There’s no easier way to explore far-off planets or find your one true love than by reading a great book. Scientific American’s staffers may spend their days embedded in real-world science discoveries, but their nights are often spent curled up with fiction that takes science to strange new places. Here are Scientific American’s picks for the best new fiction of 2025.
All books featured here have been independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through links on our site, Scientific American may earn an affiliate commission.
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Atmosphere: A Love Story
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Ballantine Books
(Tags: Literary Fiction, LGBTQ+ Romance)
Astronaut candidates falling in love against the detailed historical backdrop of the early space shuttle program? As a former space reporter, I was going to either love this or hate this. Fortunately the technical details rang true; the author clearly did a lot of research and enjoyed describing what our main character was up to as she trained, flew and eventually directed astronauts from mission control. The central story, of course, is a love story—and that is done extremely well. But it’s interwoven with fascinating looks into the culture of NASA at the time and plenty of other interesting characters and twists in two women’s lives. —Sarah Lewin Frasier, Senior Editor
Tilt
by Emma Pattee
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books
(Tags: Literary Fiction, Earthquakes)
Our reluctant narrator, Annie, is a pregnant woman trying to purchase an out-of-stock crib from a Portland, Ore., IKEA when an earthquake strikes. Exhausted, shocked, anxious and nearly nine months pregnant , Annie is forced to navigate a city in chaos. Although the events of Tilt take place over a single day in Portland, we get to know Annie through memories and reflections about her life. Pattee periodically references some of the ongoing crises of our times: affordable housing shortages, pandemics, overcrowding, wildfires and extreme heat. And as someone living in Southern California, there is a moment that literally made my palms sweat. —Arminda Downey-Mavromatis, former Associate Engagement Editor
When the Moon Hits Your Eye
by John Scalzi
Tor Books
(Tags: Science Fiction, Humor)
Scalzi is one of the few authors who knows enough science nerds and actual physics to make jokes tailored for an audience of astronauts. The book’s premise is laid out in comical terms: the moon has turned to cheese, and the scientific world is left to pick up the crumbs. The author’s injection of Reddit chat forums and the human impulse to explain the change, whether through made-up math or convincing conspiracy theories, adds a layer of modernity to the story. Scalzi is famous for his raucous writing style and has given himself, and readers, a fantastic playground to jump around and explore. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
Wild Dark Shore
by Charlotte McConaghy
Flatiron Books
(Tags: Literary Fiction, Mystery)
A troubled family lives as caretakers on a remote Antarctic island, home to the world’s largest seed bank. A mysterious woman washes ashore. As a crisis approaches, the characters are forced to come together to protect the seeds and each other. Although the intrigue will keep you flipping pages, for me, the seed bank is the star that made the climate crisis real. Not all the seeds can be saved. The characters must choose, and I love how the author illustrates the unbearable weight of those decisions. In a place at its tipping point, the most important fight is perseverance. —Lisa Pallatroni, Custom Publishing Editor
A New New Me
by Helen Oyeyemi
Riverhead Books
(Tags: Literary Fiction, Speculative Fiction)
What happens if the different sides of your personality don’t trust each other? In this fabulously absurd tale set in Prague, a woman named Kinga splits into seven selves, each assigned to one weekday—and each with her own agenda. For someone like me who loves both science and silliness, this playful, surreal fable was a glorious read. The story starts when Kinga-A discovers a man tied up in their apartment and follows Kingas B through G as they lie, hold grudges and blame one other through madcap high jinks. Be warned: the end is wonderfully bonkers. —Lisa Pallatroni, Custom Publishing Editor
Katabasis
by R. F. Kuang
Harper Voyager
(Tags: Magical Realism, Academia)
I had really high expectations coming into this book but was worried because the dark academia romance tropes don’t always ring true, or even enjoyable, to me. Thankfully, instead of wallowing in unrequited love, the story satirizes academia and the obsession of Western literature and philosophy with hell in a really fun way. Of course, our rivals, who do not have feelings for each other at all, are forced to sleep next to each other, share their deepest secrets and reveal they were wrong about each other all along. While the plot ebbs and flows, the central desire to know more, to reach further than anyone has before you, is very relatable—Kuang is a master at work building a topsy-turvy chessboard for readers to play with. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
The Emperor of Gladness
by Ocean Vuong
Penguin Press
(Tags: Literary Fiction, LGBTQ)
Definitely a story for language lovers like me. Compassionate telling of a refugee family from Vietnam finding their way in Connecticut, particularly the young narrator, who after attempting suicide ends up caring for a Lithuanian woman with dementia. Lots of observations about sexuality, war, race and economic class. Vuong takes a hard look at the toll of drugs on the young and old. —Maria-Christina Keller, Copy Director
Song of Spores
by Bogi Takács
Broken Eye Books
(Tags: Science Fiction, Fungal Fiction)
I love fungal horror and will give any sentient spaceship a shot, so when I read the description of this book, I was hooked right away. I loved the cranky insectoid grandma and the shy, shape-shifting trans character, but the fact that the antagonist is a clump of sentient fungal spores really set this apart for me. This is a book familiar with tropes and readers’ expectations but chooses to purposefully flip them around and see what’s underneath. Examining what, or who, counts as alive and why we need to classify everything this way is exactly the sort of mind-expanding question I want science fiction to ask. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
Death of the Author
by Nnedi Okorafor
William Morrow
(Tags: Magical Realism, Books about Books)
This book within a book intersperses the story of disabled Nigerian American writer Zelu with Zelu’s postapocalyptic novel, Rusted Robots, which catapulted her to fame and changed her life. The end recontextualizes both narratives in a way I had to sit with for days. There’s much to love here, from the realistically imperfect Zelu to the weaving in of Nigerian culture to the author’s vision of what technology could be. Rusted Robots resonates with Zelu’s narrative, and as the plotlines come together, they illustrate the importance of storytelling in defining ourselves. —Lisa Pallatroni, Custom Publishing Editor
Hole in the Sky
by Daniel H. Wilson
Doubleday
(Tags: Science Fiction, Thriller)
I was shocked how much I loved this book because I can be really critical of alien invasion stories. Wilson has an exceptional narrative voice and captures many different points of view to create a world that feels real and is suddenly in catastrophic, even existential, danger. The aliens central to the plot are unrecognizable to Western science, but the Cherokee characters offer readers a peak into a new way of seeing: What if this isn’t a ‘first contact’? What would it mean to science and society if aliens had been here centuries ago? I found one of the main characters , Mikayla, upsettingly relatable, and the ending broke my heart in the best way possible. —Brianne Kane, Associate Editor/Books & Rights Manager
