toadflax's 3 favorite reads in 2025

The time has come! Book seven in the bestselling Dungeon Crawler Carl series is here!

They call it Faction Wars.The ninth floor.

Nine armies, each led by rich and powerful aliens from across the galaxy. Each team has one objective: to capture and hold the castle at the very center of the battlefield. Strategy, alliances, pitched battles, and, of course, betrayal... It all makes for great fun and even greater television.

After all, none of these powerful aliens really die when they’re playing war.

Except this time. This time, winner takes all. Those who fall, stay in the ground.

As… show more.

The citizens of Azurvale are starting to feel the pressure. War with the Empire to the south is imminent, and there's talk of the city's adventurers being drafted into the campaign. Though this conflict seems inevitable and promises to be horrific, the common folk can do little but act like there's nothing wrong. Rather than lose sleep over something so wildly out of their control, they instead worry about tiny, personal, inconsequential issues. Things like, 'Will the butcher have fresh steak today?' and, 'Should I get those new boots now, or wait and see if they go on sale?'

However,… show more.

WINNER OF THE HUGO, NEBULA, LOCUS, JOHN W. CAMPBELL AND COMPTON CROOK AWARDS

The Windup Girl is the ground-breaking and visionary modern classic that swept the board for every major science fiction award it its year of publication.

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's calorie representative in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, he combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs long thought to be extinct. There he meets the windup girl - the beautiful and enigmatic Emiko - now abandoned to the slums. She is one of the New People, bred to suit the whims of… show more.