The best books of 2025

This list is part of the best books of 2025.

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My favorite read in 2025

Extremophile

By Ian Green ,

Book cover of Extremophile

❤️ loved this book because...

Exceptional! Mad, pacy, original, violent and poetic biopunk

The most exciting book I’ve read for a while. It takes the style of cyberpunk, and makes that into something completely fresh and new.

Set in a post-eco-collapse London, the story centres on Charlie and her crew of bio-activists, who are pulled into a plot to assassinate the loathsome Ghost, a corporate bioscientist-for-hire.

The action proceeds at breakneck speed, laced with the darkest of humour and a sense of moral outrage. Our protagonist’s crew put everything on the line.

Green takes a (punk?) poet’s pleasure in assembling a gorgeous, funny, impactful sentence, making this book a pleasure to read.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Writing 🥈 Originality

  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it

  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down
Extremophile

By Ian Green ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Extremophile as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DRAGON AWARDS 2025
FINANCIAL TIMES' BEST SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS OF 2024

Charlie and Parker are punks by night, biohackers by day, living in the stuttering decay of near-future climate-collapse London.

They pay for the beer they don't steal with money from their sketchy astronomy site Zodiac Code, while Charlie's bio-bespoke augments equip the criminals, punks, and eco-warriors of London. They have to deal with disgruntled clients, scene kids who don't dig their band, and a city that's run by corporates and criminals. Their world is split into three factions: Green - who are still trying to save…

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My 2nd favorite read in 2025

Still Life

By Louise Penny , #1 of Chief Inspector Gamache Mysteries series

Book cover of Still Life

❤️ loved this book because...

I loved the unexpected character of chief inspector Gamache. He’s a far cry from the hardbitten, cynical, alcoholic rebel that we’ve come to expect from detective fiction. Instead he’s thoughtful, kind and insightful. Instead of flashes of inspiration, we see him spending his time fully immersing himself in the lives, thoughts and feelings of the people surrounding a crime, until the identity of the perpetrator begins to make itself known.

The backdrop of the book (and those that follow it) is almost a character in its own right: the idyllic community of Three Pines, off the beaten track in Quebec. It’s a place you’ll want to go back to.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Emotions

  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it

  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace
Still Life

By Louise Penny ,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Still Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Still Life, bestselling author Louise Penny introduces Monsieur L'Inspecteur Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec, a modern Poirot who anchors this beloved traditional mystery series.

Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain…

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My 3rd favorite read in 2025

Artifact Space

By Miles Cameron ,

Book cover of Artifact Space

❤️ loved this book because...

Sometimes, you just want to sit back and read a ripping good yarn, and that’s what this book does in spades.

It’s from the well worn ‘Hornblower in space’ genre: lowly heroine Marca Nabarro makes good onboard a huge interstellar ‘Great ship’. But this book does it so very well! Against a backdrop of mysterious destruction of ships, to a gathering plot against the current order, we see our hero go from strength to strength.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Story/Plot 🥈 Character(s)

  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it

  • Pace

    🐇 I couldn't put it down
Artifact Space

By Miles Cameron ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Artifact Space as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Out in the darkness of space, something is targeting the Greatships.

With their vast cargo holds and a crew that could fill a city, the Greatships are the lifeblood of human occupied space, transporting an unimaginable volume - and value - of goods from City, the greatest human orbital, all the way to Tradepoint at the other, to trade for xenoglas with an unknowable alien species.

It has always been Marca Nbaro's dream to achieve the near-impossible: escape her upbringing and venture into space.

All it took, to make her way onto the crew of the Greatship Athens was thousands…

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Book cover of Extremophile
Book cover of Still Life
Book cover of Artifact Space

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