There’s been a little less miscellany than usual this month, as most of my short fiction reading has been part of either my monthly magazine reviewing or the couple Year’s Best anthologies I’m working through. Does that mean I have nothing to recommend? Of course not. Let’s get to it. Short Fiction November Favorites As… Continue reading November 2025 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
I read a lot of short fiction, but I tend to be a bit wary of climate fiction. Not because it’s bad—on the contrary, there’s a climate-focused story on my favorites list almost every year—but because I see stories praised as brilliant and visionary when the main selling point is the way the world could… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Anthology Review: ECO24 by Marissa Van Uden
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Village at the Edge of Noon will be released on December 2, 2025. December and January are often pretty light on new releases, and I’m always on the lookout for more stories… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Village at the Edge of Noon by Darya Bobyleva
Nnedi Okorafor has gained plenty of plaudits in genre fiction over the past decade, and when I saw that she was releasing a speculative literary novel about a writer of robot stories, I put Death of the Author on my list of books to watch in 2025. It took me a few months, but I… Continue reading Speculative Novel Review: Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, the first book of The Deeds of Paksenarrion series, has vaguely been on my radar for a while, particularly in the last couple years since sharing a book club with a big Paks fan. And with Knights and Paladins on this year’s Bingo board, I decided to pick up Elizabeth Moon’s debut novel… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon
After absolutely adoring Kindred, I decided to read Octavia E. Butler’s Patternist series. I read in publication order, starting with Patternmaster and Mind of My Mind, both of which were good reads, if not mind-blowing ones. But when I moved on to the consensus best book of the series (Wild Seed), it was depressing enough… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Clay’s Ark by Octavia E. Butler
GigaNotoSaurus is back on hiatus for the remainder of the year, and my best wishes go to LaShawn Wanak and her team in closing a difficult year and trying to shore up the foundation for 2026. I’ve been pretty impressed with their published fiction this year, but I know the finished product is only the… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine: Review of Clarkesworld (November 2025)
One of my newest book club friends has been a longstanding evangelist for the self-published novella The Fire-Moon by Isabel Pelech. With a little gap in my reading schedule, I finally found the time to give it a try. The Fire-Moon is a short and easy read, coming in well under 100 pages, with a… Continue reading Fantasy Novella Review: The Fire-Moon by Isabel Pelech
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. There Is No Antimemetics Division will be released on November 11, 2025. For the last few years, I’ve been seeing glowing commentary about There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, particularly on the… Continue reading Sci-fi/Horror Novel Review: There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The Merge will be released on November 11, 2025. Over the last couple years of reading, it’s become very clear to me that I enjoy stories that play with memory in unusual ways.… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Merge by Grace Walker
