Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading.
Twitter: @MissLiberty
Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading.
Twitter: @MissLiberty
Hello, readers! There are so many of you out there racing to meet your reading goals and finish your reading challenges right now, I can practically hear your brains whirring here in Maine. Look at you go!
So I have two things to tell you. One: don’t forget that it’s supposed to be fun! Setting goals or signing up for challenges involving reading is a great time, but nothing is going to happen if you don’t meet them. (Unless you’re reading a certain amount for a wager, in which case, call me. I want to take your money next year.) (What would a reading betting site be called, anyway? Peter PanDuel? bet451? BetGRRM? AlphaBets?) But really, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t make it.
And, two: If you are close to finishing your goal and need a short book or two to meet it, or just want some excellent SFF books to read, I have five below that will do the job. From djinn kings, to a Cinderella retelling, to dreams about Mars, there’s something here for every reader.
Enter for a chance to snag a brand-new Kindle Paperwhite for carrying a pocketful of stories wherever your holidays may take you.
All Access members, read on for five short SFF books to read by the end of the year.
The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossai (176 pages)
After having been asleep for one thousand years, the djinn king Melek Ahmar wakes up and thinks he will go right back to business as usual. But the city of Kathmandu is, obviously, not the city he remembers, and it’s now a paradise ruled by the omnipotent Karma. So with the help of a Kathmandu exile, Melek Ahmar challenges Karma to try and regain his foothold, and the results will change the city.
Cinder House by Freya Marske (144 pages)
In this queer Gothic retelling of Cinderella, the ghost of a murdered teen attempts to break free of the house where her spirit is trapped. Since her murder, Ella longs to be free of her father’s house, the sight of her torment for many years. After she makes a deal with a charm seller, Ella is granted three more days of existence, in which her corporeal form walks the world again, free to leave the house. But can Ella figure out how to leave forever?
Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (104 pages)
A young woman in a future Mexico City dreams of visiting Mars and leaving behind the despair she’s experiencing on Earth. Amelia works as a rent-a-friend and sells her blood to the wealthy in order to make ends meet. And when she’s not working, she longs to go up into the skies and discover what it would be like to live on Mars.
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (176 pages)
This multi-award-winning novella explores racism and police brutality experienced by Black people in America through the story of a brother and sister. Ella grows up with the ability to see people’s futures, and as she grows older, she also gains more powers. And when her brother, Kev, is sent to prison, she must decide what she will do with her knowledge and power, or her anger might consume everything in their city.
I Gave You Eyes And You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà (176 pages)
And finally, there’s this recent genre-defying novel set in Catalonia. Spanning hundreds of years, it follows the lives and deaths of the women who inhabit a particular house in the mountains. Because of a deal with the Devil that an ancestor tried to get out of, their spirits reside forever trapped in this house, watching and waiting for the next to join them. It’s a horror novel, a fairy tale, and a fantasy. If you like weird fiction, this is a great one to wrap up your 2025 reading.
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the BR podcast All the Books! and on Instagram.
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