Fiction Fans

2025: Year in Review

• Lilly Ellison • Episode 220

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Your hosts talk about 2025! What they read, what they read the most of, and what categories could use some more love. They also award superlatives to their recent reads (including "book they argued the most about" and “setting they would die instantly in”). Your hosts then discuss plans for the podcast in 2026, and how the second half of the year will be "no plans, vibes only."


Thanks to the following musicians for the use of their songs:

- Amarià for the use of “Sérénade à Notre Dame de Paris”

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License


Lilly:

Hello and welcome to Fiction Fans, a podcast where we read books and collect stats about them too. I'm Lily.

Sara:

And I'm Sarah, and it's time for our year in review, our 2025 year in review, I should say.

Lilly:

Yeah. Well, before we get into that beast of a conversation. What is something good that happened this year?

Sara:

This year was a little rough, or at least the back half of the year was a little rough, but I did some fun travel. I acquired two new pugs, the tiny terrors, which does unfortunately mean that I lost snoring, Mr. Squeak. But I'm choosing to focus on the good, even though they, they are terrors.

Lilly:

They are terrorists. And the question is the good, not the bad. So you are gonna lose points for inaccuracy.

Sara:

Well, but I can't, I mean, I can't mention the, the high of getting dumpling and cookie without also mentioning the low of why I got them.

Lilly:

It's true. You mentioned travel out of everywhere you went, where would you most want to go back to, if you could only pick one?

Sara:

I mean, I always love going to London. So that's probably my answer. But I did have a lot of fun at the, Hobbiton halfling marathon. I did not run the marathon bit. I only did the 11 k. But that was just such a cool experience that I'd love to go back to do that again.

Lilly:

Wonderful. My good thing is that I fell pregnant, which is perhaps the funniest phrase. Who knows how that could have happened?

Sara:

It's a mystery.

Lilly:

Oh, mystery of modern medicine. Yeah, that, I mean, that's my good thing. No baby yet. So I think everyone can probably guess what my good thing for next year will be.

Sara:

I suspect that everyone can guess yes, but that is very exciting. We're gonna talk about what it means for the podcast a little bit later on in this episode, but.

Lilly:

I assume it means I'll have so much free time to sit around and do nothing but read and no one has suggested otherwise, so.

Sara:

That's pretty much my assumption. I mean, it's not like having a young child is difficult or anything.

Lilly:

Certainly no one has said a word of that.

Sara:

Nope.

Lilly:

Alright. What are you drinking today?

Sara:

I have got some hot chocolate because this episode felt like it should have a special drink.

Lilly:

It should. Hot chocolate is smart'cause it's cold as fuck.

Sara:

It is actually not that cold. I mean, it's a little cold here today, but

Lilly:

I'm jealous then.

Sara:

it has been colder.

Lilly:

I am drinking a, what's the brand? Timber City Ginger Ale. Ginger beer, I guess technically. And it's a seasonal, fresh peach flavor. Although peaches are not in season,

Sara:

was gonna say, that doesn't actually sound very seasonal.

Lilly:

It also doesn't taste much like peaches. It's very good. It's not sweet at all. Very gingery.

Sara:

Nice.

Lilly:

And I did realize today that it said this is perishable. Keep refrigerated. So, whoops. Uh, my house is cold. It's fine. And read anything good lately, we're about to talk about that quite a bit.

Sara:

We are. And the book that I have been reading or that I just finished, I'm not necessarily sure I would call it Good. It was a book.

Lilly:

It was a book I just started, I think it's called The Night They Met by Atlan Merrick. And it is a, a published book, but I'm going to refer to it as Sherlock Watson fan fiction, because while they are in the public domain, that's what it is. I forgot. I bought it a while ago and I forgot that it was a series of. Not a series of short stories, but like a, a bunch of different versions. A collection of like alternatives. So when I read the first one and then started reading the second one, I was like, wait, 40 years have passed. So are they supposed to be in their late sixties right now? What's happening? And I was like flipping back and forth between pages trying to like do math and figure out what was, and I was like, oh no, this is a whole different version. I see.

Sara:

That sounds like fun though.

Lilly:

I, it is fun. I think it raises a really interesting conversation around like, what is fan fiction, especially when you get to public domain works like Sherlock Holmes is now,

Sara:

Mm-hmm.

