Top Ten Books of 2022
Jan. 9th, 2023 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaI think most of these are in fact 2022 releases -- but as always, these lists are based on what I read, not on release date. If I read a whole series, it counts as one book. I had real trouble paring this list down, because I read a lot of books that were good in 2022.
So, in no particular order...
1. The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson
(The Traitor Baru Cormorant, The Monster Baru Cormorant, and The Tyrant Baru Cormorant)
What It Is: A fantasy series about a young woman whose homeland is colonized and how she attempts to infiltrate the empire to destroy it, without losing herself in the process.
What I Loved: The too-real depiction of the horrors of imperialism and the many, benign-appearing faces they were. The nuanced and three-dimensional portrayal of resistance against the empire, which allows for differing viewpoints without the fake nuance that plagues bad YA novels. The worldbuilding, which is some of the densest and deftest I've ever seen, with a huge cast of characters and countries and cultures all treated thoughtfully.
Favorite Character: Tain Hu is my wife. Hot warrior Duchess who goes around seducing maidens and swearing fealty to nerds? Literal catnip to my gay ass.
2. Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
What It Is: The third installment in The Locked Tomb series, this time from the point of view of Nona, who is living a strange and dangerous life on a planet under siege by The Nine Houses' empire.
What I Loved: This installment contains three things I think are sorely needed after the trauma conga line that was GtN and HtN. One, a narrator who is genuinely having a good time. Two, this installment zooms out of the Emperor's sphere of influence and puts us on the ground in the wider galaxy for the first time. Three, it actually offers substantive answers to things that have been happening, in a mostly straightforward way. We get Cam and Pal. We get the John Gaius backstory. We get actual information about Alecto. We get to meet BoE. It took me a while to get through this one--I think more than a month--but it was well worth savoring. If you bounced off HtN, read this one!
Favorite Character: Pyrrha Dove is also my wife. Hot masculine asshole woman...full of love...
3. Monstrous series by Lily Mayne
(Soul Eater, Edin, The Rycke, Wyn, Gloam, Moth, Seraph)
What It Is: A series of paranormal romances set in a post-apocalyptic near-future where the world has been overrun by monsters from another dimension. Each novel advances an overarching plot while depicting a different monster/human mlm couple.
What I Loved: The first installment, Soul Eater, features Wyn/Danny, who have the couple dynamic that is like catnip to me: sunshine/grumpy, ingenue/cynic, nice guy/ancient evil dude. I read this one probably five or six times. I am obsessed with them and would have read the rest of the series just for the occasional glimpse of them. However, the rest of the series is also good! I like the variety, I like that Mayne isn't afraid to make her monsters monstrous, and I found the plot genuinely quite compelling, enough that I read even the installments with couples I didn't like with great interest. Mayne was my most read author this year.
Favorite Character: Danny, solely because from his POV it's all "how could Wyn love a lame human like me" and from every other character's POV it's like "why is that extremely nice dude who looks like a model dating Wyn??" and it is extremely funny to me.
4. Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall
What It Is: A queer historical romantic comedy with a dash of anachronism.
What I Loved: This is one of those books where every page I was smiling or gasping or feeling something. I love the demisexual, confused Duke and I love Bonny and I love the overall queerness of the book and I love that even minor characters get to have depth and nuance. I hunted through five bookstores before finally finding a physical copy at my local queer bookstore. Probably one of my favorite books of all time.
Favorite Character: Valentine
5. The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
What It Is: A danmei parody of transmigration novels ft. an anti-fan who gets transmigrated into the book he hates and ends up falling for his favorite character.
What I Loved: This was my main fandom of 2022. The translations are excellent--sharp, funny, super readable. Shen Yuan is one of the least reliable narrators I have ever seen in my life and I love him for it. One of my favorite books of all time. I bought three versions of Vol. 4.
Favorite Character: Mobei-jun. Listen, if MXTX won't give him interiority, I will invent a whole backstory and personality for me and that IS a threat. I'm also a Shang Qinghua stan but Mobei-jun is the guy who got the brunt of my instinct to worldbuild.
6. Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell
What It Is: A space romance set in the same universe as Winter's Orbit about a telepath and his psychic bond with a soldier with the power of mind control as they unravel a conspiracy and fall in love.
