15 new SF/F books to check out this October 2025

Remember how September was overloaded with new books so I ended up splitting the list into three parts? Well guess what: October is also packed with books, so to make things a bit more manageable, I'm doing the same thing: one for this week, next week, and one more for the last couple of weeks. If you're a reader, you really are spoiled for choice this year: there are so many excellent reads hitting stores.

Okay, here are 15 new books to check out this week. As always, you can see prior lists via the Book List tag.

Herculine by Grace Byron (October 7th)

The narrator of Grace Byron's novel Herculine has been dealing with demons her whole life, something she's had to deal with on top of all the other issues that come with being a trans woman. When she realizes that she's being stalked by something in New York City, she flees to an all-female trans commune in Indiana, hoping that it'll be a refuge from her problems.

When she arrives, she realizes that something's wrong there too: she's met with suspicion, everyone seems to be keeping secrets, and it seems that the demons she's frightened of aren't so easily shaken off.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying Byron "brings enough humor to the proceedings to prevent the horror from becoming too all-consuming while keeping the pages flying with a thrilling plot and a moving examination of loneliness, desire, and hope in the wake of trauma

Catching Fire: Illustrated Edition by Suzanne Collins (October 7th)

Last year, Suzanne Collins released an illustrated edition of her classic YA novel The Hunger Games, and this year, the second book in her trilogy is getting the same treatment. I've picked up the first one in stores, and it's a nice edition with art by Nico Delort, and it should make for a nice addition to the shelf for a fan of the books.

It's the same size and style as the fantastic illustrated editions of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, which I really loved, and you can read up on Delort's approach here.

Physics for Cats By Tom Gauld (October 1st)

I love Tom Gauld's cartoons: they're smart and nerdy and cover everything from science to science fiction. This is his second collection that's specifically featuring the cartoons he drew for the magazine New Scientist, following up Department of Mind-Blowing Theories.

Here's an interview I conducted with him a number of years ago about his work.

Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber (October 7th)

Holland St. James is enrolled in a course called Folklore 517: Local Legends and Urban Myths, led by a mysterious teacher known as the Professor. While most of her classmates think that the stories she's teaching them are just folklore, Holland isn't sure, and when she tracks down a local figure known as the Watch Man, she realizes that magic is deal, and he's just told her that she's slated to die the next day, unless she can find an object called the Alchemical Heart.

Holland strikes out on a quest into LA's magical underworld to find the object, and comes across a mysterious stranger who says that he's been sent to protect her. As they continue their search, she realizes that she can't trust anyone, and that the object she's been sent to find might not be enough to save her.

Final Orbit by Chris Hadfield (October 7th)

Astronaut Chris Hadfield adds to his Apollo Murders series (preceded by The Apollo Murders and The Defector) with the story of a joint US-USSR mission in orbit in 1975. As the two crews are preparing to dock, NASA Flight Controller Kaz Zemeckis listens as an error results in disaster: the Russian spacecraft is destroyed, and two astronauts and a cosmonaut are killed. As they divert their orbit to NASA's Skylab, they arrive in time to discover a Chinese crew stealing a piece of equipment that had been left behind on a prior mission, setting everyone up for a geopolitical showdown.

Publishers Weekly says "Hadfield maintains steady momentum from the book’s opening pages, and the crackling finale is well worth the wait."

The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale by Joe R. Lansdale (October 7th)

Joe Landsdale is one of speculative fiction's best-known authors, and Tachyon Publications has pulled together a new collection of his best horror fiction in all of its flavors, with stories ranging from horrific crime, Gothic, mystery, fantasy, and science-fiction. This one comes with an introduction from Joe Hill.

Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum (October 7th)

Two immortal vampires, Rebekah and Hugh, have taken off on a vacation. They don't suck on human blood, but feed off of human emotions, and end up on a queer, Black Sea Cruise where they're looking to have a bit of fun while taking in their fellow passengers' emotions. When Hugh ends up meeting and falls for an influencer named Heaven, Rebekah doesn't take it well and their entire relationship and existence is upended.

Publishers Weekly says "The result is an undeniable vampiric romp that gently pokes fun at elements of queer polyamorous culture," and that "those looking for a brisk and steamy supernatural excursion will find plenty to enjoy."

