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Fantasy and Science Fiction December 2025 |
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Alchemised
by SenLinYu
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed. In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia's new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive. According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance's final gambit?--Provided by publisher.
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Conform
by Ariel Sullivan
In the far future, one young woman finds herself torn between two loves--and two sides of a rebellion boiling under the surface--in the luminous (People) first novel of a sweeping dystopian romance series. A lifelong outcast, twenty-seven-year-old Emeline spends her days alone, sorting ancient art for destruction. Centuries after a catastrophic war nearly decimated humanity, society is now ruled by an elusive and technologically advanced group called the Illum, who constantly monitor the population's health and mandate procreation contracts. But Emeline's bleak existence is shattered when, for the first time in decades, an Illum named Collin takes a Mate: Emeline. Baffled as to why she was chosen, Emeline is swept into the dangerous game of the Courting, where one wrong move can mean elimination. Soon, she discovers a rebellion rising in secret, and that her Mate may be keeping secrets of his own. Collin is confusing, both cold and protective, and worse, she finds herself drawn to the very last person she should be falling for: Hal, one of the resistance leaders. As she draws closer to both Collin and Hal, the Illum exercise their power in increasingly brutal ways, forcing Emeline to question everything--most of all whether she'll have to give up her heart and even her life to stop them.
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The Changeling Queen: Deluxe Limited Edition
by Kimberly Bea
On Samhain in medieval Scotland, pregnant Janet rescues her lover Tam Lin from being sacrificed by the Wild Hunt--but the callous Faery Queen is not finished with them yet. Over the span of a single night, the Queen and Janet spar over Tam Lin's fate. The Queen aims to win, knowing how fickle mortals can be. Long before she was royalty, she was simply Bess, the changeling daughter of a midwife. Born with magical and mortal blood, Bess feared there was no true place for her on either side of the veil. She found refuge in the arms of the charming Thomas Shepherd, the bastard son of a local noble. While villagers viewed her as a scandal, Bess's cunning knowledge and secret dark gifts attracted the attention of the elf lord Amadan. Wily and silver-tongued, Amadan led Bess into Faery's realm of decadence, where her heart warred against her destiny. She fought to keep both--but at what cost?--
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| Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. WilsonA gripping sci-fi thriller and Native American First Contact story. Heliopause is a real place-the very outer edge of our solar system where the sun's solar winds are no longer strong enough to keep debris and intrusions from bombarding our system. It is the farthest edge of our protected boundary (it was recently crossed by Voyager), and the line beyond which space experts look for extraterrestrial presences. This is where Daniel Wilson's fascinating novel begins. Weaving together the story of Jim, a down-on-his-luck absentee father in the Osage territory of Oklahoma, and his daughter, Tawny, with those of a NASA engineer, a misfit anonymous genius who lives in military isolation analyzing a secret incoming Pattern, and a CIA investigator tasked with tracking unexplained encounters, Hole in the Sky explores a Native American first contact that pulls all five characters into something never before seen or imagined-- |
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Higher Magic
by Courtney Floyd
Dorothe Bartleby has one more chance to pass her committee exam before she's kicked out of her higher magic program. Between her advisor's suggestion to try a new methodology and her anxiety-fueled panic attacks, it won't be easy. Then, students with disabilities start disappearing from campus, and administrators aren't taking it seriously. Bartleby can focus on polishing her research project or risk expulsion by digging deeper into the disappearances, but with a prophecy foretelling her greatest failure, she fears that whatever she does will end in disaster--
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An Unbreakable World
by Ren Hutchings
If something seems too good to be real, you've got to get out of there. That's the rule that Page Found has always followed. She's a petty thief with no memory of her past, scrounging to survive on a backwater outpost--until she's kidnapped by one of her marks. Her kidna ppers--the cruel, self-serving Zhak and the tough maverick Maelle--plan to pass Page off as a monk from an ancient, isolated planet to help them capture a treasure-filled ship. If Page is willing to play along, they all stand to become richer than they can imagine. Everyone is keeping secrets, and Maelle finds her loyalties conflicted as she gets closer to their captive. Page can't remember the last time she counted on anyone. But to navigate this deception, she and Maelle will have to trust each other to survive.--Publisher description.
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Savage Blooms
by S. T. Gibson
For as long as Adam can remember, the legends passed down from his world-traveling grandfather have called him to a crumbling manor in the Highlands. His closest friend Nicola longs for the same adventure, as well as for Adam himself. She'll follow him just about anywhere - even to the remote wilds of Scotland - if it pushes the pair to surrender to their shared attraction. But when a storm strikes and strands them unexpectedly, Adam and Nicola find themselves at the mercy of the eccentric owner of the infamous house, Eileen, as well as her brooding groundskeeper, Finley. Trapped by the weather, and bound by ancient faery magic, Nicola and Adam get more than they bargained for as they become entangled in Eileen and Finley's world of mind games, deceit and forbidden desire. As ancestral sins are unearthed, Adam and Nicola will have to reckon with the spell Eileen and Finley have cast over them - and whether or not they even want to be free--
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Automatic Noodle
by Annalee Newitz
You don't have to eat food to know the way to a city's heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food--the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around--for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war. But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they'll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other--and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn't built for them--
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| Sunward by William AlexanderIn this cozy science fiction, space courier Tova Lir decides to start training "baby bots," young emergent AI machines who behave more like teenagers than computers. When Tova and her latest charge, Agatha Panza von Sparkles, accidentally catch the attention of an assassin, the two must race across the solar system to evade death and save the rest of her foster bots. For fans of: LGBTQIA+ space opera with memorable characters such as Riley August's The Last Gifts of the Universe. |
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| Brigands & Breadknives by Travis BaldreeFoulmouthed bookselling rattkin Fern has moved into the city of Thune in hopes of revitalizing her spirits. But that all changes when a drunken night walk leads to her stumbling directly into the path of an adventuring team. This third book in Travis Baldtree's series that began with Legends and Lattes is "[a] truly entertaining romp with the assurance of warmth, welcome, and delicious treats at the end of the road" (Booklist). |
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| The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie LeongNovice mage Certainty Bulrush wants to be useful to the Guild, but her lack of power hasn't made it easy for her to keep up. When she is assigned to work with chronic overachiever Aurelia, the two of them form an unlikely bond moving magical artifacts -- and may learn that magic is stronger when shared instead of hoarded. For fans of: queer romantic fantasy with charm and whimsy such as Maiga Doocy's Sorcery and Small Magics or Rebecca Thorne's Can't Spell Treason Without Tea. |
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| Witches of Dubious Origin by Jenn McKinlayWhen humble librarian Zoe Ziakas discovers a strange grimoire, she learns that she's descended from a long line of powerful witches. With the assistance of the staff of the Museum of Literature, Zoe discovers what it takes to decipher the tome and learn her family's deepest secrets. With outlandish characters and vivid inventive worldbuilding, this series opener will enchant fans of Emily Krempholtz's Violet Thistlethwaite Is Not a Villain Anymore. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Rochester Hills Public Library
500 Olde Towne Rd
Rochester, Michigan 48307
248-656-2900www.rhpl.org/ |
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