Wombling along
Helllloo!!!
Happy New Year! For New Reader think of this as the blog’s weekend supplement where I gather up the reviews and other book related things that caught my eye this week.
This week I went back to a very quiet workplace and so continued some much needed recharging and even managed to sleep through all the New Years Eve fireworks. That happens rarely! So I think further proof rest was needed. The decorations are now away and reading has resumed with fresh speed. I am ready to blog once more!
In blogging this time of year is a bit of al reckoning period. We look back at our year. What did we love, what did we miss out on and it’s also the time perhaps that most of us are talking about the San thing at the same time. The ‘conversation’ that we like to imagine reviewing is part of is actually for a week on the same subject. The latest Meal of Thorns podcast has a great discussion on this and they too are trying to put the reading year in context. Overall they note no one single book has take over the debate and they agree that’s probably a good thing it’s a really interesting episode and has some discussion on trends, science fiction and more I think are very good to ponder on.
I suspect the reason they and to be fair so are the rest of us can’t quite easily summarise the year yet is that this is perhaps more the end of the first phase of 2025 reading. Now we have our lists, we are comparing, looking for similarities and crucially the books we have all not yet read. That next phase becomes the awards cycle and I wonder if by the autumn we have a slightly firmer grasp of what 2025 was about? I suspect looking across the list we have the most notable books stating to appear and now like planetary dust turning into stars the consolidation of reading continues.
Now this I warn you is a bumper sized edition so ensure you have a lot of tea, biscuits and any other refreshments you need. Get comfy and explore!
Best of Lists
Every Book A Doorway
https://everybookadoorway.com/the-totally-definitive-best-fantasy-sci-fi-books-of-2025/
A C Wise gives their best novels of the year
https://acwise.net/favorite-novels-of-2025/
The Fantasy Hive has their lists
https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2025/12/the-fantasy-hive-2025-year-end-awards/
Beth at Fantasy Hive shared her own
https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2025/12/beths-year-in-review-2025/
As does Nils
https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2025/12/nils-top-reads-of-2025/
Witty And Sarcastic Bookclub have their faves
Fantasy Book Nerd too!
https://www.fantasybooknerd.com/2025/12/book-post-top-books-of-2025.html?m=1
The British Fantasy Society has their team’s highlights
https://britishfantasysociety.org/best-of-2025-according-to-the-bfss-volunteers/
Big Bearded Bookseller too!
https://bigbeardedbookseller.uk/books-of-2025-2/
Reader of Else adds to the mix
https://readerofelse.wordpress.com/2025/12/31/2025-in-books/
Wrong Questions has more
https://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2025/12/2025-year-in-reading-best-books-of-year.html?m=1
Misty Aquavenatus has even more!
Gavreads has a good look back here
https://gavreads.co.uk/2026/01/01/best-books-of-2025-reading-in-2026/
Reviews
Strange Horizons has a suitably timely poetry review about work that annoys all the right people
http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/non-fiction/startlement-by-ada-limon/
Locus is busy as always with some horror in the form of Fiend by Alma Katsu
https://locusmag.com/review/fiend-by-alma-katsu-review-by-gabino-iglesias/
Then Orlanda by Jacqueline Hartman
https://locusmag.com/review/orlanda-by-jacqueline-harpman-review-by-abigail-nussbaum/
And then Letters From An Imaginary Country by Theodora Goss
And The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson
https://locusmag.com/review/the-salt-oracle-by-lorraine-wilson-review-by-abigail-nussbaum/
And even some podcasts
https://locusmag.com/review/escape-pod-cast-of-wonders-and-podcastle-review-by-maria-haskins/
And Helm by Sarah Hall who’s is an imminent read for me
https://locusmag.com/review/helm-by-sarah-hall-review-by-niall-harrison/
LA Review of Books looks at We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope edited by Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/fantastical-transcendence-and-the-magic-of-resistance
Jamreads finds much to enjoy in A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine - a reminder we all never read everything whe it first comes out and reviews are always finding new things to enjoy!
https://jamreads.com/reviews/a-memory-called-empire-teixcalaan-1-by-arkady-martine
Gingernuts of Horror was impressed by Moonflowers by Pauline Chow
https://gnofhorror.com/chasing-moonflowers-by-pauline-chow-review/
Ancillary Review of Books has some recs from their editor
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/12/30/from-the-editors-shelves-december-2025/
The Fantasy Hive get cosy with Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
Nerds of a Feather had fun with Nobody’s Baby by Olivia Waite
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2025/12/book-review-nobodys-baby-by-olivia-waite.html?m=1
They also enjoyed The Gryphon King by Sara Omer
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/01/book-review-gryphon-king-by-sara-omer.html?m=1
Novel Notions looks at Katabasis by RF Kuang
https://novelnotions.net/2025/12/30/book-review-katabasis-by-r-f-kuang/
If you like Star Trek the here is a blog looking at every series’ episodes alongside each other. The reviews are big, chewy, political and good!
https://www.idfc.co.uk/post/7-1-3-only-you-can-save-mankind
Fantasy Book Nerd looks at horror novel Grace by AM Shine
https://www.fantasybooknerd.com/2026/01/book-review-grace-am-shine.html?m=1
In Other News
Empty City has a fascinating article looking at how Jane Austen explains the law of the period
https://emptycity.substack.com/p/jane-austen-as-a-writer-about-law
LA Review of Books looks at how Jeffrey Ford may have predicted our present
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-are-close-we-are-almost-there/
Renay gives their best novels final Best Novel predictions for the Hugos
https://heyheyrenay.tumblr.com/post/804273232749510656/final-best-novel-hugo-prediction
This week was very puzzling as for a few hours the Science Fiction Writers of America Situation tried to say writing books with some use of AI was fine. That badly for them. Nevertheless some people tried to say in weird letters to the community hey AI is now out of the bottle relax. That did not work either and I really liked Stewart Hotston’s look at the morality of these things
https://stewarthotston.com/2025/12/29/what-the-moral-problem-of-large-language-models-tells-us/
The great Wrong Questions blog is now doing Lord of the Rings reread
https://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-great-tolkien-reread-long-expected.html?m=1
Sarah Gailey has completed their love letters project with a variety of contributors and this article as well as many things to look at looks also at how the process helped a difficult year get better
https://stone-soup.ghost.io/a-reflection-on-love-letters/
Ancillary Review of Books has their most notable reviews and criticism from 2025
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/12/31/2025-notable-criticism/
Gabino Iglesias while talking about writing resolutions has I think something we could all use at this time of year
https://gabinoiglesias.substack.com/p/10-ways-to-turn-your-writing-resolutions
Speculative Insight has this great essay looking at the politics of translation
https://www.speculativeinsight.com/essays/the-politics-of-translation
Round Ups
Gautam Bhatia has the latest Words for Worlds
https://gautambhatia.substack.com/p/words-for-worlds-issue-111-2025-in
Cheryl Morgan has her new Salon Futura for us to dive into
https://www.salonfutura.net/2025/12/issue-75/
Imyril at There’s Always Room for One More looks back at a tricky year
https://onemore.org/2025/12/31/redux-so-long-2025/
Gavreads has their own thoughts on the year and what comes next
https://gavreads.co.uk/2025/12/31/eoy-2025-will-i-be-back-in-2026/
Ancillary Review of Books also have their very useful Wow Signal of things that caught their eye!
https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/02/wow-signal-january-2026/
As always for even more (I know you can handle it) subscribe to Renay’s excellent Intergalactic Mixtape
https://buttondown.com/intergalacticmixtape/archive/intergalactic-mixtape-34/
