Fantasy Book Critic's Most Anticipated Books of 2022 (Part I) [by Caitlin G., Lukasz P. & Mihir W.]
The Starless Crown by James
Rollins
Series/Standalone:
The Moonfall Saga #1
Release date:
January 4th 2022
Official Blurb: A gifted student foretells an apocalypse.
Her reward is a sentence of death.
Fleeing into the unknown she is drawn into a team of outcasts:
A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he’s forbidden to wield
and carves a trail back home.
A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother's shadow and claims a
purpose of his own.
An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming
artifact - one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe.
On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must learn to trust each other
in order to survive in a world evolved in strange, beautiful, and deadly ways,
and uncover ancient secrets that hold the key to their salvation.
But with each passing moment, doom draws closer.
WHO WILL CLAIM THE STARLESS CROWN?
Deep Dive by Ron Walters
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: January 11th 2022
Add it on Goodreads
Official Blurb: When your reality
shatters, what will you do to put it back together again?
Still reeling from the failure of his last
project, videogame developer Peter Banuk is working hard to ensure his next
game doesn’t meet the same fate. He desperately needs a win, not only to save
his struggling company, but to justify the time he’s spent away from his wife
and daughters.
So when Peter’s tech-genius partner
offers him the chance to beta-test a new state-of-the-art virtual reality
headset, he jumps at it. But something goes wrong during the trial, and Peter
wakes to find himself trapped in an eerily familiar world where his children no
longer exist.
As the lines between the real and virtual worlds
begin to blur, Peter is forced to reckon with what truly matters to him. But
can he escape his virtual prison before he loses his family forever?
A Practical Guide to Conquering the World by K. J. Parker
Series/Standalone: The Siege #3
Release date: January 11th 2022
Official Blurb: A Practical Guide to Conquering the World can be read by itself, but for those who like endings it can also be
considered the refreshingly pragmatic conclusion to World Fantasy Award-winning
author K.J. Parker’s acclaimed sequence of novels that began with Sixteen
Ways to Defend a Walled City and continue with How to Rule an
Empire and Get Away with It.
This is the true story of Aemilius Felix
Boioannes the younger, the intended and unintended consequences of his life,
the bad stuff he did on purpose, and the good stuff that happened in spite of
him.
It is, in other words, the tale of a war to end all wars, and the man
responsible.
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia
Nagamatsu
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: January 18th, 2022
Servant Mage by Kate Elliot
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: January 18th, 2022
Official Blurb: Fellion is a Lamplighter, able to provide
illumination through magic. A group of rebel Monarchists free her from
indentured servitude and take her on a journey to rescue trapped compatriots
from an underground complex of mines.
Along the way they get caught up in a conspiracy
to kill the latest royal child and wipe out the Monarchist movement for good.
But Fellion has more than just her Lamplighting
skills up her sleeve…
A Sorrow Named Joy by Sarah
Chorn
Series/Standalone: Standalone novella
Release date: January 2022
No GR or Amazon links yet
No
Official Blurb Yet
Dead Silence by S.A.
Barnes
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: February 8th 2022
Official Blurb: A GHOST SHIP.
A SALVAGE CREW.
UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS.
Claire Kovalik is days away from being
unemployed―made obsolete―when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange
distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire
and her team decide to investigate.
What they find at the other end of the signal is
a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on
its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim
like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through
the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.
Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement.
Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out
what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet
the same ghastly fate.
Rise Of The Mages by Scott
Drakeford
Series/Standalone: The Age Of Ire #1
Release date: February 8th 2022
Official Blurb: Emrael Ire wants
nothing more than to test to be a weapons master. His final exam will be a
bloody insurrection, staged by corrupt nobles and priests, that enslaves his
brother.
With the aid of his War Master tutor, herself an
undercover mage, Emrael discovers his own latent and powerful talents.
To rescue his brother, Emrael must embrace not
only his abilities as a warrior but also his place as last of the ancient Mage
Kings―for the Fallen God has returned.
And he is hungry.
The Bear of Byzantium by S. J. A. Turney
Series/Standalone: The Wolves of Odin #2
Release date: February 10th 2022
Official Blurb: AD 1041. After
successfully avenging the death of his father, Halfdan and the crew of
the Sea Wolf seek adventure in strange new lands, far from
their Scandinavian home.
They join the fleet of Harald Hardrada, the legendary Viking commander, sailing
back to Constantinople from the battlefields of Georgia. There they join the
Varangians, the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperors populated almost
exclusively by Viking warriors. But Constantinople has changed during
Hardrada’s long absence.
