Pile by the Bed’s Top Five Science Fiction books for 2025 – all standalone novels – and five honourable mentions
Claire North jumps into big picture space opera with Slow Gods. The central character of Slow Gods is an outsider, trying to help with an impending catastrophe while also navigating the complexities of relationships. This is space opera in the vein of some of the greats like Iain M Banks and Ann Leckie.
Adrian Tchiakovsky’s Shroud is part survival tale, part first contact story, part corporate takedown. Two humans are stuck in a broken lander on an inhospitable moon and have to somehow navigate their way to rescue while also dealing with mercurial (to them) aliens
Science fiction master Alastair Reynolds combines noir detective tropes with a generation ship story in Halcyon Years. Gumshoe Yuri Gagarin (yes that one) is asked to investigate the murder of the child of one of the ruling families of Halcyon. As with all good noir detective stories, nothing is quite what it seems and the stakes turn out to be incredibly high.
Jennifer Mills puts her own spin on climate fiction in Salvage, with a clear eyed future that is clearly tough but eschews doom and gloom. This is the story of Jude, adopted and raised in luxury but who runs away when things start to collapse. This is a story of adaptation, resilience and community.
Adam Oyebanji delivers a mind bending crime novel, opening with an impossible murder in Esperance. While this is a fast moving ride, Oyebanji uses his story to bring to light some of the legacy of the slave trade.
Honourable Mentions
EJ Swift delivers possibly the gentlest and possibly most optimistic climate fiction novel of the year in When There Are Wolves Again. Starting in the ruins of Chernobyl, and told throgh the eyes of two very different women, this novel explores what could possibly be achieved to adapt to climate change through the rewilding of Britain.
Ray Nayler gets a little political in Where the Axe is Buried, a story set in a future Europe where many government have been replaced by AI and thew Russian Federation is run by a seemingly immortal despot.
Catherine Chidgey drops readers into an alternative 1970s Britain in The Book of Guilt. Remeniscent of Kaxuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me go but creating her own unique world in which the perverse science of World War Two is still being used and certain children are its guinea pigs.
James Bradley imagines a climate change-affected future Sydney in his crime novel Landfall. A policewoman investigates the disappearance of a young girl from a flooded coastal community. At the same time, Tasim, a refugee, sees a young girl being put into the back of a van and decides, despite his status that he cannot just be a bystander. And all the while a mega storm is approaching the city.
Ren Hutchings delivers another enjoyable stand-alone space opera featuring space pirates, a heist plot and a main characters trying to rediscover her forgotten past all set in the same universe as their equally enjoyable debut Under Fortunate Stars. .
No Comments
Comments are closed.