It’s that time of year again!
Time to vote on the best books of 2025!
You have until January 31, 2026 to cast your vote, either here in the comments or on our social media. (Please only vote in one place.) The top 50 books will be announced the first week of February.
Okay, rules for voting:
- Book must have come out in 2025. No reprints or re-issues.
- It must be fantasy or science fiction. (Horror that hits one of these two marks counts too.)
- It can be any subgenre. (Excluding erotica.)
- You can nominate up to five books.
- If you do vote for more than one, please put them in order from highest rated to lowest rated (according to you), so I can figure in scores when I finish the list.
- Book must be novel length.
- Book does not have to be the first in the series.
- Rules 4 and 6 are not set in stone.
Happy Voting! Happy Reading! And Happy Holidays!
You can see last year’s winners here!
Julia Kitvaria Sarene
1. Esperance by Adam Oyebanji
2. A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
3. King Sorrow by Joe Hill
4. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
5. Anima Rising by Christoper Moore
1. The Blackfire Blade by James Logan
2. A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
3. Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland
4. Grave Empire by Richard Swan
5. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
1. Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff
2. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff
1. The Floating Castle by L. N. Holmes
2. A Legacy of Blood and Bone by Millie Abecassis
3. The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path Trilogy, #1) by Antonia Hodgson
4. Tethered to Darkness by Matt Falcon
5. Auras of the Fallen Stars by Mara van Nacht
1. Slow Gods by Claire North
2. Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds
3. Whalesong by Miles Cameron
4. Dark Diamond by Neal Asher
5. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
1. Lost Colony (Tall Boys book 4) by Scott Moon
2. Archangel: Fallen by Rick Partlow
3. Grimm’s Legacy (Grim’s War book 8) by Jeffery H. Haskell
4. Beggar (Exodus book 5) by Kevin Ikenberry and James Fox
5.The Kaelen Extraction (The Galaxy’s Worst Mercenaries Book 1) by Skyler Ramirez
1.. Lost Legacy (Book 1) By Tyler Burnworth and Jn Chaney.
2..Into the Storms By. Nicholas Sansbury Smith
3. Lost Colony (Tall Boys book 4) By. Scott Moon.
4. Starship’s Champion (Homeworld Lost Book 15) By. Scott Moon
5. The Escape (The Survivors Book Twenty-Six) by. Nathan Hystad
Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff
The Blackfire Blade by James Logan
House of the Beast by Michelle Wong
1. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
2. King Sorrow by Joe Hill
3. Sunrise On Reaping by Suzanne Collins
4.Brigands and breadknives by Travis Baldrees.
Combat Monsters – Blackstone Publishing, edited by Henry Herz
1. A Legacy of Blood and Bone by Millie Abecassis
2. The Floating Castle by L. N. Holmes
3. Rage of the Raven Queen by Andrew LiVecchi
4. Casual by Koji A. Dae
Combat Monsters (Blackstone Publishing, edited by Henry Herz)
Amanda N. Newman’s “The Snatcher” is a great nomination in my opinion. It follows an assassin whose morals are tested after a particularly eventful run in with a girl whose bounty landed in his hands. It’s kind of like “John Wick”, but with magic. I hope someone out there has seen it or is at least interested in checking it out. It’s a wonderful story.
1. Combat Monsters: Untold Tales of World War II edited by Henry Herz
2. God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines
3. Cold War by Jonathan Maberry
4. Future’s Edge by Gareth L. Powell
1. Combat Monsters, edited by Henry Herz, Blackstone, 2025
Combat Monsters, Untold Stories of WWII, edited by Henry Herz
1. Strength of the Few by James Islington
2. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
5. The Green Man’s Holiday – Juliet E McKenna
4: The Folded Sky – Elizabeth Bear
3. Queen Demon – Martha Wells
2. Bee Speaker – Adrian Tchaikovsky
1. Future’s Edge – Gareth Powell
1. Combat Monsters, edited by Henry Herz, Blackstone, 2025
Great Book!!
Combat Monsters, Untold Tales of World War II, Edited by Henry Herz
1. The Everlasting, Alix E. Harrow
2. The Knight and the Moth, Rachel Gillig
3. Hemlock and Silver, T. Kingfisher
1. In the Name of Honor – Courtney & Clarke Collins (if a self rec is allowed!)
2. Fallen’s First – Kassidy Coursey
3. Tarnished – Erica Eberhart
4. Midnightsong – CW Rose
1 – Of Empires and Dust – Ryan Cahill
2 – Empire of the Dawn – Jay Kristoff
3 – The Devils – Joe Abercrombie
4 – A Drop of Corruption – Robert Jackson Bennett
5 – The Raven Scholar – Antonia Hodgson
Echo of the Larkspur by AA Freeman
A Judgement of Powers (Book 3), Benedict Jacka
Land of the Ill-Imagined by Alexander Rob
Combat Monsters, Untold Stories of WWII, edited by Henry Herz
1. Combat Monsters – Blackstone Publishing, edited by Henry Herz
2. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls – Grady Hendrix
3. Witchlight – Susan Dennard
4. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil – V.E. Schwab
5. A Drop of Corruption – Robert Jackson Bennett
1. A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
2, Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
3. Future’s Edge by Gareth L. Powell
4. When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory
5. Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines
Plus a special mention for the novella:
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
1. To Conquer Death – Richard H Moon
2. The Raven Scholar – Antonia Hodgson
3. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil – V.E. Schwab
1. Combat Monsters, edited by Henry Herz, Blackstone, 2025
1. Of Empires and Dust by Ryan Cahill
2. Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff
3. Strength of the Few by James Islington
If you like your SFF grounded in reality (as in magical realism), the best of 2025 in my view was:
1. Combat Monsters: Untold Tales of World War II, edited by Henry Herz, Blackstone, 2025
As an author, how does one get on the list? Probably too late for my 2025 novel, ‘the Fall of November’ which is rather rough at present. Will have the next in the series out this year and hoping to garner a few beta readers for improving my skills.
You have to have readers nominate you. And if you get enough nominations you get put on the list.
1. A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
2. A Strength of a Few by James Islington
3. Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree
A Drop of Corruption
Of Monsters and Mayhem
Hemlock and Silver
Cold Eternity
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales