2022 Books

I always forget which new books I’ve read, particularly since I’m usually catching up on something from years ago. But there’s been a few notable new releases lately!

MEMORY’S LEGION by James S.A. Corey

The final entry in the Expanse saga! It’s a collection of all the existing short stories with a single post-series new one, but I hadn’t read any of them before so it was all new to me. Like any collection of shorts some are stronger than others. My favorite was “Auberon” which featured locals on a frontier world dealing with their new Laconian overlord. The final story, “Sins of Our Fathers”, was a great epilogue to the series that answered one major hanging question from the series I really wanted to know about.

THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY by John Scalzi

I just love Scalzi’s writing style and I dearly look forward to his books. This one didn’t disappoint with a wonderful Godzilla-esque premise. My only ding is that it’s terribly convenient how the hero just happens to have a personal connection with the villain. I’d love to see a sequel to this story!

DIABLO MESA by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

I always look forward to a new Preston/Child book, even if it’s a non-Pendergast book. This one is another Nora and Corrie story, but it’s definitely the best of that sub-series because it’s about Area 51. My favorite P/C books are the X-Files-y paranormal ones, so I really enjoyed this one. I’m always disappointed when the new Pendergast book just turns out to be another serial killer, but this one wasn’t afraid to go big!

STAR WARS HIGH REPUBLIC FALLEN STAR by Claudia Gray

I’ve been really enjoying the HR saga and this was a wonderful climax to the first three planned phases in the story. The entire book is a huge disaster movie full of great action, tension, mystery, and a shockingly high body count of major characters.

I also read a little of 2021’s BUCKAROO BANZAI AGAINST THE WORLD CRIME LEAGUE by Earl Rauch. This is the official sequel by the original author of the novel that inspired the movie. The book was huge and I was never going to finish it in time, but the writing style has an odd kind of brilliance. It reads like it was written in the 1800s with tons of purple prose and thick blocks of text, but every single sentence is just chock full of hilarious little jokes.

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