Lilly:

Because this is, I mean, it's a published collection, an independently pub, or I think it's an independent publisher. But yeah, anyway, it's fun. I recommend it, especially if your interests align with fan fiction. Well, what happened in 2025 for the podcast

Sara:

For the podcast specifically we entered our fifth year of podcasting. So we started podcasting in February of 2021, which means that in February of 2026, we will have finished five years of podcasting.

Lilly:

So we're, we're dang close to wrapping up our fifth year. That's pretty cool.

Sara:

that is, I mean, especially considering that, I was not sure when we started, if we would get past like five episodes.

Lilly:

That was, we had several things that we were like, okay, if we actually record five episodes, then we'll do this. Our very tentative, tentative plans.

Sara:

And then we threw it all out the window. Did it anyway. And here we are, five years later,

Lilly:

I mean, we win in committed.

Sara:

we did,

Lilly:

We had our 200th episode. We read The Great Gatsby with Kay Matar as a guest, and that is gonna be my nomination for most fun to record. But we'll talk about our superlatives later. And we also continued our, well, I'm gonna call it a literary magazine. You could also call it a fanzine depending on your definition of either of those. But issues three and four of Sotia came out last year. Pretty fun. Well for us putting together. I also think they're quite fun to read, so everyone should go out and read them.

Sara:

Everyone should our patrons on Patreon. Get a copy of the zine for free. But you can buy individual copies for what?$3? Is that what we charge?

Lilly:

Yeah, I think with tax it might be$3 and 15 cents. Oh. If you use an Apple device on Patreon, it's like$6 because Apple charges a bunch of extra fees.

Sara:

Oof. Well, don't do that.

Lilly:

You can also buy it. Directly through our storefront if you don't wanna deal with Patreon. But if you are on Patreon, there are some other things that you got this year we released nine exclusive episodes. This was content that was kind of a, not a standalone topic necessarily, but not required. I'm trying to, what's the difference between an exclusive episode and just a bonus piece of content?

Sara:

I

Lilly:

The length really

Sara:

well, I think, I think it, the fact that it's only available for our supporters on Patreon

Lilly:

well, I'm saying as opposed to like when we played Shoot Screw or Mary.

Sara:

I, oh, yeah. Okay. Length.

Lilly:

Right. So I, I was gonna say standalone topics, but sometimes, like several of them are, we would have a conversation around an adaptation for a book that we covered on the podcast like Mickey 17 that came out last year.

Sara:

Yeah, our, PATON exclusive episodes are a little more general. They usually tie into a book in some form or another, but not always. and.

Lilly:

have talk about a couple of plays, one of which that I actually saw. So if you wanna hear me having opinions on things that I sh do not deserve an opinion on, That's a great place for you to get that. We released 30 Shoot Screw or Mary's, which are, I mean, does everyone know that game? I was once a middle school girl, so I assume everyone knows that game. But that's where you have three, in this case, characters, and you have to assign which one of them you would shoot, which one of them you would screw, and which one of them. You would get married too. We have a slightly different version for books where that feels bad. Which is, do I remember it? Business partner, roommate, or in-law? Yeah, that was the one. Which we started for like The Handmaid's Tale because I don't know, it just felt bad.

Sara:

It does just feel bad,

Lilly:

So there are 30 of those. Directly for books that we did episodes on, if you want a slightly sillier conversation about those characters.

Sara:

sillier, and shorter.

Lilly:

Yes. Overall we have 13 hours of content on Patreon. Now I just eyeballed that.

Sara:

Is that from this year only or, wow, that's a lot of content on Patreon

Lilly:

I know. I did just eyeball that number though, so if my not even back of the napkin math in my head. Math doesn't add up. Don't quote me on that. But we, I think we had a lot of fun. I'm really glad we came up with roommate in law or business partner because we needed that alternative desperately.

Sara:

We did. And it's, it's a lot of fun to play. I mean, it's fun to play Shoot, screw Mary too. but sometimes it just feels bad having to shoot someone

Lilly:

Or marry them,

Sara:

or marry them.

Lilly:

of our regular podcast. We had 49 regular episodes, one bonus episode Oh, and our nine Paton exclusives, five of which we live streamed before they were, available.

