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New science fiction, fantasy, and horror books for the week of June 17, 2025.
Baer, Ulrich: Beyond the Planet of the Vampires (Clash Books 978-1960988645, $18.95, 218pp, formats: paperback, 06/17/2025)
Gay pulp horror novel. Concerns an apocalyptic invasion of space vampires, who have crossed intergalactic fathoms to prey upon earthly victims. Incorporates elements of retro, avant-garde, and philosophy.
Bear, Elizabeth: The Folded Sky (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 978-1668078112, $19.99, 496pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Interstellar sci-fi novel, third in the White Space series. Archinformist Dr. Sunya Song crosses space to communicate with the Baomind, an AI entity the size of a moon and preserve its data before the sun it orbits explodes. But anti-AI pirates are out to stop them.
Bedi, Aman J.: City of Jackals (Orion UK/Gollancz 978-1399609906, $29.00, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Fantasy novel, second in the Ghosts of Erutan series. Kavi belongs to a once-proud warrior people now forced to drive for the Imperial Rickshaw Company. When a dangerous gang takes over the Company, Kavi is impressed into low-level enforcement work, and seeks to escape by entering a tournament.
Chen, Amber: The Blood Phoenix (Penguin Random House/Viking 978-0593622780, $18.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Young-adult fantasy novel, second in the Of Jade and Dragons series. In the Nine Isles, Ying has moved on from the Engineer’s Guild and her father’s death, but attacks from the pirate Blood Phoenix fleet force her back into contact with High Commander Ye-yang.
Chenli, Kate: A Fiery Spirit (Sterling/Union Square & Co. 978-1454949954, $18.99, 330pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Young-adult fantasy romance novel second in the A Bright Heart series. Minshin, having defeated her murderer, can’t rest. Prince Ren has died, and an ofactory magic poison drove him to suicide. Minshin has to find the culprit while keeping herself and the Divine Stone secret from the Night Dragon.
Constantine, Liv: Don’t Open Your Eyes (Penguin Random House/Bantam 978-0593875209, $30.00, 352pp, formats: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Horror novel. Annabel has a perfect life and family, but is plagued by invasive dreams in which she hates her husband while her daughers are in danger. The dreams soon become premonitions, and she sees that someone wants her daughter dead. A pen name for Lynne Constantine.
Dayle, Dennard: How to Dodge a Cannonball (Macmillan/Holt 978-1250345677, $28.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Associational satirical historical novel. A naïve white teen is tossed through the Civil War, eventually joining an all-Black regiment (as an “octoroon”), becoming friends with a Black soldier who writes SF plays, a Haitian double agent, and an ex-slave feuding with God.
Erlick, Nikki: The Poppy Fields (HarperCollins/Morrow 978-0-06-344944-2, $34.00, 480pp, formats: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Speculative wellness gothic novel. An experimental psychotherapy center in the California desert helps patients with heartache by keeping them in a medically-induced sleep for extended amounts of time. But it comes with dark side effects. A ragtag group from the Midwest goes on a pilgrimage to the facility.
Fei Wo Si Cun: Goodbye, My Princess (Simon & Schuster 978-1665971041, $21.99, 560pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 06/17/2025)
Young-adult fantasy romance novel. Qu Xiaofeng is a treaty bride who has everything she wants, though the crown prince, her husband, isn’t interested in her. A boy shows up, claiming to have been in love with her in a life she doesn’t remember. Translated from the Chinese by Tianshu. Pen name for Chinese writer Ai Jingjing.
Ford, R.S.: Engines of War (Orbit US 978-0316629638, $19.99, 576pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Epic fantasy novel, third in the Age of Uprising trilogy. Rosomon Hawkspur and her family are faced with a grueling war as the Guilds march towards the capital, where Sanctan Egelrath still rules with an iron grip and may unleash dark forces to win the final battle.
Gaynor, Hazel: Before Dorothy (Penguin Random House/Berkley 978-0593440339, $19.00, 368pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Associational novel about Emily Gale, “Auntie Em.” Leaving Chicago for Kansas, she and her husband put down roots in rural Kansas, but must take in Dorothy, their orphaned neice. The Dust Bowl threatens, and Emily worries about losing Dorothy. Simultaneous with the HarperCollins UK edition.
Gratton, Tessa: The Mercy Makers (Orbit US 978-0316578790, $19.99, 560pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Fantasy novel. Iriset is an outlaw with magical powers to alter human apperances, and she dreams of reshaping people in grand ways: wings, night vision, altered genders. But her father, a criminal, is sentenced to death, she must use her skills to infiltrate the imperial palace and save him.
Greene, Jayson: Unworld (Penguin Random House/Knopf 978-0593802182, $28.00, 224pp, formats: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Near-future SF novel. In a world where AI entities are uploaded into human minds, Aviva is an “emancipated” AI in the body of an addict, Cathy. Her story intertwines with that of Anna and Samantha, mourning the violent death, possibly suicide, of Anna’s son. A first novel.
