My friend Mike Berry who does SF&F reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle has done his own post of books he’s looking forward to in 2012. Two of them were on my list, but the others are not and a couple of them have just got added.

Firstly there’s a new Matt Ruff novel, The Mirage, due in February. The fact that it is a Matt Ruff novel immediately gets it onto my list, but look at the description:

set in an alternate Middle East after Christian fundamentalists have flown jetliners into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad

Interested yet?

Also fascinating is Liminal People by Ayize Jama-Everett. This is a Small Beer book, and if Gavin and Kelly are pushing something strongly I always sit up and take notice. The blurb describes the book as an SF thriller comparable to Richard Morgan, which is not the sort of thing I expect from Small Beer, which raises the interest level. Then there’s the author bio:

Ayize Jama-Everett was born in 1974 and raised in Harlem, New York. Since then he has traveled extensively in Northern Africa, New Hampshire, and Northern California. He holds a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and a Master’s in Divinity. He teaches religion and psychology at Starr King School for the Ministry when he’s not working as a school therapist at the College Preparatory School.

Yeah, I need to read this book too.