Sara:

Yes. And compared to last year that's more Patreon episodes. Last year we only had seven. the same number of. Regular and bonus episodes, but a slightly different distribution. Last year we had 48 regular episodes and two bonus episodes. so it comes out to the same number in the end.

Lilly:

Yeah. Why did we do that? I guess we just had more time to record before December really is the answer. Two of our episodes were not about a specific book, which means 47 of our episodes were about a novel, I guess, or a novella or a collection of short stories, but.

Sara:

Yes. So we had, where is this? I have this down here somewhere. we covered 36 novels this year. Six novellas, four collections, and one anthology. I don't have that data for last year.

Lilly:

How are we differentiating collection versus anthology? Number of authors.

Sara:

Yeah. I believe that my definition which I don't know if this is actually the correct definition, but it feels right to me. a collection of short stories is by one author and anthology is multiple authors.

Lilly:

That makes sense. Okay, cool.

Sara:

Yeah,

Lilly:

Holy shit. This was the year of sci-fi for us at least.

Sara:

it was, we dramatically increased the amount of sci-fi we read by which I mean we went from reading six sci-fi novels or books in 2024 to 14 this year.

Lilly:

It is more than double the number.

Sara:

That is more than double the number. fantasy still dominated our reading, though. We read 20 fantasy books. and then we have five horror books and eight other, which is just a, an amalgamation of all of the categories that didn't make our top three.

Lilly:

Really sci-fi versus fantasy, I feel like is the big one

Sara:

Yeah, It's nice because I know we have said previously that we wanted to read more sci-fi and then just not succeeded, so I actually feel like we did pretty good this year.

Lilly:

Yeah, no, absolutely. Out of curiosity, specifically for the horror category there, are we counting one book as one thing? Like there's no overlap here. Okay.

Sara:

there's no overlap. just because it's easier. So this year I started a project of putting all of our stats into an easily queryable database because I am just a little bit computer science nerd. that is my day job. So we have it in a database that's easy to query, but it does mean that I decided for the sake of simplicity that things were only going to be in one category.

Lilly:

Yeah, no, that, that definitely makes sense and makes life easier.

Sara:

Yeah,

Lilly:

Wow. No young adult this year.

Sara:

no, we didn't read any young adults.

Lilly:

Wait. Even like nostalgia book club.

Sara:

Well, so we did one nostalgia book club that was our published on our podcast

Lilly:

On fiction fans as opposed to our podcast, which is on Wednesdays, we read.

Sara:

Yes. and that was Ellen Enchanted which I categorized as a middle grade book rather than a young adult book.

Lilly:

Okay. Gotcha, gotcha. I think I'm getting my years confused and I thought we had read the Gabriela Houston's middle grade book this year, and I thought that was what that was, but that was last year, wasn't it?

Sara:

that was last year. Yeah, that was not this year. so yeah, the, the age of the books was overwhelmingly adult this year. I mean it, to be fair,

Lilly:

not unusual.

Sara:

it's usually, overwhelmingly adult, but we do often have a little bit more young adult and middle grade in there.

Lilly:

We're gonna have to create a category for baby books Not that we're gonna cover on the podcast, but. Uh, I suspect I'm gonna have opinions.

Sara:

I do suspect that you'll be reading a lot of baby books.

Lilly:

We covered a lot more unique authors. A lot fewer duplicates this year.

Sara:

That's because last year we were reading DISC world.

Lilly:

Yeah. Disc World will do it.

Sara:

yeah, so we had, we covered 45 unique authors on the podcast. authors we read the most were Claire North and Andrew Cartmel. We read two books by each of them. and yeah, last year we read a bunch of Discord novels, and so that accounts for the big difference.

Lilly:

Yeah.

Sara:

gets counted once.

Lilly:

Yeah. And although I feel like we started 2025 by saying this was gonna be the year of series continuations, we still read nine. The series starts versus 10 the year before.

Sara:

Yeah, I mean, we, we did say that this was gonna be the year of the sequels. we read a, a number of first books but we also did read eight. Continuations. and one series like ender versus four last year. So we really did read a lot more sequels. Wow. We just also read a lot of first books.

Lilly:

Is DISC world counted in series continuation?

Sara:

I mean, not this year.'cause we didn't read any disc world.

