I wrote four blog posts last year with my reviews of books by my favorite authors, Brandon Sanderson, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and T. Kingfisher.
I won’t be talking about these books on this post to avoid repeating myself, but about the other books by other authors which were my favorites in 2022.
I also plan on writing a blog post about the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold soon, so I won’t be talking about the wonderful books I read from this series either.
All the books mentioned below were 4.5 to 5 stars for me, therefore I won’t be posting my Goodreads ratings here, but only the reviews.
Light Chaser by Peter F. Hamilton, Gareth L. Powell
Original and surprising, this Novella packs a punch in few words! I’ll be reading more by these brilliant authors soon.
The Mask Falling (The Bone Season #4) by Samantha Shannon.
A very good sequel, I could not put this book down. This is one of my favorite YA series because the writing is outstanding, the stakes are high and the story world and characters are deep and multi-layered. An above the average YA series, good enough for adults too.
On a Red Station, Drifting (Universe of Xuya) by Aliette de Bodard.
Beautifully written, with deep and important themes. This book makes me want to read everything in the Universe of Xuya.
The Citadel of Weeping Pearls (Universe of Xuya) by Aliette de Bodard.
I really like the writing style here and I want to read more books by Bodard.
It’s interesting how this author’s stories often addresses the ‘woman against woman’ competition, which happens extremely often in our society in different shades of indirect conflict, but in a not less fierce way than competition among men.
You had it as a central theme in The Citadel of Weeping Pearls with the empress mother versus her bright daughter and the relegated-to-second-place sister versus the bright sister.
This is an import theme that isn’t enough talked about in literature but Aliette de Bodard nails it.
Sweep of the Blade (Innkeeper Chronicles #4) by Ilona Andrews
I do prefer when the team of wife and husband Ilona Andrews chooses to write a more warrior-like heroine. Maud Demille is that with other original characteristics of her own since she’s a widow and her vampire in-laws have her sent to an hostile planet together with her young daughter due to to no fault of her own, but due to something her husband did. She fights and finds her way back into society and love, but this book shows how distrustful someone gets when they have been left outside in the cold by unreasonable and unfair people.
This was so entertaining, I really liked all the characters! I could not put this book down.
House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of the Salt #1) by Erin A. Craig
This is a quite Gothic, eerie, mysterious and dramatic retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses fairytale, but I really like this kind of story now and then and I could not put it down!
The Path of Thorns by A.G. Slatter, Angela Slatter.
A very atmospheric, beautifully written and interesting story with multi-layered characters. The audiobook was really nicely done. If you like this book I would recommend the Novella Of Sorrow and Such by this outstanding author!
Trigger Warning: Toxic relationships, but written in a deeply felt way! I never saw a book talk about this theme so well.
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint.
Great characters and storytelling, a really good new interpretation of Ariadne’s myth.
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey.
This was amazing, well written, with multi-layered characters and very profound themes. Not an easy read, it does contain scenes with domestic violence, but it’s a book out of the comfort zone and with food-for-thought of the utmost importance.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
This was a really amazing, humorous and entertaining book that I could not put down.
I really love Weir’s characters because they always strike me as what the GenX generation strives to be. They act with courage, independence and never tiring resourcefulness. They never feel pity of themselves for too long, no matter how difficult the situation and odds are, but they venture, persevere and do their best. And this is an important lesson for all of us if we want to survive the changing world of the future.
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys.
I absolutely loved this book and I recommend it too. It has a lot about first contact politics, near-future ways to cope with climatic change, and mothers changing the world for the better while changing diapers and carrying their babies around in slings too.
The aliens are extremely well fleshed out and interesting. It was original and different. I like when the first contact situation with its politics and conflicts is so well fleshed out.
It’s so lovely!!! I need more books like this!
Braking Day by Adam Oyebanji.
Above the average, original and entertaining space opera, with awesome story world, plot and characters!
This is an author to watch out for!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
I could not put this amazing book down! Wonderful multi-layered characters. And an extremely original story world, with an earned and beautifully written character journey. This was the first book I read by this author, but I’ll be surely reading more in the future!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The Maid by Nita Prose.
A lovely story with entertaining representative characters that I read in just one sitting.
Good thematic and representation of characters with disabilities and how society does an extremely poor job on protecting them against people who will commit violence or robbery or fraud on them.
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
As a mother of two boys I do have lots to laugh and relate about this character. 😉
Trigger: Violence against animals.
Awesome writing, I could not put it down. A book that talks about the role of women and mothers in society in a fair way.
The Pill by Meg Elison.
This short story packs a punch in few words. Food-for-thought, impressive, and amazing.
What means to be an individual, a person, and how much do we have to conform to what society expects from our bodies? Does society expects us to die to fit into those expectations?
I consider this theme extremely relevant due a number of people dying in operations done to improve their appearance nowadays. And this does not get enough focus and discussion as it should.
As a last consideration another question appears. What would happen to this people who were shown as fetiche objects when they would get older? Would they be still as valuable in that role? Such discussion would be interesting for a continuation of this story.
I found this amazing story here, go read it now!
The Dark Days Club , The Dark Days Pact and The Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman. (Lady Helen #1-3)
The whole Lady Helen trilogy was really entertaining historical regency/paranormal fantasy. I want to read more books by this author for sure!
Mickey7 (Mickey7 #1) by Edward Ashton
This is written in an humorous way that may sound too silly to some people but I just liked the bubble-headed main character and his journey into betterment. I could not help but think: “Poor guy, he has really the worst job ever and he can’t quit!”
This was a very entertaining story that I could not put down. I will be continuing this series and reading more by this author for sure.
Lock In (Lock In #1) by John Scalzi.
I considered this book quite prophetic and it is a pity I didn’t read this before 2020. I would have been so much more prepared to deal with the reverberation of a pandemic in the world and everything else that this book foresaw if I had.
One metaphor I considered very interesting is that with Haden Syndrome people were paralysed, not leaving their bodies and houses and doing everything online and this had a similar feeling to what happened during Lockdown, people still could move their bodies but were less able to leave their houses and were meeting other people socially, or working, online, so this book was so spot on metaphorically to what 2020 and somehow 2021 felt like.
Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe
This is an ongoing webtoon series with important themes that you can read here
Only a forewarning though, this is highly addictive and you will be waiting with bated breath for each new episode, every Sunday, from now on. And you might forget about everything else while reading the episodes already available on Webtoon.
And these were my favorites from last year. Which were yours? Link your blog post, Youtube video or just write them in the comments.
My Reader's Journey 