The most striking aspect of my SFF reading in 2025 was that there was very little SF in the SFF. I only read a few science fiction books, which is very unusual for me. I mostly attribute this to the fact that there seemed to be less interesting science fiction published last year, not many big releases (with the possible exceptions of Tchaikovsky’s Shroud, a minor Scalzi and the final instalment in The Sun Eater series). There is so much more excitement around fantasy at the moment that SF seems to be somewhat crowded out of the market. I will make a more conscious effort this year to ensure I don’t neglect one of my favourite genres like this again.

In the best books of 2025 post I already covered my absolute SFF favourites: The Divine Cities series by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson and The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. But picking only three was tough, so here are the rest:

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennet. I adored RJB’s first book in his Shadow of the Leviathan series, The Tainted Cup, and I possibly loved the second book even more. If I didn’t already have one Bennett’s book (or three, depending on how you count) on my best books of the year list, I would have included this one. It is a Wolfe/Goodwin* type of mystery in an epic fantasy setting, vaguely inspired by Roman/Byzantine empire(s), including giant sea monsters and biohacking bordering on body horror. It is also amazing. The second book gives us a little bit more world building and character development and a delicious revelation about Ana (the gender-swapped Wolfe character), that I absolutely should have seen coming, but didn’t. Highly recommended, but you need to read book 1 first.

To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth. Let’s get the sequels out of the way, shall we? Who would have thunk that Veronica Roth of the Divergent fame would become a legitimate favourite author of mine? While I didn’t hate Divergent, I didn’t love it either. But I DID love When Among Crows, the first novella in the Curse Bearer series that was on my 2024 best SFF list. I wasn’t sure there would be a second book, as WAC works well on its own, but I’m very happy that there is. It is the same mix of religious urban fantasy horror with Polish folklore, family drama and a bit of romance, with added real-life Poland in this case. It’s a bit darker than the first book, but equally good.

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar. Another novella and another folklore-inspired book, The River Has Roots was one of my most anticipated releases of the year. And while I didn’t quite love it as much as I loved This Is How You Lose the Time War (El-Mohtar’s first book written together with Max Gladstone), I liked it a lot. It is also almost impossible for me to love a book as much as I love This Is How You Lose the Time War. Anyway, this is a beautiful, fairytale-like book about sisters, love and magic. It is very stylised and lyrical, so not for everyone. But if it’s for you, it may be a new favourite.

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. Confession time – this was my first Abercrombie. I have started The Blade Itself twice years ago and then got distracted. More recently, I have been discouraged by the fact that the second trilogy in the First Law world is considered better than the first, but one has to read in order. In any case, I thought that The Devils would be the perfect way to try Abercrombie, as it’s a standalone (well, it no longer is, but you can easily read it as one) and has a lighter tone than his other books. And I was correct! It is a gory fantasy romp taking place in an alternative medieval world with Rome and Troy at odds with each other and an unlikely crew – a monk, an elf, a werewolf, a pirate, a knight, a wizard and a vampire – sent by a child pope to put a princess on the throne of Troy. It has its faults – the adventures can become bit repetitive and the humour may not be your thing (it was very much my thing 90% of the time, the 10% of the immaturity I could have lived without). But it’s darkly funny and the characters are great. As is the audiobook.

Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon. Another thing I have been putting off is Samantha Shannon’s The Roots of Chaos series that starts with The Priory and the Orange Tree. It sounds very much like my thing, female-centric epic fantasy with lots of politics and dragons, but both TPATOT and The Day of Fallen Night are like 1000 pages long. I was therefore very happy when Shannon published Among the Burning Flowers that is much shorter and can be used as an entry point to the series. It worked perfectly – I now want to read the other instalments, too. It is a big, beautiful world and a multi-layered story with three POVs, exploring power, grief, agency and many other topics to the extent that the 300 pages allow. It is a great read, but slightly unsatisfying, as it’s clearly a part of a much bigger story – and this is of course exactly the feeling the reader is supposed to feel.

Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree. If you want something cosier, there is a new book in the Legends & Lattes series, which I now realise is also a sequel, but it’s too late to restructure the entire post. This follows Fern, the bookshop owner we met in Bookshops & Bonedust – she is now facing a midlife crisis and hopes that an old friend (Viv) can help her deal with it. Things of course do not go according to plan and Fern gets swept up in an adventure. I have heard complaints that this is completely different from the other two books in the series and not really cosy, as there are quite a few fight scenes and a number of tense moments. I disagree. Yes, there is more plot, but this is still a cosy book at heart and I really enjoyed Fern, her legendary elf companion and the chaos goblin.

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna. If you want cosy, but with more romance, than you cannot do much better than Sangu Mandanna’s second book. Which, incidentally, is absolutely not a sequel, but does have a similar vibe to The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Mandanna’s first book. AWGTMI is simply lovely and involves witches, more than one resurrection, a talking fox, a grumpy historian, a friendly inn and a happy ending. If you cannot face the world, this is a potent antidote.

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig and The Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli. While A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping was classified as romantasy for Goodreads Choice Awards, I don’t think it actually fits the genre. It is much more a traditional romance/romcom with cosy magical elements. Out of the ‘real’ romantasy books I read in 2025, both my favourites had to do with moths for some inexplicable reason. The Knight and the Moth is better suited to those who love atmosphere, lyrical language and evocative (although not very developed) worldbuilding. The romance is not as dramatic as in most romantasy (thank god, honestly) and the vibes are gothic. The Crimson Moth is more plot-driven, an enemies-to-lovers, cat-and-mouse situation involving a witch and witch-hunter. These are not my favourite tropes, but it was nicely done and really engaging to read. I think you have to be OK with genre conventions to like either of these, but I enjoyed them more than Fourth Wing – and I mean no shade to Fourth Wing, it is fun, just extremely silly.

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite. And finally, the only science fiction book on the list – and even this one is actually a genre blend. Murder by Memory is a SF mystery novella, a queer Miss Marple in space, if you will. While it takes place on an interstellar ship, the vibe is very much early 20th century England. I mean, there is a lady investigator who knits. On the other hand, your consciousness can be transferred to another body. This is a pretty quiet book that is unlikely to shatter anyone’s world, but if you like the ingredients and murders being solved, it’s unlikely to disappoint.

So here we go, my 10+3 genre favourites. What did I miss? SF recs are particularly welcome.

Edit: A few things only occurred to me after I posted and/or people asked. Regarding the big releases of 2025 – yes, I did read Katabasis and mostly enjoyed it, but not enough to be a favourite. I tried reading Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, but found it boring. I will try again. And I definitely wanted to read The Strength of the Few (as I loved The Will of the Many), but my special edition arrived much later than planned. I have it now and will read it soon. I read the last book in the Emily Wilde trilogy, liked it, but the first book is still the best. I did also read two Kingfishers last year – Swordheart and Hemlock & Silver. I liked both, but they are not among my favourite Kingfishers. That said, I am very excited for the second romance in the Swordheart series, I suspect that’s going to be more up my ally. Finally, for the SF I could have included Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, but decided to keep it for the fiction list. Actually, the same goes for the The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey, both are literary SF. And I kind of forgot about Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei, which is objectively a really good book, but not quite what I wanted. I would absolutely recommend it to those who want their SF stories to focus more on the human element – it is mostly a story about sisters, it just happens to take place in the near future.

*You will see people comparing it to Holmes/Watson, but RJB himself says it’s inspired by the over-eating, orchid-loving Wolfe.