The Emperor, Michael IV, is ailing visibly, and powerful factions in his court
are setting their plans in motion ahead of his inevitable demise. While
courtiers scheme, elements even within the Varangian Guard are picking sides.
Gunnhild, the seer among the Sea Wolf crew, has struck out on her own in the
big city. Unable to join the all-male Guard alongside her friends, she
establishes herself in a small side-street near the port as a healer and
soothsayer, offering cures to the sick and glimpses of the future to the
desperate, or the conspiratorial. But in all her visions she sees a wolf, a
boar and a golden bear fighting together to support the Byzantine throne. The
Norns aren’t finished with them yet…
The Justice of Kings by Richard
Swan
Series/Standalone: Empire of the Wolf
#1
Release date: February 22nd 2022
Official Blurb: The Empire of the
Wolf simmers with unrest. Rebels, heretics, and powerful patricians all
challenge the power of the Imperial throne.
Only the Order of Justices stands in the way of
chaos. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is the most feared Justice of all, upholding the law
by way of his sharp mind, arcane powers, and skill as a swordsman. At his side
stands Helena Sedanka, his talented protégé, orphaned by the wars that forged
the Empire.
When the pair investigates the murder of a
provincial aristocrat, they unearth a conspiracy that stretches to the very top
of Imperial society. As the stakes rise and become ever more personal, Vonvalt
and Helena must make a choice: Will they abandon the laws they’ve sworn to
uphold, in order to protect the Empire?
Last Exit by Max Gladstone
Series/Standalone: Standalone (for now)
Release date: February 22nd 2022
Official Blurb: Ten years ago,
Zelda led a band of merry adventurers whose knacks let them travel to alternate
realities and battle the black rot that threatened to unmake each world. Zelda
was the warrior; Ish could locate people anywhere; Ramon always knew what path
to take; Sarah could turn catastrophe aside. Keeping them all connected: Sal,
Zelda’s lover and the group's heart.
Until their final, failed mission, when Sal was
lost. When they all fell apart.
Ten years on, Ish, Ramon, and Sarah are happy
and successful. Zelda is alone, always traveling, destroying rot throughout the
US.
When it boils through the crack in the Liberty
Bell, the rot gives Zelda proof that Sal is alive, trapped somewhere in the
alts.
Zelda’s getting the band back together―plus
Sal’s young cousin June, who has a knack none of them have ever seen before.
As relationships rekindle, the friends begin to
believe they can find Sal and heal all the worlds. It’s not going to be easy,
but they’ve faced worse before.
But things have changed, out there in the alts.
And in everyone's hearts.
The Paradox Hotel by Rob
Hart
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: February 22nd 2022
Official Blurb: For someone with January Cole’s background,
running security at a fancy hotel shouldn’t be much of a challenge.
Except the Paradox is no ordinary hotel. Here,
the ultra-wealthy guests are costumed for a dozen different time periods, all
anxiously waiting to catch their “flights” to the past. And proximity to the
timeport makes for an interesting stay. The clocks run backwards on
occasion—and, rumor has it, ghosts stroll the halls.
Now, January’s job is about to get a whole lot
harder. Because the U.S. government is getting ready to privatize time-travel
technology—and a handful of trillionaires have just arrived to put down their
bids.
Meanwhile there’s a blizzard rolling in, and the
timestream’s acting strange. Which means nobody’s leaving until further notice.
And there’s a murderer on the loose.
Or at least, that’s what January suspects.
Except the corpse in question is one that somehow only she can see. And the
accidents stalking their prestigious guests…well, the only way a killer could
engineer those is by operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once. Which
is surely impossible.
There’s a reason January can glimpse what others
can’t. But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality—and forcing her
to confront secrets of her own.
Because here at the Paradox Hotel, the past is
waiting around every corner.
All The Horses of Iceland by Sarah
Tolmie
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: March 1st 2022
Official Blurb: Everyone knows of
the horses of Iceland, wild, and small, and free, but few have heard their
story. Sarah Tolmie’s All the Horses of Iceland weaves their
mystical origin into a saga for the modern age. Filled with the magic and
darkened whispers of a people on the cusp of major cultural change, All
the Horses of Iceland tells the tale of a Norse trader, his travels
through Central Asia, and the ghostly magic that followed him home to the land
of fire, stone, and ice. His search for riches will take him from Helmgard,
through Khazaria, to the steppes of Mongolia, where he will barter for horses
and return with much, much more.
