Regular readers of this blog will, no doubt, have noted my seemingly insatiable taste for near-pointless listing and weighing/sorting of stuff. The latest to occur is this: what new book are you most excited about that is going to be published during 2005?

Now, allowing that Midnighters 3: Blue Noon is at least a year away, and that Coode Street long since abandoned waiting for anything by George R.R. Martin (though it’s a pleasure when it comes), I’d have to say for this little black duck, it’s hands-down, without-a-doubt Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners. Don’t get me wrong here – I’m excited about Rangergirl, Hearts of Whiteness, Fifty Degrees Below and many others – but Magic is on my mind. Can’t wait to see it. So, how about you? Are you waiting for Transcendant, The Coyote Road, or something else? ‘Fess up.

First of all, a big thank you to David Moench at Tor Books, who helped to make my day yesterday by sending me galleys of Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin and Cory Doctorow’s Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. I’ve been stalled, not reading anything at book length for a little while, but last night I dove into the Doctorow novel and, so far, am enjoying it enormously.

Speaking of Cory, who you can see at his sartorial best here, I see from boing boing that he shares my love of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Pacific Edge (thanks to Niall for pointing this out). I first read the book when it came out back in 1990. It’s one of my ‘Desert Island Books’, so I’m constantly startled to discover people who didn’t like the novel or who find it dull. I thought it was completely engrossing, and had almost exactly the same reaction to it that Cory describes. Hmmmm. I wonder if Cory is going to write a story called “Pacific Edge” some day.

Cheryl mentioned the opening of France’s Millau Bridge on her blog, so I went over to the BBC to look at the pictures. Breathtaking, and very much the way I always dreamt science fiction would look: graceful, powerful, engineering displayed in all its majesty. The fifth image in the sequence, showing the seven massive support tower disappearing up into the clouds is particularly amazing.