Books for 2012

Here's a quick look at some of the books I'll be reading in the early part of 2012.

On 29 January the new science fiction novel by Alastair Reynolds, Blue Remembered Earth,  comes out. Reynolds is probably my joint favourite science fiction author right now along with Stephen Baxter. It's been a couple of years since his last novel so I'll looking forward to the new one, Blue Remembered Earth.

On 16 February From the Deep of the Dark, Stephen Hunt's sixth Jackelian steampunk adventure appears. This one seems to involve a submarine adventure which bodes well as my favourite of the previous books, The Kingdon Beyond the Waves, involved a similar odyssey.

On 13 March An American Spy, Olen Steinhauer's third thriller in the Milo Weaver series comes out. Steinhauer quickly became a facourite author and I'm looking forward to this one.

On 29 March the new spy novel by Charles Cumming, A Foreign Affair, comes out. I quite enjoyed his last novel, The Trinity Six, so I hope this ones is as good. Harper are also reprinting two of his first three paperbacks on the same day so I'll be glad for a chance to get them as well.

As previously mentioned in another post The Thief, the fourth collabaration between Clive Cussler and Justin Scott, The Thief, comes out on 1 March.

Finally on 26 April The Wind Through the Keyhole, the eighth book in Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series comes out. Well, it's not actually the eighth book as it's set between the present books four and five. I bcame a big fan of the original books back in 2003 and it will be a pleasure to return to mid-world and met up with Roland and his ka-tet again.

Olen Steinhauer Kindle bargains

Just a quick note about a couple of bargains I found on Amazon UK's Kindle store, namely Olen Steinhauer's The Nearest Exit and the spy story collection Agents of Treachery for just 99p each.

www.amazon.co.uk

The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer

Over the Christmas break I made sure to read the latest Olen Steinhauer thriller, The Nearest Exit. This is the author's seventh novel and the second to feature his "Tourist" hero Milo Weaver, who works for the Department of Tourism, a super-secret branch of American intelligence.

This book follows on a number of months after the events of The Tourist where Milo discovered that his Department was responsible for an assassination in Sudan. The repercussions of this event form the background to the new book.

Since then Milo, estranged from his family back in America, has been doing some low-key missions as he is reintroduced into the fold. Now after being ordered to kill a teenage girl in Germany he discovered he has to disobey orders.

And if that's not enough to keep him busy it then transpires that Chinese intelligence may have uncovered information about the Department and the identities of its agents.

I really enjoyed this book. Steinhauer has quickly become one of my favourite thriller authors. I'll be reading the rest of his backlist in 2011 and looking forward to novel number eight.

Olen Steinhauer

One of my new "discoveries" this year has been an author called Olen Steinhauer. To date I believe he's written seven books and I've now read three of them.



The first one I read is his most recent paperback. The Tourist (2009) is a post-9/11 thriller set in the world of CIA operatives who are known as Tourists. The main character, Milo Weaver, is a former Tourist who on the face of things is hunting for an assassin. However things get complicated. The book is actually not that action-packed and is more of a character piece with some twisty plot developments to keep the reader thinking. I found the book well written and an enjoyable read so I decided to come back for more.



The second of his books that I read is The Vienna Assignment (2005). This book was also published under the title 36 Yalta Boulevard. This book is actually the third of five volumes set in a fictional unnamed Eastern European country through the post-war years. Most of the action takes place in 1967 and the main character is a spy called Brano Sev who is forced to defect to Vienna as part of an operation.



Finally I've just finished my third novel by this author. Victory Square (2008) is the fifth book in the five-book sequence set in the East and the date is now December 1989. The unnamed country now bears a stark similarity to Romania as it is undergoing a revolution and the dictator is put on trial. This was a very enjoyable read providing a recreation of the fall of the old regime with an added layer of mystery. Some old men are being targeted for death and the connection seems to be a trial in 1948. Is there a connection to the revolution? The main character in this one is Emil Brod, although Brano Sev pops up in the later stages of the book.

The author has a second Milo Weaver book currently in hardback titled The Nearest Exit. I expect it will be the next one I read before I track down the other three books I'm missing.