We’ve made it to the end of another brilliant year of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror reviewing, so we have asked our reviewers to share some of their favourite reads of 2025.
Meghan Ellis
My favourite fantasy book of 2025
I’ve just finished reading, but James Islington’s The Strength of the Few is without a doubt my crowning fantasy of 2025. Set in a universe where the dominant power resembles a magic-based Roman Republic, this book deftly avoids second book syndrome while proving that death is but a doorway.
The book that surprised me most this year
Written in 1909, The Machine Stops is E.M. Forster’s utterly terrifying take on a world where humanity relies too much on technology. Civilisation is reduced to a series of isolated conveniences, and the human race communicates through instant messaging in a never-ending search for social validation. How very 2020s.
The book I am most excited for in 2026
As a huge Ann Leckie fan I’m very excited to read Radiant Star, a new standalone story from her Imperial Radch series. Leckie plays with our traditional ideas of who can be a narrator in this sweeping space opera, so I’m looking forward to where the empire will take us next.
Meghan Ellis is a Glasgow-based journalist covering internet culture, anime, gaming, and SFF. She’s appeared in IGN, Kotaku, All the Anime, Tabletop Bookshelf and on the BBC, where she brought the joy of fandom to the general public. She’s a member of the Glasgow SF Writers’ Circle, and writes about extraordinary things happening to ordinary people. Read more of her writing on her website
B. Mullens
My favourite sci-fi book of 2025
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman. Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke award for 2023, this satirical tale of the near future was hilarious … but also enraging. Read it and have your contempt for both private
companies and politicians reinforced.
My favourite horror book of 2025
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia was my kind of horror – more fun than terrifying and packed with film references and Nazi occultists.
The book that surprised me most this year
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. I had some assumptions about danmei. I was sniffy about reading romance and suspected web novels would lack plot but after a lifetime of fantasy based on European myths, this was really refreshing.
The books that made me cry/laugh this year
Starter Villain by John Scalzi made me laugh. He’s an author you can rely on to cheer you up.
The final volume of science fiction and horror author Christopher Fowler’s autobiography was upsetting as it dealt with the months leading up to his death from cancer.
The book I am most excited for in 2026
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. I read a collection of short stories by qntm and greatly enjoyed them. It’s awesome to see work by this writer in print. Sadly, I can’t buy their work on Kindle for
99p any more.
Lisa Timpf
My favourite sci-fi book of 2025
House of Saints by Derek Kunsken. Featuring Québécois in the clouds of Venus, gender-diverse characters, and a young man with Down Syndrome. Imaginative and compelling.
My favourite fantasy book of 2025
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry. Field hockey, witchcraft, and sisterhood are blended in a story about a team pushing the limits on their quest for a winning season. Resonant, funny, and reflective.
The book that surprised me most this year
Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens by Lynn Hutchinson Lee. A story featuring a Romany protagonist, a small-town mine, and an orchid fen. The surprise was how powerful short, lyrical chapters can be in weaving a compelling story.
The books that made me cry/laugh this year
Speculative Shorts: Stories That Fell Out of My Brain by Cait Gordon. Gordon’s wit and insight shine through in this collection of stories featuring disabled characters and exploring (and exploding) stereotypes. “Bev the Hacker Does Time” was one of many gems in a collection that often invoked snorts of laughter.
Lisa Timpf lives in Simcoe, Ontario, where she writes poetry, book reviews, short stories, and creative nonfiction. Lisa’s speculative poetry collections Cats and Dogs in Space (2025) and In Days to Come (2022) are available from Hiraeth Publishing. Lisa is a member of SF Canada and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. You can find out more about Lisa’s writing projects at http://lisatimpf.blogspot.com/. Lisa is also on Bluesky
and last but not least, introducing our new Review Editor
Veronika Groke
My favourite sci-fi book of 2025