You wake up in a dream. Strange, you could've sworn you were just reading Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025</a>” article. Oh, well. Too much critical analysis on the state of genre before bed, or whatever. You stand in a mostly-empty white room. There are four cubes on pedestals before you, each composed of...unique materials. Which will you choose? [[A cube of grassy EARTH. It smells fresh, exciting, and wet. A SWORD plunges into the top at an angle, sharp tip poking through the side.]] [[A cube containing a GALAXY in miniature. When you turn your head, you can see a light, silvery sheen.]] [[A cube composed of SOME DARK, SMOKY MATERIAL. You do not like looking at this cube. It emits a sense of foreboding. It's probably nothing.]] [[A cube with a SWORD, a GALAXY, and a faintly ominous AURA. Though it contains elements of the other cubes, it feels...different. You understand that this dream is indeed operating on dream logic]] You pull the sword from the cube of grassy earth. When you blink next, you have arrived in a bright, green forest. The air is sweet and damp. Maybe it's just rained? You see a dirt path before you. [[Continue?]] [[Close your eyes and wish really hard you could go back|Start]]You brush your hand over the cube containing the galaxy. It is cold. You blink, and you are now in a hallway. Two doors stand before you. "Does one tell only truths, the other only lies?" You ask. You are so funny! "I know that's not really the setup for that joke," you say. You can open each door and peer through before making a final selection. [[The room on the left contains a vast library.]] [[The room on the right contains a realtor's office. You don't know how else to describe it. That's just what it is.]]Your hand sinks into the cube. Yes, this one is definitely hostile. You open your eyes to a desolate wasteland. You are standing at a crossroads, where the ground beneath your feet is loose and recently turned. There are a few directions you can take. It's probably best if you get moving. The Reactor Social Media Manager is worried about you? [[Walk towards the church.]] [[Walk towards the dilapidated house.]] [[Follow the road sign, which reads DENVER, COLORADO.]]You start down the path. There are many trees towering over your head, and you take care not to trip over their roots. All in all, it's not an unpleasant walk. You've been meaning to stop spending so much time on the computer and take more walks, anyway. You hear someone call your name from between the trees. When you turn, you see a small wooden boat bobbing on a gentle river. An attractive stranger stands by the dock. They look kind of like that singer you like? No, not that one...the other one. "I'm going the same way," the stranger says. "Do you want to come?" "The scenic route," you observe. "You could say that," the stranger says, and they are smiling. [[You've always been a fan of the scenic route.]] [[Attractive strangers in boats is no system for travel.]]You ignore the attractive stranger and continue forward on the trail. The walk isn't strenous, but it's beginning to get dark. And cold. You cross your arms and shiver. Up ahead, you see a light flickering through the trees. You hear voices raised, and laughter. Something smells good. When you creep closer, you see a group of people gathered by a large fire. They are talking jovially, passing around food, and there is a sense of warm ease that only comes from when people have known and liked each other for a long time. Do you approach? [[They look friendly!]] [[If it came to a fight, you don't like your odds.]]The stranger offers their hand, and you climb into the boat with their help. Their hand is rough, calloused, and steady. Or maybe it's soft and lingering. The Reactor Social Media Manager can't decide everything for you. "There's something so romantic about traveling by water," they say. [[Water? I barely know-her!]] [[That's an odd thing to say. I think I'd rather walk after all|Attractive strangers in boats is no system for travel.]] The stranger tosses their head and laughs at your clever joke. You are so good at this. You continue to make small talk as the stranger skillfully guides the boat down the river. The sun is setting, and stars and fireflies are beginning to glow overhead. The boat drops into a small pool enclosed by willow trees. The stranger pulls the oars into a resting position, allowing the boat to float gentley among the reeds. "I just have to ask you something before we continue," the stranger says. "When it comes to merpeople or demons...do you have a type?" [[I've always considered myself a fine purveyor of fish|Merpeople, of course.]] [[It's demons or nothing.]]We recommend you read //When the Tides Held the Moon// by Vanessa Vida Kelley. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1736287500i/213075628.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> In Coney Island, true love rises to the surface. With lush illustrations and buoyant prose, Venessa Vida Kelley forges an unforgettable New York fairytale. Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds the eccentric sideshow proprietor who commissioned it. He invites Benny to join the show’s eclectic cast and share in their shocking secret: the tank will cage their newest exhibit, a live merman stolen from the salty banks of the East River. More than a mythic marvel, Benny soon comes to know the merman Río as a kindred spirit, wise and more compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own. Releasing Río could mean losing his found family, his new home, and his soulmate forever. Yet Benny’s courageous choice may just reveal a love strong enough to free them both. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //The Scorpion and the Night Blossom// by Amélie Wen Zhao. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1721045388i/210234399.