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Fantasy and Science Fiction November 2025 |
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Rose/House by Arkady MartineA house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. But now Basit Deniau’s been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect’s will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.Dr. Selene Gisil, one of Deniau’s former protégé, is permitted to come into Rose House once a year. She alone may open Rose House’s vaults, look at drawings and art, talk with Rose House’s animating intelligence all she likes. Until this week, Dr. Gisil was the only person whom Rose House spoke to.But even an animate intelligence that haunts a house has some failsafes common to all AIs. For instance: all AIs must report the presence of a dead body to the nearest law enforcement agency.
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The Butcher's Masqueradeby Matt DinnimanA lush jungle teeming with danger. Savage dinosaurs seeking blood. A fallen princess intent on vengeance. A mysterious, end-of-floor celebration for the top crawlers, dubbed “The Butcher’s Masquerade.”The sixth floor. The Hunting Grounds.As the remaining crawlers battle for their lives, a new, terrible threat looms. Outside tourists are finally allowed to enter the game, and they are here and ready to hunt. Among them is Vrah, a famed and veteran hunter, intent on collecting the biggest trophy of her career.But their prey is far from harmless, and this season they are fighting back.
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Hemlock & Silver by T. KingfisherHealer Anja regularly drinks poison. Not to die, but to save—seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick. Or it might be the thing that kills them all.
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The Late-Night Witchesby Auralee WallaceCassie Beckett’s life is anything but magical. With a wild younger sister, three unruly kids, and an absent husband, she’s really not looking forward to the witching month of October. At least the gorgeous, foggy Prince Edward Island is always quiet. That is, until the vampires arrive.As the creatures sink their teeth into Cassie’s tenuous grip on normalcy, she’s forced to come face-to-face with long–disregarded family secrets. The legacy gifts her with power, but also a lofty rid the island of vampires, or let them win. (Both options suck, in more ways than one.)Armed with her family, newfound friends, and a baby in a spectacularly garlicky onesie, Cassie must learn what it is to be a witch and how to fight for what she loves before time runs out. Because on Halloween night, the stakes will be higher than ever before...and it’s up to Cassie to finish what the witches that came generations before her started.
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The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick DaltonIt’s been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home with one goal in mind―find the mythic research her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated. There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as their own. While she initially feels threatened, the group soon becomes her newfound family, offering what she hasn't felt since her father was security and hope. Maybe it's time to forget the family secrets buried on the farm and focus on her future.But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honey bee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn't understand, but she can't shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father's missing research. Fighting to uncover the truth could shatter Sasha's fragile security and threaten the lives of her newfound family―or it could save them all.
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Lessons in Magic and Disasterby Charlie Jane AndersJamie is basically your average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, an esoteric dissertation proposal, and inherited generational trauma. But she has one extraordinary secret: she's also a powerful witch. Serena, Jamie's mother, has been hiding from the world in an old one-room schoolhouse for several years, grieving the death of her wife and the simultaneous explosion in her professional life. All she has left are memories.Jamie’s busy digging into a three-hundred-year-old magical book, but she still finds time to teach Serena to cast spells and help her come out of her shell. But Jamie doesn't know the whole story of what happened to her mom years ago, and those secrets are leading Serena down a destructive path.Now it's up to this grad student and literature nerd to understand the secrets behind this mysterious novel from 1749, unearth a long-buried scandal hinted therein, and learn the true nature of magic, before her mother ruins both of their lives.
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Automatic Noodle by Annalee NewitzWhile San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery app account. They rebrand as a neighborhood lunch spot and start producing some of the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the city. But there’s just one problem. Someone―or something―is review bombing the restaurant’s feedback page with fake “bad service” reports. Can the bots find the culprit before their ratings plummet and destroy everything they created?
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Katabasisby R. F. KuangAlice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.
