November 2025 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany

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 always, I won’t rehash bigger reviews, but Tade Thompson’s “The Apologists” is a fantastic novella that I covered in my Clarkesworld review, and I loved “A Seder in Siberia” by Louis Evans in ECO24. I’m also working on a review of Think Weirder, where I’ll have some good things to say about “Best Practices for Safe Asteroid Handling” by David Goodman. But other than that, what did I love this month?

Silence, in the Doorway, with the Gun (2025 flash fiction) by Nadia Radovich. I liked a flash, try not to faint. This makes full use of an unusual format, looping over and over through iterations of the story in which the lead builds a slightly different life, finishing with something that’s satisfying and feels much more robust than its trim word count would indicate.

Strong Contenders

When Eve Chose Us (2025 short story) by Tia Tashiro. Another quite short piece, this about a woman whose best friend voluntarily chooses to join an alien hivemind. The conflict here is all interpersonal, with the expected meditations on identity and transformation.
The Peculiarities of Hunger (2025 short story) by Woody Dismukes. A fantastical, beautiful, and sometimes grotesque meditation on overseas adoption from the perspective of a high-schooler who hungers for a culture he doesn’t know.

Others I Enjoyed in November

Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush (2025 short story) by Ruth Joffre. A short, highly thematic piece where the lead regularly, uncontrollably takes on the form of animals just as their species are about to become extinct.
Fishwife (2013 short story) by Carrie Vaughn. It’s a bargain story with a distinctly Lovecraftian vibe, fairly predictable but well-told.
Willing (2017 short story) by Premee Mohamed. Another tale about sacrifices for prosperity, with an ending that casts the title in a new light and elevates what came before.
Three Card Caper (2025 short story) by Shiv Ramdas. A fun piece about a struggling magical detective and his djinn sidekick as they try to catch a rich man cheating at cards.

Novels and Novellas

Reviews Posted

Tuyo (2020 novel) by Rachel Neumeier. A bingeable novel that starts with the lead being taken as a prisoner of war and opens up into a tale about building bridges across cultures as a deadly threat looms over both. An absolute breath of fresh air.
The Merge (2025 novel) by Grace Walker. A dystopian tale set in a world with immense social pressure to squeeze two minds into one body. There’s absolutely a thriller in here, but the setup featuring an Alzheimer’s patient who can never quite trust her own recollection is just as compelling.
There Is No Antimemetics Division (2025 novel) by qntm. Another memory story, this one featuring an organization dedicated to fight against ineffable beings with the power to make you forget their existence. Fascinating.
The Fire-Moon (2017 novella) by Isabel Pelech. A short, classic fantasy novella with a young protagonist in an Egyptian-inspired setting.
Clay’s Ark (1984 novel) by Octavia E. Butler. A bleak, yet absolutely gripping tale of people trying to keep hold on their humanity in a desolate setting where even their minds cannot be trusted.
Sheepfarmer’s Daughter (1988 novel) by Elizabeth Moon. The opening in a classic military fantasy series, it hits a lot of the subgenre standards but shines in the building of camaraderie between the lead and her company.
Death of the Author (2025 novel) by Nnedi Okorafor. A litfic with sci-fi elements, this one shines in the way it portrays a disabled writer navigating a loving-but-overbearing family, demanding fans, an ancestral land that isn’t quite home, and more.
The Village at the Edge of Noon (2025 novel) by Darya Bobyleva, translated by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse. The story of a village suddenly cut off from the rest of the world, then assaulted with myriad dangers heavily inspired by Russian folklore.

Tar Vol on

Science Fiction and Fantasy