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> In a world invaded by demons, one girl will face the ultimate test when she is forced to enter into an ancient, deadly competition for the chance to save her mother's soul… before she loses her forever. From the New York Times bestselling author of //Song of Silver, Flame Like Night// comes the beginning of a dark and opulent fantasy duology, perfect for fans of //Throne of Glass//. Nine years ago, the war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore Àn’yīng’s family apart, leaving her mother barely alive and a baby sister to fend for. Now the mortal realm is falling into eternal night, and mó—beautiful, ravenous demons—roam the land, feasting on the flesh of humans and drinking their souls. Àn’yīng is no longer a helpless child, though. Armed with her crescent blades and trained in the ancient art of practitioning, she has decided to enter the Immortality Trials, which are open to any mortal who can survive the journey to the immortal realm. Those who complete the Trials are granted a pill of eternal life—the one thing Àn’yīng knows can heal her dying mother. But to attain the prize, she must survive the competition. Death is common in the Trials. Yet oddly, Àn’yīng finds that someone is helping her stay alive. A rival contestant. Powerful and handsome, Yù’chén is as secretive about his past as he is about his motives for protecting Àn’yīng. The longer she survives the Trials, the clearer it becomes that all is not right in the immortal realm. To save her mother and herself, Àn’yīng will need to figure out whether she can truly trust the stranger she’s falling for or if he’s the most dangerous player of all . . . for herself and for all the realms. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] "Hello!" You call out, letting your voice carry. Conversation halts and they all turn towards you. Maybe you were a little hasty in your decision to approach a group of people in a dark wood. "Are you by yourself? Come right over," one stranger says after a moment, and the tension breaks. "We're sitting down to eat," another stranger adds. "Where are you from?" "I'm a little lost," you admit, approaching the campire. There are a few places to sit, but all next to others. You have a feeling this choice will determine how you spend the next 300 pages- I mean, the next few hours. Which do you choose? [[A MONK who wrings his hands, refusing to meet your eye.]] [[A WOMAN holding a MAP, which she inspects closely. A smartly dressed MAN stands over her shoulder, and he gives you a dismissive look.]] [[A WOMAN with an intense, guarded expression. She clutches a KNIFE in one hand.]]You mouth "What?" and pretend to take a phone away from your ear. The strangers exchange confused looks as you shake your head, wave, and continue down the path alone. A bat flits overhead and a brisk wind rattles the bare branches behind you. You really should find somewhere to stop for the night. Thankfully, the path appears to be ending on the steps of a small cabin. Dream logic informs you that it is an uninhabited artist's retreat - a famed painter visits this cabin during the summer to hone his craft, but it is empty right now. Of course, you respect that a true visionary requires his aloof solitude. [[Enter the CABIN]] [[Walk around the back, towards the GARDEN]]We recommend you read //The Witch Roads// by Kate Elliott. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1725924004i/217388109.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> Status is hereditary, class is bestowed, trust must be earned. When an arrogant prince (and his equally arrogant entourage) gets stuck in Orledder Halt as part of brutal political intrigue, competent and sunny deputy courier Elen―once a child slave meant to shield noblemen from the poisonous Pall―is assigned to guide him through the hills to reach his destination. When she warns him not to enter the haunted Spires, the prince doesn’t heed her advice, and the man who emerges from the towers isn’t the same man who entered. The journey that follows is fraught with danger. Can a group taught to ignore and despise the lower classes survive with a mere deputy courier as their guide? //The Witch Roads// is the latest epic novel by fan favorite, Kate Elliott. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //The Devils// by Joe Abercrombie. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1716490016i/212276037.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds. Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters, and the mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends. Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //A Song of Legends Lost// by M.H. Ayinde. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1719408835i/202251782.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> The first book in the series, //A Song of Legends Lost//, will be published in spring 2025 and launches a gripping tale of revenge and rebellion in a vividly drawn world inspired by multiple pre-colonial cultures. In the Nine Lands, only those of noble blood can summon the spirits of their ancestors to fight in battle. But when Temi, a commoner from the slums, accidentally invokes a powerful spirit, she finds it could hold the key to ending a centuries-long war. But not everything that can be invoked is an ancestor. And some of the spirits that can be drawn from the ancestral realm are more dangerous than anyone can imagine. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] The door swings open easily. The cabin is dusty but otherwise clean. Though the fireplace is dark, it is already warmer than it was outside. Beautiful, detailed paintings - mostly unfinished - cover every inch of empty space on the walls, and a few inches of the floor as well. You spot two easels propped opposite a window. You can see where the artist has produced a sketch, but not a complete picture. Which draws your eye more? [[The dragon. Obviously. What is the point of a fantasy dream scenario if there is not at least one option to pick the dragon.]] [[A striking scene depicting a group of people huddled around a crumpled, bloody body. The lighting, the tension, the flairs of personality clear from the subjects despite the unfinished background...this is the work of a master.]] [[None of these. You're more interested in the tapestries hanging by the fireplace. Hey, are those people NAKED?]]You'll take a chance on the house later. Right now, you're feeling a bit peckish. Perhaps the garden has something you'll recognize. The garden is surprisingly lush. Ivy drapes over a short fence, and rows of flowers carpet the rich soil. A few plants even seem to have fruit. This late in the year? Which fruit will you eat? Eating strange and mysterious fruit never hurt anybody. [[A heavy, fragrant dark purple fruit that hangs a few inches from the ground. When you look at it too long, you hear whispers.]] [[A cluster of small, green fruits on a short vine. As you lean closer to examine them, the vine pricks your cheek with a metallic thorn.|A cluster of small, green fruits on a thorny vine. As you lean closer to examine them, the vine pricks your cheek.]] [[A normal red apple. Oh, no, wait, the soil is churned with bits of old parchment, and ink bleeds towards the tree's roots.]]We recommend you read //Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame// by Neon Yang. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1730928892i/217388174.