Top 10 Fantasy Reads of 2022 on Goodreads
Goodreads Most Popular Books, Fantasy Style
Check out this list of the Goodreads choice awards best fantasy books, what makes a book epic fantasy, and the Goodreads method to choosing their winners.
What is Epic Fantasy?
Epic fantasy, also known as high fantasy, is a subgenre that usually takes place in a setting very unlike Earth and deals with world-threatening forces. This subgenre may include, but not limited to: fantastic creatures, magical elements, and historic or other unusual technologies.
What is Goodreads?
Goodreads is a free accessable site and app that enables bookworms to find personalized book recommendations, rate and review books, and even engage with your friends and your favorite authors. You can use Goodreads freely on your Kindle, but is not necessary to access the features the site/app provides. A helpful feature that it provides, you can create 3 seperate virtual bookshelves: read, currently reading, and want to read. You even have the ability to scan the ISBN codes from your physical bookshelves to help organize and have your entire library in just the palm of your hand.
How do books get nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards?
They analyze the statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads to nominate 20 books per genre category. To be considered, the book must have an average rating of 3.5 stars or higher. There are two rounds of voting that takes place and all registered members of Goodreads may partake in the vote, so you can
vote for all of your favorites! You may vote more than once, but only one book per genre category.
Our 2022 Goodreads Choice Award Fantasy Nominees
10. The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
9. The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson
8. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
7. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
6. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
5. The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L Armentrout
The mighty trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate, now has come to a conclusion in The Golden Enclaves. I saved the enclaves instead of ending them: our allies and I had thought we brought peace to the wizards and the rest of the land, but someone else has come to destroy everything we had worked so hard for. Now I must find a way back into the school of magic, which was a miracle I got out of, because war is coming.
Genre(s) and Trope(s): Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Coming of Age, Magical Elements, Humor, Dark Academia
The Story began with The Alloy of Law, and comes to a ground-breaking end in The Lost Metal.
Wax has come face-to-face with the toughest predicament yet: set aside his differences and complex relationship with God or become the Sword that Harmony has groomed him to be. Without a hero to step forth, the planet and its inhabitants will be left to ruin.
Genre(s) and Trope(s): Epic Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Viv has finally decided to hang up her sword as she wants a fresh start, so she opens up the first coffee shop within the city of Thune. Viv soon realizes that it is more difficult than she suspected and she cannot achieve her dream alone. Becoming drawn to her partner by the magical influence of coffee and baked goods, they become family, and
something deeper than she ever could have anticipated.
Genre(s) and Trope(s): High Fantasy, Humor, Action, Adventure, Romantasy, Comfort
Read, Happily Ever After
An opportunity arises for Mika Moon to be welcomed into a quirky new family that embraces change and helps Mika on her journey to accept and love who she is, magic and all.
Genre(s) and Trope(s): Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Occult Fiction, Romantasy, Found
Family, Magical Elements, Heartwarming
A beautiful debut fantasy duology inspired by the Chinese legend of Chang’e, the Moon Goddess. Xingyin is on a quest to free her mother but is caught face-to-face with an immortal that is unfathomably the most powerful in the realm.
Genre(s) and Trope(s): Young Adult, Epic Fantasy, Chinese Mythology, Coming of Age,
Slow Burn, Love Triangle, Magical Elements
With war and a wild, ancient power beginning to prowl, Poppy and Casteel must take on new and old traditions to protect the land and the people they care for. But to end the Blood Queen and her evil schemes, Poppy must become what she fears most, the Harbinger of Death and Destruction.
Genre(s) and Trope(s): Epic Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, True Love, Soul Mate,
Magic, Mythology, Friendship
Six talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation to be a part of the Alexandrian Society, where they are promised a secure life of weath, power and prestige. Only five will make it to the Society after being put to the ultimate tests of their lives for a year. They must prove they are the best among their rivals or they may not
survive.
Genre(s) and Trope(s): Dark Fantasy, Romantasy, Paranormal, Dark Academia, Cult,
Urban Fantasy
A typical normal high school teenage boy, Charlie Reade is traumatized as a young boy when his mother was killed from a hit-and-run incident; driving his father to drink, and Charlie is left learning how to survive to care for himself and his drunk dad. He inherits the keys to a parallel world where evil lurks and Charlie is forced to play the
hero’s role by pure circumstance and the stakes are high. This darkness won’t only effect the parallel world of fascinating magic, but his homeland will suffer as well.
Genre(s) and Trope(s): Dark Fantasy, Suspenseful Thriller, Coming of Age, Parallel
World, Friendship
An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence
by R. F. Kuang
4.29 STARS l 62,732 VOTES
From the award-winning author who wrote The Poppy War, Babel uses the knowledge of language and translation, student revolutions, and colonial resistance as the dominating tool of the British Empire.
Professor Lovell brings an orphan named Robin Swift to London where he trains him for years in different cultures and languages, all to prepare him for the day he’d enroll to Oxford University – also known as Babel – Royal Institute of Translation. A place of magic and knowledge, but “knowledge must obey power.” Robin soon realizes that by
serving Babel, means betraying his homeland. Most of the time revolution demands violence, but is it possible if powerful institutions can be changed from the inside?
Genre(s) and Trope(s): Historical Fiction, Epic Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Dark Academia,
Found Family, Betrayal
The winner of the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award, Sarah J Maas has won countless other awards for her A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass series, which went viral on Bookstagram and BookTok.
In this passionate, action-packed sequel to House of Earth and Blood, Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar saved Crescent City and all they want is to live comfortably together and enjoy living whatever normal lives they can; after enduring such traumatic death, loss, and betrayal after the portals opened, allowing foul beasts to wreck havoc all over the city. But the peace doesn’t linger for very long as they are forced to make a dangerous choice: stay quiet while others are oppressed or fight for what’s right. Rebels start gnawing at the Asteri’s power and the threat they pose begin to rapidly increase.
Genre(s) and Trope(s): Adult Urban Fantasy, Romantasy, Powerful Female Characters,
Slow Burn, Steamy, Found Family, Fated Mates
(It is recommended to read SJM’s previous series: A Court of Thorns and Roses and
Throne of Glass to fully understand certain references and components within Crescent
City.)
My Favorite Read from the Fantasy Goodreads Most Popular Books:
Out of all of the wonderful fantasy nominees listed above, House of Sky and Breath has to be my favorite. Sarah J Maas follows the treading aspects very well of what makes a good book go viral! She beautifully crafts powerful female characters and makes them extremely relatable by the characters’ traumatic pasts and questionable decisions.
Sarah is very talented at making you fall for every character or wishing you could manifest a character to life to kill them yourself. Maas will make you fall in love, have you sitting at the edge of your seat, cry your eyes out, and have you begging for more at the very end. Honestly, with these aspects in mind, SJM has become my greatest comfort read.
My favorite quotes from HOSAB:
“Our love is stronger than time, greater than any distance. Our love spans across stars
and worlds. I will find you again. I promise.”
“Through love, all is possible.”
“Light it Up, Danica!”
Conclusion
In this blog, I have discussed and explained what makes a book an epic fantasy, what is Goodreads, how do they choose their nominees for the 2022 Goodreads choice awards, listed the Goodreads choice awards best fantasy books, and I have expressed which book from the fantasy Goodreads most popular books was my favorite.