Lilly:

That makes sense. Disc world really did skew our numbers. I mean, not to complain because I am really glad that I finally read all of the ones that I had skipped over. But our demographics look much more diverse now.

Sara:

Yeah. I mean, again, PRT was only counted once previously,

Lilly:

Right. But he took Disc world, took slots that could have been a diverse author.

Sara:

It's true.

Lilly:

We read three books that had multiple authors and interviewed none of them, even though I have so many questions.

Sara:

well that can be a goal for next year or for 2027.

Lilly:

Yeah, we'll see. We only read 18 books published by one of the big five publishers versus 27 the year before. So we've skewed much more heavily towards independent and small press and self pub.

Sara:

yeah, we, I wasn't tracking independent and small press last year, so I don't know how many books we read that fit that category, but this year that was 15 and seven respectively, and then 10 self pub books versus eight last year.

Lilly:

And that was also one of our goals for 2025. So I'm gonna say that we successfully increased

Sara:

We did

Lilly:

and small press.

Sara:

Yes. Yes, we did, however, read a lot more new books and by new, I mean published within the last two years. So this year we read 29 books that had been published either in 2024 or 2025. and last year we read 23 books that had been published in 2023 or 2024.

Lilly:

Nice. Yeah, it is so hard. I mean, we complain about this every time, complain it, trying to keep up with books that are coming out and also read books that came out forever ago that I've missed.

Sara:

I know people need to stop putting out books that I wanna read. Let us

Lilly:

Let me just catch up. Yeah. Well I think we have come to. What I think is the funnest part, and now stats are lovely. Did we miss any? I think we covered most of it.

Sara:

We also, track who comes onto the podcast to, to talk to us. this year the person with the most guest appearances was Andrew Carmel, which makes sense because we read two of his books and he came on to chat about both of those.

Lilly:

And they were both books that were released that year, so.

Sara:

Yes,

Lilly:

He's padding out our numbers in a couple places now, if you don't like just hearing a series of numbers rattled off to you, we do post this in on our blog, on our website. If you want to look at the numbers instead of just hear them

Sara:

Well, we, we have the transcript. I don't think we've ever actually published the stats

Lilly:

Oh, really?

Sara:

as its own thing. Yeah, I mean we can,

Lilly:

We should add it to the, I mean, I don't think it needs its own post, but I think we can put it in the episode post,

Sara:

it's in the transcript, but.

Lilly:

Maybe I'll make a pie chart. Okay. We've made it to superlatives some of these. We have two winners. If Sarah and I disagreed,

Sara:

Yes. But we actually, I feel like this year we had a lot more overlap than some years.

Lilly:

I think so too. The first one of course is best trash villain and how can that not be Dracula?

Sara:

I don't know. Is Dracula a trash villain? I'm not sure we see him enough for him to qualify as a trash villain.

Lilly:

I think he's entered popular culture and influenced other works to the point where he counts.

Sara:

I'm not sure I'm particularly swayed by that argument. I think there are adaptations where Dracula is the trash villain, but I'm

Lilly:

you don't think in the book itself,

Sara:

I'm not sure that OG Dracula is a trash villain.

Lilly:

the legacy of the character. Okay. You can at least agree he deserves an honorable mention,

Sara:

He, yes. Yes.

Lilly:

cause I mean, he's Dracula. But we also have our, I'm gonna say antagonist in terms of service by CL Pierlot, who definitely has trash villain vibes, although I don't know if they check every single box to technically count.

Sara:

I agree that they have trash fill and vibes. I'm willing to give it to them.

Lilly:

And so that maybe counts a little bit more than Dracula.

Sara:

I do think that they edge out Dracula just a little bit.

Lilly:

more page time. Yeah. Sorry, Bram, I know you're gonna be really disappointed that you didn't get that superlative from the Fiction Fans podcast in 2025, but.

Sara:

Maybe next year

Lilly:

Yeah, maybe next year

Sara:

for best supporting character. I think we both agree that, The supporting characters in Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff.

Lilly:

absolutely. Although, again, quibbling on definition, is it an ensemble cast? Are they supporting characters?

Sara:

It's true they are kind of an ensemble cast. We can, we can change the award this year. Best ensemble cast.