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> A new Queer, Asian-inspired fantasy novella about a renowned dragon slayer who never takes her armor off in public, //Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame// reads like //She Who Became the Sun// meets //The Mandalorian//, with dragons! The fiercely independent nation of Quanbao is isolated, reclusive, and something of a mystery to the rest of the world. It is rumored that there, dragons are not feared as is right and proper but instead loved and worshiped. Yeva is perhaps a strange emissary to these people. Not only because their face has never been seen in public, but because they are a hero born to a birthright that makes them suited for their task—hunting dragons. And so the dragon hunter must woo Quanbao's queen—the Lady Sookhee—to understand what secrets she is hiding. A woman reasonably suspicious of Yeva's intentions, and the imperial might of the throne she represents, Sookhee bears the burden of the safety of her entire people. How can she trust this stranger newly arrived to her court, a weapon forged in blood and fire, to understand what her people need and how best to safeguard their future? Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //The Raven Scholar// by Antonia Hodgson. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1731522613i/212174157.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes //The Raven Scholar//, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth. Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best. Then one of them is murdered. It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in. If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen. We are the Raven, and we are magnificent. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //The Mercy Makers// by Tessa Gratton. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1733867996i/220214954.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> A talented heretic must decide between the pursuit of forbidden magic, or the ecstasy of forbidden love—either way, her choice will upend the world, in the start of a sweeping, romantic epic fantasy trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Tessa Gratton. Can an empire trip and fall on a mere strand of silk? Iriset is a prodigy and an outlaw. The daughter of a powerful criminal, she dons her alter ego Silk to create magical disguises for those in her father’s organization, but she longs to do more with her to enhance what it means to be human by giving people wings, night-sight, and other abilities; to unlock the possibilities of gender and parenthood; to cure disease and even to end mortality itself. Everything changes when her father is captured and sentenced to death. To save him, Iriset must infiltrate the palace and the empire’s fanatical ruling family. There, she realizes she has a chance—and an obligation—to bring down the entire corrupt system. She'll have to entangle herself in the lives of the emperor and his sister, getting them to trust and even to love her. But love is a two-way street, and Iriset’s own heart holds the most mysterious and impenetrable magic of all. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //The River Has Roots// by Amal El-Mohtar. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1719522277i/211004176.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death. “Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.” In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk… Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //That Devil, Ambition// by Linsey Miller. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1729520515i/202014720.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From Lambda Literary Award finalist Linsey Miller comes this thrilling stand-alone fantasy about the lengths we'll go to get ahead—an incredibly fresh, twisty love letter to dark academia...with a body count. Perfect for fans of //A Study in Drowning// by Ava Reid, //Gallant// by V. E. Schwab, and //All of Us Villains// by Amanda Foody and C. L. Herman. There is only one school worth graduating from, and it creates as many magicians as it does graves… First in his class and last in his noble line, Fabian Galloway’s only hope of a good future is passing his elite school's honors class. It’s only offered to the best thirteen students, and those students have a single assignment: kill their professor. If they succeed, their student debt is forgiven. However, if an assassination attempt fails or the professor is alive at the end of the year, the students’ lives are forfeit. And dealing with the professor, a devil summoned solely to kill or be killed, is no easy task. Fabian isn't worried, though. He trusts his best friends—softhearted math genius Credence and absent-minded but insightful Euphemia—to help. After all, that’s why he befriended them. As the months pass and their professor remains impossibly alive, the trio must use every asset they have to survive. Or else failure will be on their academic records—and their tombstones—forever. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //Aunt Tigress// by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1723811394i/214988509.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From debut author Emily Yu-Xuan Qin comes a snarky urban fantasy novel inspired by Chinese and First Nation mythology and bursting with wit, compelling characters, and LGBTQIA+ representation Readers of Seanan McGuire, Ilona Andrews, and Ben Aaronovitch will devour this gory story—and the sweet-as-Canadian-maple-syrup sapphic romance at its monstrous heart Tam hasn’t eaten anyone in years. She is now Mama’s soft-spoken, vegan daughter — everything dangerous about her is cut out, repressed. Medicated. But when Tam’s estranged Aunt Tigress is found murdered and skinned, Tam inherits an undead fox in a shoebox and an ensemble of old enemies. The demons, the ghosts, the gods running coffee shops by the river? Fine. The tentacled thing stalking Tam across the city? Absolutely not. And when Tam realizes the girl she’s falling in love with might be yet another loose end from her past? That’s just the brassy, beautiful cherry on top. Because no matter how quietly she lives, Tam can’t hide from her voracious upbringing, nor the suffering she caused. As she navigates romance, redemption, and the end of the world, she can’t help but wonder… Do monsters even deserve happy endings? With worldbuilding inspired by Chinese folklore and the Siksiká Nation in Canada, LGBTQIA+ representation, and a sapphic romance, //Aunt Tigress// is at once familiar and breathtakingly innovative. