Books Read in 2025: Four-Star Fantasy and Science Fiction/Speculative (part I)

I just Googled which animal has the worst short-term memory. Apparently bees are extremely forgetful, chimps also are surprisingly so given that they are the closest living relatives to humans. Dogs also only remember events for two minutes. I was about to call bullshit on this, given that Zarah introduced Lucy to the Starbucks pup cup when she was here in August, and the next day when we walked up to Starbucks Lucy lost her mind. But this is because it was an associative memory, not an episodic one. Because it was associated with food, she remembered. This also explains why birds and squirrels can find their hidden food caches. 

That's about as far as I care to take that research right now, although it is really interesting. I was just looking for a way to say "right now I am trying to cultivate the memory span of a "insert name of animal with extremely short memory span". Except I just realized that's not even really what I meant, wtf brain. What I want is to jettison, or greatly reduce, my anticipatory thinking, so I won't think that the way I feel right now is the way I'm going to feel forever. 

It's January. My body and brain don't really take to January. I now know that this is a thing for me, which is both positive - I know it's coming, I know I can't make a lot of plans or try to accomplish a lot other than work and keeping the house just above condemned status. I go to bed early, I do gentle exercise most days, and I just hold on - and negative, because every time the fog comes down I feel like a hamster on a wheel, and also because, well, it sucks. In the past couple of weeks, in addition to the old knee pain, I have developed a really painful tendinitis in my left hand and wrist (a new fun thing!). Usually a yoga session followed by a fairly gentle treadmill session makes me knee feel better, until yesterday when it made it feel worse. How annoying is it to be at an age when too much activity hurts and too little activity also hurts, and it's an endless battle trying to figure out the perfect amount - my knee is freaking Goldilocks. Yesterday while I was lying in bed after turning on the light I realized I had shooting nerve pain down my right arm also, and that my hips were throbbing. 

It's unlikely that all of this is permanent. But you know when the power goes out, and you don't know how long it's going to be out? And in some ways it would be easier to go without power for ten hours if you knew it was definitely coming back on after that, than for two hours when you have no idea? It's kind of like that. My body has the weirdest tendency to throw up immune responses for no reason, or for stupid reasons. When Matt used to travel when the kids were little, he would come home and I would finally unclench, and then I would invariably get some weird condition, with symptoms that you could google, and it was a real thing. Once my hands and feet developed sores all over them and felt like pulsing bags of infection. I went to the doctor and he said it was pompholyx eczema. He had a little computer and he was clearly finding this fascinating, which in retrospect is hilarious, he was like  *tap tap tap* "oh man, this is so interesting -- I mean, sucks to be you, you've probably got this forever now". He was the emergency doc, though, and when I saw my own she said "you don't have it forever, it was an immune response to stress." And she was right, I've never gotten it again. Once my sciatic nerves got so inflamed I couldn't sit or lie on my back, I had to lie in bed on my side. Only last two days. 

I'm not saying any of this for sympathy, just to show that there's no reason I have to think that any of the pain I'm in right now is permanent. I'm breaking in new orthotics, and once I get further along with that my knee could feel better. I have benefits again, which means I can go a little heavier on physio and massage for a while. 

One of my grade one boys burst into tears today when I said he had a lot of books out and needed to bring some back before he could take out more. He declared that he didn't HAVE any books out and then when I showed him on the computer which books were signed out to him he said his dad just FORGOT. The teacher calmed him down, and then five minutes after the class left he came back with a friend and with wounded dignity held out two books that had clearly been left in his bag (poor dad, being thrown under the bus). I said thank you and let him choose new books. It's hard being six in January.

As for my own brain? I tried to open my office door with my car keys. I came hone from work and took out my contacts and then couldn't find my glasses anywhere, because this morning instead of bringing them to the bathroom when I got up I put them in my bedside table drawer (WHY?) I walked into the office at my morning school and couldn't figure out how to ask for a box of Kleenex. "May I... can I please... I mean could... Kleenex?" Kim in the office asked if she had to run the concussion protocol on me. 

Four-Star Sci-Fi and Fantasy/Speculative Part I

 Long Live Evil (Time of Iron #1) by Sarah Rees Brennan: Synopsis from Goodreads: When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favourite fantasy series.

She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she's not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor's tale.

So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they're doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor's fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.

