…din vreo 470 apărute în 2022 în engleză pe care le-am identificat 🙂 Comparativ cu 6-7 în România, dacă scad reeditările, YA-urile și romanticoanele (o să urmele luna aceasta lista cu tot ce a apărut în Ro – sunt zeci cu tot cu YA/romance, dar fantasy pur, propriu-zis, vreo 6 în totalul Paladin-Nemira-Rao-Trei).
Trebuie să recunosc faptul că mi-am pus pe listă cu prioritate standalone-urile și cărțile I din serii (cu mici excepții), fiindcă la seriile deja începute în alți ani prima carte așteptată nu ar fi din 2022.
Probabil e deja evident și că, selecția fiind nu de cele mai bune din 2022, ci de cele pe care le vreau eu (și o să le și citesc eu), este una foarte subiectivă și nișată pe gusturile mele – cam (grim)dark adică. Mai precizez, preventiv pentru criticile pe care le primesc inevitabil de fiecare dată pentru lipsa de patriotism în lecturi, că aș prefera și eu să le citesc în română. Dar cum nu am speranțe de viață decât de vreo 100 de ani (zic eu), nu pot să le aștept 🙂
Bun. Cum am tot văzut zilele acestea liste de Best fantasy (sau SF) of 2022 și nu am fost de acord cu ele mai deloc, m-am întrebat: pentru mine personal care ar fi TBR din 2022?
Ordinea e crescătoare, spre gradul cel mai mare de entuziasm și interes (al meu). Topul s-ar fi vrut 10, dar una a apărut simultan și în română, așa că devine Extra și primește descrierea și coperta autohtonă, ca excepție față de restul.
Extra: Un basm
de Stephen King
(apărut deja în română la Nemira)
La începutul pandemiei, legendarul povestitor Stephen King s-a întrebat: „Ce ai putea scrie care să te facă fericit?“
„Ca și cum imaginația mea abia aștepta să-i fie pusă întrebarea, mi s-a arătat un oraș mare și părăsit – dar cu o viață proprie. Am văzut străzile pustii, clădirile bântuite, un cap de gargui care zăcea răsturnat pe stradă. Am văzut statui sfărâmate (nu știam ce reprezintă, dar am aflat în cele din urmă). Am văzut un palat uriaș, impunător, cu turnuri din sticlă atât de înalte, încât vârfurile lor străpungeau norii. Aceste imagini au declanșat povestea pe care voiam să o spun.“
Stephen King
Stephen King sondează cel mai adânc puț al imaginației sale în acest roman fermecător despre un adolescent care moștenește cheia către o lume paralelă, în care binele și răul poartă o luptă acerbă.
Charlie Reade arată ca un licean obișnuit, priceput la baseball și la fotbal, un elev modest și sârguincios. Când el avea doar zece ani, mama lui a murit într-un accident, iar suferința l-a făcut pe tatăl său să se cufunde în alcool. Maturizat precoce, Charlie a învățat cum să aibă grijă de el însuși, dar și de propriul tată. La vârsta de șaptesprezece ani, adolescentul întâlnește o cățelușă adorabilă pe nume Radar și pe stăpânul ei, Howard Bowditch, un bătrânel singuratic, care trăiește într-o casă mare, situată pe culmea unui deal, având în curtea din spate un șopron ținut sub lacăt.
„Stephen King știe cu exactitate de unde izvorăsc poveștile și cum se înrâuresc apoi în fluxul creativ universal ca într-un fluviu nesfârșit și învolburat. Iar cartea aceasta este luată chiar de acolo, din gura izvorului, de unde curg cele mai strălucitoare povești. De acolo de unde au fost luate poveștile lui Peter Pan din Neverland sau cea a lui Atreiu din Fantazia. Cu mențiunea că în textura Unui basm se simte tușa întunecată a unui maestru horror.“ Marian Coman, redactor-șef Armada
9. The Art of Prophecy
by Wesley Chu
An epic fantasy ode to martial arts and magic—the story of a spoiled hero, an exacting grandmaster, and an immortal god-king from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lives of Tao.
It has been foretold: A child will rise to defeat the Eternal Khan, a cruel immortal god-king, and save the kingdom.
The hero: Jian, who has been raised since birth in luxury and splendor, celebrated before he has won a single battle.
But the prophecy was wrong.
Because when Taishi, the greatest war artist of her generation, arrives to evaluate the prophesied hero, she finds a spoiled brat unprepared to face his destiny.
But the only force more powerful than fate is Taishi herself. Possessed of an iron will, a sharp tongue—and an unexpectedly soft heart—Taishi will find a way to forge Jian into the weapon and leader he needs to be in order to fulfill his legend.
What follows is a journey more wondrous than any prophecy can foresee: a story of master and student, assassin and revolutionary, of fallen gods and broken prophecies, and of a war between kingdoms, and love and friendship between deadly rivals.
8. All the Seas of the World
by Guy Gavriel Kay
(autor publicat în română la Paladin)
Returning triumphantly to the brilliantly evoked near-Renaissance world of A Brightness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky, international bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay deploys his signature ‘quarter turn to the fantastic’ to tell a story of vengeance, power, and love.
