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Science Fiction for October 2025

by Henry L Lazarus

Fantasy and Science Fiction can take some odd turns, but they make for fun tales.

In 1972 Singapore was still recovering from the chaos of the war and had gangs that connect to magical beings that give them powers. Wen-yi Lee tells of what happened When They Burned the Butterfly (hard from Tor), the conduit for the Red Butterfly gang with fire powers.Adeline Siow,16 year-old daughter of the gang leader, knows nothing about the gangs and doesn’t understand why she and bring fire from her hands. She is introduced to the red butterflies when she sees a girl with fire powers in a bar. Then when her mother is murdered and she gets in a fight with a classmate in her christian school, she runs off with the gang. One of the other gangs has been providing pills that make girls prettier, sometimes kill them, and girls who stop taking the pills die. Singapore is a very corrupt society, at least at the gang level, and gangs not only fight with themselves, but they are constantly trying to avoid the police.  This is a fascinating look at the Asian citystate before it became a technological power. I hope this finds its way onto some award lists.

Marisa Wolf starts a fun series about a world where magic got out of control and cities like Broadside try to keep control. Cima is part of a young scavenger crew who finds a chest of magical objects. Ignorant of magic, she doesn’t realize she is unleashing A Plague of Magic (paper from Baen). Then she finds a dragon in the jewels who points out the problems, especially after she watches one friend burst into flame and dry up. First chasing her and then assisting her is Harvin, an agent of the ruling Council with the ability to cut people off from their magic. Interesting start to what promises a fun series
. Freya Marske manages to turn Cinderella into a fun tale of a ghost Ella, murdered with her father by her stepmother.Cinder House(hard from Tordotcom) has all the classical elements, transforming the fairy godmother into an elf, and magically giving Ella a solid body for the three day ball. Yes it still has a happy ending. Lots of fun.
College entrance exams are usually not dangerous. Rachel Greenlaw has  Sophia DeWinter face The Ordeals (hard from Delacorte Press) in which forty applicants face four tests intended to cut the number down to twenty. Failures are usually dead. Unfortunately there is a murderer in the group determined to kill their rivals, and vampires hunting Sophia when they can get through the magical barriers protecting the college. Sophia’s weak illusion talent must be overcome with determination. This is tense and impossible to put down.

Jim C. Hines has a fun tale of a sixty-year-old monster slayer, Jenny who for forty years has been avoiding the goddess  Artemis and curing magic beings in Salem. She shares a magical house with Annette, a succubus grandmother, whose teenage grandchildren have inherited part of her talent. The two run Second Life Books and Gifts,  a magical bookstore, and look after Temple, a powerful sorcerer a century old, and having age problems. They have to  deal with someone trying to draw power from a demon and using local teenagers. The villain also wants Slayers of Old (hard from DAW) killed and their magical house destroyed. Lots of fun. 

After the revelation that magical beings are real, Investment firms are trying to get them as clients. Miri, who had been in government, is working for a horrible boss, Jeff, trying to get a fairy princeling as a client. When she is tricked into eating Fairy food, she finds herself trapped in fairyland, forced to make new friends and go on a quest to discover how she can go back to Earth. Juliet Brooks’s A Fae in Finance (paper from Orbit) is just as much fun as it sounds, mixing spreadsheets and magic with aplomb. I really enjoyed it. 

One of my favorite authors, L. E. Modesitt Jr. has a prequel to his Grand Illusion series. Dominic Mikail Ysella is a Imperial counselor and Legalist (hard from TOR) who is caught up in the problems of his nation.Laurous Imperador, who established the nation, is dying and his heir will destroy the young nation unless legal chains, agreed to by Laurous before he dies, are set up to create a democratic monarchy. Dominic, still a bachelor, is also wooing a woman. While there is some violent chicanery to spice the book up, the tale has a dryness to it. I, like other L. E. Modesitt Jr. fans found it fascinating. 

Sung-il Kim continues the tale of an empire built with engines powered by the bodies of dead sorcerers. Two years after the rebellion told in Blood of the Old Kings (paper), Arienne goes to Mersia provence which was destroyed by the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, but magical. Blood for the Undying Throne (hard from Tor) follows her travails as she learns from ghosts what happened. Emere, a minor politician, is in the middle of a plot to repeat the explosion as an excuse to take over the empire. This is a fun series that I highly recommend. 