Lilly:

I think out of the characters who we see in that collection of stories, I would call Ruby more of a supporting character and less of a main character. She does have, one of the stories all to herself, but she's more peripheral to like the core family.

Sara:

I, I agree with that. Yeah.

Lilly:

And I loved her, so I think if we have to pick one, I would pick Ruby.

Sara:

Yeah, I think that that feels right.

Lilly:

I did not look up the name for this character. I just have goat in parentheses for the next one, and I should probably look up her actual name. It's probably in our notes for that episode.

Sara:

Goat skin,

Lilly:

goat skin. I was so close. I practically had it.

Sara:

you are very close.

Lilly:

Alright, well since I was so close, I'm leaving that in. Our award for best hero is going to goat skin from one of the stories in double-edged sword and sorcery. That was a, not a duology, but a double novella. They, they had a word for it.

Sara:

Yeah, they, they had a term and I don't remember what it was but specifically Goat Skin is from Waste Flowers by Bryn Hammond, which was one of the novellas in that, collection.

Lilly:

I was trying to see if our notes told me, but all I can see is horses are terrifying in all caps. So

Sara:

Helpful.

Lilly:

yeah, we're gonna go with collection.

Sara:

I think actually I can, is that one of the ones that I called a collection? Um, I did, I did call it a collection.

Lilly:

Okay, cool.

Sara:

That's, that's how it's categorized, which means that. My definition of collection being short stories by one person is off because it also includes this, but it's not an anthology.

Lilly:

Alright, well it's something, and it goes in our stats somewhere.

Sara:

yeah.

Lilly:

Goat skin, however, was fantastic. I loved reading about her. I think that the author had more works in the world, although not necessarily about goat skin.

Sara:

I am pretty sure that there are more stories, possibly even about goat skin by Bryn Hammond. I re I really enjoyed that novella and I'd love to read more by Bryn Hammond.

Lilly:

Absolutely me too. It was a setting that I don't see a lot and some really fun like fantasy elements. Yeah, I

Sara:

Yeah, and it, it just felt really well researched too.

Lilly:

Our superlative for best book by a new to us author

Sara:

Goblin Emperor by Catherine Addison. It has, it has to be that.

Lilly:

and the fact that I am agreeing to award that to a court politics book. I think is just evidence for how much I liked it.

Sara:

Yes.

Lilly:

Addison had an uphill battle and she won, best book by a not new to us author. I am awarding to the last song of Penelope by Claire North.

Sara:

I did really like the last song of Penelope. I liked all of that trilogy, in fact. but I think for me it's got to be one message remains by Preem Mohamad. everything Mohamad writes is just incredible. She's an auto by author for me. and I really enjoyed this collection of, of stories.

Lilly:

One message remains I quite enjoyed, I think. For my award, north wins out because it is satisfying to finish a series,

Sara:

Mm.

Lilly:

which I is entirely our fault for not doing more often. But there were a lot of things that had been set up that I had been anticipating or worried about that paid off really, really nicely and. I liked reading that. I liked that experience and I'm looking forward to finishing more series in the future.

Sara:

It was a very satisfying conclusion.

Lilly:

Best debut novel for the year. I am probably gonna go with Death on the Caldera by Emily Paxman.

Sara:

I agree. I think,

Lilly:

I'm a little biased because it's very much my vibe.

Sara:

It is your vibe.

Lilly:

the setting, the, the Agatha Christie esque, but high fantasy it's on a train. Like there's a lot for Lily in that book.

Sara:

Yeah. I really enjoyed the, the mix of, Agatha Christi with High Fantasy. and I really hope that we get another book in this series.

Lilly:

Now we have different answers for best reread because

Sara:

Well, yours

Lilly:

not reread either of these book or like we didn't reread the other one's answer.

Sara:

yeah.

Lilly:

the qualifications are very different.

Sara:

my best reread, I think goes to run with the Hunted two Control Alt Delete by Jennifer r Donahue. I just, I love this series so much. it's, I have so much fun with it. It always makes me happy when I read it. think Control Alt Delete is probably my least favorite in the series, but it is still a fantastic book. I did enjoy it more on reread, actually.

