The Best Fantasy and Science Fiction books of 2025 for Adults | Multnomah County LibraryLike this list

48 items

• Luminous

  a Novel

  Park, Silvia,

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  Are you scared about A.I. like I am? This Korean near-future cyberpunk novel will simultaneously make you more hopeful and more terrified. And also terribly entertained. - Ross B.

• Shroud

  Tchaikovsky, Adrian, 1972-

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  If you dream of the life we might find beneath the ice of Europa, or on a dark and distant exoplanet, this is the book for you. - Erika B.

• The River Has Roots

  El-Mohtar, Amal,

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  Poetic and beautiful! - Leo B.

• Stag Dance

  a Novel & Stories

  Peters, Torrey,

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  A collection of mostly prior-self published works, all focussing on various anxieties of trans experience. Stag Dance, the new work, charts how gender norms are easily transgressed as a joke, then punished when the transgression becomes real. -…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Tongues. Book 1

  Nilsen, Anders, 1973-

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  A psychedelic tour de force that should sit alongside The Incal as a masterpiece of comic storytelling. Nilsen weaves the horrors of Middle East interventionalist policy with the myth of Prometheus in this bloody, mindbending part 1. - Chloe S.

• The Keeper of Magical Things

  Leong, Julie,

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  So what happens to the kids at magic school who suck at magic? Shouldn't they deserve a happy ending? This book says, resoundingly, "Yes!" A delightful sapphic cozy fantasy romance from start to finish! - Chloe S.

• Rose/House

  Martine, Arkady,

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  Amazingly realized, the story of a house AI built for just one man's quirks, and how that inhuman intelligence reacts after his death, is a gripping and intense mystery greater than the murder that incites it. - Chloe S.

• Mỹ Documents

  a Novel

  Nguyen, Kevin,

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  We thought it could never happen again, yet this speculative fiction about another concentration camp roundup of a group of Asians in the USA couldn't be more timely in this age of ICE. - Heidi H.

• Esperance

  Oyebanji, Adam,

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  If you crave a little police procedural mystery, a little Afro-futuristic thriller, and a whole lot of un-put-downable, this is your next confounding but captivating read. - Emily-Jane D.

• The Book of Lost Hours

  a Novel

  Gelfuso, Hayley,

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  Historical thriller that plays with the notions of time, memory, families and gender. So many BIG thoughts wrapped in a spy story. - Ann K.

• This Gilded Abyss

  Thorne, Rebecca

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  Originally self published, wide release 2025: For fans of Gideon the Ninth + Eldritch Horror + Sapphic Romance. What happens when a dead god whose blood you've been stealing to power your empire starts to wake? A fantasy-horror-mystery gorefest! -…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Wooing the Witch Queen

  Burgis, Stephanie,

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  Charming and sweet romance of an "evil" sorceress queen and a nobleman in hiding. Stands alone but book 2 in 2026. - Heidi S.

• The Ones Who Got Away

  Stories

  Jones, Stephen Graham, 1972-

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  I loved Never Whistle at Night, and found this to be a great book in a similar style of short stories, Indigenous author and slightly spooky themes - it's a little scarier than NWN though! - Sharon P.

• Kill the Beast

  Swift, Serra,

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  Fun new author! Two scarred souls set out to slay a nearly indestructible beast who has slaughtered countless innocents. - Heidi S.

• Animal Instinct

  a Novel

  Shearn, Amy,

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  This one hit the intersection of real life and artificial intelligence - such spicy, dark humor! A little salacious look into the lesser discussed pandemic life. - Laura L.

• The Teller of Small Fortunes

  Leong, Julie,

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  A Very gentle read about an immigrant fortuneteller trying to live a quiet hidden life using only small magics. She acquires a found family and finds she doesn't need to hide anymore. . - Heidi S.

• Hole in the Sky

  a Novel

  Wilson, Daniel H. (Daniel Howard), 1978-

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  A gripping sci-fi thriller—and Native American First Contact story—by Indigenous author Daniel Wilson, who is a Cherokee Nation citizen and works as a threat forecaster for NASA. - Sharon P.

• Of Monsters and Mainframes

  Truelove, Barbara,

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  Totally worth all the sleep I lost staying up to read this book! Classic horror movie monsters + snarky and vulnerable spaceship AI +sweet relationship development +swashbuckling adventure, all wrapped in a creepy, funny, action-packed package. -…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Devils

  Abercrombie, Joe,

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  I'm not usually a fan of horror but this fantasy novel skirts the line. The villains salvage if not quite save the day. Not for the faint of heart or delicate of stomach but surprisingly funny in a bad and wrong way. - Heidi S.

• The Folded Sky

  Bear, Elizabeth,

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  Far future historian leaves her family behind to go study an ancient artificial intelligence. Pirates, a dying star, her family deciding to follow her into what became terrible danger... Stand alone but 2 more books in this universe. - Heidi S.