2022 Recommended Reading List
Welcome to the annual Locus Recommended Reading List!
We are so pleased to share this list of excellent fiction! Published in Locus magazine’s February 2023 issue, the list is assembled by Locus editors, columnists, outside reviewers, and other professionals and well-known critics of genre fiction and non-fiction. We looked at 982 titles from 2022 in short fiction and long fiction. The final recommendations, trimmed down to a somewhat reasonable-length list, are our best recommendations for your consideration. We know there will be titles you loved that do not appear here; it happens every year. Any one of our recommending group would have put together a different exact list, but this is the combined sum of opinions, assessed with great affection and care for the field. There were a lot of great books this year; we could’ve recommended twice as many.
The Locus recommending group this year included EiC Liza Groen Trombi; reviews editor Jonathan Strahan; reviewers Liz Bourke, Alex Brown, James Bradley, Karen Burnham, Paul Di Filippo, Amy Goldschlager, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, Gabino Iglesias, Maya C. James, Russell Letson, Adrienne Martini, Ian Mond, Colleen Mondor, Tim Pratt, Arley Sorg, Gary K. Wolfe, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; staffer Bob Blough; and UK critics Cheryl Morgan and Graham Sleight. Input for the non-fiction section also came in from Niall Harrison and Farah Mendlesohn. The art books section had help from Arnie Fenner, Karen Haber, and senior editor Francesca Myman. Short fiction recommendations added in outside editors and reviewers John Joseph Adams, Ellen Datlow, Sean Dowie, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Vanessa Fogg, Maria Haskins, Rich Horton, Charles Payseur, Bogi Takács, and A.C. Wise. Some of the reviewers also wrote year-end wrap-ups, which will include their thoughts, plus some favorite books that didn’t make the final list — look for those in the coming weeks or in the February issue of the magazine, available in print and digital editions. Locus thanks all involved for their time and their expertise.
You can let us know what your favorites were by voting in the 2022 Poll & Survey. The Poll decides the winners of the Locus Awards, presented in June 2023, and is open to all to vote on. The Survey helps us be a better magazine. Thank you for participating!
NOVELS – SCIENCE FICTION
- Mage of Fools, Eugen Bacon (Meerkat)
- The Thousand Earths, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
- Sweep of Stars, Maurice Broaddus (Tor)
- The Red Scholar’s Wake, Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz; JABberwocky)
- The Candy House, Jennifer Egan (Scribner; Corsair)
- A Half-Built Garden, Ruthanna Emrys (Tordotcom)
- The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart (Ballantine)
- Cold Water, Dave Hutchinson (Solaris UK)
- The Moonday Letters, Emmi Itäranta (Titan UK)
- Dark Factory, Kathe Koja (Meerkat)
- The Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor; Solaris UK)
- Ymir, Rich Larson (Orbit US)
- Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf; Picador; HarperCollins Canada)
- Beyond the Burn Line, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
- The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
- Needle, Linda Nagata (Mythic Island)
- 51, Patrick O’Leary (Tachyon)
- Goliath, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom)
- Prison of Sleep, Tim Pratt (Angry Robot UK)
- Expect Me Tomorrow, Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
- Eversion, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Orbit US)
- The This, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
- The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK)
- Eyes of the Void, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US)
- Neom, Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)
- Fault Tolerance, Valerie Valdes (Harper Voyager US)
- Wayward, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Del Rey UK)
- Imperium Restored, Walter Jon Williams (Harper Voyager US)
NOVELS – FANTASY
- Age of Ash, Daniel Abraham (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- The Grief of Stones, Katherine Addison (Tor; Solaris UK)
- When Women Were Dragons, Kelly Barnhill (Doubleday; Hot Key)
- The Origin of Storms, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
- Book of Night, Holly Black (Tor; Del Rey UK)
- Saint Death’s Daughter, C.S.E. Cooney (Solaris)
- Flint and Mirror, John Crowley (Tor)
- Aspects, John M. Ford (Tor; Gateway)
- Last Exit, Max Gladstone (Tor; Titan UK)
- Spear, Nicola Griffith (Tordotcom)
- Hokuloa Road, Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland)
- The Embroidered Book, Kate Heartfield (Harper Voyager UK)
- Moon Witch, Spider King, Marlon James (Riverhead; Hamish Hamilton)
- The World We Make, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- The Spear Cuts Through Water, Simon Jimenez (Del Rey)
- All the Seas of the World, Guy Gavriel Kay (Hodder & Stoughton; Berkley; Viking Canada)
- Nettle & Bone, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK)
- Babel, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
- Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tordotcom)
- The Golden Enclaves, Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK)
- Malarkoi, Alex Pheby (Galley Beggar; Tor ’23)
- Fevered Star, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga; Solaris UK)
- The Cartographers, Peng Shepherd (Orion; Morrow)
- The Path of Thorns, A.G. Slatter (Titan)
- The Oleander Sword, Tasha Suri (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Siren Queen, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
- The Silverberg Business, Robert Freeman Wexler (Small Beer)
- Embertide, Liz Williams (NewCon)
NOVELS – HORROR
- Saturnalia, Stephanie Feldman (Unnamed)
- Just Like Home, Sarah Gailey (Tor; Hodder & Stoughton)
- Road of Bones, Christopher Golden (St. Martin’s; Titan UK)
- House of Hunger, Alexis Henderson (Ace; Bantam UK)
- Motherthing, Ainslie Hogarth (Vintage; Atlantic Books UK)
- The Devil Takes You Home, Gabino Iglesias (Mulholland; Wildfire)
- The Fervor, Alma Katsu (Putnam; Titan)
- Gwendy’s Final Task, Stephen King & Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance; Hodder & Stoughton)
- What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK)
- The Last Storm, Tim Lebbon (Titan)
- Lapvona, Ottessa Moshfegh (Penguin; Jonathan Cape)
- Echo, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Nightfire; Hodder & Stoughton)
- No Gods for Drowning, Hailey Piper (Agora)
- Hidden Pictures, Jason Rekulak (Flatiron; Sphere)
- The Pallbearers Club, Paul Tremblay (Morrow; Titan UK)
- Sundial, Catriona Ward (Nightfire; Viper)
YOUNG ADULT NOVELS
- Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Teen; Titan UK)
- This Wicked Fate, Kalynn Bayron (Bloomsbury USA; Bloomsbury)
- The Scratch Daughters, H.A. Clarke (Erewhon)
- Bloodmarked, Tracy Deonn (McElderry; Simon & Schuster UK)
- The Kindred, Alechia Dow (Inkyard)
- The Fae Keeper, H.E. Edgmon (Inkyard)
- Bitter, Akwaeke Emezi (Knopf; Faber & Faber)
- The Merciless Ones, Namina Forna (Delacorte; Usborne)
- Unraveller, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan; Amulet 1/23)
- Rust in the Root, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)
- The Honeys, Ryan La Sala (PUSH; Scholastic UK)
- Lakelore, Anna-Marie McLemore (Feiwel and Friends)
- Fraternity, Andy Mientus (Amulet)
- Ballad & Dagger, Daniel José Older (Hyperion)
- An Arrow to the Moon, Emily X.R. Pan (Little, Brown; Orion)
- From Dust, a Flame, Rebecca Podos (Balzer + Bray)
