Note that these are books I read in those years, not books published in those years - though these days I am reading a lot from Netgalley, which are often advance copies of books that haven't yet been published, so a higher proportion of my reading is books published in the year I read them (or, occasionally, even the following year).
This year I added the highest number yet to the list: 52, so an average of one a week. The previous record was 32 in 2020, but up until 2017 I arbitrarily tied the number to the last digits of the year. If a book is good enough for me to recommend, even with caveats, it goes into the Best-Of list. Five-star books automatically go on the list, and it also includes a selection of four-star books that I think are worthy of mention. If you like to think of it in video-game tiers, five-star books are S tier (I refer to them below as "Platinum"); books in my Gold tier are A, Silver are B, Bronze are C, and a book that gets four stars but doesn't get on the list is D tier. There are 14 books this year that get four stars but no place on the list, out of 59 four-star books in total.
I've felt at various times this year that I wasn't getting many good books, which is surprising in light of the numbers given above. The resolution to the apparent paradox is that, lacking good new books, I started reading classics, and they feature heavily on my Best of the Year list.
Overall Statistics
I read, reviewed and rated 82 books in total in 2022, down from 90 in the previous year. I started and abandoned a few books that aren't reflected in the total, as usual. I also re-read the whole of my own five-book Auckland Allies series, in order to share authors' notes about them on Goodreads, which I don't count because I don't rate or review my own books. (I always think it's a bit of cheek for an author to give their own book a rating, especially since it's always 5 stars.)Here are my figures in a table:
| 5 star | 4 star | 3 star | 2 star | Total | |
| 2022 | 6 | 59 | 13 | 4 | 82 |
| 2021 | 5 | 54 | 29 | 3 | 90 |
| 2020 | 8 | 53 | 21 | 0 | 82 |
| 2019 | 11 | 36 | 17 | 1 | 65 |
| 2018 | 5 | 72 | 15 | 2 | 94 |
| 2017 | 10 | 56 | 19 | 0 | 85 |
| 2016 | 11 | 53 | 12 | 1 | 77 |
| 2015 | 11 | 68 | 19 | 2 | 101 |
| 2014 | 9 | 70 | 23 | 2 | 104 |
| Total | 76 | 520 | 168 | 15 | 780 |
| Average | 8 | 58 | 19 | 2 | 87 |
The 5-star book number is lower than average, and brings the average down slightly, whereas the opposite is true of the 2-star numbers. The 4-star number is about the same as last year and almost exactly the average.
Discovery
Where did I get these books? This year, only 25 came from Netgalley, substantially fewer than last year's 41: two of the six five-star (platinum-tier) books, and of the 59 four-star books two gold-tier books, six silver-tier, eight bronze-tier, and one four-star that didn't make the list, for a total of 17; four of the 13 three-star books, and two of the four two-star books. An increasing number of books on Netgalley look like inferior clones of popular books that may or may not themselves have been good, and of the ones that don't, some are fresh gems by authors previously unknown to me, and some are inept executions of a good premise, and I usually can't tell the difference without reading them.Another 25 books came from Project Gutenberg, including two Platinum, one Gold, six Silver, four Bronze, seven four-star but not Best Of (for 18 four-star books in total), four three-star and one two-star (The Crock of Gold, which, for me, had far too high a proportion of crock to gold).
Ten came from BookBub: no five-star, five four-star Bronze tier, two four-stars that didn't make the list, two three-stars and a two-star. All of the ten BookBub titles went on my Needs Editing shelf, and two of them on my Seriously Needs Editing shelf, which is a notably poor performance and a lot worse than last year's crop. (I don't usually mark the state of editing on the Netgalley books because they are often pre-publication, meaning they will probably receive more copy editing before release. Honestly, a lot of them need a lot of work.)
Four came from my Await Ebook Price Drop wish list on Amazon, where I park the books I hear about from various sources (mostly Fantasy Faction, Fantasy Literature, my Goodreads friends, and occasionally Tor.com) and want to read, but that are (for me) overpriced. The New Zealand dollar is especially weak against the USD at the moment, and I only read most books once, so I'm willing to wait until they're on sale. Of these four, one was 5-star, two were 4-star and Gold tier, and one was 3-star.
Four books I picked up because I know the authors on the Codex writers' forum. All four were Silver tier.
One, a five-star, came from the library as a physical book, and three via the library in e-audio (a four-star Bronze, a four-star not on the Best-Of list, and a three-star).
