2014: Finally Living in the Future

IN THE CHINESE CALENDAR, 2014 is the year of the Horse. This makes my wife much happier,  as she like horses much more than snakes, the animal that 2013, um, belongs to.

You know, I realize that I really don’t understand the Chinese calendar animal thing very well at all. I probably shouldn’t have led with that.

Too late though, I’ve already typed a whole bunch of words, and I can’t delete them, they are precious to me. Every. Last. One.

Even the typos.

But… I think my wife’s enthusiasm is contagious. I feel like there are things coming this year that are worth looking forward too. For you, dear reader, there is a list SF&F things to be excited about this year.

IN BOOKS: Alastair Reynolds is my main man. His next book in his trilogy of the future history of

humanity is due out in the states this year. My brethren across the pond have already had this since last September. I ALMOST bought one and had it shipped here, but I decided against it and determined to wait it out until I can get my ‘legit’ copy. It’s hard, but I’m doing it.

Brandon Sanderson is releasing the next installment in his 10 book series about, well, whatever it’s about. I don’t actually know what it’s about, but the first book was pretty awesome, and it’s been a few years. I’m very excited.

But beyond those things, I'm really excited to make a dent in my pile of books that I purchased in 2013, 2012 AND 2011 that I still haven't read yet. 

IN MOVIES: Anything by Marvel, Captain America 2, The Guardians of the

If there is a Raccoon as the star, I'm all in!

Galaxy. Then there are Marvel properties, Spider-Man 2, X-Men... ah... 7? There is that Tom Cruise movie where he keeps dying, that looks cool. There is Interstellar, Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic.

And a whole bunch of other stuff there too. Movies sometimes have great concepts and not so great executions. My favorite movie of 2014 may end up being a story of a man eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's really hard to tell with those things.

The Doctor is dead! Long live the Doctor!

AND IN TELEVISION: A new Doctor takes the stage in Doctor Who. SyFy has a new show called Helix coming out in a few days that I hear is really good. Agents of Shield will have to be better this year. I'm sure Honey Boo Boo will win the miss teen USA or something. Honestly, there is way too much stuff on TV. I typically let people tell me when something is amazing before I watch. 

But above all else, I'm looking forward to the things I'm not expecting. Things that hit me out of nowhere and totally capture my imagination. That's the thing that keeps me excited about the future. The unknown.