- Fire Becomes Her, Rosiee Thor (Scholastic; Scholastic UK)
FIRST NOVELS
- Patricia Wants to Cuddle, Samantha Allen (Zando)
- Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield (Picador; Flatiron)
- Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree (Cryptid; Tor)
- How To Succeed in Witchcraft, Aislinn Brophy (Putnam)
- The Hacienda, Isabel Cañas (Berkley)
- Singer Distance, Ethan Chatagnier (Tin House)
- The Book Eaters, Sunyi Dean (Tor; Harper Voyager UK)
- Wrath Goddess Sing, Maya Deane (Morrow)
- Blood Scion, Deborah Falaye (HarperTeen)
- Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin (Nightfire)
- The Bruising of Qilwa, Naseem Jamnia (Tachyon)
- The Ballad of Perilous Graves, Alex Jennings (Redhook; Orbit UK)
- The Moth Girl, Heather Kamins (Putnam)
- When the Angels Left the Old Country, Sacha Lamb (Levine Querido)
- The Unbalancing, R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)
- Only a Monster, Vanessa Len (HarperTeen; Hodder & Stoughton; Allen & Unwin)
- The Bone Orchard, Sara A. Mueller (Tor)
- How High We Go in the Dark, Sequoia Nagamatsu (Morrow; Bloomsbury)
- The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler (MCD; Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
- Bluebird, Ciel Pierlot (Angry Robot)
- Burn Down, Rise Up, Vincent Tirado (Sourcebooks Fire)
- The Immortal King Rao, Vauhini Vara (Norton; Grove UK)
- Hell Followed With Us, Andrew Joseph White (Peachtree Teen)
- The Doloriad, Missouri Williams (MCD x FSG Originals; Dead Ink)
- The Genesis of Misery, Neon Yang (Tor)
COLLECTIONS
- Chasing Whispers, Eugen Bacon (Raw Dog Screaming)
- The Adventurists, Richard Butner (Small Beer)
- Dark Breakers, C.S.E. Cooney (Mythic Delirium)
- Memory’s Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection, James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, Kim Fu (Tin House)
- The Nectar of Nightmares, Craig Laurance Gidney (Underland)
- Night Shift, Eileen Gunn (PM)
- The Dark Ride: The Best Short Fiction of John Kessel, John Kessel (Subterranean)
- Breakable Things, Cassandra Khaw (Undertow)
- We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories, Margaret Killjoy (AK)
- Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies, John Langan (Word Horde)
- All Nightmare Long, Tim Lebbon (PS)
- Geometries of Belonging, R.B. Lemberg (Fairwood)
- Bliss Montage, Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus, Giroux; Text)
- Stealing God and Other Stories, Bruce McAllister (Aeon)
- Hard Places, Kirstyn McDermott (Trepidatio)
- The Inconceivable Idea of the Sun, Anil Menon (Hachette India)
- Boys, Beasts & Men, Sam J. Miller (Tachyon)
- The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, Janelle Monáe et al. (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
- Illuminations, Alan Moore (Bloomsbury USA; Bloomsbury UK)
- Liberation Day, George Saunders (Random House; Bloomsbury UK)
- Our Fruiting Bodies, Nisi Shawl (Aqueduct)
- The Best of Lucius Shepard: Vol. 2, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean)
- Utopias of the Third Kind, Vandana Singh (PM)
- You Fed Us to the Roses, Carlie St. George (Robot Dinosaur)
- Where You Linger & Other Stories, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Vernacular)
- Spontaneous Human Combustion, Richard Thomas (Keylight)
- All the Hometowns You Can’t Stay Away From, Izzy Wasserstein (Neon Hemlock)
ANTHOLOGIES
ORIGINAL
- The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, Yu Chen & Regina Kanyu Wang, eds. (Tordotcom)
- Reclaim the Stars, Zoraida Córdova, ed. (Wednesday)
- Screams from the Dark, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Nightfire)
- El Porvenir, !Ya!: Citlalzanzanilli Mexicatl, Jenny Irizary & Armando Rendón, eds. (Somos en escrito Literary Foundation)