This adult epic fantasy debut from Sarah Rees Brennan puts the reader in the villain's shoes, for an adventure that is both 'brilliant' (Holly Black) and 'supremely satisfying' (Leigh Bardugo). Expect a rogue's gallery of villains including an axe wielding maid, a shining knight with dark moods, a homicidal bodyguard, and a playboy spymaster with a golden heart and a filthy reputation.

I just heard the term 'romantasy' a few months ago and immediately hated it. But I hate the word 'shacket' too - maybe I just don't like portmanteaus? I would have said that I don't read romantasy, but I love pretty much everything by Sarah Rees Brennan, and if I examine the component parts, I am forced to conclude that SRB does, in fact, write romantasy. I don't even know if it's good, but there is something about her writing that hooks me like heroin. 

This is magnificently ridiculous, with Brennan's trademark exquisitely snarky voice (and yes, I was rooting for the stupid romance, I hate myself). The court intrigues were deliciously labyrinthine. I'm only mad that I read it, as usual, without ascertaining whether there would be a lengthy wait for the next in the series, which there is. Hmph. (I read it last January - six months to go!)

Unnatural Magic (Unnatural Magic #1) by C.M. Waggoner: Synopsis from Goodreads: Onna can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she’s denied a place at the nation’s premier arcane academy. Undaunted, she sails to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping to find a place at a university where they don’t think there’s anything untoward about providing a woman with a magical education. But as soon as Onna arrives, she’s drawn into the mysterious murder of four trolls.

Tsira is a troll who never quite fit into her clan, despite being the leader’s daughter. She decides to strike out on her own and look for work in a human city, but on her way she stumbles upon the body of a half-dead human soldier in the snow. As she slowly nurses him back to health, an unlikely bond forms between them, one that is tested when an unknown mage makes an attempt on Tsira’s life. Soon, unbeknownst to each other, Onna and Tsira both begin devoting their considerable talents to finding out who is targeting trolls, before their homeland is torn apart…

I read this author's The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society first and was so smitten that I gave away a bunch of copies of it as gifts. I wasn't sure how I felt about this one being in a different world, when my preference is generally for urban fantasy (our world but sometimes cats talk and demons are a thing). I had the sense that this was just a writer that clicks for me, though, and that was correct. 

There are two quite distinct storylines here before they converge, and I was equally invested in each. The world-making was glorious. Onna is a wonderful character - smart and brave and intrepid without being too plucky. As for the relationship between Tsira the troll (female) and Jeckran the half-dead soldier (male) - what in the delightful, gender-bent, hilarious, happy-making heck. Is this what romantasy is? Do I like romantasy now? No, I bet the women are not usually three times the size of the men and four times as strong. Maybe I only like trollmantasy? It looks like the second book in the series is the same world but a different cast of characters. I am up for it. 

The Imposition of Necessary Obstacles (The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti #2) by Malka Ann Older: Synopsis from Goodreads: Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti reunite to solve a brand-new mystery in the follow-up to the fan-favorite cozy space opera detective mystery The Mimicking of Known Successes that Hugo Award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders called “an utter triumph.”

Mossa has returned to Valdegeld on a missing person’s case, for which she’ll once again need Pleiti’s insight.

Seventeen students and staff members have disappeared from Valdegeld University—yet no one has noticed. The answers to this case could be found in the outer reaches of the Jovian system—Mossa’s home—and the history of Jupiter’s original settlements. But Pleiti’s faith in her life’s work as scholar of the past has grown precarious, and this new case threatens to further destabilize her dreams for humanity’s future, as well as her own.

I was annoyed at first that my library didn't have this as an ebook, which is how I read the first book, but it's a beautiful book and the copy was almost brand new, so I ended up being grateful to read the paper copy.

There's something deeply pleasurable about the writing style in this series - measured, formal, sometimes almost stilted. I started looking up every word I didn't immediately recognize and found words borrowed from Spanish, Japanese, Indonesian, Arabic, Portuguese, French, and Hindi, in addition to some words crafted specifically for the story. As with the first book, I found the world-building flawless, with its irresistible combination of Victorian-era cozyness and far-future strangeness. I longed to go out into the harsh elements and then come back to my warm rooms and order tea and scones and have them arrive BY DUMBWAITER. The mystery was again tangled with the bewildering foibles of human nature, and the solution was satisfying without being neat.