Lilly:

I loved it. I sounds like I liked it more than you did, but it wasn't a reread for me, so disqualified. Mine has to be the Great Gatsby. Is that the only book I reread this year? Maybe, but it would be anyway, because I love The Great Gatsby. It was such a fun experience. I loved having Kay on to talk about it with us. Not only because we got to gang up on you.

Sara:

You did gang up on me quite a bit in that

Lilly:

yeah, I just have to say not that much, but different perspective.

Sara:

Not as much as you could have. I'll give you that.

Lilly:

That book is also, I know it's such a cliche, but it is a book that you get more, I feel like I get more out of it every time I reread it. Some books are cozy rereads, where you're retreading familiar territory and it's just nice and comforting to read a story that you love and know. And the Great Gatsby, I think is, I mean, is that for me, but also. There's so much going on that I get something new out of it every time.

Sara:

It was not a reread for me. This was the first time I'd read it. I'm probably not going to reread it. I didn't enjoy it. Fitzgerald has lovely prose. It was not like I had a horrible time reading it because the prose was so nice. but I just don't like reading about awful people doing awful things. and there's an awful lot of that in the Great Gatsby.

Lilly:

When you first said that, I was like, oh, well maybe we could read something else. And then I was like, no, you would hate all of his work.

Sara:

yeah, I, I do think that he's just not the author for me.

Lilly:

I love toxic garbage characters.

Sara:

No, no, no.

Lilly:

Best book we read, not for the podcast. Did I read anything this year? Probably. I don't remember.

Sara:

I read. a bunch of Tolkien scholarship because 2025 was my year of reading Tolkien scholarship. I decided, and that was all really good. Like I, I enjoyed all of it, but, I'm not sure that I have an answer for this question because of like the. Way in which Tolkien scholarship differs. I mean, it's academic, right? Like, it's not like necessarily fun reading. I'm having fun reading it, but it just has a different vibe.

Lilly:

Yeah, I guess I did read what to Expect when You're Expecting, but that book was bad and I'm not gonna go into it now, but best book that we read for the podcast.

Sara:

I think I'm gonna give it to the Goblin Emperor again. there were a lot of books that I really enjoyed reading for the podcast this year, but I was in a huge book slump at the end of, 2024 and the Goblin Emperor got me out of it and was a fantastic book to boot, so.

Lilly:

I did enjoy that. However, I think I need to bring up starstruck by Amy Ogden for this one. I wasn't in a slump necessarily, but something about that story hit really right. It was so sweet, and then bittersweet sweet without feeling too sentimental.

Sara:

Yeah, it really balanced the sweetness with the bittersweetness in a way that. Was really enjoyable, and satisfying,

Lilly:

that's one that like lingered with me the most out of the books that we've read this year, which is not one of our superlatives, but.

Sara:

but it could be. It should be.

Lilly:

could be if it was starstruck and House on Utopia Way, I think would be my answer for that. Just books that like, I, I contemplated after finishing the most.

Sara:

Yes,

Lilly:

I mean, we think about all of the books after we finish reading them, because we talk about them on a podcast for sometimes an hour and a half, but like in my personal psyche, the ones that lingered. Yeah. These are probably my favorite categories for our superlatives, if I'm honest. The setting we'd most want to live in and the setting we'd immediately die in. Most want to live in has to be Chi and cattails by Lynn Strong.

Sara:

Absolutely.

Lilly:

It is whimsical and delightful, and it's got little cats that you can kind of talk to.

Sara:

And the next book has a dog in it. we haven't read that one yet. but it does have a dog.

Lilly:

Counts as the world though, I would say. Yeah, that sounds really sweet and fun and I mean, it's not that bad things don't happen in that collection, but bad things that I think I could handle,

Sara:

Yes,

Lilly:

unlike the settings, we'd immediately die in so many. This year there were a lot of settings

Sara:

they, yep. There were a lot.

Lilly:

my gut reaction was Handmaid's Tale, just'cause I don't think I would handle that well. But, there was also Project Hanman. Don't think I'd live well in that universe either.

Sara:

No, the, the way up is Death by Dan Hanks.

Lilly:

Oh yeah. Dead immediately. Dead. The house on Utopia Way. Such a bonkers setting. I don't think I would navigate that situation with much grace at all. But I think the, the crowning one, the world that I would not, that I would least like to live in, but that I would immediately die in is Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriela Buba.

