The best science fiction books of November 2025 include one by Claire North and a 10th anniversary edition of an Adrian Tchaikovsky classic

We'll need to get our skates on if we want to keep up with all the new science fiction being published in November. New scientist science fiction reviewer Emily H. Wilson firmly believes we should read Claire North's book. Slow Godsand I'm inclined to take her word for it (you can read her review in next week's issue). I'm also ready to scare myself with Rebecca Thorne's story about a zombie virus spreading in a submarine (claustrophobia!). And the idea behind Grace Walker's work frightens me. Merger. Everything seems spooky this month – perhaps the sci-fi world is still in Halloween mode. But I'm also looking forward to something different, a literary tale about the extinct Steller's cow. Beasts of the sea. It sounds piercing, touching and beautiful, and without any supernatural fears.

Emily H. Wilson is crazy about this sci-fi novel—I haven't heard our sci-fi reviewer recommend a book so wholeheartedly in the entire time she's been writing for us. It tells the story of Mavukan na-Vnaz, a deep space pilot who died and was reborn again, and tells of a supernova event “that burned planets and destroyed civilizations.” Emily says, “READ THIS BOOK. If you like science fiction, this is for you” in her next column. I will do that because she is always after money.

Beasts of the sea Turpeina

It's not exactly science fiction, but it is fiction about science, and as a big fan of sea cows since I first learned about them in Willard Price's novel. Adventure I will read books as a child. It all begins in 1741, when naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller joins an expedition to explore the sea route from Asia to America and meets the animal that will be named after him: Steller's sea cow. Then in 1859, the governor of Alaska sends his men to find the skeleton of a huge marine mammal that is said to have disappeared a century earlier, and in 1952, a restorer begins restoring the ancient skeleton.

It may seem like a departure from the realm of fantasy, but publishers are comparing it to Kaliana Bradley's novel. Ministry of Timeso I hope there's enough time travel to satisfy sci-fi fans. Moving between post-war and Cold War America, the story takes place in a “timespace”, a library filled with books containing the memories of those who have died. Lizaveth was trapped there at the age of 11 in 1938 and grows up able to understand the world only by sifting through the memories of the dead. She then realizes that government agents are coming into spacetime to destroy memories that don't fit into their preferred version of history…

We coated this novel in 2022 when it was self-published, and our sci-fi reviewer at the time, Sally Adie, loved it. It's now been snapped up by a major publisher and I might finally read it because it sounds really fun and quite scary for this spooky time of year. Entities called antimemes feed on the most cherished memories of the book's characters and steal those memories without their knowledge. This enemy is invading, but no one even knows they are at war.

Ice Jacek Dukaj, translation by Ursula Phillips

A deadly winter hits Russia following the impact of the Tunguska asteroid in 1908. As the earth freezes, people head into cities to try to survive, the intense cold begins to transform the elements into strange new forms, and a new type of physics develops.

Amelia's mother Laurie has Alzheimer's disease. As her symptoms worsen, Amelia decides to enroll them in the world's first experimental fusion process for people with Alzheimer's disease. Laurie's mind is transferred into Amelia's body, and their consciousnesses become one. They move into a luxury rehab center known as The Village along with the other members… but all is not as it seems. To be honest, the very idea of ​​treatment scares me.

Zombies, submarines and terror at sea – oh my! Nyx and Kessandra investigate a massacre in the underwater city of Fall, but as Kessandra descends, she discovers that the massacre was caused by a disease that turns people into mindless killers. And illness on board…

There's an interdimensional war going on in this novel, and it's “one of the most brutal the multiverse has ever seen” (that's pretty brutal, then). We follow Bess, a teacher turned renegade turned hero who has a very clever gun called the Wakeful Slim. The story is set in the previously imagined world of Pandominion, but is a standalone sci-fi adventure from the author Girl with all the gifts (a really good zombie novel if you haven't read it).

This epic science fiction novel is the seventh in Sun Eater series, and sees Adrian Marlowe on the run, hiding beyond human space from the Extra Solarians and from the Sollan Empire, which he betrayed.

Of course, this brilliant novel is not new – but the anniversary edition, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the history of humanity trying to survive on a terraformed planet, includes an exclusive story by Tchaikovsky. So, fun for fans and a good reminder of a great novel for those who haven't read it yet.

This is the first English-language print edition of what the publisher says has become an “online cult sensation.” It explores the “potentials and pitfalls of human evolution”, from the author's ideas about how genetic manipulation will shape life to how the colonization of Mars will affect us, and also includes illustrations by Cozeman. Adrian Tchaikovsky, to say the least, calls it “an amazing fusion of scientific insight and imagination.” Intriguing.

This high-concept thriller sounds like fun. AI rules the world, but it just stopped working – right after telling everyone the worst thing their loved ones have ever done.

The work of the mind Neil Shusterman

This collection of Shusterman's stories has a gorgeous, surreal cover that includes a visit to a world where the sun is obscured by bats and a world where the life force of a glacier can bring back the dead.

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