Fantasy and Science Fiction
July 2025

Try one of these great reads!
Chaos
by Constance Fay

In this 3rd entry in the Uncharted Hearts series, the Calamity's engineer Caro Ogunyemi embarks on a solo mission to infiltrate a prison planet and prove herself to the crew. When she encounters the handsome but deadly super soldier Leviathan, Caro's mission becomes bigger than just getting out alive. Fans of Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries series will enjoy the rollicking chaos and likeable characters of this and the previous Uncharted Hearts entries.

*If you'd like to request this book, please visit your library and ask for assistance!
The House in the Cerulean Sea
by TJ Klune

What happens: Linus Baker, a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY), is dispatched to an orphanage housing six unusual orphans and their enigmatic caretaker, Arthur Parnassus.

Why you might like it: This heartwarming and whimsical contemporary fantasy debut contains quirky characters, an atmospheric setting, and a gentle romantic subplot.

Think: Diana Wynne Jones meets Netflix's The Umbrella Academy, plus a dash of Emily Tesh's Silver in the Wood.
Piranesi
by Susanna Clarke

The only people in the world: "Piranesi," the narrator, and his mysterious mentor, known as "the Other," who dwell in the House, a surreal labyrinthine building full of impossible things.

Why you might like it: This long-awaited novel by the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell offers a puzzle box of a plot and metafictional magical realism wrapped up in lyrical prose.

Reviewers say: "a tenebrous study in solitude" (The Guardian).
The Stardust Thief
by Chelsea Abdullah

Welcome to...the city of Madinne, where jinn are hunted, trade in magical artifacts is forbidden, and Loulie al-Nazari, a.k.a. the Midnight Merchant, sells illegal relics with the help of her jinn bodyguard, Qadir.

Series alert: Drawing inspiration from the 1001 Nights, this debut by American Kuwaiti author Chelsea Abdullah kicks off the Sandsea trilogy.

For fans of: S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad trilogy.
To paradise
by Hanya Yanagihara

"In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist's damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him - and solve the mystery of her husband's disappearances. These three sections comprise an ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can't exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness."--Amazon.com
The 22 murders of Madison May
by Max Barry

Investigating the murder of Madison May, reporter Felicity Staples unwittingly follows the killer into a different dimension where Madison May is murdered again and, while hunting this elusive man, uncovers the opportunity and danger of living more than one life.
Here There Be Dragons
Tideborn
by Eliza Chan

As tensions between fathom folk and humans continue to simmer, half-siren activist Mira fights to uncover a dangerous political conspiracy; meanwhile, Nami the dragon princess heads across the ocean to convince a mythical Titan not to destroy the city of Tiankawi. This sequel to Drowned World "dials up the political mayhem" (Publishers Weekly), and readers will be drawn in to the atmospheric world-building and morally complex characters.

*If you'd like to request this book, please visit your library and ask for assistance!  
Fourth wing
by Rebecca Yarros

"Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--also known as her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter--like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise"
The Hurricane Wars
by Thea Guanzon

For years, Lightweaver Talasyn has managed to conceal her forbidden magic as she fights for the Sardovian Allfold against the the invading Night Empire. That changes after a battlefield encounter with Prince Alaric, the Master of the Shadowforged Legion and heir to the throne. This opening installment of the Hurricane Wars series offers a slow-burning, enemies-to-lovers romantic fantasy set against the backdrop of a Southeast Asian-inspired world at war.
Dragonslayer
by Duncan M. Hamilton

A grieving former member of the royal guard is ordered by a power-hungry religious leader to join a magically gifted woman on a quest to slay a dragon believed long dead. By the author of The Tattered Banner.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Central Mississippi Regional Library System
100 Tamberline Street, Brandon, Mississippi 39042
601-825-0100

https://www.cmrls.lib.ms.us