- Unlimited Futures, Rafeif Ismail & Ellen van Neerven, eds. (Fremantle)
- Voodoonauts Presents: (Re)Living Mythology, Shingai Njeri Kagunda & Yvette Lisa Ndlovu & H.D. Hunter & LP Kindred, eds. (Android)
- Death in the Mouth, Sloane Leong & Cassie Hart, eds. (self-published)
- Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, Vince A. Liaguno & Rena Mason, eds. (Morrow)
- Close to Midnight, Mark Morris, ed. (Flame Tree)
- Conjunctions:78: Fear Itself, Bradford Morrow, ed. (Bard)
- Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)
- Tomorrow’s Parties: Life in the Anthropocene, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (MIT Press)
- Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, Sheree Renée Thomas & Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Zelda Knight, eds. (Tor)
- Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, Sheree Renée Thomas & Pan Morigan & Troy L. Wiggins, eds. (Third Man)
REPRINT
- Metaphorosis: Best of 2021, B. Morris Allen, ed. (Metaphorosis Books)
- The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 6, Neil Clarke, ed. (Night Shade)
- The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Fourteen, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade)
- The Year’s Best Fantasy: Volume 1, Paula Guran (Pyr)
- The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022, Rebecca Roanhorse & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner)
- The Best of World SF: Volume 2, Lavie Tidhar, ed. (Head of Zeus)
- The Future is Female! Volume Two: The 1970s, Lisa Yaszek, ed. (Library of America)
NON-FICTION
- The Rise of the Cyberzines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1991 to 2020, Mike Ashley (Liverpool University Press)
- Fantasy: How It Works, Brian Attebery (Oxford University Press)
- An Earnest Blackness, Eugen Bacon (Anti-Oedipus)
- Queering SF: Readings, Ritch Calvin (Aqueduct)
- Sticking to the End, John Clute (Beccon)
- Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations on Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature in a Pandemic, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Jembefola)
- Charting the Afrofuturist Imaginary in African American Art: The Black Female Fantastic, Elizabeth Carmel Hamilton (Routledge)
- Ramsey Campbell: Master of Weird Fiction, S.T. Joshi (PS Publishing)
- Brian W. Aldiss, Paul Kincaid (University of Illinois Press)
- Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood, Paul Kincaid (Palgrave)
- Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination, Glyn Morgan (Thames & Hudson)
- Story Matrices: Cultural Encoding and Cultural Baggage in the Worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Gillian Polack (Luna Press Publishing)
- The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume Two: 1940, David Ritter & Daniel Ritter (First Fandom Experience)
- Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography, R.B. Russell (Tartarus)
- Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics, Darieck Scott (New York University Press)
- Clive Barker’s Dark Worlds, Phil Stokes & Sarah Stokes (Cernunnos)
- Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences, Bev Vincent (Epic Ink)
- Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography, Rob Wilkins (Doubleday UK)
ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOKS
- Incognito: Strange Neighbors and Distant Relations, Ed Binkley (self-published)
- Visions of Beauty, Dianne Borsini-Burr, ed., art by Kinuko Y. Craft (Borsini-Burr & Imaginary Editions)
- Paintings & Drawings of Rowena, Kim DeMulder, art by Rowena (self-published)
- The Keeper, Tananarive Due & Steven Barnes, art by Marco Finnegan (Megascope)
- In the Black Fantastic, Ekow Eshun (Thames & Hudson; MIT Press)
- Spectrum Fantastic Art Quarterly Volume Two, Cathy & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Spectrum Fantastic Art)
