Sci-Fi/Fantasy Poll

Hello, readers!

A reminder that we will be meeting on Sunday, February 22 to discuss Operation Bouncehouse. 🙂 This is our first book of 2026 and hopefully will get us (ok, mostly me) back into the swing of things.

We’ll also be having a social/game night on Friday, February 20.

Our next genre is sci-fi/fantasy, and I’ve pulled your choices from Fantasy Faction’s Top 50 SFF Books of 2025 list that came out today.

There were a ton to choose from that seem good—seriously, I think my TBR pile has doubled since starting to look—and I mainly pulled from the highest ranked books. You may vote for up to 3.

I’ll close the poll on Sunday evening when we have our meeting. Happy reading and voting!

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison.
Not to die, but to save—seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.
But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.
Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.
Or it might be the thing that kills them all.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion’s greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children’s books and recruiting posters?but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.
Centuries later, Owen Mallory?failed soldier, struggling scholar?falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives?and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.
But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una’s legend–if they want to tell a different story–they’ll have to rewrite history itself.

Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove

Spaceships aren’t programmed to seek revenge—but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.
Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans.
To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team: A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. And a fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

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.

The Devils (The Devils #1) by Joe Abercrombie

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.

The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path Trilogy #1) by Antonia Hodgson

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.

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