{"id":57028,"date":"2025-10-02T21:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T21:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/57028\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T21:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T21:24:14","slug":"octobers-best-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-literary-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/57028\/","title":{"rendered":"October\u2019s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books \u2039 Literary Hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month\u2019s TBR looks to be as varied as a bucket of candy after a solid night of trick-or-treating. There\u2019s sour-sweet gummy worms (cyberpunk from Ken Liu and K.M Fajardo). The soulmate pairing of peanut butter and chocolate (Alix E. Harrow\u2019s The Everlasting). Nougat and nuts and caramel somehow all working together (Eric Heisserer\u2019s Simultaneous). Something to get stuck in your teeth, but in a good way (Olivie Blake\u2019s Girl Dinner). In fact, I think I\u2019ve also just described the two short fiction collections on this list\u2014one from a debut author, the other collecting last year\u2019s best SFF. Like your Halloween bucket, you\u2019ll want to take your time sifting through this one, but you could start anywhere and have a feast before you.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\"tekk<\/a><\/p>\n

Kristina Ten, Tell Me Yours, I\u2019ll Tell You Mine<\/a>
(Stillhouse Press, October 7)<\/p>\n

Despite Kristina Ten\u2019s prolific publication record, somehow my first introduction to her genre-bending work is through this collection, slim enough to slide beneath your pillow at summer camp but crammed full of the kinds of stories you want to stay up late retelling to your cabinmates. These modern urban legends cleverly transplant the language of \u201890s\/\u201900s adolescence into speculative settings: putting a macabre spin on harmless pranks (\u201cBunny Ears\u201d), Mad Libs for microaggressions (\u201cADJECTIVE\u201d), delving into r\/creepypasta (\u201cThe Dizzy Room\u201d) and, perhaps my favorite, a post-war society rebuilding its population via cootie catchers and soda can tabs (\u201cApproved Methods of Love Divination in the First-Rate City of Dushagorod\u201d).<\/p>\n

\"all<\/p>\n

Ken Liu, All That We See or Seem<\/a>
(Saga Press, October 14)<\/p>\n

Ken Liu\u2019s first sci-fi thriller plunges readers into a cyberpunk noir where the gumshoe is an \u201corphan hacker\u201d all grown up, and the damsel in distress is an oneirofex\u2014a dream artist, weaving subconscious strands in virtual reality. But Elli Krantz knows too much, which is to say she dabbles in the dreams of crime lord Prince; so when she goes missing, her husband Piers Negri hires bounty hunter Julia Z to track her down. Elli stole something dangerous from Prince, but Julia\u2019s search to uncover it will take her into AI-heavy alternate realities and reveal even more devastating secrets about their world.<\/p>\n

\"happy<\/a><\/p>\n

Amber Sparks, Happy People Don\u2019t Live Here<\/a>
(Liveright Books, October 14)<\/p>\n

Couldn\u2019t let October pass without a gothic tale on the list! The fact that the teenage protagonist at the heart of Amber Sparks\u2019 debut is equal parts Merricat (from Shirley Jackson\u2019s We Have Always Lived in the Castle) and Turtle Wexler (from one of my formative texts, Ellen Raskin\u2019s The Westing Game) warms my heart to ward off the chills of the plot: Mother and daughter duo Alice and Fern move into the eccentric Pine Lake Apartments, a former sanatorium full of weird yet sweet neighbors. But when Fern finds a dead body in the dumpster, her amateur investigation exhumes all of her new friends\u2019 secrets and threatens to reveal what Alice is running from.<\/p>\n

\"local<\/a><\/p>\n

K.M. Fajardo, Local Heavens<\/a>
(Bindery Books, October 14)<\/p>\n

Nghi Vo\u2019s The Chosen and the Beautiful has made it that I can\u2019t see The Great Gatsby as anything but a novel of unrequited queer longing. To see another take on Nick and Gatsby\u2019s ill-fated affair, this time with a cyberpunk bent in K.M. Fajardo\u2019s debut, is thrilling. The futuristic New York of 2075 is leagues apart from 1922, yet the same themes fit oh-so-well: Nick Carraway as the outsider, a Filipino American hacker infiltrating the elite upper echelon; Jay Gatsby using impossibly expensive tech to cheat death; secrets and betrayals brought to light by the little people sacrificed for capitalism and opulence.<\/p>\n