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] You enter the library. This might be the grandest library you've ever seen. And you're taking a book-related quiz created by the Reactor Social Media Manager, so statistically, you've probably seen the inside of a lot of libraries. Books live on every shelf, and the shelves stretch farther than your eyes can follow. Plush green armchairs are scattered at random, accompanied by dim lamps and empty teacups. You decide to pick a book at random. Which do you choose? [[A book with a silver spine. The cover is a picture of you.]] [[A book with a dry, cracked spine. The cover is a volcano. It is hot to the touch.]]Grey carpet. Bad coffee. Pictures of McMansions on the walls. Yes...you know the lair of a mediocre realtor when you see one. "Are you here to find your new home?" A woman appears behind the service counter, and she is smiling. "Did you know you have to take a Cube to get here?" You ask. "We have two homes currently on the market," she replies, gesturing to two stained brochures. Which do you pick up? [[A brochure showing off a sleek, fashionable house. The text reads "THIS HOUSE KNOWS YOU BETTER THAN YOU KNOW YOURSELF! IT IS LITERALLY ALIVE!" A handwritten note on the brochure reads: "Dead body included."]] [[A brochure showing off a luxury apartment within a spaceship. Through one window, you can the black expanse of space, dotted with stars. A handwritten note on the brochure reads: "Dead body included."]]We recommend you read //Death of the Author// by Nnedi Okorafor. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1736814296i/214283593.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> The future of storytelling is here. Life has thrown Zelu some curveballs over the years, but when she's suddenly dropped from her university job and her latest novel is rejected, all in the middle of her sister's wedding, her life is upended. Disabled, unemployed and from a nosy, high-achieving, judgmental family, she's not sure what comes next. In her hotel room that night, she takes the risk that will define her life - she decides to write a book VERY unlike her others. A science fiction drama about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. And everything changes. What follows is a tale of love and loss, fame and infamy, of extraordinary events in one world, and another. And as Zelu's life evolves, the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur. Because sometimes a story really does have the power to reshape the world. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //Brother Brontë// by Fernando A. Flores. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1720041245i/211934958.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> Two women fight to save their dystopian border town—and literature—in this gonzo near-future adventure. The year is 2038, and the formerly bustling town of Three Rivers, Texas, is a surreal wasteland. Under the authoritarian thumb of its tech industrialist mayor, Pablo Henry Crick, the town has outlawed reading and forced most of the town’s mothers to work as indentured laborers at the Big Tex Fish Cannery, which poisons the atmosphere and lines Crick’s pockets. Scraping by in this godforsaken landscape are best friends Prosperina and Neftalí—the latter of whom, one of the town’s last literate citizens, hides and reads the books of the mysterious renegade author Jazzmin Monelle Rivas, whose last novel, Brother Brontë, is finally in Neftalí’s possession. But after a series of increasingly violent atrocities committed by Crick’s forces, Neftalí and Prosperina, with the help of a wounded bengal tigress, three scheming triplets, and an underground network of rebel tías, rise up to reclaim their city—and in the process, unlock Rivas’s connection to Three Rivers itself. An adventure that only the acclaimed Fernando A. Flores could dream up, //Brother Brontë// is a mordant, gonzo romp through a ruined world that, in its dysfunction, tyranny, and disparity, nonetheless feels uncannily like our own. With his most ambitious book yet, Flores once again bends what fiction can do, in the process crafting a moving and unforgettable story of perseverance. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //Murder By Memory// by Olivia Waite. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1724325334i/211004175.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> //A Memory Called Empire// meets //Miss Marple// in this cozy, spaceborne mystery, helmed by a no-nonsense formidable auntie of a detective. Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger. Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot. Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes… Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //Rose/House// by Arkady Martine. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1726782115i/214161670.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> Arkady Martine, the acclaimed author of the Teixcalaan Series, returns with an astonishing new novella. Basit Deniau’s houses were haunted to begin with. A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. But now Deniau’s been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect’s will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other. Dr. Selene Gisil, one of Deniau’s former protégé, is permitted to come into Rose House once a year. She alone may open Rose House’s vaults, look at drawings and art, talk with Rose House’s animating intelligence all she likes. Until this week, Dr. Gisil was the only person whom Rose House spoke to. But even an animate intelligence that haunts a house has some failsafes common to all AIs. For instance: all AIs must report the presence of a dead body to the nearest law enforcement agency. There is a dead person in Rose House. The house says so. It is not Basit Deniau, and it is not Dr. Gisil. It is someone else. Rose House, having completed its duty of care and informed Detective Maritza Smith of the China Lake police precinct that there is in fact a dead person inside it, dead of unnatural causes—has shut up. No one can get inside Rose House, except Dr. Gisil. Dr. Gisil was not in North America when Rose House called the China Lake precinct. But someone did. And someone died there. And someone may be there still. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] You decide to make your towards the church, which presides over an old graveyard. You wonder about the difference between a graveyard and a cemetary and a churchyard and a kirkyard. Your dream self is quite inquisitive. Maybe when you wake up you'll make a post about it and tag the Reactor Magazine accounts. The church is very old, and when you enter, it appears empty. You approach a tall altar, upon which there are two bowls. Which do you take from? [[The bowl of honey.]] [[The bowl of blood.]] You approach a large house perched on a larger hill. If the house had better days, they were many years ago. The wooden porch creaks loudly as you knock on the door. No answer, but maybe that was optimistic of you. The inside of the house is disgusting. Mold fuzzes the carpet, and the portraits on the wall have long faded within their frames. There is a peculiar stillness that fills you with melancholy. The house had people in it, once. There are a few objects on a slouching side table. Which do you pick up for inspection? [[A tarnished wristwatch. The numbers have been rubbed off, but the hands still spin.]] [[A battered paperback. A beautiful woman is printed on the cover, but the image is only half-visible. The corpse of a large spider masks her face.]] [[A preserved rose, perfect but for the teeth marks mangling one petal.]] Yes, this is the most harrowing choice. You follow the road for a while, watching as the dirt turns to gravel, then to asphalt. The city of Denver, Colorado unfolds before you, framed by the Rocky Mountains. You always thought Denver was IN the mountains, but your Dream Self remembers that when people think of Denver, they're actually imagining Salt Lake City, Utah. Your Dream Selt is a bit of a pedant. [[Continue downtown]] [[Let's check out the suburbs.]]We recommend you read //The Starving Saints// by Caitlin Starling. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1727445382i/217896248.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From the nationally bestselling author of //The Luminous Dead// and //The Death of Jane Lawrence//, a transfixing, intensely atmospheric fever dream of medieval horror. Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration. Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls. As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //The Unworthy// by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1722354275i/214151601.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation //Tender Is the Flesh//: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos. From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe. But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened? A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //Sour Cherry// by Natalia Theodoridou. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1717706963i/213816143.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> A stunning reimagining of Bluebeard—one of the most mythologized serial killers—twisted into a modern tale of toxic masculinity, a feminist sermon, and a folktale for the twenty-first century. The tale begins with Agnes. After losing her baby, Agnes is called to the great manor house to nurse the local lord’s baby boy. But something is wrong with the child: his nails grow too fast, his skin smells of soil, and his eyes remind her of the dark forest. As he grows into a boy, then into man, a plague seems to follow him everywhere. Trees wither at the roots, fruits rot on their branches, and the town turns against him. The man takes a wife, who bears him a son. But tragedy strikes in cycles and his family is forced to consider their own malignancy—until wife after wife, death after death, plague after plague, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. The ghosts become a chorus, and they call urgently to our narrator as she tries to explain, in our very real world, exactly what has happened to her. The ghosts can all agree on one thing, an inescapable truth about this man, this powerful lord who has loved them and led them each to ruin: If you leave, you die. But if you die, you stay. Natalia Theodoridou’s haunting and unforgettable debut novel, //Sour Cherry//, confronts age-old systems of gender and power, long-held excuses made for bad men, and the complicated reasons we stay captive to the monsters we love. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //But Not Too Bold// by Hache Pueyo. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1716245672i/204254235.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> //The Shape of Water// meets //Mexican Gothic// in this sapphic monster romance novella wrapped in gothic fantasy trappings The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House⁠―Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides. Dália, the old keeper’s protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's death, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role. But there’s a gaping hole in Dália’s plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //Hungerstone// by Kat Dunn. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1724718900i/212342605.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> //Hungerstone// is a thrillingly seductive sapphic romance for fans of S.T. Gibson’s //A Dowry of Blood// and Emilia Hart’s //Weyward//. For what do you hunger, Lenore? Lenore is the wife of steel magnate Henry, but ten years into their marriage, the relationship has soured and no child has arrived to fill the distance growing between them. Henry's ambitions take them out of London and to the imposing Nethershaw manor in the countryside, where Henry aims to host a hunt with society’s finest. Lenore keeps a terrible secret from the last time her husband hunted, and though they never speak of it, it haunts their marriage to this day. The preparations for the event take a turn when a carriage accident near their remote home brings the mysterious Carmilla into Lenore's life. Carmilla who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night; Carmilla who stirs up a hunger deep within Lenore. Soon girls from local villages begin to fall sick before being consumed by a bloody hunger. Torn between regaining her husband's affection and Carmilla's ever-growing presence, Lenore begins to unravel her past and in doing so, uncovers a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk . . . Set against the violent wilderness of the moors and the uncontrolled appetite of the industrial revolution, //Hungerstone// is a compulsive feminist reworking of Carmilla, the book that inspired Dracula: a captivating story of appetite and desire. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] Downtown leads you to a street corner dominated by the Brown Palace Hotel, a brown brick building at odds with the modern skyscrapers beside it. You spot a number of ambulances, as well as harried people dashing in and out of the building. [[This situation looks like it could use your help.]] [[Let's allow the nice Dream People to carry out their jobs.