On a dark night along a lonely stretch of coast a small ship sends two people ashore. Their purpose is assassination. They have been hired by two of the most dangerous men alive to alter the balance of power in the world. If they succeed, the consequences will affect the destinies of empires, and lives both great and small.
One of those arriving at that beach is a woman abducted by corsairs as a child and sold into years of servitude. Having escaped, she is trying to chart her own course — and is bent upon revenge. Another is a seafaring merchant who still remembers being exiled as a child with his family from their home, for their faith, a moment that never leaves him. In what follows, through a story both intimate and epic, unforgettable characters are immersed in the fierce and deadly struggles that define their time.
All the Seas of the World is a page-turning drama that also offers moving reflections on memory, fate, and the random events that can shape our lives — in the past, and today.
7. A Practical Guide to Conquering the World
by K. J. Parker
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.
6. Ithaca
by Claire North
(autoare publicată în română la Paladin)
‘The greatest power we woman can own, is that we take in secret . . . ‘
Seventeen years ago, king Odysseus sailed to war with Troy, taking with him every man of fighting age from the island of Ithaca. None of them have returned, and the women have been left behind to run the kingdom.
Penelope was barely into womanhood when she wed Odysseus. Whilst he lived, her position was secure. But now, years on, speculation is mounting that husband is dead, and suitors are starting to knock at her door . . .
But no one man is strong enough to claim Odysseus’ empty throne – not yet. Between Penelope’s many suitors, a cold war of dubious alliances and hidden knives reigns, as everyone waits for the balance of power to tip one way or another. If Penelope chooses one from amongst them, it will plunge Ithaca into bloody civil war. Only through cunning and her spy network of maids can she maintain the delicate balance of power needed for the kingdom to survive.
On Ithaca, everyone watches everyone else, and there is no corner of the palace where intrigue does not reign . . .
5. Age of Ash
by Daniel Abraham
(autor publicat în română la Paladin)
From New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author Daniel Abraham, co-author of The Expanse, comes an ambitious new fantasy trilogy where every story matters, and the fate of a city is woven from them all.
Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold.
This is Alys’s.
When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives.
Swept up in an intrigue as deep as the roots of Kithamar, where the secrets of the lowest born can sometimes topple thrones, the story Alys chooses will have the power to change everything.
4. The Justice of Kings
by Richard Swan
Sir Konrad Vonvalt is an Emperor’s Justice – a detective, judge and executioner all in one, tasked with upholding the law. To this end, Vonvalt travels the hinterlands of the Empire of the Wolf, investigating crimes and dispensing justice.
But these are dangerous times for the Empire and the Order of Justices. Heresy is widespread, and a cabal of Imperial politicians is challenging the Order’s authority, desperate to claim its arcane secrets for their own. When Vonvalt investigates the murder of a noblewoman, he finds his authority being challenged like never before. And as he unravels a web of secrets and lies, Vonvalt discovers a plot that might destroy his order once and for all – and bring down the entire Empire.
3. The Wrathbringer
by Christopher G. Brenning
LIVE FOR VENGEANCE
LIVE FOR HATE
LIVE FOR WRATH
With a year of stunning victories behind him, Damien Dreadfire seeks to drive a stake through the heart of Betanthia. With his ranks burgeoning, he pushes deeper into enemy territory. But with each new conquest, his alliance fractures even further, until it nearly shatters into pieces. Damien must walk the line between appeasing old enemies, and keeping his allies content, or watch his well-laid plans come to ruin.
Meanwhile, Prince Gareth Bethard’s struggles continue. With a dangerous conspiracy growing bolder by the day, and barbarians marauding at will, the future king finds himself in utter peril. With the help of trusted friends and allies, he begins mounting an offensive against enemies from without, and from within. But after suffering an unspeakable tragedy, Gareth must find the courage to fight on, or watch as Betanthia is consumed by fire.
2. City of Last Chances
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(autor publicat în română – dar pe SF – la Nemira)
Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller Adrian Tchaikovsky’s triumphant return to fantasy with a darkly inventive portrait of a city under occupation and on the verge of revolution.
There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse. What will be the spark that lights the conflagration?
Despite the city’s refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood – that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores. Ilmar, some say, is the worst place in the world and the gateway to a thousand worse places.
Ilmar, City of Long Shadows. City of Bad Decisions. City of Last Chances.
1. The Martyr
by Anthony Ryan
(autor publicat în română la Trei)
Deadly feuds and ancient secrets spell war in the second novel of The Covenant of Steel, a new epic series of action, intrigue, and magic from a master storyteller who has taken the fantasy world by storm.
Times have changed for Alwyn Scribe. Once an outlaw, he’s now a spymaster and sworn protector of Lady Evadine Courlain, whose visions of a demonic apocalypse have earned her the fanatical devotion of the faithful.
Yet Evadine’s growing fame has put her at odds with both Crown and Covenant. As trouble brews in the kingdom, both seek to exploit her position for their own ends.
Sent to the Duchy of Alundia to put down a rebellion, Alwyn must rely on old instincts to fight for his new cause. Deadly feuds and ancient secrets are laid bare as war erupts, a war that will decide the fate of the Kingdom of Albermaine and, perhaps, prevent the coming of the prophesied Second Scourge.
imaginea principală de Gordon Taylor de la Pixabay
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