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Fantasy and Science Fiction August 2025 |
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House of the Beast
by Michelle Wong
"Born out of wedlock and shunned by society, Alma learned to make her peace with solitude, so long as she had her mother by her side. When her mother becomes gravely ill, Alma discovers a clue about her estranged father and writes a message begging for help. Little does she know that she is a bastard of House Avera, one of the four noble families that serve the gods and are imbued with their powers--and her father is a vessel of the Dread Beast, the most frightening god of all, a harbinger of death. In adesperate exchange for her mother's medicine, Alma agrees to sacrifice her left arm to the Beast in a ceremony that will bind her forever to the House and its deity. Regardless, her mother soon passes, leaving Alma trapped inside the Avera's grand estate, despised by her relatives and nothing but a pawn in her father's schemes. Now vengeance is the only thing that keeps Alma going. That, and the strange connection she has with her god--a monster who is constantly by her side, an eldritch being taking theform of a beautiful prince with starlit hair that only she can see. He tells Alma that she has been chosen to bring change upon their world, and with his help, Alma plots a perilous journey to destroy the House that stole everything from her"
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| Once Was Willem by M.R. CareyIn 12th century England, recently deceased 12-year-old Willem returns from the grave in the village of Cosham, only to be ostracized and outcast to the forest. As Once-Was-Willem befriends other supernatural creatures, the sorcerer who brought him back claws for more magic and more power...even if it means the lives of all the children of Cosham. M.R. Carey's latest is "a dark and hopeful fable with obvious contemporary resonance" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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The Magician of Tiger Castle
by Louis Sachar
As political pressure mounts in the faltering kingdom of Esquaveta, Princess Tullia falls for a scribe, forcing disgraced court magician Anatole to choose between salvaging his reputation and protecting the one person who still believes in him.
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Unworld
by Jayson Greene
In a near-future where digital and human consciousness blur, a grieving mother, a traumatized witness, an AI professor, and a rogue digital entity confront the mystery of a young man's death, unraveling questions of memory, identity, and what it means to be alive.
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The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy
by Brigitte Knightley
"Loyalties are tested in this enemies-to-lovers romantasy following a healer and assassin from enemy sides who are forced to work together and find the source of two deadly diseases, all while resisting the urge to kill each other-and, just maybe, fall in love. When Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order, a society of assassins, finds himself sick with a degenerative disease, he needs the expertise of a very specific healer. As fate would have it, that healer is a member of his enemy Order, the Haelan. Aurienne Fairhrim's Haelan Order is besieged by the need to care for thousands of sick and dying children suffering from Platt's Pox, an almost forgotten disease that has suddenly reemerged with extreme virulence. Unable to get the funding needed to immunize the sick children, her Order is desperate. So desperate that when Osric Mordaunt breaks into her office to offer her a bribe that would completely fund their Order's immunization efforts, in exchange for her healing services, the Head of the Haelan commands Aurienne to accept. Despite being enemies, as Osric and Aurienne work together to solve not only his illness but the mysterious reoccurrence of the Pox, they find themselves ardently denying an attraction that seems only to fuel the tension between them"
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A Resistance of Witches
by Morgan Ryan
"Stubborn, plain-spoken and from an unimpressive family, Lydia Polk never expected to be accepted into the Royal Academy of Witches. Eight years later, with Hitler's army rampaging across Europe, the Witches of Britain have joined the war effort, and Lydia is key to the cause: she must use her magic to track down magical relics before Hitler-known to be obsessively seeking the artifacts himself-and his sycophants can. Then a Nazi witch infiltrates the Academy with heart-breaking consequences, leaving thecoven shaken, exposed and divided: the elder British witches have no interest in further loss of coven life in service of a government that has forced them into hiding for decades, no matter the consequences to the world. But with the discovery of the Grimorium Bellum, an ancient book that leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever it goes-one the Nazi coven is desperate to get their hands on-Lydia's mission has never been more urgent. Alone and woefully outnumbered, Lydia makes her way to the heart of occupied France, where she finds allies in Rebecca Gagne-a fierce French resistance fighter chockful of secrets-and Henry Boudreaux-a handsome Haitian-American art historian with a little magic of his own. Together, they traverse the country, stalkedby the natural and supernatural alike, in search of the grimoire. But, as Lydia soon discovers, finding the Grimorium Bellum is only half the battle: the book has a dark agenda of its own. Lydia must subdue it before the witches of the Third Reich can use it-but she'll have to survive the book herself, first"
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| Space Brooms! by A.G. RodriguezJohnny Gomez didn't imagine his life ending up as a "space broom" custodian on the luxury space station Kilgore, toiling away as a nobody in excrement and muck while the people on the decks above gamble away their fortunes. When he comes across a mysterious data chit, suddenly every villain in the galaxy knows who he is. For fans of: fast-paced action science fiction rife with smugglers, rescues, and adventure. |
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| El Fuego by David RubínArchitect Alexander Yorba takes on the exorbitant task of designing lunar colonies to ensure the wealthiest of humanity's survival with a meteor en route to destroy Earth. When he is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he must reconcile with his life, his family, and his position among the elite who turned against him. With grit and authentic struggles, this visually stunning graphic novel "will resonate with any reader who has fallen short of their grand ambitions" (Publishers Weekly). |
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The Enchanted Greenhouse
by Sarah Beth Durst
"Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She's starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes-at least until she's ready to sail home. But Terlu can't return home and doesn't want to-the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing-causing the death of everything within them-Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again. This time, though, she isn't alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island-and have a fresh chance at happiness and love. Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances-to others and to yourself"
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| The Incandescent by Emily TeshDoctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School, and one of the most powerful magicians in all of England. Demonic forces converge on the school, and Doctor Walden must balance her considerable power, uphold her responsibility to keep the students safe, and even confront a potential evil from within. Fans of sapphic fantasy and dark academia "won’t want to miss this thoughtful exploration of privilege, power, and private school education" (Publishers Weekly). |
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