I didn't buy any books from Amazon's algorithm this year. The remainder were mostly continuations of series I'd read previously or books I already owned and was re-reading.
Top-Rated Books
So, here is my list, ranked again in tiers, but this time not ranked within the tiers (with 52 books, that's just too difficult, plus it was always a bit arbitrary). They're just in the (random, I think) order that Goodreads presents them to me in. Your taste may well vary, of course.Links are, as usual, to my Goodreads reviews.
First, the bronze tier: books that had notable flaws (or sometimes just weren't quite in the centre of my taste), but managed to entertain or impress me enough to earn a spot on the list despite this. Honestly, these are recommendations with a big asterix, but there is enough good in them that I give them an honourable mention.
Something New (Blandings Castle, #1) by Wodehouse, P.G.: Not up to the best Wodehouse, but fun.
Ought to be Dead by Warren, Scott: Terrible editing lets down an enjoyable story of well-intentioned necromancy.
The Knave of Secrets by Livingston, Alex: An overly convoluted plot and excessive plot armour on the characters, but good worldbuilding in this fantasy heist.
Silverlock by Myers, John: Too clever by half and a very old-fashioned adventure story, but with strengths mixed in with the weaknesses.
The Extractionist by Unger, Kimberly: Lots of mechanical issues, but a compelling cyberpunk story.
Sam in the Suburbs by Wodehouse, P.G.: The main flaw in this amusing story is the reliance on coincidence to drive the plot.
The Grief of Stones (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #2) by Addison, Katherine: I disagree with the author's choices of what in-world terms should and shouldn't be translated (and how), but it's a quietly moving story with a compassionate protagonist.
Manners and Monsters Collection, #1-3 by Wallace, Tilly: Appealing and well-drawn characters, scruffy editing and research in this Regency fantasy.
Nine Tenths by Macfee, Jeff: More hard-boiled noir than I prefer, but well executed.
Joseph Andrews Vol 1 by Fielding, Henry: Satire, though in what's now a very old-fashioned style.
Beneath the Canyons (Daughter of the Wildings, #1) by Halland, Kyra: I'm not a fan of some of the tropes here (including the threat of gang rape of the heroine through most of the book), but it's well executed.
Knife Children (The Sharing Knife #4.5) by Bujold, Lois McMaster: Good for a recent Bujold, most of which have been a bit insipid.
Observer by Lanza, Robert and Kress, Nancy: Nancy Kress takes a very unpromising and unlikely premise that really makes no sense and manages to write a strong character-driven book anyway.
Fool's Game by Dorn, R.M.: Scruffy execution and tell-don't-show characterization let down an otherwise entertaining and original fantasy.
The Frith Chronicles: ARC I (The Frith Chronicles Collection Book 1) by Stovall, Shami: Scruffy execution again, characters that don't really grow or change, but a compelling story with an appealing cast.
Magic Dark, Magic Divine (Warrior of the Divine Sword, #1) by Locke, A.J.: Sound emotional beats, but the worldbuilding doesn't make sense.
Magical Artifacts Institute: The Complete Series by Medina, Isa: A light, fluffy and amusing urban fantasy in a notably underpopulated world (there seem to be no background characters anywhere), with mediocre copy editing.
Greenmantle (Richard Hannay Book 2) by Buchan, John: A rousing adventure story marred by a plot driven by coincidence and very old-fashioned racist and colonialist attitudes.
Psmith in the City (Psmith, #2) by Wodehouse, P.G.: Clever and fun, based on Wodehouse's experiences working for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank before he succeeded as a writer, but not yet at the heights of his mature work.
Over the Moon by Anderson, S.E.: My trouble here was mostly suspension of disbelief, but it's a decent attempt at rewriting The Wizard of Oz as a space opera.
The Art of Prophecy (The War Arts Saga, #1) by Chu, Wesley: Well executed, but too close to grimdark for me; none of the struggles of the characters, or the many collateral-damage deaths, end up mattering much in a wuxia world where everything is set up to cause inevitable tragedy.
Now, the silver tier books. These are solid work with no significant flaws (for my taste, at least), that don't rise to the heights of Gold or Platinum; or, in at least one case (Middlemarch), they do rise to those heights but have a flaw that knocks them back down again.
Carry On, Jeeves by Wodehouse, P.G.: You either love Wodehouse or you don't. I do, and this is good Wodehouse, though once he went from writing linked shorts to writing full novels (in which the farce could be complicated much more), they became even better.