\"girl<\/a><\/p>\n

Olivie Blake, Girl Dinner<\/a>
(Tor Books, October 21)<\/p>\n

Olivie Blake\u2019s latest genre mashup feels perfectly timed to experiencing RushTok (via Anne Helen Petersen\u2019s reporting and commentary) and the all-encompassing culture of sorority life, as well as the dream-come-true surreality of being chosen for a house. Or in this case, The House\u2014the most elite sorority on campus that promises beauty and success for its alumnae. For new pledge Nina Kaur (looking to rewrite the disaster of freshman year) and new academic liaison Dr. Sloane Hartley (still not quite herself eighteen months postpartum), it would seem like nothing to sign over their loyalty in blood. But is cannibalism a step too far, or the obvious sacrifice to make for a lifetime of sisterhood?<\/p>\n

\"when<\/a><\/p>\n

Wen-yi Lee, When They Burned the Butterfly<\/a>
(Tor Books, October 21)<\/p>\n

In 1972 Singapore, schoolgirl Adeline Siow loses her mother to a house fire but discovers her double life as Madam Butterfly, head of the Red Butterflies: a secret gang sworn to an ancient Chinese fire goddess but now adrift without a leader. The goddess\u2019 existence has been nearly snuffed out, Adeline\u2019s bloodline the only thing sustaining her. The desire to learn more about her mother\u2019s life\u2014and the allure of the charismatic Red Butterfly Ang Tian\u2014has Adeline embroiled in gang warfare and a succession crisis, while tapping into her own flame magic.<\/p>\n

\"best<\/a><\/p>\n

Nnedi Okorafor (editor), The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025<\/a>
(Mariner Books, October 21)<\/p>\n

Another excellent collection of SFF short fiction from a mix of established and emerging authors, first published everywhere from well-known magazines to short story collections to newer publications. Nnedi Okorafor\u2019s curation includes Isabel J. Kim\u2019s viral story \u201cWhy Don\u2019t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole\u201d as well as the celebrated \u201cWe Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read\u201d by Caroline M. Yoachim (both Hugo Award finalists). Plus, works by S.L. Huang, Tananarive Due, Joe Hill, Olivie Blake, and many more.<\/p>\n

\"apprehension\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sam J. Miller and Mary Robinette Kowal, Red Star Hustle \/ Apprehension<\/a>
(Saga Press, October 21)<\/p>\n

The latest Saga Double binds together two complementary sci-fi crime stories: Sam J. Miller\u2019s Red Star Hustle, in which a high-class escort gets framed for his client\u2019s assassination, only to fall in with cloned monarchs and bounty hunters; and Mary Robinette Kowal\u2019s Apprehension, in which a grandmother on interplanetary vacation gets mistaken for a deadly spy after her grandson is kidnapped by a terrorist organization. Sounds like a fun mix of \u201cwrong place wrong time\u201d premises intertwined with grief and heartbreak, and secret pasts and wormholes.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

Alix E. Harrow, The Everlasting<\/a>
(Tor Books, October 28)<\/p>\n

I already called out Tasha Suri\u2019s The Isle in the Silver Sea<\/a> in my 2025 preview<\/a>, so envision it sitting in your TBR alongside Alix E. Harrow\u2019s latest\u2014both about lady knights breaking out of nationalist narratives. I wasn\u2019t sure that Harrow could top herself with the devastating cyclical story \u201cThe Six Deaths of the Saint\u201d (which served as the seed for this novel), but she astoundingly has. Historian Owen Mallory is sent back in time to write the ultimate epic about Sir Una Everlasting, the lady knight whose heroic quests\u2014and tragic death\u2014will power the kingdom of Dominion in his present, centuries later. But as Owen must lead Una to her grim fate, over and over, he falls not for the legend but for the woman. And as both ponder what it means to reshape destiny, they must contend with another player in the story, who will accept only one ending.<\/p>\n

\"Simultaneous\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Eric Heisserer, Simultaneous<\/a>
(Flatiron Books, October 28)<\/p>\n

Almost a decade on, I still frequently think about Eric Heisserer\u2019s screenplay for Arrival\u2014and, let\u2019s be honest, Final Destination 5 just as often\u2014so of course I was super intrigued to hear of his debut novel. Gratifyingly, this speculative thriller has time-jumping of a sort paired with reincarnation via past-life hypnosis. Federal agent Grant Lukather works for a department of Homeland Security called Predictive Analytics, which sounds an awful lot like Minority Report and Person of Interest. But the imminent threat of an explosion in New Mexico pairs him up with therapist Sarah Newcomb, who (you guessed it) taps into her patients\u2019 supposed past lives. It\u2019s a fun merging of past, present, and future that could tie into Death, aliens, or some other powerful force entirely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This month\u2019s TBR looks to be as varied as a bucket of candy after a solid night of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-57028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}