- Lupente: Flesk Artist Showcase: Volume One, John Fleskes, ed. (Flesk)
- Chivalry, Neil Gaiman, art by Colleen Doran (Dark Horse)
- The Art of John Harris, Volume II: Into the Blue, John Harris (Titan)
- The Art of Tyler Jacobson, Tyler Jacobson (Flesk)
- The Art of Ron Cobb, Jacob Johnston, art by Ron Cobb (Titan)
- A Voyage to Arcturus, David Lindsay, art by Jim Woodring (Beehive)
- The Night Eaters Book 1: She Eats the Night, Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda (Abrams ComicArts)
- Found Worlds: Todd Lockwood, Todd Lockwood (self-published)
- Mother Christmas, Vol 1: The Muse, Valya Dudycz Lupescu, art by Vic Terra (Rosarium)
- The Dragon Universe, Volume 1, Olivier Souillé, ed. (Ablaze)
- Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, George Orwell, art by Omar Rayyan (Suntup)
- Sanjulian: Master of Fantasy Art, Sanjulián (Book Palace)
- Infected by Art Volume 10, Todd Spoor, Bill Cox & Jon Schindehette, eds. (ArtOrder)
- Creature: Paintings, Drawings, and Reflections, Shaun Tan (Levine Querido)
NOVELLAS
- The Talosite, Rebecca Campbell (Undertow)
- A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, Becky Chambers (Tordotcom)
- Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances, Aliette de Bodard (JABberwocky)
- Comeuppance Served Cold, Marion Deeds (Tordotcom)
- And Then I Woke Up, Malcolm Devlin (Tordotcom)
- Servant Mage, Kate Elliott (Tordotcom)
- “Bishop’s Opening“, R.S.A Garcia (Clarkesworld 1/22)
- A Mirror Mended, Alix E. Harrow (Tordotcom)
- Kundo Wakes Up, Saad Z. Hossain (Tordotcom)
- Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy, Sam J. Miller (Solaris)
- “Timebox Altar(ed)”, Janelle Monae & Sheree Renée Thomas (The Memory Librarian)
- “The Cottage in Omena”, Charles Andrew Oberndorf (F&SF 9-10/22)
- Pulling the Wings Off Angels, K.J. Parker (Tordotcom)
- The Long Game, K.J. Parker (Subterranean)
- Even Though I Knew the End, C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
- Lucky Girl: How I Became a Horror Writer: A Krampus Story, M. Rickert (Tordotcom)
- Tread of Angels, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga; Solaris UK)
- High Times in the Low Parliament, Kelly Robson (Tordotcom)
- These Prisoning Hills, Christopher Rowe (Tordotcom)
- Helpmeet, Naben Ruthnum (Undertow)
- Pomegranates, Priya Sharma (Absinthe)
- The Bone Lantern, Angela Slatter (Absinthe)
- January Fifteenth, Rachel Swirsky (Tordotcom)
- Ogres, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris)
- The Legacy of Molly Southbourne, Tade Thompson (Tordotcom)
- All the Horses of Iceland, Sarah Tolmie (Tordotcom)
- Into the Riverlands, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
NOVELETTES
- “Just Deserts”, A.M. Barrie (Fiyah 7/22)
- “After the Storm”, James Bradley (Tomorrow’s Parties)
- “The Law of Take“, Isabel Cañas (GigaNotoSaurus 3/1/22)
- “My Future Self Refused“, Adam Troy Castro (Lightspeed 8/22)
- “If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You“, John Chu (Uncanny 7-8/22)
- “Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home“, C.L. Clark (Uncanny 5-6/22)
- “Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold“, S.B. Divya (Uncanny 5-6/22)
- “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge”, Tananarive Due (Other Terrors)
- “Solidity”, Greg Egan (Asimov’s 9-10/22)
- “Three Songs to Fill Up the Shadow“, Spencer Ellsworth (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/13/22)
- “Wet Red Grin”, Gemma Files (Screams from the Dark)
- “When the Tide Rises”, Sarah Gailey (Tomorrow’s Parties)
- “A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised”, A.T. Greenblatt (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/24/22)
- “Once Upon a Future in the West”, Daryl Gregory (Tomorrow’s Parties)
- “Proof of Concept”, Auston Habershaw (Analog 5-6/22)
