Assassin
8) Firefight
8) The Thorn of Emberlain (assuming it comes out)
9) The Aeronaut's Windlass (assuming it comes out)

Everything else will come from my very large TBR list. Of course that may change due to new announcements or book club picks.

[Bill]

Rob wrote: "There is so much stuff out there, I don't really need a list of stuff. Nothing on any of these lists have been a "Oh that's coming out this year, awesome" sort of thing.

As it stands these are the..."

I'm planning on reading 6 on your list. I need to catch up on Hobb and Butcher. Kind of daunting once series get into double digits.

I also plan to read:
The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron
Sword of the North by Luke Scull
Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan
Assail by Ian C. Esslemont
Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence
The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley
The Knight (High Kingdom, #1). by Pierre Pevel - rerelease in US.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

I guess it's just me...

...but there's NO ILONA ANDREWS!!!!

Whhhhhyyyyyyyy?


(ok, I'll stop being over dramatic now)

[Rob]

Bill wrote: "I'm planning on reading 6 on your list. I need to catch up on Hobb and Butcher. Kind of daunting once series get into double digits."

Dresden isn't bad even though it's at 14 books now, because they all go quick.

Robin Hobb is up to 13 if you do both liveship and rain wild. I'm finishing up rain wild now and enjoying it but it's probably not essential if you just want Fitz.

[Bill]

My library has the 6 book Dresden ebook collections so I am going to basically read most of the series in two chunks. I am 2nd on the wait list for books 1-6 so I might actually be able to catch up by the time #15 comes out.

[Rob]

If you do audiobooks at all, I highly recommend them. James Marsters is great for them.

If not though, the way you read you'll easily do the first 10 or so books really fast if you don't burn yourself out on them.

They start getting a bit longer somewhere around there (from 300-350 towards 400-450 instead)

The one thing in the re-read I noticed that hadn't been apparent to me when I was reading only 1/year was all the recap.

[Bill]

I have a hard time concentrating on audiobooks. I have tried 5 or so but my mind wanders and i realize 20 minutes in that i haven't been listening for the last 15.

I will probably read a novella or quick YA in between each so i don't burn out.

[Olga]

The majority of the books on these lists are all written by guys. Where are all the female fantasy and sci-fi writers? Patricia Briggs? Ilona Andrews (nod to MrsJoseph)? Others who are not worse than Sanderson or Butcher or Weeks? Why such a narrow selection?

[Art]

Good point, Olga! Just by last names, we might add Lee (Sharon & Tanith), Cheeryh, Bujold, Norton, McCaffrey, Le Guin, etc

That's just from looking at my bookcase here in my computer room. And, if I'm not mistaken, most if not all, of them ate Goodreads authors.

[Art]

"Are" - durn fat fingers/ poor typing

[Silvana]

Half A King by Joe Abercrombie - I'd like to know he could make a gritty YA novel ;p

And the still untitled last Temeraire novel by Naomi Novik.

[Rich]

All lists are made by individuals with opinions, so what's essential to one person isn't necessarily what anyone else would consider essential. I definitly felt the second list Penny posted was more in tune to my liking than the first list even though the first list was quite a bit longer.

[Jessica]

This is a great resource. Thanks! I'm not sure which books/authors I'd call "essential" at this point. Still trying to make those determinations for myself because I tend to be very picky about my scifi.