What I Loved: This is one of those books that made me fully insane. Maxwell's treatment of the different forms of telepathy is so interesting and what she does with it is so compelling and the romance is a slow burn that makes you want to start biting things from the sheer intensity. Unlike Winter's Orbit, this doesn't really line up with traditional romance tropes--there's barely any kissing, even--but I thought it was viscerally romantic in a way few books are despite that.
Favorite Character: Surit. I love it when characters have insane moral fiber.
7. Babel, Or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
What It Is: A historical fantasy about the British Empire and the colonization of language.
What I Loved: This is one of those books that i genuinely believe will endure the test of time. It's a book about the grief of diaspora and the horror of colonialism and it uses the fantasy element to illustrate the actual historical and modern evils its about very well. It is an unsubtle book, but frankly I see no need to treat the subject matter with subtlety! The British Empire actually existed and it objectively was responsible for a ridiculous number of horrible events and I find reviews of this book that boil down to "well it makes me FEEL BAD" tiresome as fuck. In the shitshow that was 2022 I think this was a necessary book. And yes, it's enjoyable to read and well-written and it will suck you in and keep you turning pages. It's just a damn good novel.
Favorite Character: Ramy.
8. The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
What It Is: The second installment in the Cemeteries of Amalo series, which tells the stories of a Speaker for the Dead named Celehar.
What I Loved: Addison's worldbuilding is some of the best I've ever read. Amalo is as real to me as Ankh-Mopork. And I love Celehar, who is tragic and does not love himself and has such deep compassion for others. I think this book advances his arc in a really interesting way and I'm very hyped about the final installment.
Favorite Character: Celehar.
9. The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
What It Is: A romance of manners with a paranormal twist, featuring a magician with telekinesis and the woman he inadvertently falls for.
What I Loved: I loooove a regency-esque romance with magic in it. It's so satisfying to watch Hector and Nina's romance, and I love a heroine who doesn't fit into society and doesn't have to to be loved.
Favorite Character: Nina!
10. The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang
What It Is: A short story collection of translated Chinese speculative fiction, ft. female and nonbianry authors.
What I Loved: Having gotten into danmei this year, I was interested in more translated Chinese fiction, and this collection I enjoyed quite a bit. I especially enjoyed the essays!
Favorite Story: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
So, in no particular order...
1. The Masquerade series by Seth Dickinson
(The Traitor Baru Cormorant, The Monster Baru Cormorant, and The Tyrant Baru Cormorant)
What It Is: A fantasy series about a young woman whose homeland is colonized and how she attempts to infiltrate the empire to destroy it, without losing herself in the process.
What I Loved: The too-real depiction of the horrors of imperialism and the many, benign-appearing faces they were. The nuanced and three-dimensional portrayal of resistance against the empire, which allows for differing viewpoints without the fake nuance that plagues bad YA novels. The worldbuilding, which is some of the densest and deftest I've ever seen, with a huge cast of characters and countries and cultures all treated thoughtfully.
Favorite Character: Tain Hu is my wife. Hot warrior Duchess who goes around seducing maidens and swearing fealty to nerds? Literal catnip to my gay ass.
2. Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
What It Is: The third installment in The Locked Tomb series, this time from the point of view of Nona, who is living a strange and dangerous life on a planet under siege by The Nine Houses' empire.
What I Loved: This installment contains three things I think are sorely needed after the trauma conga line that was GtN and HtN. One, a narrator who is genuinely having a good time. Two, this installment zooms out of the Emperor's sphere of influence and puts us on the ground in the wider galaxy for the first time. Three, it actually offers substantive answers to things that have been happening, in a mostly straightforward way. We get Cam and Pal. We get the John Gaius backstory. We get actual information about Alecto. We get to meet BoE. It took me a while to get through this one--I think more than a month--but it was well worth savoring. If you bounced off HtN, read this one!
Favorite Character: Pyrrha Dove is also my wife. Hot masculine asshole woman...full of love...
3. Monstrous series by Lily Mayne
(Soul Eater, Edin, The Rycke, Wyn, Gloam, Moth, Seraph)
What It Is: A series of paranormal romances set in a post-apocalyptic near-future where the world has been overrun by monsters from another dimension. Each novel advances an overarching plot while depicting a different monster/human mlm couple.
