Booksology Grab a healthy snack, fold your wings tightly and get ready to add these amazing books to your TBR!
Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books for April 2025
This Monster by Shalini Abeysekara (Union Square & Co., April 1st)
This debut is a legitimate thriller and romance inspired by ancient Rome! Four years ago, someone tried to kill Sarai and failed. Now she’s off to revenge and is searching for the perpetrator by working as a prosecutor with the magical ability to tell if someone is lying or not. Sarai must investigate a case with Tetrutickadra, one of the city’s four judges who have a reputation for cruelty. He is also a suspect in an attack similar to what happened to Sarai. She has to walk the thin line, trying to get an answer without tilting Kadra to the fact that he is investigating him. And probably falls for him too…
Ephemera Collector by Stacey Nathaniel Jackson (Re-Bit, April 1st)
This exciting Afrofuturist debut (sadly) doesn’t sound too far from reality. Xandria Anastasia Brown, a librarian in Los Angeles in 2035, will curate the African American Ephemera collection and American historical manuscripts along with the AI Helper Bot. However, the long Covid has made a sacrifice to Xandria, and the revocation in her memory has worsened. It makes it difficult to approach and deal with attempts to acquire hostile companies that threaten libraries. As the library enters an emergency lockdown, she monitors Xandria in the archives and realizes everything she has collected and everything she thinks she is under attack.
Where x is buried by Ray Naylor (MCD, April 1)
From the author of The Mountain in the Sea and the winner of the 2023 Locus Award for the best first novel, this Technothriller comes! It is set for the near future. There, the authoritarian president holds his position by downloading himself to a new institution, and Europe is ruled by the AI Prime Minister. But technology is broken all over the world, threatening everyone, and scientists who can break the presidency for the country must discover a global group of revolutionaries who could be the world’s last hope.
Don’t sleep with the dead by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom, April 8th)
This is a fun companion novel of Nghi Vo from The Beautiful, The Beautiful, and The Queer Reimagining of the Selection Great Gatsby From Jordan Baker’s perspective. This time, Nick Caraway is the character of Fitzgerald, who leads the story. It’s 20 years after the events of Great GatsbyThe event that bothered him. But now he may actually be really bothered by the past…
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Under the Sea of Angels by Khan Wong (Angry Robot, April 22nd)
This dystopian fantasy combines time travel with psychic abilities! On a planet ruined by climate change in the early 21st century, an event called The Bloom gives a small percentage of the mental capacity of the population. One of those people, Maida San, is able to convey the history of objects through touch. This reveals the government’s plot to lead her into people’s lives in 2006 and 1906 and remove everyone like her.
When the tide was held by Venesa Vidakelli (Elewon Book, April 29th)
And this is a strange, historically cozy fantasy about Puerto Rican immigrants and mermaids. In New York City in the 1910s, Benny was hired to build a new tank for Coney Island Amusement Park. It is the home of Rio, an actual merman stolen from the East River. As Benny spends time with Rio and learns about his kind soul and kind heart, he realizes that he has met his soulmate. However, his love with Rio means setting him freely, which may result in Benny sacrificeing his work, his family, and the merman he loves.
Awakened by AE Osworth (Grand Central Publishing, April 29th)
This is another exciting science fiction novel that explores the dangers of AI (already become too realistic). I’ve woken upWilder wakes up one morning in Brooklyn and discovers that he understands all the languages of the world. This leads them to a small Transwitch contract. When their world is threatened by evil artificial intelligence, they must use their power to stop it.
Best New Kids and YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Books in April 2025
Where Patrice Caldwell’s Shadow Meets (Wednesday Book, April 1st)
Angels, vampires and humans are fighting for love in this debut Black Suffic vampire Ya Fantasy! There is an angel betrayed by the goddess she loved and created the monster. And there is a princess of the vampire land travelling to the island of the dead to save her friend. It all becomes a fun time monster.
Mina Ikemoto Ghosh’s Hyo The Hellmaker (Scholastic Press, April 15th)
Do you need to ruin your enemies and ruin all their fun? Hire a Hellmaker that can create customized hells on Earth. Hio is such a hell maker, and has to escape from the village after the demon’s attack, cursed to revenge the deaths she meets. However, these deaths are questionable, and as HYO investigates, she may be the only one who can uncover a plot involving the gods and stop it. This high fantasy YA debut is also portrayed by the author!
Graci Kim’s Dreamslinglerser (Disney Hyperion, April 29th)
This is the first book in a new intermediate fantasy series from NYT bestselling author Grashi Kim! Aria Loveridge is Dreamslinger. In other words, she visits distant fantasy realms while she is asleep. She lives in the house for Dreamlinger and their powers can be dangerous, so they can watch. So when the league announces a new competition, Aria will be taking part in the hopes of learning what actually happened that day and dismantling the league from within.
The World of Floating by Axie Oh (Feiwel & Friends, April 29)
This Ya Romantasy rethinks the Korean legend of the Heavenly Maiden. A soldier living in constant darkness waits to find someone to bring the light, crossing the path with acrobatics trying to find a cure for her dying uncle. Ren’s uncle was injured in a demon attack. There, Ren uses powers she had not had to kill the monster. When she brings her uncle across the mountains for help, she meets Seung-ho, a soldier who offers to help. But neither knows the other’s secrets, and the truth will have fierce consequences as their journey brings them closer.
If you want to learn more about sci-fi and fantasy books, check out the best standalone fantasies you can read now and watch Time Lulomance. And be sure to sign up for our SFF newsletter, swords and spaceships!
Finally, you can find a complete list of new releases in a magical new release index carefully curated by your favorite book Riot Editors hosted by genre and release dates.