The Inimitable Jeeves by Wodehouse, P.G.
Very Good, Jeeves! by Wodehouse, P.G.
Summer Lightning (Blandings Castle, #4) by Wodehouse, P.G.: Classic Blandings (pig theft, imposters, hapless keen young men, the Earl being vague, romance being thwarted by officious aunts); let down a little by bland central characters in the romance subplots.
The Little Nugget by Wodehouse, P.G.: A repellent child, a reluctant schoolmaster, and kidnappers.
Prison of Sleep (Journals of Zaxony Delatree, #2) by Pratt, Tim: The first book got five stars from me in 2020, and while this isn't (for me) as good, it's still a sound bit of writing, with interdimensional travel, a cosmic threat (escalated from the previous book), and True Love.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Sterne, Laurence: Tristram Shandy hilariously fails to write his autobiography, being distracted by... everything.
Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Robson, Eddie: A translator for aliens investigates the apparent murder of her boss in a twisty plot with an original premise.
The Middling Affliction (Conradverse Chronicles #1) by Shvartsman, Alex: Urban fantasy, but not just from box mix, and featuring magical underdogs.
Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove by Mehrotra, Rati: Based on classic Indian myth, a fresh fantasy with lots of good conflict.
The Greater Trumps: A Novel by Williams, Charles: Strange, visionary, beautiful, mystical, honouring ordinary people; there's nothing like a Charles Williams book.
A Coup of Tea (Tea Princess Chronicles, #1) by Blair, Casey: A cosy fantasy in which the stakes do gradually escalate for a princess who's given up princessing to become a tea master.
Middlemarch by Eliot, George: A fine story, brilliantly written, with a central character who pulls off a magnificent and generous maneuver; dragged down the rankings because I found the omniscient narrator so much in my face that I wished she'd back off a little and let me see the characters directly, without her as a filter.
Bitter Medicine by Tsai, Mia: Fresh Asian-American fantasy that would have ranked higher if the century-old main character hadn't seemed so very young.
The Thirty-Nine Steps by Buchan, John: A prototypical thriller, over-reliant on coincidence, certainly, but exciting throughout in varied ways. Not much like any of the films as regards the plot.
Mary Quirk and the Reborn Realm (Dark Lessons Book 3) by St. Vincent, Anna: I enjoy these solidly written magic-school stories about sensible, brave, non-angsty teens stepping up for believable reasons.
Mary Quirk and the Language of Curses (Dark Lessons Book 4) by St. Vincent, Anna
Hyvilma (The Kitra Saga #3) by Marcus, Gideon: The previous books in the series made the list in 2020 and 2021, and this is just as good, with a determined, courageous, resourceful crew of young people having adventures together.
The gold tier books are not just solid work, but have something about them that lifts them above the ordinary run, while not making it all the way to five stars and the platinum tier.
Spark the Fire (Dragons of Mother Stone, #1) by McShane, Melissa: Melissa McShane has featured on this list multiple times before (in fact, this year, for the first time, I read a book by her that didn't make the list), and this is well up to her standard. A fresh premise (POV of a dragon who seeks peace and understanding with the humans) and her usual strong execution.
Paladin's Grace (The Saint of Steel, #1) by Kingfisher, T.: A grieving paladin of a dead god and a perfumer who has escaped an abusive relationship team up to investigate why people are getting decapitated, but mainly what they do is fall in love. A few editing imperfections kept it out of the Platinum tier.
Swordheart by Kingfisher, T.: Superficially similar to Paladin's Grace, but different enough that they're not just the same book written twice; this time the romance is between a cursed soldier bound to protect the owner of a sword and its new owner, a widow mistreated by her late husband's family.
Leave It to Psmith (Psmith, #4) by Wodehouse, P.G.: Wodehouse brings together two series, the Psmith series (which has been good, but not great, up to this point) and the Blandings Castle series (of which this is only the second entry), and the combination is more than the sum of its parts. This feels like classic Wodehouse has finally arrived, between deceptions, impersonations, romances which need their paths smoothed, and hard-bitten antagonists to be thwarted.
The Hollow Boys (The Dream Rider Saga, #1) by Smith, Douglas: I haven't seen much superhero fiction lately, and what I have seen is often poorly executed, but this raises the standard by a lot. Two determined, courageous, intelligent and equal protagonists, both of whom step beyond their archetypes and tropes and take effective action in a dire situation, despite their limitations.
