These books have been at the forefront of my brain shouting, “Read me. Read me.” ok ok, shut up already. Considering that some of them will be made into movies this year for good or bad. (Mostly bad. Don’t get me even started on movie adaptions of books. I am looking at you Eragon and you Ender’s Game. Funnily enough that with the source material carefully laid out, throngs of adoring fans, and fan fiction to boot a movie adaption would be a no brainer. You would be wrong.)

Habibi by Craig Thompson –  Craig Thompson is a resplendent writer. I broke out the ole’ thesaurus today to find the perfect word for his writing. His writing is resplendent. It is colorful and rich both rich in words and rich in images. If you have ever had middle eastern food, it is a symphony of different flavors. That is how his writing is. It is a damn symphony, but in language and image instead of salt and turmeric.  As you can tell I am a fan. I found “Blankets” to be absolutely wonderful. It may not be everyones cup of tea, but you can damn well appreciate the subtly and nuance that Craig employs in his writing. I cannot wait to read Habibi.

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War of the Oaks by Emma Bull – I am a sucker for Urban fantasy. Give me Dresden Files and Mercy Thompson as my drug of choice any day. This looks really good. My only caveat is that there is only one book. One. NOOOOOO. You fall in love with the characters and then it is done. Way to abrupt. Unless it sucks, then one is plenty.

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Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey –   I read the first sandman slim book, aptly named “Sandman Slim.” Dude, holy anti-hero batman. Yaas. Bring on the “I don’t give a shit attitude.” I love that the language in Sandman Slim is punchy. Not overly wordy and detailed.  I want some concisely written words.

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Annihilation by Jeff Vandomeer – I have head so much about this series. Almost to the point where I am like, “Ok ok dude I get it.” Sometimes a whole lot of publicity is just hype for crappy writing. Cough cough “Twilight.” Sometimes it is well garnered. The premise of this book sounds interesting as hell.

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Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition.

Seriously, this sounds so cool. Kinda space operaish. Operaish? Is that even a word?

Watchman by Alan Moore – You would think with all the Alan Moore books I have plowed and plodded through I would be a big fan of his work. I am really not. He feels very uneven and overly complicated in his writing. Complicated for the sake of being complicated and artsy fartsy.  I realize and appreciate how important Moore’s work is for the graphic novel Genre though. He spearheaded adding literary characters to very flat comic books. I will be so bold to say that he is the reason we have such gorgeous works to read from Authors like Gaimen, Ennis, and Vaughan.  Maybe Watchman will make a believer out of me. Maybe it won’t. But I will not belittle the importance of it as a novel and I can appreciate that after finishing it. Even if I hate it and want to set it on fire in a dumpster.

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I should note though that I love V for Vendetta. Love is probably too weak a word. I thought about getting a V for Vendetta tattoo of this passage:

V. : But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace soubriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona. Voila! In view humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the “vox populi” now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin, van guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.
The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.
Verily this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.
Evey: Are you like a crazy person?
V. : I’m quite sure they will say so.”

BAAAAADAASSSSS.

I won’t go so far as to say that Rothfuss is a god in fantasy. But damn if I don’t have a crush on the hirsute writer.

His first book in the series, “The Name of the Wind” was epic fantasy at its finest. I mean that. It will go down as a classic with the likes of “Narnia,” “Eye of the World,” and Tolkien. That’s right. I said “The Name of the Wind” is in league with “Narnia” and Tolkien. Bring on the hate mail!

Finally the third one is out. I am hyperventilating as I write this. Don’t start with this book. Go back and read the first of the series. Then go and read all of his other work, Mistborn, “Warbreaker,” and “Legion,”  in glorious anticipation of reading this book. Then you will know and understand my exquisite pain of waiting for this bastard to come out.

This comes highly recommended. It looks very interesting and it is a gaping hole in my science fiction repertoire (pops collar).

Doubleblind by Ann Aguire – I completely forgot about this series. I read the first two books years ago, but at the time there was only two. So.. frustration. Now there is six. Say what! Shut yo mouth.

(I start to do the running man of happiness)

Look here. Stephen King is freaking awesome. Not all of his books are winners, but he writes enough of them that odds are in his favor. Besides, I read his books trying to figure out a little bit about what goes on in his twisted brain. He wrote “The Long Walk,” which gave me nightmares and “It,” which is so scary that I literally could not finish it for fear of damaging my psyche. The man is a kick ass writer and “Sleeping Beauties” looks twisted as hell. Bring it the hell on.