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

We’re going to have to put on our skates if we want to keep up with all the new science fiction published in November. New scientist Science fiction columnist Emily H. Wilson insists we need to read Claire North’s work. Slow Godsand I tend to take her word for it (you can read her review in next week’s issue). I also want to terrify myself with Rebecca Thorne’s story about a zombie-like virus spreading on a submarine (claustrophobic!). And I am frightened by the idea at the heart of Grace Walker’s speech. The merger. Everything seems spooky this month – maybe 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 sea cow, The beasts of the sea. It feels poignant and moving and beautiful, and without any supernatural scares.

Emily H. Wilson is crazy about this sci-fi novel: I haven’t heard our sci-fi reviewer recommend a book so enthusiastically in all the time she’s been writing for us. It follows Mawukana na-Vdnaze, a deep space pilot who died and was resurrected – and recounts a supernova event “that burned planets and brought down civilizations.” Emily says, “READ THIS BOOK. If you like science fiction, this is for you” in her next column. So I will, because she is always up to it.

The beasts of the sea by Iida Turpeinen, translated by David Hackston

It’s not really science fiction, but it is fiction about science, and as a huge fan of the sea cow, ever since I first heard about it in Willard Price’s book. Adventure books when I was a child, I will read them. It all began in 1741, when naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller joined an expedition to explore a sea route from Asia to America and encountered the animal that would bear his name: the Steller sea cow. Then in 1859, the governor of Alaska sent his men to search for a skeleton of the enormous marine mammal believed to have disappeared a century earlier, and in 1952, a restorer set to work to refurbish the ancient skeleton.

This may seem like a departure from the realm of fantasy, but its editors compare it to that of Kaliane Bradley. The Ministry of Timeso hopefully there will be enough time travel to satisfy sci-fi fans. Between the post-war and Cold War United States, the film takes place in “time-space”, a library filled with books containing the memories of those who died. Lisavet was trapped there at the age of 11, in 1938, and grew up only being able to discover the world by sifting through the memories of the dead. She then realizes that government agents are coming into space-time to destroy memories that don’t match their preferred version of history…

We covered this novel in 2022 when it was self-published, and our science fiction columnist at the time, Sally Adee, really enjoyed it. It’s now been picked up by a major publisher, and I might finally read it because it looks like a lot of fun and, fittingly, scary in this spooky season. Entities called antimemes feed on the most precious memories of the characters in the book – and steal those memories without their knowledge. This enemy is invading – but no one even knows they are at war.

Ice by Jacek Dukaj, translated by Ursula Phillips

A deadly winter descends on Russia following the impact of the asteroid Tunguska in 1908. As the earth freezes, people head to cities in an attempt to survive, the extreme cold begins to transmute the elements into strange new forms, and a new type of physics develops.

Laurie, Amelia’s mother, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. As his symptoms worsen, Amelia decides to enroll them in the world’s first experimental fusion process for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Laurie’s spirit is transferred into Amelia’s body and their consciousnesses become one. They move to a luxurious rehabilitation center known as The Village, along with other participants… but things are not what they seem. Honestly, just the thought of the treatment is enough to terrify me.

Zombies, submarines and terror at sea – oh my. Nix and Kessandra investigate a massacre in the underwater city of Fall, but as they descend, Kessendra reveals that the massacre was caused by a disease that turns people into mindless killers. And the disease is on board…

There’s an interdimensional war going on in this novel, and it’s “one of the most brutal wars the multiverse has ever seen” (that’s pretty brutal then). We follow Bess, a teacher-turned-renegade-turned-hero who has a very smart gun named Wakeful Slim. The story takes place in the previously imagined world of the Pandominion, but it is a standalone science fiction adventure from the author of The girl with all the gifts (a very good zombie novel if you haven’t read it).

This epic science fiction novel is the seventh in the Sun Eater series, and sees Hadrian Marlowe on the run, hiding beyond the borders of human space from the Extrasolars and the Sollan Empire that he betrayed.

Of course, this brilliant novel isn’t new, but this 10th anniversary edition of the story of humanity trying to survive on a terraformed planet includes an exclusive short story by Tchaikovsky. So, fun for the 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 considers a “cult online sensation.” It explores the “potentials and pitfalls of human evolution,” from the author’s imagination of how genetic manipulation will shape life to how the colonization of Mars will affect us, and also includes Kosemen’s illustrations. Adrian Tchaikovsky, no less, calls it “an astonishing fusion of scientific sense and imagination”. Intriguing.

This high-concept thriller looks like fun. The AI ​​runs the world, but it just stopped working – right after telling everyone about the worst things their loved ones have ever done.

Mental work by Neal Shusterman

There’s a beautifully surreal cover for this collection of Shusterman stories, which includes visits to a world where the sun is blocked by bats and the life force of a glacier can bring back the dead.