|Let's check out the suburbs.]]Ah, the suburbs of modern America! This does feel like the horror route of a text-based outcome quiz. The streets are dry and empty. There are very few trees, and the grass is pale and withered. A feeling of unease settles over you as you pass a large, hollow mall. [[Enter the mall.]]We recommend you read //The Haunting of Room 904// by Erika T. Wurth. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1716851426i/211004028.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From the author of //White Horse// (“Twisty and electric.” —The New York Times Book Review) comes a terrifying and resonant novel about a woman who uses her unique gift to learn the truth about her sister’s death. Olivia Becente was never supposed to have the gift. The ability to commune with the dead was the specialty of her sister, Naiche. But when Naiche dies unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, somehow Olivia suddenly can’t stop seeing and hearing from spirits. A few years later, she’s the most in-demand paranormal investigator in Denver. She’s good at her job, but the loss of Naiche haunts her. That’s when she hears from the Brown Palace, a landmark Denver hotel. The owner can’t explain it, but every few years, a girl is found dead in room 904, no matter what room she checked into the night before. As Olivia tries to understand these disturbing deaths, the past and the present collide as Olivia’s investigation forces her to confront a mysterious and possibly dangerous cult, a vindictive journalist, betrayal by her friends, and shocking revelations about her sister’s secret life. //The Haunting of Room 904// is a paranormal thriller that is as edgy as it is heartfelt and simmers with intensity and longing. Erika T. Wurth lives up to her reputation as “a gritty new punkish outsider voice in American horror.” Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] No lights are on. You can see by the light filtering in through the windows. While the tile floor is pristine, the storefronts are dark, populated by cardboard boxes and ripped carpet. A steady whirring noise echoes from the top floor. Wait, there //is// a light on, down in the distance. A store is open. [[Approach]]It's a plant shop. Leaves burst from their flowerpots, spilling onto the floor and causing you to look down as you walk, for fear of tripping. The flowers have a stiff artificiality, and you don't recognize the colors. Well- it's mostly a plant shop, but there is also a wall stacked with TV stations, all turned to the same dead channel. The lights are cold and flourescent, and the air smells like burning plastic. The static noise hurts your ears. [[Examine a plant.]] [[Take a closer look at the TVs.]]We recommend you read //Eat the Ones You Love// by Sarah Maria Griffin. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1710357702i/203579211.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> A twisted, tangled story about workplace love-affairs, and plants with a taste for human flesh During a grocery run to her local shopping center, Shell Pine sees a ‘HELP NEEDED’ sign in a flower shop window. She’s just left her fiancé, lost her job, and moved home to her parents’ house. She has to make a change and bring some good into her life, so she goes inside and takes a chance. Shell realizes right away that flowers are just the good thing she's been looking for, as is Neve, the beautiful florist who wrote the sign asking for help. The thing is, Neve needs help more than Shell could possibly imagine. An orchid growing out of sight in the heart of the mall is watching them closely. His name is Baby, and the beautiful florist belongs to him. He’s young, he’s hungry, and he’ll do just about anything to make sure he can keep growing big and strong. Nothing he eats – nobody he eats – can satisfy him, except the thing he most desires. Neve. He adores her and wants to consume her, and will stop at nothing to eat the one he loves. This is a story about possession, and monstrosity, and working retail. It is about hunger and desire, and other terrible things that grow. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] When you walk closer to the TV screens, you realize that they are not just playing static. There is a vague image behind the black and white fuzz...someone gesturing animatedly. But you can't see it clearly. Anger rises within you, irrational, and only irritating you more because you recognize it has no source. Why should a TV make you feel this way? You look elsewhere, and your eyes land on a screen behind the empty store counter. It's the store's video camera. You see yourself, staring at yourself. Something moves on the camera trained just outside of the store, back into the mall's main corridor. Something indistinct which appears to be getting closer. [[Look back at the TVs.]] [[Investigate the cameras.]]We recommend you read //Wake Up and Open Your Eyes// by Clay McLeod Chapman. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1718667183i/204640265.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From Vulture's "master of horror" Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless and emotionally charged social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media, for fans of //The Last of Us// and //When Evil Lurks// Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reawakening” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help. Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him. But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart-–literally-–as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn–-but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes? This ambitious, searing novel from "one of horror's modern masters" holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //When Devils Sing// by Xan Kaur. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1719776884i/213618113.