At the start of the new year, I find myself in a quandary. The pressure of reading books to review for this column coupled with ensuring that I read the Star Wars books we need to cover as a website has burnt me out on reading in general. Oh, I’m still reading – but I’m not as anxious to pick up that next novel as I’ve been in the past. So I’m asking for your help. You’ll see a new poll on the main page, which asks what areas you might like to see me focus on more in this column in the coming year. In the column past the break, I’ll go into a little more detail about what each of those choices means – and what things I am looking forward to in the year ahead, as well as a preview of what you can expect to see in this column.

Let’s start off with the books that I’m looking forward to that are releasing in 2010. I’m going to ignore the Star Wars books – I’m always looking forward to those – these are the rest.

February:
Able One by Ben Bova – Bova’s stand alone novels are hit and miss for me, but this high tech thriller sounds interesting.
Iron Man: Virus by Alex Irvine – I’m hoping for a pseudo-prequel to Iron Man 2
Geosynchron (Jump 225 book 3) by David Louis Edelman – the last book in a trilogy that I’ll definitely be reading. The first book was one of my favorites of 2008, the second book no so much, but there’s been enough time that I’m sufficiently excited for the finale.

March:
God of War by Matthew Stover – like Gears of War, I haven’t played the game God of War, and Stover is an author who is hit or miss for me – but this book is on my list because he’s a Star Wars author.

April:
Iron Man 2 Novelization by Alex Irvine – while I often enjoy reading novelizations, I’d like to actually see this film before reading the book this year. But my desire to read this may depend upon how much I like Irvine’s Iron Man: Virus.
The Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell – Like Geosynchron, I will be reading this book. It’s the finale of a 6 book series I began in 2008.

May:
Star Trek: Refugees by Alan Dean Foster – Foster’s continuation of the new Star Trek timeline introduced in the new movie. He wrote the heck out of the adaptation of the movie, and this is one of my most anticipated Trek novels of next year.

June:
Is There Anybody Out There? by Nick Gevers & Marty Halpern – first contact stories anthology featuring Rusch & Irvine and lots of others.
The Map of All Things (Terra Incognita 2) by Kevin Anderson – I was only lukewarm about the first book in this series, but I’ll likely give #2 a go.
Transformers: Exodus by Alex Irvine - I’m a big Transformers fan, and though I’m not sure if this a continuation of the movie timeline (which would be fine with me), I’m excited to see what Irvine does with them since he seems to be handling a lot of robot stuff (see: Iron Man).
Swords and Dark Magic by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders – another short story anthology, this time of fantasy tales featuring among other giants in the field, Greg Keyes – who is one of my favorite authors.
Wizard Squared by K.E. Mills (Karen Miller) – the third book in a series I haven’t read, this book is on my list purely because of the author’s connection to Star Wars.

July:
Terminator: Salvation - Trial by Fire by Timothy Zahn – I’m an unabashed Zahn fan, and combining him with Terminator worked well for me last year, so I’m all over this release.
Mass Effect by Drew Karpyshyn – I love Karpyshyn’s Bane books, but Mass Effect is a game I haven’t played, nor have I read either of the previous books in this series, so it’s mostly hear because of the author’s connection to Star Wars.
The Reluctant Mage by Karen Miller – sequel to the Prodigal Mage, a book I haven’t read by Karen Miller. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read of her work so far, but Fantasy isn’t really my bag.

August:
Leviathans of Jupiter by Ben Bova – sequel to my favorite Ben Bova book, Jupiter. There’s no doubt I’ll be reading this.
Gears of War: Anvil Gate by Karen Traviss – I haven’t read the previous two Gears of War books by Traviss, but due to the nature of this column, this book is on my radar.

Somtime in 2010:
Hellhole by Kevin Anderson and Brian Herbert – a new scifi series by these two authors, I’m very excited for this book. I expect it around early fall, when the Dune books usually drop.
The Human Blend (book 1 of the tipping point trilogy) by Alan Dean Foster – I enjoy Foster’s tie-in work, not sure if I’m looking to start a new series though.