I enjoyed Mossa and Pleiti's distinct personalities and methods, but I confess that I started to feel slightly annoyed at Pleiti in this book. Mossa is perhaps not the most demonstrative of lovers, but I felt like there was ample evidence of her attachment, yet Pleiti persisted in being a bit of a needy whiner. If Mossa did express affection, Pleiti dismisses it as an 'exaggeration, a meaningless verbal tic'. I'd like to say this is vexing to me because I identify more with Mossa than Pleiti, but that would be a lie. Obviously I will be leaping on the third book at the very earliest opportunity. 

Dwellers by Eliza Victoria: Synopsis from Goodreads: The rules are strict and absolute:Rule No. 1: Don't kill the body you inhabit.

Rule No. 2: Never mention your previous name again.

Rule No. 3: Don't talk about your previous life. Ever.

But what happens when, in escaping your old life by stealing a new one, you jump out of the frying pan and into the fire?
Cousins from a clan of dwellers--people who inhabit the bodies and lives of others--become brothers when they take over the bodies of Jonah and Louis. An injury forces them to remain in the brothers' house, where they discover that the basement holds a dead body! As old and new secrets come to light, it becomes clear there is no such thing as actions without consequences.

Fans of Richard Morgan, Adam Silvera, and Blake Crouch's speculative fiction will adore Eliza Victoria's action-packed supernatural mystery. Winner of the Philippine National Book Award, Dwellers is the urban fantasy novel that you won't want to miss!

This is short and subtle, but packs quite an impact. This kind of device has always fascinated me, and it's easy to have it come off cartoonishly. When it's done right, it is terrifying, both the possibility of it and the obvious corrupting effect. I loved the tv show Travelers, and one scene in particular, where the traveler is trying to convince someone who knew his host person of the truth, and he's so credible, but of course she doesn't believe him because who would, ever? Then there's the added element of the dead body in the house, and now the people inhabiting the new bodies have to work without crucial information, but, I mean look, you steal someone's body maybe you should do a modicum of research to make sure there's no dead body in their basement first, right? Like how many times have you done this, maybe the fourth rule should include getting some intel on your upcoming host body. 

The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune: Synopsis from Goodreads: Synopsis from Goodreads: A spine-tingling thriller by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about a 10-year-old girl with an impossible power, her father, and an unlikely stranger, who come together to confront the dangerous forces that want her at all costs. A strange story of family, love, comets, and bacon. Perfect for fans of Stranger Things.

In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his older brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington DC. With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not. Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she appears.

Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her.

Look, this is a perfectly lovely book, but it is in no way a spine-tingling thriller. It is utterly charming and healing and life-affirming, and has great narrative energy. It's pretty clear the way things are probably going to go, but I am way less opposed to that than I used to be. It does have one sex scene in it that is graphic in a way that seemed jarring against the tone of the rest of the book - I've discussed this with other people who agreed. I believe the author is queer and also asexual, so I have no idea if he was like "okay, let's stick some filth in here to appease you lecherous monsters". It didn't bother me, but it did raise my eyebrows a good few millimetres. Then again, like I keep saying, I don't read romantasy except by accident, so maybe I have no natural immunity. 

The Warbler by Sarah Beth Durst: Synopsis from Goodreads: From the author of The Lies Among Us comes a magical tale about mothers and daughters, choices and consequences, and the real meaning of home when every place feels like a cage. Ten months. That’s the longest Elisa has stayed anyplace, constantly propelled by her fear that if she puts down roots, a family curse will turn her into a tree.

But she’s grown tired of flitting from town to town and in and out of relationships. When she discovers a small town in Massachusetts where mysterious forces make it impossible for the residents to leave, she hopes she can change her fate.

As Elisa learns about the town’s history, she understands more about the women in her family, who seem doomed to never get what they want. Now she believes she’s stuck, too—is that a patch of bark on her arm? But her neighbor’s collection of pet birds sings secrets that Elisa can almost understand—secrets she must unravel in order to be truly alive.