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> In this Southern gothic horror novel, four unlikely allies in a small town investigate a local teen's disappearance, and what they discover festering at the core of their community is far more sinister and ancient than they could’ve ever imagined. For fans of //She is a Haunting//, //True Detective//, //Mexican Gothic//, and //Midsommar//. When Dawson Sumter goes missing, all he leaves behind is a smattering of blood in room 4 of the debt-ridden motel owned by Neera Singh's family. Disappearances like this aren't uncommon in the rural Georgia town of Carrion, especially every thirteen years when a periodical cicada brood returns from underground, shrieking their deafening screams. For Neera, Dawson is another reminder that in this corner of the South, the rich only get richer, and the poor―well, nothing good comes their way. Neera sets out to investigate Dawson’s whereabouts―if he even still lives―along with three other teens: Isaiah, son of a prominent judge and clandestine true crime podcaster; Reid, son of the wealthiest man in the region; and Sam, estranged daughter of the local hitman. As they find themselves entangled in a messy web of secrets and lies, they discover the riches of the adjacent Lake Clearwater community may have a terrifying source of power dating back to the town’s founding and an ancient urban legend about three devils, each more sinister than the next. How deep does the rot go, and can they find a way to escape its reach? Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] You nonconformist, you! When your hand passes through the cube, you feel bits of flotsam knock past your fingertips. One part of your body turns very hot, and the other, very cold. You're in a grand train station. The high ceilings and elaborate art statues feel familiar, but you can't remember why. A large bronze sign indicates that some trains are about to leave. A silver bowl rests under the sign, overflowing with train tickets. When you open your hand, you are holding a ticket, though the words wriggle and buck when you try to read them. [[Check out the platforms. You're about to miss the trains!]] [[Put your ticket in the bowl.]] [[Take a ticket out of the bowl.]] When the ticket leaves your hand, it falls not into the bowl, but onto a thick, open book. It appears to be a book of records. At least, you recognize that there are lists of names and signatures. You even recognize a few. And hey, there's Nic Cage! Haha. Weird. A Pilot G-2 Gel Pen is nestled between the book's pages. Do you add your name? [[You would never doubt Nic Cage.]] [[You don't sign books you didn't write.|Check out the platforms. You're about to miss the trains!]] You wander over to the train platforms, of which there are two currently demanding your attention. The train on the right is an older steam engine. It's shiny, black, and beautiful, but the smoke bellowing from its chimney stings your eyes. A large sign by the platform reads: HOME. The train on the left has a modern, grey exterior with two stripes down the side. If trains could look tired, this one would. A large sign by the platform reads: ELSEWHERE. You only have one ticket, and trains have started to inch away from the platform. Which do you choose? [[HOME.]] [[ELSEWHERE.]] We recommend you read //Portalmania// by Debbie Urbanski. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1730318979i/220161236.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> For fans of Kelly Link and Carmen Maria Machado, a genre-busting collection of stories that transgresses taboos and reveals our lives in a startling new light. If you could be anything, what would you be? And what happens to the people you leave behind? In //Portalmania//, Debbie Urbanski wields sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and realism to build a dark mirror that she holds up to the ordinary world. Within the sharply imagined landscape of this collection, portals appear in linen closets, planetary gateways materialize in boarding schools, monsters wait in bathroom vents, and transformations of women’s bodies are an everyday occurrence. Political division causes physical rifts that break apart the Earth’s crust. A son on another planet sends dispatches home to the mother who failed him, and a wife turns to the supernatural to escape her abusive marriage. Portals are not only doorways found in children’s classics, but separations, escapes, dead ends, desertions, and choices that will change these characters’ lives forever. Against a fantastical backdrop, these stories dive bravely into the shadowy depths of betrayal, parenthood, revenge, murder, coercive sex, open marriages, marital rape, asexuality, neurodiversity, and second chances. What if we’re not the ideal parents for our children? What if we’re not the ideal person to live our own life? Portalmania questions why we love as we do and asks if we have enough courage to reimagine desire. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //The Book of Records// by Madeleine Thien. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1729195173i/218569917.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> A novel that leaps across centuries past and future, as if different eras were separated by only a door. Lina and her father have arrived at an enclave called The Sea, a staging-post between migrations, with only a few possessions. In this mysterious and shape-shifting place, a building made of time, pasts and futures collide. Lina befriends her neighbors: Bento, a Jewish scholar in seventeenth-century Amsterdam; Blucher, a philosopher in 1930s Germany fleeing Nazi persecution; and Jupiter, a poet of Tang Dynasty China. Under the tutelage of these great thinkers, Lina equips herself to face her ailing father’s troubling admissions about his role in their family’s tragic past. Lina’s encounters with her intellectual and personal forebearers force her to reckon with difficult questions of guilt, responsibility, and the possibility of redemption. Profound, exquisitely written and with extraordinary subtlety of thought, //The Book of Records// explores the role of fate in history, the migratory nature of humanity, our search for home, and the place of faith and humanity in our world. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] You board the steam engine as the last blast of the whistle fades away. The car is crowded! You keep apologizing to people as you step on their feet, searching for a free spot. Oof. Ouch. My apologies. Let me just squeeze right by ya. When you find a seat, it's by the aisle, and you can't see out of the window. You take a look at the people seated around you, and while you don't recognize most of them, some faces seem vaguely familiar. Oh! The woman on the opposite end of the aisle. You know her. That's your mom! [[Try to talk to the woman in the shape of your mom.]] [[Pretend to tie your shoe.]]Just as the train begins to speed up, you leap into the vestibule, just in time! Wow, have you been working out? The train car is empty, so you claim a dusty seat by the window. Outside, you can't even see the station anymore. It's just a dry expanse. But the train is quiet, so you don't mind the opportunity to catch your breath. [[Ride for a bit.]]It's hard to tell how much time is passing. You read somewhere that you can't read or look at clocks in dreams, but you've already proven that to be wrong. Maybe it's hard //for novices//, you think smugly. When you next glance out the window, you see buildings beginning to crop up near the railroad tracks. The air is very dry, and the dust from the train's wake scrapes against the window. In the distance, you see an old woman dressed in black walk haltingly towards the same direction as the train, and dread coils down your spine. When the train stops, it's in a small town. Why a modern train like this would arrive here...your guesses are as numerous as the tumbleweeds. There is a crowd forming outside of the arrival platform, and you spot several people pushing one another in an effort to rush the train. The sense of unease blooms larger. [[Disembark. You can handle this.]] [[Wake up. That was an option?]]We recommend you read //The Antidote// by Karen Russell. