2022 in books

By Ollivier Robert

7th Feb 2026
9 min read
Tags:
english,
reading,
ebooks,
books,
2022

Preamble

Yes, we are in 2026, and this is the 2022 edition of the Year in Books(tm). Still working on catching up. 😅

2022 was a much better year for me work-wise; I found a new team to work with, even though it did not reflect that much in terms of reading. And there were even a couple DNF (aka Did Not Finish) ones…

Nevertheless, here it, only fiction this year, new and old authors and series. Please forgive me if the comments are shorter than usual, these were read like 5 years ago…

Our friends at Goodreads have done some nicely presented stats here and this article will go in more details than just stats :)

To the books!

Author of the Year

As much as I like Anne Bishop and V.E. Schwab, even though competition for Best Author was fierce this year, it must be John Gwynne with Malice. As a first book, it was just awesome. Loved it to pieces, plot, characters, etc. Everything is great in this series.

DNF

There are two books I did not finish this year, sadly.

Blindsight by Peter Watts. I wanted to read his books for quite some time as he is often mentioned, and… well, nope. Didn’t work at all for me.
Neither story nor characters.
Slow Horses by Mick Herron. Again, the first book in a series, so I will not finish it. I get the pitch, it was interesting, but as the title implies in a way, it was wayyyyy too slow for me. Lost interest.

Old Series

There we find series I started before 2022 like The Dresden Files and The Invisible Library.

Another year, another Anne Bishop book in the The World of the Others series I love. This time, we explore Crowbones, one of the most dangerous hunters amongst the Others. After a murder happens in Vicki DeVine’s establishment, someone is trying to stir up big troubles between Humans and the Others, and we know it is not going to work as they want.
Skin Game was this year’s Dresden Files book. After having difficulties with many things including living, Harry, now the Winter Knight for Mab, is tasked to retrieve nothing less than the Holy Grail from a very (like very) secure vault in the Neverwhere. While it sounds like a walk in the park, he alse has to compose with the choosen team, which include the (in)famous Nicodemus Archleone…
Then I went back to a series I started back in 2020, Rivers of London with the 3rd book, Whispers Under Ground. I’m afraid I don’t recall all the details, but I liked it better than the previous book, which I deemed weaker.
Why not reading another Laundry Files novel from Charles Stross. Meet again Alex from The Rhesus Chart in The Nightmare Stacks. Alex, who has a case of PHANG syndrome (which landed him in the Laundry), is assigned on a CASE NIGHTMARE entry (yet a different from the GREEN we have been hearing about for a long time). This is as usual, a great and funny book. I recommend the whole series.
It is always sad to see the end of a series, and not always easy to wrap up. But Genevieve Cogman did a splendid job of it in the 8th and last novel of The Invisible Library with The Untold Story. We finally get to the bottom of where Irene is coming from, the origin of the Library and everything. So long Irene and Kai, you are missed.
Everyone here knows that I love V.E. Schwab books. But I must say that I was a bit disappointed by Gallant. It is good, but I felt it not on par with other books. Interesting story though.
What’s not to like about John Scalzi’s books? Let me present you The Kaiju Preservation Society here Jamie Gray, having a bad case of loser job, finally meet an old friend who enroll him to work for an “Animal Rights” Organisation. Of course, there’s a catch called “Kaiju” which are, well, animals yes, but slightly different from our usual ones… Loved it.
Aside from the Lady Astronaut series, Mary Robinette Kowal wrote this “thriller in space” book called The Spare Man. Very different from her other books, I liked it a lot, especially the main character.
Last book this year was a new one in the Universe of Xuya by Aliette de Bodard. Enter the world of Mindships and humans, pirates in space and a vietnamese culture-inspired society. Enjoy the ride!

New Series (and authors)

Quite a few new authors in this section with debut works and I always welcome new voices in these genres.

The year started with a bang, with She Who Became the Sun where,in China under Mongol rule, a girl takes the identity of her dead brother to cheat on her destiny. Quite a powerful book on gender and queer identity, force of character and the power of the will to change. Recommended.
next were the two following books in Lindsay Buroker series I started in 2021: A Witch in Wolf Wood. I read Spell Hound and Any Witch Way. Morgen has to learn more of her grandma’s magic she inherited to free the werewolf and to protect him from… her “sisters” from the local coven, and they don’t really approve of her growing interest in him.
then came the “feel good” novel, a cozy fantasy by Travis Baldree called Legends and Lattes ¹. It is difficult to describe without spoilers, so I won’t. Just read and enjoy! The prequel is very good too.
as some of you may know from this blog, or elsewhere, anything related to Cryptography interests me. So, how could I resist some historical fiction involving Bletchley Park, the official site? I present this very interesting book about three women who worked there during WWII, were separated and have to get back together one last time. Great book The Rose Code written by Kate Quinn.
I finally got around to read Ack-Ack Macaque which was on my to-read list for a long time. It was definitely not what I expected (no spoilers), and I liked it a lot I must say. Good job by Gareth L. Powell, I’ll definitely read the next ones.

Series

Authors

The official sites for the authors, GR or WP if no site are available.