Favorites of 2022

Okay, so, in the past I have sometimes done Top Ten lists at the end of a year. Best male lead … best cool plot twist … best overall … whatever.

I can’t really do that for 2022! I hardly read anything! I swear, every year has set a new low in number of new-to-me books read, and 2022 was almost certainly the lowest ever.

However, I will pull out a few.

1) Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick. This is a penname for Marie Brennan (author of the Memoirs of Lady Trent) and Alyc Helms (author of the Adventures of Mr. Mystic). I read The Mask of Mirrors about this time last year, eg, in January sometime. It’s very good! With astoundingly great worldbuilding! But with some highly tense elements! Here are my comments about the first book.

I started the second book, but could not bring myself to go on with it because it was so high tension and some of the characters were in … not horrible places. But there were some kinds of inter-character tension that were difficult for me to tolerate at the time.

Nevertheless, a fine series and one I should definitely go on with eventually. I’m hoping that by the end, certain characters — fine, all the important characters — become allies and have forgiven each other for various unfortunate decisions they may have made and don’t hate each other. I may actually wait for the third book to be released and read reviews of that before going on with the second book myself. Unless, I mean, if my tolerance for high-tension stories improves a lot in 2023, maybe I won’t wait.

2) Crown of Shadows by KM Shea. This is the first book of an UF series. I liked many things about it, and also it was not very demanding. Here are my comments about this series.

3) Emissary by Melissa McShane. I liked this book quite a bit and fully intend to go on with other books by this author. Here are my comments about this book.

4) The Tally-Master by JM Ney-Grimm. I have somehow managed to let the second book slide down my Kindle again. Not sure why, since I am enjoying the book! I had something interrupt me. Moving it back to the top again now. Meanwhile, my comments about the first book.

5) Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell. The worldbuilding, so shallow. The plot, so predictable. And yet, I really enjoyed this story. My comments here.

6) Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Many tidbits stretched credulity, but I enjoyed this story very much.

7) The runner-up for the year: The Phoenix Feather series by Sherwood Smith. I loved this series, honestly. It was much lower-stress than the first book on this list, and long enough to really sink my teeth into, and I enjoyed so many things about it, particularly how casually the villains were handled and how the phoenix feather itself was handled at the end. More extensive comments here.

8) And the ultimate standout for 2022: The Scholomance trilogy. It’s going to be a long time, probably, before I read anything I love as much as this.

And I’m stopping there. I don’t think I can mention more than eight. I may not have read all that many more books than these! I mean, sure, a handful of others. But if I counted carefully and discovered I read just twenty or thirty novels in all of 2022, I wouldn’t be surprised.

I’ll never know, however, as I didn’t actually keep track.

However, one more, in a separate list of its own:

Nonfiction:

1. Someday I should do a list of my all-time favorite nonfiction books. An Immense World by Ed Yong will be at the top of the list. No other nonfiction book I’ve ever read in my life is cooler than this one. Here is my post about this book, where I pulled nearly random excerpts because you can throw a dart anywhere at this book and whatever paragraph you hit will be super neat.

Okay! Obviously there is PLENTY of room for YOU to suggest titles. What novels did YOU love most in 2022? I’m really curious! Please drop your favorites in the comments.