Sara:

Yeah, I think I would die pretty fast in that one too.

Lilly:

it has the, the double whammy of, fairly harsh environment, just general survivability rating. And then also people in charge who I probably would not endear myself to, very, very quickly. Book that surprised us the most I have as the House on Utopia Way by Stephan Mohammad.

Sara:

Yeah, that I don't know what I was expecting going into that book. But it exceeded all of my expectations blew past my expectations. I did find myself very surprised while reading it.

Lilly:

if I remember correctly, we read this one a little while ago from reading the description. I thought it was gonna be quirkier, if that makes sense. And like it's a strange novel. If someone called it quirky, I wouldn't be like, you're wrong.

Sara:

Yeah.

Lilly:

But those aspects of it are handled so thoughtfully that. It ended up being much more and lingered with me so much more than I expected. It was just also really, really good.

Sara:

Yeah. No, I, I agree with all of that.

Lilly:

We read an ebook for that and I really wanna get the physical copy just'cause I'm so curious how some of those later chapters are laid out.

Sara:

Yeah. There are some formatting things like Mohammad plays with formatting a lot or at least at the end of the book. and it, I do feel like that's. One of the places where a print copy would have been very beneficial.

Lilly:

Oh, 100%. Just from what little we've done with Sotia and trying to lay out poetry. eBooks are miserable for any kind of formatting, any kind of thoughtful formatting. What series would we most like to see turned into a TV show slash movie Murder bot? No, just kidding.

Sara:

Well, you have Fermi's Wake here by Chris Farnell, which I think is an excellent answer.

Lilly:

I do, I wanna clarify that's, that was the book that we read this year. I'm talking about the series as a whole

Sara:

right, right. I am also going to have to say Run with the Hunted because I need this as a television show. I absolutely do.

Lilly:

I mean, it would be fun. It would be very fun. Action. Yeah,

Sara:

Yeah. I mean, Fermi's Wake would, or that whole series would also be a fantastic TV show.

Lilly:

it would, especially because the books themselves are so episodic. I think it would work really well for like a like one hour episodes, just like the formatting fits, I think. A thoughtful adaptation wouldn't have to change a lot to get it to fit like a visual medium.

Sara:

Yeah.

Lilly:

And there's so much going on there that it, I mean, a really good series. Loving it. Loving it. Have we technically read the last one? No.

Sara:

No, because I don't think the last one is out yet.

Lilly:

Right,

Sara:

We've read. We've read all that there is to read thus far.

Lilly:

and the final one is coming out. I thought it was like announced right when that episode came out.

Sara:

No, I think you're thinking about, the final, like the title of the final novella in that collection.

Lilly:

Oh, is that what I'm thinking of?

Sara:

novellas got released. Individually and then as a collection, and the, the final one in that collection had not been released,

Lilly:

Okay. But we had read it. That's, that's right. We had read it, but the final one hadn't been released, so we updated the episodes. I remember this was the beginning of last year.

Sara:

I.

Lilly:

Yes, the complete Fermi's Wake Omnibus is now out. Okay. We do not know when the next set of novellas is coming out.

Sara:

No, we do not.

Lilly:

Okay. Okay. I'm excited for it. Anyway, sorry. Diversion. I knew there was something going on with the release schedule for that, or There had been, anyway. My favorite episode to record I mentioned earlier was The Great Gatsby by f Scott Fitzgerald.

Sara:

I think Mayan would actually have to be one of our Patreon episodes. our discussion on Louis and Tolkien by Dean Vitali. Which was a play that we saw together, and then we couldn't stop talking about it on the, the drive back, back to your house. So we were like, we have to go record an episode on this immediately. but it was really fun to be in the same room as we recorded. I don't know what it does for the audio quality, but just in terms of recording experience I had a great time with that.

Lilly:

Coolest Magic system. I nominate Death on the Caldera by Emily Paxman.

Sara:

I do like the magic system in that I'm going to nominate St. Des Harold by CSE Cooney because just the magic there is so cool

Lilly:

I didn't that didn't that world already win.

Sara:

possibly, but we read a second book. So it can, it can be nominated again.

Lilly:

I love in death on the Caldera how magic is a sort of. Dirty is not the right word, but it's, it's a suppressed thing, a secret thing, which I know is not like revolutionary, but when done well is always a really interesting thing, I think.