My favourite of this author's that I've read so far, which just reinforces bad decisions on my part, because why did I try another one when two hadn't worked already? I felt off balance for a lot of this since I think I went in slightly misunderstanding the foundation. That's fine - I don't mind when things are predictable if they're done well, but this was nicely unpredictable, with a marked 'a-ha' moment once things fell into place. There's a through line here about the fraughtness of mother-daughter relationships, which is directly influenced by the limitations placed on women by outside forces, that is not hammered on but is effective. I really enjoyed the quirky details of the little town, the lack of forced love interest, and the attention paid to female friendships. 

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki: Synopsis from Goodreads: Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.

But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.

As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.

I loved this. It was such a weird mash-up of tropes and themes, with realistic and heart-wrenching situations alongside bonkers out-of-the-blue ones, presented matter-of-factly with a kind-spirited hopefulness. That said, there were big chunks that I felt were ignored in the name of a resolution - like, what about the music students are already in hell? What exactly was the deal that Satomi struck? It was referred to many times but I don't think it was ever clearly spelled out. It's one thing if something you did when you were young and misguided results in someone dying, I guess there's not a whole lot you can do there, but if your actions consigned them to eternal damnation and you get regular facetime with a demon you should at least investigate whether there's a way to improve things? I got to the end of the book, heaved a rather satisfied sigh, and then suddenly thought WAIT a minute. The loose ends were many. It wasn't a deal-breaker for me, but it did keep this from being a five-star read.

Dissolution by Nichols Binge: Synopsis from Goodreads: A woman dives into her husband's memories to uncover a decades-old feud threatening reality itself in this staggering technothriller from the bestselling author of Ascension.

Maggie Webb has lived the last decade caring for elderly husband, Stanley, as memory loss gradually erases all the beautiful moments they created together. It's the loneliest she's ever felt in her life.

When a mysterious stranger named Hassan appears at her door, he reveals a shocking truth: Stanley isn't losing his memories. Someone is actively removing them to hide a long-buried secret from coming to light. If Maggie does what she's told, she can reverse it. She can get her husband back.

Led by Hassan and his technological marvels, Maggie breaks into her husband's mind, probing the depths of his past in an effort to save him. The deeper she dives, the more she unravels a mystery spanning continents and centuries, each layer more complex than the last.


But Hassan cannot be trusted. Not just memories are disappearing, but pieces of reality itself. If Maggie cannot find out what Stanley did all those years ago, and what Hassan is after now, she risks far more than her husband's life. The very course of human history hangs in the balance.

Deeply enjoyable, complex and engaging. Reminded me a little of Lexicon by Max Barry. I always love a good 'high-tech phenomenon with thorny ethical implications' story. Unreliable narrators, the sense that anyone can be untrustworthy or have nefarious motives - when memory is involved can you even trust yourself? There is the question of how much memory is linked to identity, and how if you have the chance to really know everything about your loved one, should you take it? Plus a really good love story. 

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang: Synopsis from Goodreads:Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:
The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld

Alice 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 very same conclusion.

Insanely readable - I thought I might have to break it up with other books but I couldn't put it down, much more so than with Yellowface. I found the magic system delightful, and the preoccupation with chalk. Occasionally the trekking through hell got a tiny bit tedious, and I was glad of a return to the earlier timeline, with its skewering of academia even while describing how heady and transporting it can be when you're really into what you're learning. I thought Alice was a really great complex character, with her distasteful pick-me attributes that were a defense mechanism that was always bound to fail miserably. I also usually hate stories involving a misunderstanding destroying a relationship, because the misunderstanding it often ridiculous. In this case I felt like it worked.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders: Synopsis from Goodreads: In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a novel full of love, disaster, and magic.

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

Jamie 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.

More magic! Unusual and thoughtful book. The magic system is beautifully rendered, and the relationships are loving but complicated. There are echoes of 'absolute power corrupts absolutely', and warnings about how magic isn't always neutral and can go horribly wrong in the wrong circumstances, as well as the harm and dangers of keeping big secrets in a relationship. There is sorrow and fear and hate, but also hope and willingness to learn. If I had one quibble, it is that the language of reparation in the relationship is a little stilted and it comes off maybe a little preachy? Like, one partner has done something dishonest, and is duly guilty-ridden and ashamed, and then the other partner almost has too much power and seems to kind of relish it. This might be because I'm used to reading about relationships that deal with conflict in a less-healthy way. I think so far I prefer Anders's short stories to her books, but I just like her writing in general.