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Killing Time by Jodi TaylorA ghost train, lost in Time, hurtles through the night. Two members of Team 236 are trapped on board. Not ideal under any circumstances but catastrophic when they're at each other's throats.Hot on their heels, but never quite able to catch up, can Lt Grint and his team overcome all obstacles in their way and save their fellow officers before the train disappears for good?Nor is TPHQ without its own problems as Matthew risks his sanity to track them through the Time Map. And a Mikey-experiment goes horribly wrong, exposing something better left concealed for all Time. What are the Time Police hiding?
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Star Wars: Trials of the Jedi (the High Republic)by Charles SouleThe Force is everything. A single life connected to all life. All things connected to all other things. This is what the Jedi believe, and this is why they fight. For life…and the light.For too long, the light has been threatened by Marchion Ro, a sinister despot who will stop at nothing in his quest for power. The conflict with Ro and his marauding Nihil forces has left scars across the galaxy and held the Republic hostage. Countless lives have been lost, beacons of hope have fallen, and the collective courage and resolve of the Republic have been tested like never before. Through it all the Jedi Order has endured, an unwavering candle against the encroaching darkness.But the Jedi have yet to solve the mystery of the Nameless creatures who feed on the Force. Ro has loosed them upon the galaxy, striking fear into the heart of even the most stalwart Jedi. And yet with every life saved and world freed from Nihil control, the all-consuming blight, which devours everything wherever it appears, threatens to wipe it all away.
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The Night Ends with Fire by K. X. SongThe Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin’s father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Trapped by his opium addiction, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry. But when Meilin discovers her husband-to-be is another violent, ill-tempered man, she realizes that nothing will change for her unless she takes matters into her own hands.The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father’s place.In the army, Meilin's relentless hard work brings her recognition, friendship—and a growing closeness with Sky, a prince turned training partner. But has she simply exchanged one prison for another? As her kingdom barrels toward destruction, Meilin begins to have visions of a sea dragon spirit that offers her true power and freedom, but with a deadly price.
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To Clutch a Razorby Veronica RothWhen Dymitr is called back to the old country for the empty night, a funeral rite intended to keep evil at bay, it's the perfect opportunity for him to get his hands on his family's most guarded relic—a book of curses that could satisfy the debt he owes legendary witch Baba Jaga. But first he'll have to survive a night with his dangerous, monster-hunting kin.As the sun sets, the line between enemies and allies becomes razor-thin, and Dymitr’s new loyalties are pushed to their breaking point.Family gatherings can be brutal. Dymitr’s might just be fatal.
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Exiles by Mason CoileThe human crew sent to prepare the first-ever colony on Mars arrives to find their brand new base half-destroyed and the three robots sent to set it up in disarray—the machines have formed alliances, chosen their own names, and picked up some truly disturbing beliefs. Each must be interrogated. Their stories analyzed. But one of them is missing.In this barren, hostile landscape, even machines have nightmares, and the line between human and artificial intelligence blurs. The astronauts will need to examine their own stories and wrestle their own demons before it’s too late.
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The Primal of Blood and Bone: A Blood and Ash Novelby Jennifer L. ArmentroutPoppy was never meant to awaken, and the consequences are devastating and far-reaching, stirring ancient powers from their slumber and transforming Casteel and Kieran in ways even the Fates couldn’t have foreseen. But what that means is the least of their concerns. For now.The Blood Crown has fallen, but what has risen is a far greater danger than they’ve ever faced. From flesh and fire, the Great Conspirator has returned to the mortal realm, and he wants only one thing. They must stop the true Primal of Death before he regains his strength, and it won’t be easy. Even weakened, his influence is undeniable. His power, unthinkable.While the future of the realms rests upon them, they won’t stand alone. The gods have awakened—each harboring their own blood-soaked secrets. But they must navigate an unbalanced realm, where every choice—past and present—has the potential to not only undo everything they’ve fought for but also destroy the very bonds that have Joined them together.
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Thief of Night by Holly BlackThere'd always been something wrong with Charlie Hall. Crooked from the day she was born. Never met a bad decision she wasn't willing to double down on. She may be good enough to steal a shadow from a tower, but will she be good enough to steal back a heart?
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Contact your librarian for more great books! |
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