Somewhere between my third alien invasion and second time-traveling romance, it hit me: I’d been devouring science fiction all year without stopping to process the journey. So, I decided to excavate my reading pile and see what patterns emerged from the wreckage. Here are my thoughts on some recent speculative fiction reading I’ve done:
By Scott Reintgen
It sounds like a terrible disease: bruising spreading across the body, an unquenchable thirst—and then, the dying begins. Something is deeply wrong in Kanthor. With Ren Monroe and Theo Brood now in charge, they find themselves tangled in a dangerous mystery as they try to uncover the cause of the growing epidemic.
I just finished A Burning in the Bones, the third and final installment of Scott Reintgen’s The Waxways trilogy. While the book starts off as a slow burn, it soon delivers gripping magical battles and high-stakes twists that reward patient readers. The unfolding crisis is seen not only through Ren’s perspective but also through Nevelyn Tin’Vori, a key figure from the previous volume whose storyline continues to expand in fascinating ways.
A third point-of-view character adds even more depth: Mercy Whitaker, a spell-casting physician caught in the heart of the outbreak. Like Ren, she’s determined to find the source of the illness, but each answer only leads to more unsettling questions.
In addition to its explosive magical confrontations—reminiscent at times of Harry Potter’s best action scenes—the book is rich with eerie mystical ideas and haunting worldbuilding. Reintgen doesn’t hold back when it comes to conjuring strange, dark wonders.
If the novel has one drawback, it’s the similarity between Ren and Mercy. Both are young, intense, and burdened by internal struggle, and their voices occasionally blur together. That said, Mercy’s character truly shines in the final third of the book, where she emerges as a standout in her own right. By then, I was fully rooting for her—and fully invested in the story’s satisfying conclusion. A Burning in the Bones closes out The Waxways trilogy with heart, mystery, and a truly magical payoff.
by James Islington
A friend had been urging me to read this one for ages, and I’m glad I finally did—it’s easily one of my favorite recent reads. Though marketed as YA, it doesn’t feel constrained by the label. It carries shades of Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Divergent, but its tone and ambition lean much closer to Red Rising.
At the heart of the story is Vis Telimus, a young man with a hidden past. As the layers of his history slowly peel back, we follow him through the treacherous political landscape of the Republic, a corrupt ruling power. Through a mix of luck and manipulation from benefactors whose motives are anything but clear, Vis secures a place at the Academy—a move that could bring him closer to the revenge he seeks.
The opening chapter lays the groundwork for Vis’s world, but once the plot ignites, the story becomes a whirlwind of mystery, violence, and betrayal. Islington balances worldbuilding and tension masterfully, keeping the pages turning and the stakes high.
The second installment, The Hierarchy, arrives in November 2025, and I’ve already preordered the audiobook. If you’re a fan of the series I mentioned earlier, chances are you’ll be hooked on this one, too.
by Matt Dinniman
I’ll be honest—at first, I didn’t think this story was for me. But as I kept reading, it grew on me. I decided to stop overanalyzing it, just have fun, and enjoy the ride. Dungeon Crawler Carl is science fiction with a humorous streak reminiscent of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—and I usually prefer my sci-fi on the serious side.
Still, sometimes it’s good to live in the moment with a book and not take things too seriously. By the end, I really enjoyed it. I finally understood why this series has such a devoted following, and I’m already planning to pick up the next installment.
If you’re looking for a palate cleanser from heavy, hard-core science fiction, Dungeon Crawler Carl is a great choice—lighthearted, fun, and surprisingly addictive.
by Ken Liu
In The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, the story begins during China’s Cultural Revolution, where a secret military project makes first contact with an alien civilization on the brink of destruction. Decades later, mysterious events in the scientific community and an immersive virtual reality game begin to reveal the truth about humanity’s precarious place in the universe. As scientists, soldiers, and unlikely allies piece together the puzzle, they must confront the possibility of an alien invasion—and the moral choices it demands.
Thanks to my wonderful niece for gifting me this book. I don’t usually reach for hard science fiction, but since it was a gift, I decided to give it a try—and I’m glad I did. It turned out to be both fascinating and surprisingly accessible.
I’d assumed I’d need a stronger grasp of physics to follow along, but that wasn’t the case at all. Some sections read in an almost documentary style, with detailed exposition, but I found that added to the experience rather than taking away from it.
If you enjoy hard SF like Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, I think you’ll appreciate this one too.
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
by Charles Yu
In a world where time travel is an everyday service, Charles Yu—both the author and protagonist—spends his days fixing paradoxes and helping clients avoid themselves. Stuck in a rut, emotionally and temporally, he begins a journey through memory, grief, and speculative physics when he accidentally shoots his future self. As he navigates a fragmented timeline inside his TM-31 time machine (alongside his possibly sentient operating system and a nonexistent dog), Charles searches for his missing father—and, ultimately, for meaning.
I enjoyed the first-person narrative throughout this story and the message it offers: the questionable use of technology to create realities. We’re in the beginning stages of the dangers and benefits of artificial intelligence and this story offers some ideas on what can happen when it’s used as more than a tool to assist.
While I did find some of the concepts meta physiology a little too abstract for me, I did enjoy How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe for the interesting theories it brings up about creating one’s own reality.
by Rebecca Yarros
In Onyx Storm, Sorrengail faces the grim reality that war has truly arrived. The protective wards are failing, allies are turning their backs, and her beloved, Xaden Riorson, is locked in a desperate struggle to avoid becoming one of the very monsters they’re fighting.
For die-hard fans of the series, this third installment in the five-book saga will still deliver the familiar beats and emotional stakes you’ve come to expect. For more casual readers, however, the heavy dose of cheesy, lovey-dovey banter between Violet and Xaden may start to wear thin. Personally, I found this volume less engaging than the first two—the middle stretch felt repetitive, making the journey to the ending a bit of a slog.
That said, the finale is satisfying, and it does enough to keep the larger story moving forward. I’ve read that Rebecca Yarros plans to take a break from the Fourth Wing series after feeling burned out while writing Onyx Storm. I wish her the best and hope she returns refreshed and ready to bring the final two books to an exciting close in the years ahead.
Andrew M. Friday 
Leave a comment