Genre: Science Fiction

Local Heavens by K.M. Fajardo Genres: Adult, LGBTQ+, Literary Fiction, Retelling, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Speculative Fiction Published by Bindery Books on October 13, 2025 Format: Hardcover Pages: 465 Source: Aardvark Book Club, Fae Crate A corporate hacker. An elusive billionaire. A society trying to survive the American Nightmare.  New York City, 2075. Filipino-American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he’s struck by the city’s contradictions—shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.  When Nick meets alluring new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby’s frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren’t all they seem—and as a corporate- sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He’s the reason they don’t. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.  As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite—and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city’s most vulnerable—he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes precedence: Love, or truth? Heart, or soul?  A brilliant reimagining of Fitzgerald’s classic tale of glamour, …

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao Genres: Adult, Asian Literature, Japanese Literature, Fantasy, Magic, Speculative Fiction Published by Bantam on January 13, 2025 Format: Hardcover, Special Edition Pages: 374 Source: Illumicrate Would you rewrite your destiny if it meant losing a part of your past?  On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it.  Most will see only a cosy ramen restaurant. And just the chosen ones – those who are lost – will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.  Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike other customers. For he offers help, instead of seeking it.  Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice – through rain puddles, hitching rides on paper cranes, across the bridge between midnight and morning and through a night market in the clouds.  But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own – and risk making a choice she …

Overgrowth by Mira Grant Genres: Adult, Horror, LGBTQ+, Science Fiction, Biopunk, Hard Sci-fi Published by Tor Nightfire on May 5, 2025 Format: Hardcover, Special Edition Pages: 480 Source: Owlcrate Day of the Triffids meets Little Shop of Horrors in this smart, charming, harrowing alien invasion story about being human, by a Hugo-award winning author.  Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she’s an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has believed her.  Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it’s already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia’s biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child.  What happens when you know what’s coming, and just refuse to listen? Most sci-fi alien invasion stories are told from the frontline defenders, innocent bystanders, or the invader themselves, but not many are told from …

The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso Genres: Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance, Speculative Fiction, Time Travel Published by Atria Books on August 25, 2025 Format: ARC, eBook Pages: 400 Source: Netgalley For fans of The Ministry of Time and The Midnight Library, a sweeping, unforgettable novel following two remarkable women moving between postwar and Cold War-era America and the mysterious time space, a library filled with books containing the memories of those who bore witness to history.  Enter the time space, a soaring library filled with books containing the memories of those have passed and accessed only by specially made watches once passed from father to son—but mostly now in government hands. This is where eleven-year-old Lisavet Levy finds herself trapped in 1938, waiting for her watchmaker father to return for her. When he doesn’t, she grows up among the books and specters, able to see the world only by sifting through the memories of those who came before her. As she realizes that government agents are entering the time space to destroy books and maintain their preferred version of history, she sets about saving these scraps in her own volume of memories. Until the appearance of an American …

Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle Genres: Adult, Magical Realism, Ghosts, Low Fantasy, Speculative Fiction Published by Simon & Schuster on May 19, 2025 Format: eBook Pages: 400 What if you could have one last meal with someone you’ve loved, someone you’ve lost? Combining the magic of Under the Whispering Door with the high-stakes culinary world of Sweetbitter, Aftertaste is an epic love story, a dark comedy, and a synesthetic adventure through food and grief.  Konstantin “Kostya” Duhhovny is a haunted man. When he was a child, his beloved father died shortly after their family immigrated to Brooklyn from Ukraine, and ghosts have been hovering around Kostya ever since. Kostya can’t exactly see the ghosts, but he can taste their favorite foods. Flavors of meals he’s never eaten will flood his mouth, a sign that a spirit is present. Kostya has kept these aftertastes a secret for most of his life, but one night, he decides to act on what he’s tasting. And everything changes.  Kostya discovers that he can reunite people with their deceased loved ones—at least for the length of time it takes for them to eat a meal he prepares for them. He realizes that perhaps his life’s purpose …