Ensorcelled by Eliot Peper (October 8th)

I'm a big fan of Eliot Peper's novels, and this new one is something a little different from him: it's a super-slim fantasy about a kid named Tam who's excited to play an upcoming video game. When his parents instead take him off on a camping trip, he discovers that the mountains that they've visited have a magic of their own, they ask for everything in return.

The Door on the Sea by Caskey Russell (October 7th)

This indigenous fantasy is being described as the Tlingit peoples of Northwest Canada's version of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It follows a boy named Elān who traps a fish-stealing raven in his house. The raven offers him a trade: if Elān will let him go, he'll provide him with a secret that'll save his community from the shapeshifting Koosh invaders that have been raiding their shores. The Koosh have lost a powerful weapon, and the raven happens to know where it ended up.

Elān sets out with some unlikely companions: a human bear-cousin, a wolf, and the raven, and as they embark on their quest, they encounter all manners of strange creatures and conditions as they work to find a way to save their home.

The Salvage by Anbara Salam (October 7th)

At the height of the Cold War in 1962, marine archaeologist Marta Khoury is investigating a newly-discovered shipwreck off the coast of Scotland, which might hold the remains of its famous captain and whatever treasures he might have discovered. But while she's making her first dive down to the wreckage, she thinks she sees a dark figure hiding in the wreck.

The Cuban Missile Crisis keeps everyone stranded on the island, and Marta uses the time to form a relationship with Elise, a local woman working on the island's hotel, and when artifacts from the ship begin to go missing, the two begin to look for them, trying to figure out what's behind the thefts and what has been haunting her imagination since she arrived.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor (October 7th)

Dennis E. Taylor's novel has been out for a number of years as a self-published book (it kicks off his Bobiverse series), but it's been picked up for a traditional press publication by Saga Press.

It’s about a guy named Bob who has just retired, and who’s decided to have his head cryogenically frozen to be reawakened later. Then he gets killed crossing the street. Revived a century later, he finds that the future isn’t all it’s cracked up to be: he finds that as a frozen head, he doesn’t have any rights. The government gives him an ultimatum: get uploaded into an AI and get shot off into space to look for habitable planets. Or get shut off.

The Glass Slide World by Carrie Vaughn (October 7th)

In this sequel to her 2024 novel The Naturalist Society, Carrie Vaughn picks up the story of scientist Ava Stanley, daughter of a pair of magical scientists called Arcane Taxonomists. She has limited magical abilities – where her parents could call the natural world's larger creatures for their powers, she can only do so with microscopic ones. It's useful for studying diseases, but her powers are also miniscule.

When she sets off on a ship to Nassau to continue her research, she finds her plans upended when pirates take over the ship, forcing her to contend with her abilities and what she can truly accomplish.

Queen Demon by Martha Wells (October 7th)

Martha Wells returns with a sequel to her 2023 novel Witch King, in which demon Witch King Kai-Enna is murdered, but his consciousness persists. He's reawakened when he discovers a mage trying to use his own powers, and has to figure out the circumstances of his death and the state of the new world he finds himself in.

In this book, Dahin is a member of the Witch King's circle, and thinks that he knows where the Hierarchs' Well is located. The Witch King Kai and his companions Ziede and Tahren know that there's something that he isn't letting on, but accompany him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may also be on track to discovering the Well. It'll be up to Kai to stop the rise of a new Hierarch and he has to figure out how to trust his companions.

Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson (October 7th)

Daniel H. Wilson is the author of Robopocalypse and The Andromeda Evolution, and his next is an intriguing-looking take on first contact. It's set in the Cherokee Nation when a man named Jim Hardgray witnesses a weird atmospheric disturbance, while at the same time, a NASA astrophysicist named Dr. Mikayla Johnson discovers that something has interacted with the Voyager 1 spacecraft and realizes that something is on its way to Earth.

Publishers Weekly awarded the book a starred review, saying "Wilson neatly entangles the most modern tech, like quantum computers that accurately foretell the future, with ancient beliefs that retain enough power to motivate contemporary folks. Like the best X-Files episodes, this story uses the alien character to bring out the human elements in vivid detail."

As always, let me know in the comments what catches your eye and what you're currently reading! Subscribers, you should expect the next list in a week, as well as a couple of other things.