What I Loved: The first installment, Soul Eater, features Wyn/Danny, who have the couple dynamic that is like catnip to me: sunshine/grumpy, ingenue/cynic, nice guy/ancient evil dude. I read this one probably five or six times. I am obsessed with them and would have read the rest of the series just for the occasional glimpse of them. However, the rest of the series is also good! I like the variety, I like that Mayne isn't afraid to make her monsters monstrous, and I found the plot genuinely quite compelling, enough that I read even the installments with couples I didn't like with great interest. Mayne was my most read author this year.
Favorite Character: Danny, solely because from his POV it's all "how could Wyn love a lame human like me" and from every other character's POV it's like "why is that extremely nice dude who looks like a model dating Wyn??" and it is extremely funny to me.
4. Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall
What It Is: A queer historical romantic comedy with a dash of anachronism.
What I Loved: This is one of those books where every page I was smiling or gasping or feeling something. I love the demisexual, confused Duke and I love Bonny and I love the overall queerness of the book and I love that even minor characters get to have depth and nuance. I hunted through five bookstores before finally finding a physical copy at my local queer bookstore. Probably one of my favorite books of all time.
Favorite Character: Valentine
5. The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
What It Is: A danmei parody of transmigration novels ft. an anti-fan who gets transmigrated into the book he hates and ends up falling for his favorite character.
What I Loved: This was my main fandom of 2022. The translations are excellent--sharp, funny, super readable. Shen Yuan is one of the least reliable narrators I have ever seen in my life and I love him for it. One of my favorite books of all time. I bought three versions of Vol. 4.
Favorite Character: Mobei-jun. Listen, if MXTX won't give him interiority, I will invent a whole backstory and personality for me and that IS a threat. I'm also a Shang Qinghua stan but Mobei-jun is the guy who got the brunt of my instinct to worldbuild.
6. Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell
What It Is: A space romance set in the same universe as Winter's Orbit about a telepath and his psychic bond with a soldier with the power of mind control as they unravel a conspiracy and fall in love.
What I Loved: This is one of those books that made me fully insane. Maxwell's treatment of the different forms of telepathy is so interesting and what she does with it is so compelling and the romance is a slow burn that makes you want to start biting things from the sheer intensity. Unlike Winter's Orbit, this doesn't really line up with traditional romance tropes--there's barely any kissing, even--but I thought it was viscerally romantic in a way few books are despite that.
Favorite Character: Surit. I love it when characters have insane moral fiber.
7. Babel, Or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
What It Is: A historical fantasy about the British Empire and the colonization of language.
What I Loved: This is one of those books that i genuinely believe will endure the test of time. It's a book about the grief of diaspora and the horror of colonialism and it uses the fantasy element to illustrate the actual historical and modern evils its about very well. It is an unsubtle book, but frankly I see no need to treat the subject matter with subtlety! The British Empire actually existed and it objectively was responsible for a ridiculous number of horrible events and I find reviews of this book that boil down to "well it makes me FEEL BAD" tiresome as fuck. In the shitshow that was 2022 I think this was a necessary book. And yes, it's enjoyable to read and well-written and it will suck you in and keep you turning pages. It's just a damn good novel.
Favorite Character: Ramy.
8. The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
What It Is: The second installment in the Cemeteries of Amalo series, which tells the stories of a Speaker for the Dead named Celehar.
What I Loved: Addison's worldbuilding is some of the best I've ever read. Amalo is as real to me as Ankh-Mopork. And I love Celehar, who is tragic and does not love himself and has such deep compassion for others. I think this book advances his arc in a really interesting way and I'm very hyped about the final installment.
Favorite Character: Celehar.
9. The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
What It Is: A romance of manners with a paranormal twist, featuring a magician with telekinesis and the woman he inadvertently falls for.
What I Loved: I loooove a regency-esque romance with magic in it. It's so satisfying to watch Hector and Nina's romance, and I love a heroine who doesn't fit into society and doesn't have to to be loved.
Favorite Character: Nina!
10. The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang
What It Is: A short story collection of translated Chinese speculative fiction, ft. female and nonbianry authors.
What I Loved: Having gotten into danmei this year, I was interested in more translated Chinese fiction, and this collection I enjoyed quite a bit. I especially enjoyed the essays!
Favorite Story: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
