I’m going to read a lot of books in 2019. If history holds, it will be around 40 to 50. Some of that space will be saved for debuts and things I haven’t even heard of yet. But there are a few releases that are so significant that I set my calendar by them. I block time in advance, knowing when they’ll arrive. Also, this post is my shameless plug for authors and editors to send me these books early. Yes, that sounds self serving. It probably is. But it will also probably work, so there you go.

Here’s a list of the books I can’t wait to see next year.

THE LIGHT BRIGADE is the only book on this list that’s not a sequel. But it’s Kameron Hurley, and she’s moving into the military science fiction space, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

It’s about a future war where soldiers are broken down into light and beamed to the front lines on Mars. It promises to bend the genre–after all, it’s Hurley–and will probably also have an embedded anti-war message in it (as most of the best military SF does).

Coming March 19, 2019.

Due out even sooner is KINGDOM OF COPPER, by SA Chakraborty. The sequel to this year’s blockbuster CITY OF BRASS, Kingdom promises to take us on a journey that explains that wild epilogue.

More Nahri, more Daevabad. Yes please.

Due out on January 22nd, I expect this one to hit the best-seller list. But I’ve got my copy early. It definitely pays to know the editor (David Pomerico is also the editor of PLANETSIDE)

And yes, I know that this one comes out before the previous book on the list, but I’m too lazy to go back and reformat the post. Deal with it.

Next up is PRIEST OF LIES, by Peter McLean, sequel to one of my favorite reads of 2018, PRIEST OF BONES. PoB sounds like a necromancer book, but it’s not. It’s an organized crime novel (like The Godfather) set in a fantasy world, complete with soldiers returning from war, bearing the scars.

Fast paced with well-rounded characters and a great, twisty plot, I devoured PRIEST OF LIES in just a couple sittings. This ranks right up there on my list of ‘books where I’m going to twist people’s arms to send them to me early.’ That’s a new category. I just made it up. Pete, consider this your warning.

Due out on July 2nd from ACE, edited by Rebecca Brewer.

THE DRAGON REPUBLIC is the sequel to this year’s break-out hit, THE POPPY WAR, by RF Kuang. Poppy War just blew me away. The writing is so good that you start it and the next thing you know, you’re forty percent into it and wondering what happened to your day.

I have to warn you; this is a brutal book with graphic violence. It isn’t for everybody. The first 100 pages or so read almost YA, due to the young main character and the setting she’s put in, but this is not a YA book.

It is, however, a wonderful book, and I can’t wait for the sequel, which comes out on August 6th, from Harper Voyager. David, you can just go ahead and send me this one early, too.

Finally, in December we have HOLLOW EMPIRE, by Sam Hawke, which is the sequel to CITY OF LIES. Why is it not coming out until December? I’m sure it’s one of those publishing questions that we don’t ask. But since it spaces out my ‘must-read’ list, I’ll accept it.

I’ll probably do this one on audio book. I listened to CITY OF LIES, and I loved the narrators.

CITY OF LIES was a great read, somehow both slow and fast at the same time. It’s a slower paced book than a couple of the others on this list, but the tension is so good that it had me sitting in my car in the parking lot, trying to hear just a little bit more.

This is probably the one book on the list that I won’t read early, as the end of the year means the end of the semester, at which point I’m in teacher panic mode, trying to get those last tests and essays graded.

So that’s my list. There are plenty more books that I’ll discover and want to read, and I really haven’t looked into the 2019 debuts yet (which I will do soon). But right now, these are the ones already on my calendar. If you need something from me, plan accordingly.

What book are you looking forward to in 2019? Go ahead and tell me in the comments.