If you’ve been reading closely, you may already be able to detect the start of my quandary. The books I’m most excited to read are often not coming from Star Wars authors, and are in fact just general science fiction books. A good portion of the videogame tie-ins are things I wouldn’t normally read, though there are plenty of other Star Trek tie-in novels coming next year that I’m at least likely to read:

Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many by Michael Martin (Mar)
Star Trek: More Beautiful Than Death by David Mack (Jul)
Star Trek: The Hazards of Concealing by Greg Cox (Aug)
Star Trek The Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game by David Mack (Nov)
Star Trek DS9 The Typhon Pact: The Rough Beasts of Empire by David George (Dec)

Not to mention Star Trek Enterprise: The Romulan War (which came out in 2008, but I haven’t picked up yet) – but the question is, would you like to see me cover more tie-ins by non-Star Wars authors? If you’d rather see me cover books by Star Wars authors, I’ll need to know that so I can try and focus on those things. Or would you like to see me branch out an cover other science fiction novels that might be of interest to fans of Star Wars?

Then there’s the question of comic book trade paperbacks – beyond what we normally cover (Star Wars releases) – I’ve been getting into the cosmic Marvel line (like a cross between superheroes and Star Wars) and have plans to read all of the following over the next year:

Annihilation Conquest vol 2
Nova vol 2: Knowhere
Guardians of the Galaxy vol 1
Road to War of Kings
Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2: War of Kings part 1
War of Kings
Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3: War of Kings part 2

And potentially some other stuff (X-Men: Emperor Vulcan, Nova vols 3-5, Secret War: Inhumans, X-Men: Infernus) as well as the possibility of revisiting some of the things I read last year (like Annihilation). While I’m more of a Marvel guy than a follower of DC - I do enjoy Green Lantern and Superman - so I could also cover things like Blackest Night and New Krypton (for example). This is a rare case where I’m still actively reading a lot of TPBs, as I’m finding them easier to get into than books at this point. Would you like to see me review these kinds of books for the column?

Finally, to give you an idea of what I’ve got on my plate already, a list of some of the books I’ve been sitting on for some time that I could review over the next year. I’m going to start at the top by listing the ones I’m most likely to get to because I’m most excited about them – but feel free to chime in on our boards to let me know if there’s one in particular that you’d like to see me review and I’ll try bumping it up the list.

Quatrain by Sharon Shinn – I love Shinn’s writing, and this book has four short stories – 3 of which are in universes of her creation that I’m very fond of.
Dragonseed by James Maxey – I loved the first two books in this fantasy series, so I’ll be getting to this eventually.
Terminator Salvation: Cold War by Greg Cox – it’s a Terminator book, I’ll likely enjoy it.
Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley – I’m very excited to give this new scifi series a try.
Duplicate Effort by Kristine Kathryn Rusch – scifi meets CSI.
City of Souls by Vicki Pettersson – sounds a lot like Heroes.
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds – I’ve heard great things about this book, it made many blog’s top books of the year.
Orcs by Stan Nicholls – fantasy told from the point of view of the villain.
World of Warcraft: Arhas: Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden – I used to play WoW, and I enjoyed Golden’s Star Wars book, so this seemed like a good fit.
Forgotten Realms: The Ghost King by R. A. Salvatore – mostly I have this because Salvatore is a former Star Wars author, though he wasn’t one of my favorites.
Slan Hunter by Kevin Anderson – classic scifi is not always Anderson’s strong point, but I’m still curious.
Kris Longknife: Intrepid by Mike Shepard – this seems like it could be my next Lost Fleet series – or it could be like Weber’s Honor series, which just didn’t grab me at all.
The Magic Mirror and the Mermaid Queen by Delia Sherman – a kids book that I owe a review on.
Destined for an Early Grave (Night Huntress, Book 4) by Jeaniene Frost – urban fantasy, which isn’t really that interesting to me.
Night’s Cold Kiss: A Dark Brethren Novel by Tracey O’hara – ditto.

So that’s where I am. I’d like to get your input, so please vote in the poll and post in the topic linked below – tell me what you’d like to see me review. If you want to talk in more detail about what you’ve liked (and not liked) about the column over the past year, you can do that too. Do I spend too much time doing news/upcoming releases? Do you like that I do that? Do I spend too much time on tie-in stuff that isn’t written by Star Wars authors – or do you like that I branch out? I’m making some assumptions that other fans of Star Wars books may be interested in the same things I am – but I’d like to get a better feel for it.

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to continuing to bring you to a Galaxy Not So Far Away in 2010.