Mouseslayer. Photo by Cyril Simsa

Whether you’re wondering what to put on an awards ballot or simply looking for good things to read, this summary of File 770’s “2025 Recommended SF/F List” will give you plenty to think about.

Filers added titles and short reviews throughout last year as these books and stories came out. (Read the reviews in the comments at the link above). Here’s everything they shared, including the person it was “[Recommended by]”, and if provided, a link to read the work online.

The list includes 34 novels, 8 novellas, 6 novelettes, 3 short stories, plus various graphic novels, movies, TV programs, and other items.

NOVEL

• A Conventional Boy by Charles Stross [Sean Mead]
• A Drop of Corruption, by Robert Jackson Bennett [Kyra]
• A Sword of Gold and Ruin, by Anna Spark Smith [Kyra]
• Black Woods, Blue Sky, by Eowyn Ivey [Nina]
• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, by V. E. Schwab [Kyra]
• Emberclaw, by L. R. Lam [Kyra]
• Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me, by Django Wexler [Kyra]
• Faithbreaker, by Hannah Kaner [Kyra]
• Grave Empire by Richard Swan [Nina]
• Hemlock & Silver, by T. Kingfisher [Kyra]
• Hungerstone, by Kat Dunn [Kyra]
• If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw [Lorien Gray]
• Katabasis, by R. F. Kuang [Kyra]
• Lady’s Knight, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (YA) [Kyra]
• Notes From a Regicide, by Isaac Fellman [Kyra]
• Of Monsters and Mainfraimes, by Barbara Truelove [Kyra]
• Once Was Willem, by M. R. Carey [Kyra]
• Saint Death’s Herald, by C. S. E. Cooney [Kyra]
• Scarlet Morning, by N.D. Stevenson [Kyra]
• Shroud, by Adrian Tchaikovsky [Kyra] [Sean Mead]
• Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher [Nina] [Cat Eldridge]
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia [Kyra]
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones [Bonnie McDaniel]
• The Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor [Yuri]
• The Devils, by Joe Abercrombie [Kyra]
• The Essence by Dave Hutchinson [Roger]
• The Everlasting, Alix E. Harrow [Bonnie McDaniel] [Abby]
• The Incandescent by Emily Tesh [Paul King] [Kyra]
• The Mills of the Gods by Tim Powers [John Hertz]
• The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, by Malka Older [Kyra]
• The Raven Scholar, by Antonia Hodgson [Kyra]
• The Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison [Lace]
• This Brutal Moon, by Bethany Jacobs [Kyra]
• This Princess Kills Monsters by Ry Herman [Cassy B]
• Trials of Empire by Richard Swan [Sean Mead]

NOVELLA

• Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill [Nina]
• Black Flame, by Gretchen Felker-Martin [Kyra]
• “Spare Parts for the Mind” by Greg Egan (Asimov’s November/December 2025) [Andrew (not Werdna)] 
• The Orb of Cairado, Katherine Addison [Lace]
• The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar [Paul King] [Kyra]
• The Scour by Richard Swan [Sean Mead]
• The Summer War by Naomi Novik [Nina] [Kyra]
• What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher [Cassy B]

NOVELETTE

• “Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch, Uncanny Magazine 62 [Lace]
• “Let the Gods Drown With Us” by R K Duncan (Beneath Ceaseless Skies) [desantoos]
• “Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak [Jay] [Lace]
• “The Girl That My Mother is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed (Reactor) [Nina]
• “The Hanging Tower of Babel” by Wang Zhenzhen, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan in Clarkesworld [desantoos]
• “The Twenty-One Second God” by Peter Watts (Lightspeed Magazine June 2025) [Bonnie McDaniel]

SHORT STORY

• “Six People to Revise You”, J.R. Dawson, Uncanny Magazine 62[Lace]
• “The Emergency Contact” by Arense Lund (Analog March/April) [Abby]
• “The Ones Left Behind” by KJ Chien [Yuri]

BEST SERIES

• Katherine Addison, The Chronicles of Osreth, with The Goblin Emperor and from 2025 The Tomb of Dragons [Lace]

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – LONG FORM

• Pluribus [N]
• Sinners [N] [Bonnie McDaniel] [Nina]
• Star Trek: Khan [Nina]

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION – SHORT FORM

• Andor – episode “Who Are You?” [N]
• Black Mirror – episode “Eulogy” [N]
• Common Side Effects — episode“Cliff’s Edge” [desantoos]
• Invincible – episode “What Have I Done?” [N]
• Paradise – episode “The Day” [N]
• Severance – episode “Chikhai Bardo” [N]
• Severance – episode “Cold Harbor” [N]
• Severance – episode “Woe’s Hollow” [N]
• The Amazing Digital Circus – episode “They All Got Guns” by Gooseworx (free on YouTube) [N]
• The Last of Us – episode “Through the Valley”
• The Mighty Nein debut episode “Mote of Possibility” on YouTube [N]
• The Wheel of Time – episode “The Road to the Spear” [N]

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

• Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon [Bonnie McDaniel]
• Absolute Martian Manhunter Vol. 1: Martian Vision [N]

BEST EDITOR – SHORT FORM

• Mia Armstrong-López, Future Tense Fiction[desantoos]

BEST RELATED WORK

• Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler, Susana M. Morris [Bonnie McDaniel]

BEST GAME OR INTERACTIVE WORK

• The Alters Trailer [N]
• Abiotic Factor Trailer [N] 
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Trailer [N]
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Trailer [N]
• Deltarune Chapters 3+4 [N]
• Dispatch Trailer [N]
• Hades II Trailer [N]
• Hollow Knight: Silksong Trailer [N]
• Look Outside [N]
• Wanderstop Trailer[N]

ASTOUNDING AWARD

• Arense Lund [Abby]