LibraryAware September 2025

Fantasy and Science FictionSeptember 2025

Recent Releases

Lessons In Magic and Disaster
by Charlie Jane Anders

A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic—with very unexpected results—in a novel about family, identity and the power of love.

The Folded Sky
by Elizabeth Bear

Archinformist Dr. Sunya Song embarks on an interstellar trek with her wife and family to make contact with the artificial intelligence known as Baomind. However, the research station housing the Baomind is besieged on all sides by anti-AI fanatics, putting Sunya and her family at risk as she tries to preserve a new hope for humanity. The latest in the author's White Space series, this title will appeal to fans of well-developed and thought-provoking space opera.

Babylonia
by Costanza Casati

Born to a woman scorned by Aphrodite and raised as an orphan on the outskirts of an empire, Semiramis was never meant to hold power, but that does not mean she was not made for it.

A Letter From the Lonesome Shore
by Sylvie Cathrall

In this conclusion to the Sunken Archive duology, E. and Henerey continue their search through a mysterious underwater city while their siblings look for clues to their disappearance. As both pairs grow closer and find more answers, a mysterious cosmic threat looms. For fans of: emotional and well-characterized academia fantasy such as the Hart and Mercy series or the Emily Wilde series.

Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil
by Oliver Darkshire

Isabella Nagg simply tries to get through her miserable existence one day at a time, tolerating her irresponsible husband, tending to their strange farm, and taking care of her pot of basil. When her husband returns home one day with a stolen spellbook, Isabella sees a chance to brighten her life. In his whimsical, humorous fiction debut, Oliver Darkshire "jokes his way through the English canon" (Publishers Weekly) with a flair that fans of Terry Pratchett will appreciate.

The Witch Roads
by Kate Elliott

When an arrogant prince gets himself and his entourage stuck in the village of Orledder Halt, it's up to former child slave Elen to guide them to safety. But the prince refuses to heed her warnings about the mysterious Spire, and the danger increases when he returns from the ruin a changed person. Readers will devour this new fantasy series rife with rich worldbuilding, political intrigue, and sharp tension with every page turn.

The Knight and the Moth
by Rachel Gillig

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum's windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams. Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil's visions. But when Sybil's fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral's cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she'd rather avoid Rodrick's dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.

Katabasis : a Novel
by R. F. Kuang

Alice has sacrificed everything to work with Professor Grimes at Cambridge, the world's greatest magician, but when he dies in a magical accident and is sent to Hell, she and rival Peter follow him, using only tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them.

Emberclaw
by Laura Lam

After her predecessor flees and doesn't return a new Archivist is bound to recount another tale of magic and betrayal in a story that begins with a death, in the second novel of the series following Dragonfall.

The Memory Collectors : a Novel
by Dete Meserve

What would you do if you could spend an hour in your past? Four strangers in the beach town of Ventura, California are about to find out.

The Bane Witch : a Novel
by Ava Morgyn

After faking her death to escape a dangerous marriage, Piers Corbin discovers her legacy as a Bane Witch, using poison magic to eliminate evil men, but her growing body count draws the attention of a local sheriff—and a cunning serial killer.

Automatic Noodle
by Annalee Newitz

In this cozy near-future novella, a group of decommissioned robots suddenly come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen in San Francisco and decide to make it their own, serving delicious hand-pulled noodles to the humans recovering from the aftermath of war. For fans of: science fiction with hope and heart such as Becky Chambers' Monk & Robot series.

The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses
by Malka Older

In this 3rd entry in the Mossa and Pleiti science fiction mystery series, Pleiti agrees to help a former classmate resolve a case of false plagiarism while grappling with the sudden aloofness of her partner Mossa. However, the stakes of this academic defense may turn deadly as a conspiracy unravels. For fans of: Mur Lafferty's Midsolar Murders and Jessie Mihalik's Starlight's Shadow series.

The Art of Vanishing : a Novel
by Morgan Pager

When lonely museum worker Claire discovers she can step into the world of a Matisse painting, she falls into a forbidden romance with Jean, the man within it, but as their love defies time, they must fight to keep their fragile reality from slipping away.

The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association
by Caitlin Rozakis

When Vivian's kindergartner, Aria, gets bitten by a werewolf, she is rapidly inducted into the hidden community of magical schools. Reeling from their sudden move, Vivian finds herself having to pick the right sacrificial dagger for Aria, keep stocked up on chew toys, and play PTA politics with sirens and chthonic nymphs and people who literally can set her hair on fire. As Vivian careens from hellhounds in the school corridors to demons at the talent show, she races to keep up with all the arcane secrets of her new society--shops only accessible by magic portal, the brutal Trials to enter high school, and the eternal inferno that is the parents' WhatsApp group. And looming over everything is a prophecy of doom that sounds suspiciously like it's about Aria. Vivian might be facing the end of days, just as soon as she can get her daughter dressed and out of the door...

Immortal By Morning
by Lynsay Sands

Immortal rogue enforcer and homicide detective Crispinus Delacort learns human bones have been found in the garden of Abril Newman's boss's rural home, and his mutual attraction to Abril distracts him as he solves the case.

The Dark Mirror
by Samantha Shannon

Faced with a mysterious memory loss, Paige Mahoney navigates a revolution against the oppressive Republic of Scion, uncovering in Venice the dangerous Operation Ventriloquist, while seeking the truth about her past and the key to stopping Scion's rise.

Of Monsters and Mainframes
by Barbara Truelove

Demeter, an interstellar ship that ferries humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri, would rather do anything than ally herself with monsters. However, when an infamous ancient evil begins killing her beloved passengers, she'll have no choice but to assemble a paranormal crew of her own to take him down. For fans of: chilling science fiction horror with authentic and entertaining characters such as Peter Watts' Echopraxia and Mason Coile's William.

Powerless
by Harry Turtledove

Charlie Simpkins, manager of a vegetable shop in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, part of the West Coast People's Democratic Republic, refuses to display a meaningless propaganda poster in his shop window, which sets off a chain of escalating consequences for Charlie and his wife and two children.

The Edge of Yesterday
by Rita Woods

The Edge of Yesterday is a haunting contemporary speculative novel about time travel and finding yourself from award-winning author Rita Woods.

Contact your librarian for more great books!