The Most Anticipated 2025 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books, According to Goodreads
Happy New Year! We’re officially through the Best Books of 2024 season and into Most Anticipated Books of 2025 season. Goodreads hasn’t wasted any time: they posted a series of most anticipated books by genre on January 1st, when most of us were still sleeping off New Year’s celebrations. Let’s take a look at their round-up of the most anticipated sci-fi and fantasy books of 2025. Get ready to preorder some of the biggest and buzziest SFF books of 2025, or place your library holds now to skip the queue.
These are, at least theoretically, the sci-fi and fantasy books that the most users have added to their Want-To-Read shelf. Notably, Goodreads has separated Romantasy into its own list, though Science Fiction, Fantasy, and YA SFF all share one list. Many of the most anticipated titles are sequels, like Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales (Emily Wilde #3) by Heather Fawcett, Four Ruined Realms (The Broken Blades #2) by Mai Corland, and One Way Witch (She Who Knows #2) by Nnedi Okorafor. Others are new releases from big name authors, like Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab and Katabasis by R.F. Kuang. There are a few debuts that have broken onto this list, though, like Samantha Sotto Yambao’s upcoming cozy fantasy Water Moon.
Here are some of the most anticipated sci-fi and fantasy books of 2025, according to Goodreads.
Fantasy
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by Victoria E. Schwab
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
The Dark Mirror (The Bone Season #5) by Samantha Shannon
Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill
The Ragpicker King (The Chronicles of Castellane #2) by Cassandra Clare
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Don’t Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo
Queen Demon (The Rising World #2) by Martha Wells
Galaphile (The First Druids of Shannara #1) by Terry Brooks
Science Fiction
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto
The Martian Contingency (Lady Astronaut Universe #4) by Mary Robinette Kowal
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction
Oathbound (The Legendborn Cycle #3) by Tracy Deonn
Watch Me (Shatter Me: The New Republic #1) by Tahereh Mafi
Breath of the Dragon (Breathmarked #1) by Shannon Lee
This Ends in Embers (Divine Traitors #2) by Kamilah Cole
Chaos King (Infinity Alchemist #2) by Kacen Callender
Check out all 72 of the Goodreads most anticipated SFF books of 2025 on their blog.
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