Pile by the Bed reviews The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee a science fiction novel that follows an aging highly skilled corporate samurai navigating her final job on a colony world.
Pile by the Bed reviews Pedro the Vast by Simón López Trujillo a speculative novel from Chile in which a man forms a connection with sentient mushrooms.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Misheard World by Aliya Whitely a book that starts as a fairly traditional fnatasy novel but twists into something very different.
Pile by the Bed reviews If We Cannot Go At the Speed of Light by Kim Cho-Yeop (translated by Anton Hur), a series of seven diverse and surprising science fiction short stories.
Pile by the Bed reviews Bird Deity by John Morrissey, a science fiction novel revolving around thehuman inhabitants of a distant colony in the far future and their exploitative relationship with a poorly understood indigenous alien species.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends This Brutal Moon by Bethany Jacobs, the third and final book in her explosive space opera Kindom trilogy.
Pile by the Bed reviews Godfall by Van Jensen – a generally successful an amalgam of small-town detective story and big idea science fiction but one that leaves its biggest mysteries unanswered..
Pile by the Bed reviews Outlaw Planet by MR Carey, a stand alone coda to his Pandominion duoluogy in the style of an american Western.
Pile by the Bed reviews All That We See Or Seem by Ken Liu – a day after today technothriller featuring talented hacker Julia Z that still has something to say about the power of humanity.
Pile By the Bed’s Top 10 books of 2025:
Salvage by Jennifer Mills
Arborescence by Rhett Davis
We Do Not Part by Han Kang
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
Eden by Mark Brandi
The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
Slow Gods by Claire North
Picks and Shovels by Corey Doctorow
Pile By the Bed reveals the Top 5 Science Fiction books of 2025: Slow Gods by Claire North, Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds, Salvage by Jennifer Mills and Esperance by Adam Oyebanji.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Slow Gods by Claire North – engaging, big picture space opera in the vein of Iain M Banks.
Pile by the Bed reviews Veil by Jonathan Janz in which a scrappy group of humans take on an invasion by invisible aliens.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommneds Halcyon Years by British science fiction great Alastair Reynolds – a generation ship story with a classic noir edge.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends When There Are Wolves Again by AJ Swift a climate fiction novel that focusses on how we might adapt to change to arrive ar a more positive future.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Feeding by Aj Ryan a post-apocalyptic vampire thriller that has plenty of violence and gore but struggles to break new ground.
Pile by the Bed reviews An Unbreakable World by Ren Hutchings a hiest-driven science fiction adventure set in the same universe as her time travelling debut Under Fortunate Stars.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends What We Can Know by Ian McEwan, set many years after a climate disaster has remodelled the world, the book explores the current era and tackles issues of history, the power of literature and academia.
Pile by the Bed reviews The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton a first contact story with a smart, resourceful, snarky protagonist.
Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Arborescence by Rhett Davis a mind bending piece of speculative fiction that imagines a world in which people start turning into trees.