Habershaw, Auston: If Wishes Were Retail (Tachyon Publications 978-1616964344, $16.95, 256pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Humorous fantasy novel. Alex needs money to escape her chaotic family and suburban town, so she takes a job working for a clueless genie starting a wishing business at a failing mall, but big-box stores stand in their way.
Haynes, Clarence: The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery (Legacy Lit 978-1538768518, $29.00, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Fantasy novel. Gwendolyn is a saught-after publicist who’s hidden her abilities to tap into El Intermedio, the realm of the dead. But strange events happen, and Fonsi, a psychic from the Bronx in a ghostly love triange, re-enters her life. There’s drama, and the border between worlds is fading.
Herman, Ry: This Princess Kills Monsters (Penguin Random House/Dial 978-0593733080, $18.00, 416pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Fantasy satire novel inspired by the Grimms’ fairy tale “The Twelve Huntsmen.” Melilot is a princess with limited magic, oft rescued by her stepsisters and sentenced to a political marriage. After she’s rescued from monsters by twelve huntsmen, she encounters whimsical characters and new loves.
Laird, Tonia: Seventhblade (ECW Press 978-1770418073, $19.95, 376pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Epic fantasy novel. After T’Rayles’ son is murdered, she returns to the colonized city of Seventhblade with her powerful sword. She must contend with a corrupted organization started by her mother, dangerous magic, and a powerful, manipulative god.
Linde, K.A.: The Robin on the Oak Throne (Entangled/Red Tower 978-1649378521, $32.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Fantasy romance novel, second in the Oak & Holly Cycle series. Thief Kierse’s mission to steal a bracelet from the Queen of the Nymphs goes south, and the villainous warlock Graves returns to save her. In exchange for helping her, he has a job. Simultaneous with the Tor Bramble UK edition.
Mendelsund, Peter: Weepers (Macmillan/Farrar, Straus, Giroux 978-0374619077, $28.00, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Literary novel with speculative elements. Ed is a professional weeper. In a country increasingly numb to emotion, his services are in demand for funerals. But then a strange kid comes to town, and people are suddenly in the grip of unbearable, unbidden feelings.
Morris, Molly: Rewind to Us (St. Martin’s/Wednesday Books 978-1250289728, $22.00, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Young-adult fantasy romance novel. Dixie wants a second chance with Sawyer, her crush and former friend whom she just saw kissing someone else. She wants to use her family gift, a Rewind, to go back in time and fix their relationship.
Morrison, Ewan: For Emma (Skyhorse/Arcade 978-1648211423, $29.99, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 06/17/2025)
SF novel. When Emma, a brilliant young biotech scientist, dies under an AI-brainchip experiment, her father Josh vows revenge on the CEO responsible. He builds homemade bombs, hearing Emma’s voice urging him on… but is it a ghost, a delusion, or some emanation of the AI system?
Parry, H.G.: A Far Better Thing (Tor 978-1250334183, $18.99, 416pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Fantasy novel reimagining Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities with faeries and changelings. Sydney Carton was stolen by fae as a child, and his place was taken by the faerie changeling Charles Darnay. Both of them get caught up in the French Revolution.
Paxman, Emily: Death on the Caldera (Titan Books UK 978-1835411582, $18.99, 448pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 06/17/2025)
Fantasy mystery novel. The royal Linde siblings are returning to their home country and ailing father, the king, on a luxury express train. When the engine explodes over a magical caldera, one of them has her latent witch powers awoken and becomes the prime suspect. US/UK edition.
Pochoda, Ivy: Ecstasy (Penguin Random House/Putnam 978-0593851173, $28.00, 224pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Contemporary horror novel inspired by Euripides’s The Bacchae. A widow traveling with her humorless, entrepreneur son yearns to rediscover her party-girl days. She joins a group of hard-partying women who live on the beach, and something ancient is at play.
Solà, Irene: I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness (Graywolf Press 978-1644453438, $17.00, 176pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Literary fantasy novel. The Guilleies is a Catalonian mountain range full of wolves, hunters, rogues, and old families. An old woman is dying, and the ghosts of her house’s past women throw a party, telling centuries of stories, including a woman who traded her soul for a husband.
Suh, Yejin: The Last Soldier of Nava (HarperCollins UK/Magpie 978-0008683399, £14.99, 384pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 06/19/2025)
Fantasy romance novel. Shadow was once the powerful Soldier, a powerful warrior who destroyed kingdoms at the behest of her father. Years later, she is brought back to his corrupt and deadly court, but must contend with the woman Scarlet, her father’s new favorite, whose brother she killed.
Wiswell, John: Wearing the Lion (Astra House/DAW 978-0756419547, $29.00, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 06/17/2025)
Fantasy myth retelling. For years, Herakles enraged Hera as the bastard of her husband, Zeus. Hera causes an accident that leads to the death of his children, and has to deal with the aftermath as Herakles, now traumatized, would rather bond with the Nemean lion than keep slaying enemies.
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