On my old blog, I would post a “best of the half-year” around the end of June, listing the five best books I’d read in the preceding six months. Since I’m doing things differently on this new blog, I decided to steal an idea from Nina Allan’s blog (see here), and instead describe…
The best book so far of 2022
To be fair, there’s not been much competition in this space in 2022. I’ve been doing a lot of rereading, and few of the books I’ve read which were new to me could hardly be described as “high lit”… But Henry Green is a writer I admire a great deal, and his Caught (1943, UK) is every bit as good as his other works. Green was not only a master of voices, but he did things with prose that leaves me in awe. An absolute masterclass.
The best reread so far of 2022
I did mention I’d been doing lots of rereading, didn’t I? Mostly, I admit, of old sf novels I last read in the 1970s and 1980s. And yes, I know, poisoning my own childhood memories and all that, but I read the books with my eyes open (er, obviously). Many of the books failed to explain why I had fond memories of them, but two survived their rereads intact: The Ophiuchi Hotline (1976, USA) by John Varley, which I admit is a favourite and I’ve reread several times; and Driftglass (1971, USA) by Samuel R Delany, which I’d read only the once before, in the early 1980s. The former presses a lot of buttons for me, and the latter contains some excellent novellas and, to be fair, a handful of forgettable short stories.
I’ve also been rereading a lot of Georgette Heyer, and while they’re lots of fun, and some are better than others, it’s still often hard to get over the fact they’re exclusively about extremely privileged white people.
The best sequel so far of 2022
I’ve been working my way through several series over the last year or two — some are rereads, some are mostly new to me. Among the former are Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, Frank Herbert’s Dune, Jack Vance’s Demon Princes, and EC Tubb’s Dumarest. I’d previously read the first four or five books of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and am now reading books in the series new to me. Also new to me are instalments of Justina Robson’s Quantum Gravity and Mike Shupp’s Destiny Makers. Selling Out (2007, UK), the second book of the Quantum Gravity quintet, is a clear winner in this category. It’s been a while since I read the first book in the series, but this one, I felt, was a lot more fun, and very cleverly put together.
I also think I should mention Ilario: The Lion’s Eye (2006, UK) by Mary Gentle, which is not a sequel, but a prequel. It’s set in the same universe as Ash: A Secret History (2000, UK), and while no book can match that magnum opus, Ilario: The Lion’s Eye is a fascinating and beautifully-written journey around the world of the two books.
The best new release I’ve not read so far in 2022
I’m not sure how I can describe the books in this category as “best” if I’ve not actually read them, but looking at my TBR… the books on it I’m most looking forward to reading, and which were published in the last twelve months, are Flint and Mirror (2022, USA) by John Crowley, Beyond the Hallowed Sky (2021, UK) by Ken MacLeod, and Eversion (2022, UK) by Alastair Reynolds. All three are favourite writers and rarely disappoint.
I’ve not bought as many books this year as I did in previous years — I’ve not bought as many books each year since I moved to Sweden as I did in previous years. This is probably a good thing.
The most anticipated release of 2022
This was definitely The Landing (2022, UK) by Mary Gentle, which was due in September, but it seems to have been pushed back to March 2023. Another book I’m looking forward to is Kairos (2021, Germany) by Jenny Erpenbeck, which has already been translated from German into a number of different languages, including, I believe, Swedish, but I’ve yet to see a date for an English edition. The book also shares its title with one of my favourite sf novels, Kairos (1988, UK) by Gwyneth Jones.
The biggest disappointment of 2022
I mentioned Heyer earlier, but it wasn’t until last year I tried one of her crime novels. I didn’t like it much — peopled by a cast who, quite frankly, all deserved to be murdered. And the same is true of A Christmas Party (1941, UK), whose title (not its original, which was Envious Casca) pretty much suggests its entire plot — a group of horrible people, friends and relatives, descend on a country manor for Christmas, are snowed in, the lord of the manor is found dead in a locked room… and absolutely everyone has a motive for wanting him dead.
Other disappointments… If a book fails to live up to its marketing, should that be considered disappointing? But then who actually believes book marketing these days? I’ve seen books advertised with the slogan “TikTok made me buy it”, which I guess is publishers trying to emulate JK Rowling’s word-of-mouth success but is nonetheless far from a good reason to buy a book. I wouldn’t say The Cabinet (2006, South Korea) by Un-su Kim, or The Kingdoms (2021, UK) by Natasha Pulley, were over-sold by their publishers, but both had intriguing premises the books to my mind failed to live up to.
The biggest surprise of 2022
This would have to be Under the Pendulum Sun (2017, UK) by Jeanette Ng. I’m aware of who Jeanette Ng is, I’ve met her several times; but I’m not a fan of fantasy and it doesn’t matter what additional labels publishers’ publicists put on fantasy novels, they rarely actually distance it much from “Extruded Fantasy Product”, as someone once described it. Under the Pendulum Sun was on offer from the publishers, and while I didn’t put much store by the “Gothic fantasy” label, I decided to give it a go. And… it is very Gothic. It is, in fact, more than that, it’s an unholy mixture of early nineteenth century literature written by women, Victorian theology, Victorian occult writings, and an extremely original piece of world-building. By halfway through the book, I was a fan. It’s a shame she has yet to follow it up. Nice cover art, too.
