Fantasy and Science Fiction
August 2025

Recent Releases
A witch's guide to magical innkeeping
by Sangu Mandanna

After resurrecting her great-aunt and befriending a half-villainous talking fox, Sera Swan is exiled from the magical Guild and loses her magic, but an old spell book mentioned by a handsome historian may hold the key to restoring her power.
North is the night
by Emily Rath

"In the Finnish wilderness, more than wolves roam the dark forests. For Siiri and Aina, summer's fading light is a harbinger of unwelcome change. Land-hungry Swedes venture north, threatening the peace; a zealous Christian priest denounces the old ways; and young women have begun to disappear. Siiri vows to protect Aina from danger. But even Siiri cannot stop a death goddess from dragging her friend to Tuonela, the mythical underworld. Determined to save Aina, Siiri braves a dangerous journey north to seek the greatest shaman of legend, the only person to venture to the realm of death and return alive. In Tuonela, the cruel Witch Queen turns Aina's every waking moment into a living nightmare. But armed with compassion and cleverness,Aina learns the truthof her capture: the king of the underworld himself has plans for her. To return home, Aina must bargain her heart--as Siiri plots a daring rescue of the woman she loves the most"
Broken souls and bones
by L J. Andrews

"Together they'll restore a divided kingdom-or burn it down-in this new romantasy from USA Today bestselling author and TikTok sensation LJ Andrews. Lyra Bien intended to live a quiet life to avoid the attention of the magic-obsessed king in the fortressof Stonegate. Until Roark Ashwood-the prince's silent guard and rumored killer for the crown-invades her village and uncovers the truth behind the silver scars in her eyes. To save her best friend from death, she's forced to reveal her abilities, and is immediately claimed by the crown as the next melder. To be the King's melder is to be revered and feared in equal measures, but above all it is a slow death sentence. Lyra is determined to find a way to free herself and her friends from bondage. But firstshe must get more information from the silent, brooding sentry who first took her captive: Roark. As Lyra gets closer to Roark, she soon learns he's nothing like she assumed-and in fact everything she needs. The more they work as allies, the harder it becomes to ignore the growing passion between them. After a sinister truth is revealed, Roark and Lyra must choose to stand against all they know, or accept their dark destiny"
Water moon : a novel
by Samantha Sotto

"A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets-and then embarks on a magical journey when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop in this dream-like and enchanting fantasy novel"
Cold Eternity
by S. A. Barnes

Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth's most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago...The cryo program, created by trillionaire tech genius Zale Winfeld, is long defunct, and the AI hologram "hosts," ghoulishly created in the likeness of Winfeld's three adult children, are glitchy. The ship feels like a crypt, and the isolation gets to Halley almost immediately. She starts to see figures crawling in the hallways, and there's a constant scraping, slithering, and rattling echoing in the vents. It's not long before Halley realizes she may have gotten herself trapped in an even more dangerous situation than the one she was running from...
The eye of the Bedlam Bride
by Matt Dinniman

Follow Carl and Princess Donut into insanity on the next level in the wildly entertaining USA Today bestselling Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman--now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition! A pantheon of forgotten gods. An old grudge between a talk show host, an heiress, and the man they shattered along the way. A rapidly deteriorating AI system. An inconvenient tiara upon the head of a friend. It is bedlam on the eighth floor. As management reels from the unexpected conclusion of the seventh level, the surviving crawlers stumble onto the eighth and find themselves scattered. It's a map based on Earth's final days before the collapse, where ethereal, intangible ghosts of humanity go about their lives, oblivious of the impending doom. Living amongst these ghosts are monsters based in Earth lore. "Legendary" creatures tied to the geographical location they inhabit. Each team of crawlers is given a task: find and capture six of these beasts. The captured monsters will be turned into cards. Cards that can be summoned into battle again and again. The stronger, the deadlier, the better. At the end of the floor, the bad guys will also have decks, and they will have some of the most powerful cards available. So it's crucial to assemble the toughest squad possible. But, like always, there is a catch. There's always a catch.
The gate of the feral gods
by Matt Dinniman

New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure. You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that's talent. A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps. It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked. Here's the thing. It's never easy. Carl and his team can't go it alone. Not this time. They mustrely on the help of the low-level, I-can't-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted? Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the fifth floor of the dungeon.
Tempest breaker
by Cavan Scott

Lourna Dee is not a villain. She's not a hero. She's a survivor. The former Tempest Runner, wanted by both her Nihil allies and the Republic, has evaded imprisonment and death from both groups more times than she can count. But even Lourna cannot outrun the mysterious blight that devours everything wherever it appears. And Marchion Ro, the Eye of the Nihil, has announced that only he knows the secret to stopping it. Desperate, the Republic and Jedi turn to Lourna with an offer: help the Jedi stop the blight, and in return, Lourna will have a clean slate and the chance to decide her own future. Teamed with Avar Kriss and Keeve Trennis, the same Jedi who once hunted her, Lourna leads the search for the Nihil's chief scientist, Baron Boolan, the only being who may have answers to the mystery of the blight, as well as Marchion Ro's true plans. Lourna weighs the Republic's offer of true freedom against her own instincts for survival as her team heads deeper into Nihil territory, straight toward the very dangers Lourna has worked for so long to elude. And when the opportunity arises to face off against Marchion Ro himself, even Lourna Dee may be willing to sacrifice everything to fulfill a quest for revenge"
Awakened : a novel
by A. E. Osworth

A coven of trans witches battles an evil AI in the magical coming-of-middle-age romp about love, loss, drag shows, and late capitalism. On a morning much like any other, 30-something queer Brooklynite Wilder makes the miraculous discovery: suddenly, as if by magic, they can understand every language in the world. Dazed and disconnected, Wilder is found and taken in by a small coven of trans witches who have all become Awakened with mystical powers of their own. Quibble, a handsome portal traveler, Artemis, the group's caretaker and seer, and Mary Margaret, a smart-ass teen with telekinetic powers all work to make the cagey and suspicious Wilder feel comfortable, both within their group and with the knowledge that magic is, in fact, real. Just as Wilder is finding their footing, a malicious AI threatens to dismantle the delicate balance of the coven and the world as they know it. Newly assembled and tenuously bound, the group scrambles to stay united as they parse the difference between difficult and dangerous, asking themselves continuously: is any consciousness-be it artificial, material, or magical-too dangerous to exist? Awakened is an exhilarating, hilarious and thought-provoking reflection on the ways that we are responsible for creating our own realities , a story of finding community, and a meditation on what it means to have a body (and if it might be far worse never to have had one at all)
Stone & sky
by Ben Aaronovitch

"The tenth novel of the bestselling Rivers of London urban fantasy series returns to the adventures of Peter Grant, detective and apprentice wizard, as he solves magical crimes -- this time, while on a holiday in Scotland"-- Provided by publisher
Contact your librarian for more great books! 
Plainfield Area Public Library
15025 S. Illinois St.
Plainfield, Illinois 60544
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