- “The Six Deaths of the Saint”, Alix E. Harrow (Into Shadow)
- “Optimist Cleaver’s Last Transmission”, J.C. Hsyu (F&SF11-12/22)
- “Merry in Time“, Kathleen Jennings (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/24/22)
- “All the Things He Called Memories”, Stephen Graham Jones (Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror)
- “Men, Women, and Chainsaws“, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com 4/20/22)
- “The Backbone of the World“, Stephen Graham Jones (Trespass)
- “The Place of all the Souls”, Margo Lanagan (Someone in Time)
- “Quandary Aminu vs The Butterfly Man“, Rich Larson (Tor.com 9/21/22)
- “Challawa”, Usman T. Malik (Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror)
- “Coyoteland”, Evan Marcroft (Asimov’s 5-6/22)
- “In Mercy, Rain“, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com 7/18/22)
- “This Place Is Best Shunned“, David Erik Nelson (Tor.com 7/27/22)
- “The Epic of Qu-Shittu”, Tobi Ogundiran (F&SF 3-4/22)
- “Falling Off the Edge of the World”, Suzanne Palmer (Asimov’s 11-12/22)
- “The Sadness Box“, Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld 7/22)
- “Things to Do in Deimos When You’re Dead”, Alastair Reynolds (Asimov’s 9-10/22)
- “To Embody a Wildfire Starting”, Iona Datt Sharma (Beneath Ceaseless Skies1/1/22)
- “As the Tide Came Flowing In”, Sonya Taaffe (As the Tide Came Flowing In)
- “A Dream of Electric Mothers”, Wole Talabi (Africa Risen)
- “The Noon Witch Goes to Sound Planet“, Kristina Ten (Lightspeed 11/22)
- “Peeling Time (Deluxe Edition)”, Tlotlo Tsamaase (Africa Risen)
- “The Difference Between Love and Time”, Catherynne M. Valente (Someone in Time)
- “Shadows of the Hungry, the Broken, the Transformed“, Izzy Wasserstein (Cossmass Infinities 1/22)
SHORT STORIES
- “A Dervish Among the Graves of Ghazni”, Tanvir Ahmed (The Deadlands 9/22)
- “The Voice of a Thousand Years”, Fawaz Al-Matrouk (F&SF 5-6/22)
- “WE”, Phoenix Alexander (The Deadlands 8/22)
- “The Bleak Communion of Abandoned Things”, M.A. Blanchard (PseudoPod 4/22/22)
- “Sunday in the Park with Hank”, Leah Bobet (The Deadlands 7/22)
- “Ruler of the Rear Guard”, Maurice Broaddus (Africa Risen)
- “Unname Me at the Altar”, Ashaye Brown (khōréo 9/22)
- “A Brief and Hideous Scrawl”, Erin Brown (Fiyah 4/22)
- “Folk Hero Motifs in Tales Told the Dead”, KT Bryski (Strange Horizons 10/31/22)
- “The Calcified Heart of Saint Ignace Battiste”, Christopher Caldwell (Uncanny 1-2/22)
- “Elsewhere, Elsewhen”, L. Chan (GigaNotoSaurus 8/1/22)
- “The Pennyfeathers Ride Again”, L Chan (The Dark 2/22)
- “Thirteen Goes to the Festival”, L Chan (The Deadlands 3/22)
- “The Brief Life Story of Lila”, Danny Cherry Jr. (Fiyah 1/22)
- “Here Comes your Man”, Indrapramit Das (Screams from the Dark)
- “Slow Communication”, Dominique Dickey (Fantasy 2/22)
- “In the Beginning of Me, I Was a Bird”, Maria Dong (Lightspeed 1/22)
- “Fifteen Minutes of Grace”, Meg Elison (Sunday Morning Transport 6/12/22)
- “The Ghost Eaters”, Spencer Ellsworth (Nightmare 10/22)
- “12 Things a Trini Should Know Before Travelling to a Back in Times FeteTM”, R.S.A. Garcia (Strange Horizons 10/10/22)
- “Embroidery of a Bird’s Heart”, Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (Strange Horizons 3/14/22)
- “If We Make It Through This Alive”, A.T. Greenblatt (Slate 1/29/22)
- “Roadside Attraction”, Alix E. Harrow (Someone in Time)
- “The Long Way Up”, Alix E. Harrow (The Deadlands 1/22)
- “A Strange and Muensterous Desire”, Amanda Hollander (Diabolical Plots 5/22)
- “Telling the Bees”, Kat Howard (Sunday Morning Transport 1/30/22)
- “The Weight of It All”, Jennifer Hudak (Fantasy 9/22)
- “The City and the Thing Beneath It”, Innocent Chizaram Ilo (F&SF 1-2/22)
- “Give Me English”, Ai Jiang (F&SF 5-6/22)
- “Ratatoskr”, Kij Johnson (Sunday Morning Transport 3/27/22)