All the Horses of Iceland is a delve into the secret, imagined history of
Iceland's unusual horses, brought to life by an expert storyteller.
The Broken Room by Peter
Clines
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: March 1st 2022
Natalie can't remember much of her
life before her family brought her to the US, but she remembers the cages. And
getting taken away to the Project with dozens of other young children to become
part of their nightmarish experiments. That's how she ended up with the ghost
of a dead secret agent stuck in her head.
And Hector owes Natalie's ghost a big
favor.
Now Hector and Natalie
are on the run from an army of killers sent to retrieve her. Because the people
behind the Project are willing to risk almost anything to get Natalie back and
complete their experiments.
Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: March 15th 2022
Ogres are stronger than you.
Ogres rule the world.
It’s always idyllic in the village
until the landlord comes to call.
Because the landlord is an Ogre. And
Ogres rule the world, with their size and strength and appetites. It’s always
been that way. It’s the natural order of the world. And they only eat people
sometimes.
But when the headman’s son, Torquell, dares lift his hand against the landlord’s son, he sets himself on a path to learn the terrible truth about the Ogres, and about the dark sciences that ensured their rule.
Kundo Wakes Up by Saad
Z. Hossain
Series/Standalone: Standalone sequel (set in
the same world as The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday)
Release date: March 15th 2022
Kundo, once a famous artist with the Karma points to prove it, goes searching for his missing wife, only to uncover more inexplicable disappearances. And so Kundo and a group of motley companions embark on a tumultuous journey through an overwhelming maze made up of Chittagong’s neighborhoods, the hidden backrooms of video game parlors, and the depths of cyberspace, culminating in the realm of the djinn themselves, in search of love, redemption, and a good meal.
Reptile Memoirs by Silje
Ulstein
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: March 15th 2022
Official Blurb: Liv
has a lot of secrets. For her, home is the picturesque town of Ålesund, perched
on a fjord in western Norway. One night, in the early-morning embers of a great
party in the basement apartment she shares with two friends, Liv is watching
TV, high on weed, and sees a python on an Australian nature show. She becomes
obsessed with the idea of buying a snake as a pet. Soon Nero, the baby Burmese
python, becomes the apartment's fourth roommate. As Liv bonds with Nero, she feels
extremely protective, like a caring mother, and she is struck by a desire that
surprises her with its intensity. Finally she is safe.
Thirteen years later, in the nearby
town of Kristiansund, Mariam Lind goes on a shopping trip with her
eleven-year-old daughter, Iben, who angers her mother by asking for a magazine
one too many times. Mariam storms off, leaving Iben in the shop and, expecting
her young daughter to find her own way home, heads off on a long calming drive.
When she returns home in the evening, her husband is relieved to see her but
terrified that Iben isn't also there. Detective Roe Olsvik is assigned to the
case of Iben's disappearance; he has just turned sixty and is new to the
Kristiansund police department. As he interrogates Mariam, he instantly
suspects her—but there is much more to this case and these characters than
their outer appearances would suggest.
A biting and
constantly shifting tale of family secrets, rebirth, and the legacy of
trauma, Reptile Memoirs is a brilliant exploration of the
cold-bloodedness of humanity, and the struggle to mend broken lives and
families.
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John
Scalzi
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: March 15th 2022
Official Blurb: When COVID-19
sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food
delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance,
Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team
needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie,
eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals
his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an
alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm
and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda
and they're in trouble.
It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society
whose found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their
carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
My Volcano by John
Elizabeth Stintzi
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: March 22nd 2022
As the volcano grows and then looms
over New York, an eight-year-old boy in Mexico City finds himself transported
500 years into the past, where he witnesses the fall of the Aztec Empire; a
Nigerian scholar in Tokyo studies a folktale about a woman of fire who descends
a mountain and destroys an entire village; a white trans writer in Jersey City
struggles to write a sci-fi novel about a thriving civilization on an
impossible planet; a nurse tends to Syrian refugees in Greece while grappling
with the trauma of living through the bombing of a hospital in Kunduz,
Afghanistan; a nomadic farmer in Mongolia is stung by a bee, magically
transforming him into a green, thorned, flowering creature that aspires to
connect every living thing into its consciousness.
With its riveting and audacious
vision, My Volcano is a tapestry on fire, a distorted and
cinematic new work from the fiercely talented John Elizabeth Stintzi.
The City of Dusk by Tara
Sim
Series/Standalone: The Dark Gods #1
Release date: March 22nd 2022
Official Blurb: This dark epic
fantasy follows the heirs of four noble houses—each gifted with a divine
power—as they form a tenuous alliance to keep their kingdom from descending
into a realm-shattering war.