The Voice In All by Auden, Audrey: Thought-provoking and fresh, this one has about six genres (fantasy, YA, post-apocalyptic, dystopian, cyberpunk and cosmic), which is probably a couple too many and kept it out of the platinum tier. It's well executed, though, and makes a few points with some depth.
Finally, the platinum tier, AKA the five-star books. No big surprise that half of them are classics, I suppose, but there are plenty of classics in the lower tiers, too.
The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves, #7) by Wodehouse, P.G.: A novel-length Jeeves and Wooster story, which gives the author space to really complicate matters into the kind of apparently hopeless tangle that's very satisfying to see resolved at the end. Two MacGuffins, two romances, and many scrapes for Bertie before Jeeves comes through with the win.
A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, Charles: Not my usual read (arguably a dystopian), but so excellently done that I couldn't leave it out of the top tier. Pulls off the Glorious Ending (where an act of love and generosity by one of the characters averts a tragedy).
Right Ho, Jeeves (Jeeves, #6) by Wodehouse, P.G.: Another novel-length Jeeves and Wooster adventure, which pulls off the difficult feat of making really quite unimportant matters seem like life or death, and also delivers one of the greatest set-pieces in English-language comedy in the form of Gussie Fink-Nottle's drunken address to the school prizegiving.
The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn, #6) by Sanderson, Brandon: Every volume of the Mistborn series has received five stars from me, because they're not only meticulously executed, they also manage to walk the difficult line of being both funny and profound. They're exciting and full of worldbuilding and full of excellent character work, avert or play with tropes whenever possible, and, of course, they're fantasy superhero heists, which are three things I love in one wonderful package.
Locklands (The Founders Trilogy, #3) by Bennett, Robert Jackson: Another fantasy series that's very out of the ordinary, almost science-fictional in its development of the magic system, and full of drama, excitement and, at the same time, deep character work. Takes a high-concept premise and doesn't disappoint with the execution.
The Tangled Stars by Willett, Edward: Space opera heist, though that's not the main focus, featuring a strong noir voice, a pacy plot with an excellent throughline that still takes the time to develop the characters, and multiple suspenseful moments.
Author Gender Breakdown
I started compiling figures for author gender (based on what's on their Goodreads profiles) for my top list in 2018. Without operating a quota system of any kind, I've been slowly moving from about 50/50 male and female authors towards a skew to female authors, but this year reversed that (probably because I was reading a lot of older books); by my count, across the 82 books I read in 2022, the authors totalled 48 male, 34 female and 0 nonbinary. I count the same author multiple times if I read multiple books by that author, though where I had an omnibus edition with several books in one, I've only counted that as one book and one author. The numbers in my top lists also usually skew female recently (more so than the total list), but again, not so much this year.| M | F | N | Total | |
| 2022 | 32 | 20 | 0 | 52 |
| 2021 | 6 | 25 | 1 | 32 |
| 2020 | 13 | 18 | 1 | 32 |
| 2019 | 6 | 14 | 1 | 21 |
| 2018 | 7 | 12 | 19 | |
| 2017 | 8 | 9 | 17 | |
| 2016 | 6 | 9 | 15 | |
| 2015 | 10 | 5 | 15 | |
| 2014 | 4 | 10 | 14 | |
| Total | 112 | 102 | 3 | 217 |
| Average | 12 | 11 | 0 | 24 |
Protagonist gender is also skewed towards female, which is a conscious choice (I just find women more interesting protagonists), but with 52 books this year, I haven't taken the time to figure out the exact numbers.
Summing Up
I had a very mixed reading year this year; some classics, some brand-new books, some in between. I put more of them on my Best of the Year list than ever before, yet still felt I'd had trouble finding good books to read. Clearly, looking at my platinum tier, what I want is comedy AND a heist AND a speculative element AND a twisty, pacy plot AND development of characters who aren't just archetypes AND are good-hearted AND a bit of insight into human nature AND a distinctive voice I can immerse in because the whole thing is expertly executed. I mean, that's not asking for much, right?As at 2019 I'd put exactly 100 books on my Best of the Year lists in six years. Three years later, having removed the constraint on numbers that I operated with in the first few years, I've more than doubled that number of recommendations to 205, out of 780 books that I've reviewed in the past nine years. I hope you can find something you enjoy among them all.
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