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1723844474i/214537790.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From Pulitzer finalist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and bestselling author of //Swamplandia!// and //Vampires in the Lemon Grove//. A gripping Dust Bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl drought, but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a "Prairie Witch," whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples’ memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate. Russell's novel is above all a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting—enacting the settler amnesia and willful omissions passed down from generation to generation, and unearthing not only horrors but shimmering possibilities. The Antidote echoes with urgent warnings for our own climate emergency, challenging readers with a vision of what might have been—and what still could be. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //When We Were Real// by Daryl Gregory. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1724430840i/214565598.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From multiple award-winning author Daryl Gregory comes a madcap adventure following two friends on a cross-country bus tour through the mind-boggling glitches in their simulated world as they grapple with love, family, secrets, and the very nature of reality in a simulation. JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach. Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await. //When We Were Real// is a tour-de-force and exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] It's your mom! She knows when you're pretending to tie your shoe. Oldest trick in the Book of Old Tricks. [[Talk to your mom.|Try to talk to the woman in the shape of your mom.]]She notices you first. She leans over, conspiratorially. "You would tell me if this hat didn't match my clothes, would you?" You observe, swiftly, that her hat in fact does not match her clothes. [["It's definitely on your head."]] [["It's a spring hat, but your outfit feels like a winter."]]We recommend you read //Meet Me at the Crossroads// by Megan Giddings. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1728173047i/218431668.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From the award-winning, critically-acclaimed author of //Lakewood// and //The Women Could Fly//, a dazzling novel about two brilliant sisters and what happens to their undeniable bond when a mysterious and possibly perilous new world beckons. On an ordinary summer morning, the world is changed by the appearance of seven mysterious doors that seemingly lead to another world. People are, of course, mesmerized and intrigued: A new dimension filled with beauty and resources beckons them to step into an adventure. But, perhaps inevitably, people soon learn that what looks like paradise may very well be filled with danger. Ayanna and Olivia, two Black Midwestern teens—and twin sisters—have different ideas of what may lie in the world beyond. But will their personal bond endure such wanton exploration? And when one of them goes missing, will the other find solace of her own? And will she uncover the circumstances of what truly happened to her once constant companion and best friend? Megan Giddings brings her customarily brilliant and eye-opening powers of storytelling to give us a story that dazzles the senses and bewitches the mind. //Meet Me at the Crossroads// is an unforgettable novel about faith, love, and family from one of today’s most exciting and surprising young writers. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]] We recommend you read //A Palace Near the Wind// by Ai Jiang. <img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1717077550i/211236805.jpg" width:"500" height="600"</img> From a rising star author, a richly inventive, brutal and beautiful science-fantasy novella. A story of family, loss, oppression and rebellion for readers of Nghi Vo's //The Empress of Salt and Fortune//, Neon Yang's //The Black Tides of Heaven// and Kritika H. Rao's //The Surviving Sky// Sometimes called Wind Walkers for their ability to command the wind, unlike their human rulers, the Feng people have bark faces, carved limbs, arms of braided branches, and hair of needle threads. Bound by duty and tradition, Liu Lufeng, the eldest princess of the Feng royalty, is the next bride to the human king. The negotiation of bridewealth is the only way to stop the expansion of the humans so that the Feng can keep their lands, people, and culture intact. As the eldest, Lufeng should be the next in line to lead the people of Feng, and in the past, that made her sisters disposable. Thankful that her youngest sister, Chuiliu, is too young for a sacrificial marriage, she steps in with plans to kill the king to finally stop the marriages. But when she starts to uncover the truth about her peoples' origins and realizes Chuiliu will never be safe from the humans, she must learn to let go of duty and tradition, choose her allies carefully, and risk the unknown in order to free her family and shape her own fate. A powerfully imaginative, compelling story of a young woman seeking to save her family and her home, as well as a devastating meditation on the destruction of the natural world for the sake of an industrial future. Read about our book editor's thoughts - and check out the full list! - in Reactor's “<a href="https://reactormag.com/30-sff-titles-to-look-forward-to-in-2025/">30 SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025.</a>” You can also find us at Twitter (@reactormag), Bluesky (@reactorsff.bsky.social), Instagram/Threads (@reactorsff), and Facebook (Reactor Magazine). Let us know what you got, and what books you're looking forward to! [[Start over.|Start]]