The Four Realms—Life, Death, Light, and
Darkness—all converge on the city of dusk. For each realm there is a god, and
for each god there is an heir.
But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the
once vibrant and thriving city. And without it, all the realms are dying.
Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction,
the four heirs—Risha, a necromancer struggling to keep the peace; Angelica, an
elementalist with her eyes set on the throne; Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue
with rebellion in her heart; and Nik, a soldier who struggles to see the
light—will sacrifice everything to save the city.
But their defiance will cost them dearly.
An Elegy for Hope by Sarah
Chorn
Series/Standalone: The Bloodlands #2
Release date: March 29th 2022
Official Blurb: None Yet
Draconis by David Oliver
Series/Standalone:
The Draconis Descendant Saga #1
Release date: March
2022
No GR &
pre-order links yet
Official Blurb: Over a decade ago Jlayn Syr, cartographer,
embarked on a mission to map the world on behalf of the Ursal Federation. He
returned with most of his crew dead and two strange rune stones.
Stones that
changed everything.
He asserted that
he had found a strange ‘rift’ in the ocean. A gateway to another world. A world
populated with strange and horrifying monsters, broken tombs and strange
writings.
Now he is the
leader of the Wayfarers. A mercenary troop dedicated to entering the rift and
returning with new rune stones. The Ursal Federation has utilised the impossible
magic of the stones to cement themselves as the foremost world power and the
location of the rift is a closely guarded secret…one that many would kill for.
With forces gathering to take control of the rift, Jlayn and his adopted daughter Sesha must embark to explore this new world once again…but with a large target on their heads the days of the Wayfarers may be numbered.
Champion Of The Fallen by M.
L. Spencer
Series/Standalone: Rivenworld #2
Release date: Late March 2022
Unofficial Blurb
(not yet finalized):
Against all odds, Aramon Raythe has restored the Greater Dragon Agaroth,
unlocked his powers over the aether, and defeated the Archon Kathrax, becoming
the last true Champion in the World Below. But in doing so, Aram has drawn the
attention of Kathrax's Archon siblings, beings of unimaginable power and evil,
who will stop at nothing to realize their quest for godhood.
Aram, Markus, and their dragons will be forced to defend Skyhome against a new threat from the Archons – a magical construct of ancient and otherworldly design, sent to strike a blow to the heart of Skyhome. To defeat it, Aram will be forced to learn much more about the nature of his arcane powers. But all masters of the Ancient Paths were lost in the Sundering –and to learn their ways, Aram will be forced to seek help of an ancient enemy.
Down
Among The Dead Men by Craig Schaefer
Series/Standalone: The Daniel Faust series #10
Release date: First quarter 2022
No GR or Amazon links yet
No Official Blurb Yet
Titan Hoppers by Treize
Series/Standalone:
The Titan Hoppers series #1
Release date: First
quarter of 2022
No GR & pre-order links yet
Official Blurb: Courage Iro will shatter the Gates of Power to protect his
fleet.
Born talentless,
Iro has all but resigned himself to a life of drudgery, watching his sister hop
across to the massive space titan for supplies. But when the titan explodes and
his sister is killed, Iro finds a new determination to take her place. He’s not
about to let weakness prevent him.
When the fleet
encounters a new titan, filled with powerful monsters, deadly traps, and
mysterious cloaked figures, Iro is the first to spontaneously manifest a new
talent. Now sent to a different ship, to train with others far beyond his
strength, Iro will have to train twice as hard just to catch up.
To protect his
fleet, and to uncover the mysteries of the titans, Iro won’t just open the
Gates of Power. He’ll break them.
The Dolphin House by Audrey
Schulman
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: April 5th 2022
Official Blurb: It
is 1965, and Cora, a young deaf woman, buys a one-way ticket to the island of
St. Thomas, where she discovers four dolphins held in captivity as part of an
experiment led by the obsessive Dr. Bloom. Drawn by a strong connection to the
dolphins, Cora falls in with the scientists and discovers her need to protect
the animals.
Recognizing Cora's knack for
communication, Bloom uses her for what will turn into one of the most
fascinating experiments in modern science: an attempt to teach the dolphins
human language by creating a home in which she and they can live
together.
As the experiment
progresses, Cora forges a remarkable bond with the creatures, until her great
instincts clash with the male-dominated world of science. As a terrible scandal
threatens to engulf the experiment, Cora’s fight to save the dolphins becomes a
battle to save herself.
The Blood Trials by N.E.
Davenport
Series/Standalone: The Blood Gift Duology #1
Release date: April 5th 2022
The blood spilled between the
Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood
gifts of Mareen’s deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War
Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic
alive.
The blood of the former Legatus,
Verne Amari, murdered.
For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the
only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had
trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood
gift that coursed through her. Who trained her to keep that a secret.
But now there are too many secrets,
and with her grandfather assassinated, Ikenna knows two things: that only
someone on the Tribunal could have ordered his death, and that only a
Praetorian Guard could have carried out that order.
Bent on revenge as much as discovering
the truth, Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials—a brutal initiation
that only a quarter of the aspirants survive. She subjects herself to the
racism directed against her half-Khanaian heritage and the misogyny of a
society that cherishes progeny over prodigy, all while hiding a power that—if
found out—would subject her to execution…or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it
all because she needs to find out who murdered her grandfather…and then she
needs to kill them.
Mareen has been at peace for a long
time…
Ikenna joining the Praetorians is
about to change all that.
Magic and technology converge in the first part of this stunning debut duology, where loyalty to oneself—and one’s blood—is more important than anything.
The Bladed Faith by David
Dalglish
Series/Standalone: The Vagrant Gods #1
Release date: April 5th 2022
Official Blurb: Cyrus was only
twelve years old when his gods were slain, his country invaded, and his
parents—the king and queen—beheaded in front of him. Held prisoner in the
invader's court for years, Cyrus is suddenly given a chance to escape and claim
his revenge when a mysterious group of revolutionaries comes looking for a
figurehead. They need a hero to strike fear into the hearts of the imperial and
to inspire and unite the people. They need someone to take up the skull mask
and swords and to become the legendary "Vagrant"—an unparalleled hero
and assassin of otherworldly skill.
But all is not as it seems. Creating the illusion
of a hero is the work of many, and Cyrus will soon discover the true price of
his vengeance.
A Sea Of Tranquility by Emily
St. John Mandel
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: April 5th 2022
Official Blurb: Edwin St.
Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship,
exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner
party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian
wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship
terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive
Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home
is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and
artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies
a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of
an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the
black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North
American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of
an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages
Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself,
has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the
timeline of the universe.
A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is
intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics
that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.
The Hunger Of Gods by John
Gwynne
Series/Standalone: The Bloodsworn Trilogy
#2
Release date: April 12th 2022
Official Blurb: Lik-Rifa, the
dragon god of legend, has been freed from her eternal prison. Now she plots a
new age of blood and conquest.
As Orka continues the hunt for her missing son,
the Bloodsworn sweep south in a desperate race to save one of their own – and
Varg takes the first steps on the path of vengeance.
Elvar has sworn to fulfil her blood oath and
rescue a prisoner from the clutches of Lik-Rifa and her dragonborn followers,
but first she must persuade the Battle-Grim to follow her.
Yet even the might of the Bloodsworn and
Battle-Grim cannot stand alone against a dragon god.
Their hope lies within the mad writings of a
chained god. A book of forbidden magic with the power to raise the wolf god
Ulfrir from the dead . . .and bring about a battle that will shake the
foundations of the earth.
The Capsarius by S. J. A. Turney
Series/Standalone: Legion 22 #1
Release date: April 14th 2022
Official Blurb: Titus Cervianus is no ordinary soldier. A
former surgeon from the city of Ancyra, he's now a capsarius – a combat medic.
Cervianus is a pragmatist, a scientist, and truly unpopular with his legion.
The Twenty Second Deiotariana have been sent
to deal with uprisings and chaos in Egypt. Yet the Twenty Second is no ordinary
legion either. Founded as the private royal army of one of Rome's most devoted
allies, the king of Galatia, their ways are not the same as the other legions,
a factor that sets them apart and causes friction with their fellow soldiers.
Marching into the unknown, Cervianus will find
unexpected allies in a local cavalryman and a troublesome lunatic. Both will be
of critical importance as the young medic marches into the searing sands of the
south, finding forbidden temples, dark assassins, vicious crocodiles, and worst
of all, the warrior queen of Kush...
Fevered Star by Rebecca
Roanhorse
Series/Standalone: Between Earth and Sky
#2
Release date: April 19th 2022
Official Blurb: There are no tides
more treacherous than those of the heart. —Teek saying
The great city of Tova is shattered. The sun is
held within the smothering grip of the Crow God’s eclipse, but a comet that
marks the death of a ruler and heralds the rise of a new order is imminent.