- “The Massage Lady at Munjeong Road Bathhouse”, Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld 2/22)
- “Termination Stories for the Cyberpunk Dystopia Protagonist“, Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld 7/22)
- “You, Me, Her, You, Her, I”, Isabel J. Kim (Strange Horizons 6/22)
- “Wanderlust”, LP Kindred (Anathema 8/22)
- “The Many Taste Grooves of the Chang Family”, Allison King (Diabolical Plots 5/22)
- “Fried Rice”, Shih-Li Kow (Flash Fiction Online 2/22)
- “Bee Season”, Michelle Kulwicki (Strange Horizons 6/6/22)
- “Have Mercy, My Love While We Wait for the Thaw”, Iori Kusano (Apex 7/22)
- “Tell-Tale Tit”, Margo Lanagan (New Worlds)
- “Bonsai Starships”, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/10/22)
- “Nonstandard Candles”, Yoon Ha Lee (Sunday Morning Transport 3/6/22)
- “The Projectionists”, E.M. Linden (The Deadlands 5/22)
- “Bloody Summer”, Carmen Maria Machado (Trespass)
- “The Goldfish Man”, Maureen McHugh (Uncanny 3-4/22)
- “Iconophobe”, Sam J. Miller (F&SF11-12/22)
- “Sun in an Empty Room”, Sam J. Miller (Boys, Beasts & Men)
- “Rabbit Test”, Samantha Mills (Uncanny 11-12/22)
- “Dick Pig”, Ian Muneshwar (Nightmare 1/22)
- “The Summer Castle”, Ray Nayler (Nightmare 2/22)
- “Churn the Unturning Tide”, Annie Neugebauer (Other Terrors)
- “Master of Ceremonies“, Frances Ogamba (The Dark 5/22)
- “Legion”, Malka Older (Tomorrow’s Parties)
- “Apolépisi: A De-Scaling”, Suzan Palumbo (Lightspeed 10/22)
- “Douen”, Suzan Palumbo (The Dark 3/22)
- “Babang Luksa”, Nicasio Andres Reed (Reckoning 2/13/22)
- “The Red Summer”, Wendy Shaia (Fiyah 1/22)
- “Give This Letter to the Crows”, Iona Datt Sharma (The Deadlands 6/22)
- “The Cure for Loneliness”, M. Shaw (Apex 2/22)
- “Words from the Whispering Woods”, Cislyn Smith (Flash Fiction Online 9/22)
- “Four Glass Cubes (Item Description)”, Bogi Takács (Baffling 4/22)
- “Beginnings”, Kristina Ten (Fantasy 4/22)
- “Ribbons”, Natalia Theodoridou (Uncanny 1-2/22)
- “Down and Out in Exile Park”, Tade Thompson (Tomorrow’s Parties)
- “It Happened in ‘Loontown’”, Lavie Tidhar (Apex 1/22)
- “On the Hills, the Knitters”, Steve Toase (Bourbon Penn 3/22)
- “Bonesoup”, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Strange Horizons 7/11/22)
- “This Village”, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 5-6/22)
- “Phoenix Tile”, Guan Un (khōréō 3/22)
- “Girl Eats Girl”, Gnesis Villar (Fiyah 10/22)
- “Web Accessibility for Aliens”, Sean Vivier (Analog 9-10/22)
- “March Magic”, WC Dunlap (Africa Risen)
- “D.I.Y”, John Wiswell (Tor.com 8/24/22)
- “The Coward Who Stole God’s Name”, John Wiswell (Uncanny 5-6/22)
- “A Monster in the Shape of a Boy”, Hannah Yang (Apex 5/22)
- “Inheritance “, Hannah Yang (Analog 9-10/22)
- “Intimacies”, Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko (Strange Horizons 2/14/22)
If you see any typos or errors, please let us know at locus@locusmag.com. Thank you!
[Edited to recategorize Dark Factory to SF.]
You can see this list and all of our reviewers’ takes on the previous year in the February Locus. [cover image credit: art by Sergey Nivens/Adobe Stock]
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Disappointed that not a single self-published author is on your list even though hundreds of *great* novels were published in 2022. Clearly, literary agents and publishing house gatekeepers are still in charge of book promotion. The powerful win. Authors and readers lose.
Locus can only give to its reviewers what it gets. Pretty sure self-published authors are welcome to send review copies to Locus if they wish.
The First Fandom Experience titles are published by its authors and other contributors. Our entry this year is “The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume Two: 1940.” We appreciate the support of anyone who wishes to encourage self-publishing!