Frank Phantom and Clay Bishop have to deal with some stolen magical coins in Phantoms in Crime (ebook from Sterling & Stone). Marcus Fell and Jason Krumbine tell another fun noir detective tale with magic. Anderson Deacon, their old partner, who had sent Frank to prison when he stole the genie, is out of jail. Wanamaker, whose bar they were squatting in, is dead, and his wife needs their help. The coins were given to Deacon by the pale brothers to keep securely, and undercover cops stole them when the unbreakable safe was opened. The pale brothers  will torture anyone to get their coins back. Great series. 

John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer continue the tale of Lynn Raven, a teenage gamer leading one of the top teams in the AR game TransDimensional Hunter. In this third book of four, she has to train for nationals under public scrutiny, graduate from High School, and help her friends and fellow team mates look Behind the Veil(hard from Baen). Readers will already know that the monsters she fights are quite real and may take down her near-future civilization. I'm really enjoying the tale so far and look forward to the ending next book. 

Carrie Vaughn tells the story of Arcane Taxonomist Ava Stanley who is almost a Doctor, and is fascinated by The Glass Slide World (paper from 47North) she sees in her microscope. Other Arcane Taxonomists get their powers from their study of birds and animals. Not sure what to do with her life, in 1901, she decided to travel to Bermuda. Unfortunately her ship is pirated, who she helps capture and the ship ends up in Cape Town. But circumstances send her deep into South Africa where she ends up volunteering to help British servicemen at a military hospital. Mentored by an Arcane Taxonomist on staff, she finds her true path in life. Absorbing. 

Lorraine Adamant had to flee her Uncle when he murdered her Parents and took control of the star kingdom. Three books later she comes home with allies to face a Regent's Mate(ebook from Faolan's Pen Publishing) of a chess game in which she not only has to face her uncle’s ships, the Earth navy looking for the ships she borrowed, and her brother who fought the uncle from  a hidden fortress and wants to be the new king. In spite of wrapping everything up, Glynn Stewart has more plans for our heroine. 

Theodosia Balfour has been a Fairy familiar since she took her sister’s place. It’s a fun life filled with numerous parties at which her harp playing is very appreciated. Then she receives an invitation to the palace where the Regent informs her that she is a fairy princess, this is a fairy tale after all, and was left with humans as a changeling. Unfortunately the people who killed her parents and sister are still around. To survive whe, and her friends, have to learn How to Survive a Fairy Bargain (paper from Orbit) and find the murderers.Laura J. Mayo continues what started as a Cinderella tale with something original. There’s a murder to solve, a bit of romance, and some excitement. Very enjoyable.  

Joshua Tatterskein has been trying to control his inner wolf puppy since he joined The Black Wolves of Boston(paper) after becoming a werewolf. Now he goes to an expensive prep school, lives with a friendly vampire (300 years old). Unfortunately his wolf, unlike other werewolves, manifests in many sizes. His old family is convinced he has been abducted and is going to the FBI. Then he dreams of a talking penguin (Black Tie and Tails (hard from Baen) and all) at the local aquarium. Unfortunately there’s a man who has stolen a magic rock that controls other penguin shifters. The man is possessed by an ancient evil god dreaming under the ice of Antarctica. Wen Spencer gives Joshua new abilities as he and his new classmates go to save the world from the evil god.  

Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot series, continues her fantasy tale of the demon Kai in two parts of this life. Queen Demon (hard from Tor)  continues the tale of the revolt against the Hierarchs and later in finding the last Hierarch gate. The rising world series is fun, but I’m waiting for the end of the trilogy. 

Max Gladstone’s Craft war series takes place after the war that destroyed most of the gods. Craftsmen manipulate reality with artificial gods and there is a stock market of souls . In this penultimate book of the series, the movers and shakers of the world gather at Alt Coulomb for a convention to work out how to survive the coming apocalypse. Dead Hand Rule (hard from Tor) resembles every bad convention, until the bad guys attack and every plan goes out the window. I look forward to the end of this complicated and fun series. 

David Afsharirad and  Mark Finn have a collection of tales about Swords & Larceny (trade from Baen) with many fun authors.

Baen has reprinted David Weber’s fun tale of Honor Harrington Flag in Exile; Wen Spencer’s latest Elfhome tale Storm Furies; Catherine Asaro’s first tale of the dust knights of The Down Deep;   and Tim Akers last tale of knight watch, The Eccentrics in paper. 

There are more reviews at http://www.henrylazarus.com/sf.htm

Henry Lazarus is a retired Dentist and the author of A Cycle of Gods and Unnaturally Female.