The Meridian: a land where magic has been codified
and the worship of gods suppressed. How do you live when legends come to life,
and the faith you had is rewarded?
As sea captain Xiala is swept up in the chaos and
currents of change, she finds an unexpected ally in the former Priest of
Knives. For the Clan Matriarchs of Tova, tense alliances form as far-flung
enemies gather and the war in the heavens is reflected upon the earth.
And for Serapio and Naranpa, both now living
avatars, the struggle for free will and personhood in the face of destiny
rages. How will Serapio stay human when he is steeped in prophecy and
surrounded by those who desire only his power? Is there a future for Naranpa in
a transformed Tova without her total destruction?
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Release date: April 26th 2022
Official Blurb: “I was born on the
full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions—much good
it did me.”
So begins Kaikeyi’s story. The only daughter of
the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on tales about the might and benevolence
of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of
immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and
how they offer powerful boons to the devout and the wise. Yet she watches as
her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is
reduced to how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls
upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear.
Desperate for some measure of independence, she
turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is
hers alone. With this power, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked
princess into a warrior, diplomat, and most favored queen, determined to carve
a better world for herself and the women around her.
But as the evil from her childhood stories
threatens the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny
the gods have chosen for her family. And Kaikeyi must decide if resistance is
worth the destruction it will wreak—and what legacy she intends to leave behind.
The Discord of Gods by Jen
Lyons
Series/Standalone: A Chorus of Dragons #5
Release date: April 26th 2022
Official Blurb: THEIR CONFLICT
COULD END THEM ALL.
Relos Var's final plans to enslave the universe
are on the cusp of fruition. He believes there's only one being in existence
that might be able to stop him: the demon Xaltorath.
As these two masterminds circle each other,
neither is paying attention to the third player on the board, Kihrin.
Unfortunately, keeping himself classified in the 'pawn' category means Kihrin
must pretend to be everything the prophecies threatened he'd become: the
destroyer of all, the sun eater, a mindless, remorseless plague upon the land.
It also means finding an excuse to not destroy the people he loves (or any of
the remaining Immortals) without arousing suspicion.
Kihrin's goals are complicated by the fact that
not all of his 'act' is one. His intentions may be sincere, but he's still
being forced to grapple with the aftereffects of the corrupted magic ritual
that twisted both him and the dragons. Worse, he's now tied to a body that is
the literal avatar of a star ― a form that is becoming increasingly,
catastrophically unstable. All of which means he's running out of time.
After all, some stars fade ― but others explode.
The Girl and the Moon by Mark
Lawrence
Series/Standalone: The Book of the Ice
#3
Release date: April 26th 2022
Official Blurb: On the planet
Abeth, a narrow Corridor of green land is surrounded on all sides by ice plains
where only the strong survive. Ice triber Yaz has completed a perilous journey
and arrived at the Corridor, and it exceeds and overwhelms all of her
expectations. Everything seems different but some constants remain: her old
enemies are still two steps ahead, bent on her destruction. She makes her
way to the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where nuns train young girls who show the
old gifts, but like the Corridor itself the convent is packed with peril and
opportunity. Yaz has much to learn from the nuns—if they don’t decide to
execute her.
The fate of everyone squeezed between the
Corridor’s vast walls, and ultimately the fate of those laboring to survive out
on ice itself, hangs from the moon, and the battle to save the moon centers on
the Ark of the Missing, buried beneath the emperor’s palace. Everyone wants Yaz
to be the key that will open the Ark – the one the wise have sought for
generations. But sometimes wanting isn’t enough.
The Madness Of Herakles by Matt Larkin
Series/Standalone: Tapestry Of Fate #4
Release date: Spring 2022
No GR or Amazon links yet
Official Blurb: Redemption lies past bloody steps …
While Pandora seeks a means to escape the crushing grasp of Fate, Herakles faces equally insurmountable odds: To assuage his guilt for the murder of his family, he must undertake impossible labors.
Across the breadth of the world he hunts for beasts that would strike dread into the bravest Titan. Again and again, he casts himself into the breach, all for the desperate hope of redemption.
But will any amount of spilled monster blood wash clean the blood of his own children?
An End to Sorrow by Michael
R. Fletcher
Series/Standalone: The Obsidian Path
trilogy #3
Release date: April 2022
No GR or official blurb yet
Part II to be posted tomorrow
NOTE: Header pic courtesy of Formatoriginal & Vecteezy.
12:00 AM | 
Posted by
The Reader |
Labels:
Anticipated releases 2022
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