11 of the Most Sensational New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of August 2025

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom, August 5)

Let’s kick things off with this fun novella about food and freedom in the future! It starts when a group of reactivated sentient robots in San Francisco decide to reopen the restaurant where they all worked. The food is a hit, but when a bunch of one-star reviews put it in danger of closing, their community will have to band together to keep that from happening. It’s a charming and (clockwork) heart-squeezing journey!

The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown (William Morrow, August 12)

Magda is pretty excited to start her new gig. After all, it’s with a secret society that meets in the basement of a bookshop to talk about magical items. But hours after her first assignment, she finds herself being hunted by a professional killer and has to go on the run. Not the best first day at work. In order to survive, Magda will have to utilize a magical object that no one in the society even knows about.

The Bone Raiders by Jackson Ford (Orbit,‎ August 12)

The Rakada, a.k.a Bone Raiders, are a clan of warriors living in the grasslands of the Tapestry. Despite their badass bone armor and fierce reputation, the new Great Khan plans to eliminate the Rakada and all raiders. But Sayana has a plan to stop him: Learn how to tame and ride the enormous fire-breathing reptiles that walk their lands. How hard can it be? Also, it has an excellent tagline: “We didn’t start the fire…but our giant fire-breathing lizards did.”

Acts of God by Kanan Gill (Blackstone Publishing, Inc. , August 12)

This is a madcap debut from Kanan Gill, a comedian, about a private detective investigating strange occurrences around the world. P. Manjunath is looking into weird cataclysms, not knowing they come from a god of the future. As things continue to get more and more bizarre—a lapel pin starts to talk, a wall offers advice—Manjunath’s investigation will take him on a philosophical trip that will have him wondering about the existence of the unseen.

Her Soul for a Crown by Alysha Rameera (Sourcebooks Casablanca,‎ August 12)

Let’s not forget romantasy! Anula Ramanayake of Anuradhapura has been planning to get revenge for the horrible treatment of her village and people for a long time. Her scheme: marry the raja, kill him, and seize power. But when her plan falls apart, she makes a desperate bargain with the cursed gods in exchange for her soul. This tethers her to Reeri the Blood Yakka, who has plans to get the Yakkas back on Earth. They’ll have to battle danger together to both get what they want…which might turn out to be each other.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books, August 19)

A young woman must uncover the secrets of a centuries-old book in order to save her mother in this magical fantasy. Jamie is a powerful witch, living and studying in New England. Her mother, Serena, is still grieving the loss of her wife and is losing more of herself all the time. To help Serena get better, Jamie has been teaching her spells, but if she wants to save her mother, she’ll have to find out the truth about what happened to her all those years ago. And the answers might just be in a three-hundred-year-old book.

Katabasis by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager, August 26)

Here it finally is, one of the most anticipated books of 2025! Following up on the dark academia fantasy Babel, this new standalone novel follows two students going through hell—literally. Alice and Peter are rivals at Cambridge, but they’ll have to work together to rescue their professor from Hell after he dies in an accident. Partly because they need his recommendation to advance their careers, and partly because his death might be Alice’s fault.

Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura, Yuki Tejima (translator) (Scribner, August 26)

This Japanese bestseller follows a teenager who arranges meetings between the living and the dead. Ayumi Shibuya helps (living) people who contact him because they need to talk to someone who has died, like a girl who wants to apologize to her best friend and a man trying to find where his mother left the deeds. The service is free, but the meetings must happen on the night of a full moon, and the dead have the right to refuse to see anyone.

The Space Cat by Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford (First Second,‎ August 12)

Not only has Nnedi Okorafor already released one of the best fantasy novels for adults this year, Death of the Author, but now we’re getting a middle grade graphic novel about a space cat! Periwinkle enjoys all the things Earth cats enjoy, like scritches and being spoiled by his human owners. What they don’t know is that at night, Periwinkle flies around in his spaceship! And when his family moves from America to Nigeria, he’s about to have his greatest adventure yet!

The Executioners Three by Susan Dennard (Tor Teen, August 26)

From the author of the Luminaries series comes a new fantasy-mystery involving rival high schools, a curse, and a body. After Freddie Gellar accidentally gets many members of a rival school arrested for partying, a body turns up in the woods. The police don’t find the death suspicious, but Freddie isn’t so sure. While she digs deeper into the mystery, she has to contend with the handsome leader of the rival school, a growing body count, and a mysterious poem called “The Executioners Three.”

The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge and Emily Gravett (Amulet Books, August 26)

Frances Hardinge is an auto-buy author for me, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a finished copy of this illustrated middle grade fantasy novel! Feather and the other people of her village live at the edge of the Wall, spending their days trying to keep the Forest from gobbling them up. When a stranger steals the village’s prize spyglass, Feather follows him into the dangerous Forest, where she’ll have to fight her fears if she wants to save the day.

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