J.A. Barron's 3 favorite reads in 2025

The Seven Cities Rebellion is over, Sha'ik is dead, but a last rebel force remains, holed up in the city of Y'Ghatan under the fanatical command of Leoman of the Flails. The prospect of laying siege to this ancient fortress makes the battle-weary Malaz 14th Army uneasy - for it was here that the Empire's greatest champion Dassem Ultor was slain and a tide of Malazan blood spilled...

But agents of a far greater conflict have made their opening moves. The Crippled God has been granted a place in the pantheon, a schism threatens, sides must be chosen but whatever… show more.

Ender's Game meets The Hunger Games in MORNING STAR , the second in an extraordinary trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of RED RISING.

'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.'

Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope. Until Darrow discovered that it was all a lie, and that the Red were nothing more than unwitting slaves to an elitist ruling class, the Golds, who had been living on Mars… show more.

At the elite Catenan Academy, where students are prepared as the future leaders of the Hierarchy empire, the curriculum reveals a layered set of mysteries which turn murderous in this new fantasy by bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

Vis, the adopted son of Magnus Quintus Ulcisor, a prominent senator within the Hierarchy, is trained to enter the famed Catenan Academy to help Ulciscor learn what the hidden agenda is of the remote island academy. Secretly, he also wants Vis to discover what happed to his brother who died at the academy. He's sure the current Principalis of… show more.