Sara:

Yeah.

Lilly:

And the also the way that Paxman plays with identity and how, witches have like their witch self there. There was a lot, and I don't remember how much of it is spoilers, so I'm gonna stop talking about it.

Sara:

The, the witch self aspect was really neat. I did, I did like that quite a bit.

Lilly:

And our award for coolest sci-fi tech goes to, I'd say, project Hanman by Stewart Hotson.

Sara:

I, I agree. The sci-fi, like the tech in that was just Chef's Kiss. That was a really good book. I really, I really liked it. Also, probably one of my like favorite reads of the year.

Lilly:

Absolutely. And it did linger with me in a different way than House on Utopia Way, but for Project Hanuman Feel like it has exposed a horrible cultural gap in my mythology understanding. and I need to go find like a kid's book about Indian folklore. I mean, I could read a real one, but let's be realistic. Which one am I gonna have time for? It's gonna be the simplified version.

Sara:

Also, you will have a child to read it to.

Lilly:

If that's true, I don't know how much the child will understand books for a little while, but

Sara:

I mean, you're not necessarily gonna be reading it to a newborn, but you will have a child to read it to at some point.

Lilly:

yeah. Superlative for best relationship. No matter how sad it was and how much it made me cry, I'm still gonna say starstruck by Amy Ogden.'cause it was a good relationship even if it had a sad ending.

Sara:

Yeah. Starstruck by Amy Ogden. Fantastic. I agree with that. I really, really enjoyed the relationship building in that and the relationship progression. Just the, the whole way that story, like hinged on the relationships. Oh, really

Lilly:

Mm-hmm. I don't know if I have an answer for best book cover. I read a lot of eBooks, and the arcs that we got were often not the final cover, so I'm not sure if I actually saw a single book cover this year.

Sara:

I actually have, have two city of All Seasons by Oliver Kay Lang Meed and Aaliyah Whiteley, which we did read as a physical copy except for some reason you got the arc and I got the final version. So I got to see the, the cover. but I really liked it. And then auditioned for the Fox by, Martin Cahill also has a lovely cover.

Lilly:

will take your word for it. The book that we argued over the most gotta be City of All Seasons.

Sara:

Probably city of all seasons, but we're not arguing about that.

Lilly:

no that, I mean, hands down, that is the answer. We both had very different experiences reading that book and that's fun.

Sara:

It. Yeah. I mean, sometimes the most fun episodes are the ones where we argue the most.

Lilly:

It's true. It, I just think back to Gideon the ninth. I wanna reread that. Now that we've read more of the series

Sara:

We could do that.

Lilly:

and how much does that change my perspective? Yeah. Because I don't think we did this superlative back then, but that would've won that year whenever. Whenever that happened.

Sara:

Yeah. Probably.

Lilly:

Alright. Book that compelled you to immediately go out and play a specific video game.

Sara:

I don't have an answer for this one.

Lilly:

I do. It is cheating a little bit because we read Percy Jackson for a collaboration with our pod on Wednesdays we read. So we did not actually publish that episode on our podcast, but I read it for a podcast. So I think it counts.

Sara:

I don't know if it counts, but I'll, I'll let it slide.

Lilly:

The reason why it has to count is because after we finished discussing that book, the, the first Percy Jackson Lightning Thief, I think is the first one

Sara:

Yeah, I think so.

Lilly:

I went, I need to play Hades two I I, I've played the first one, and I mean, it, it's related because Greek mythology, right? And just establishing that off the bat, and the second one had come out. Honestly, I think the, the same week or the week before. So quite recently, I hadn't actually gotten it or played it yet, but I so needed to be in more Greek mythology, just vibes, and I immediately went out and bought it and started playing it. I have now beat the game. Technically. There's a lot you can do after you beat the game, but, like it was a compulsion and our final superlative. Why are these in this order? We probably could have ordered these differently.

Sara:

I think it's, they're in this order because this is the order that we came up with them and we never rearranged them.

Lilly:

That makes sense. Well, we're ending on Worst Mother of the year award which is A, a downer. And B, we don't really have a good answer for.

Sara:

No, we don't.

Lilly:

I am going to nominate the mom in Shit Show by Chris Panier.

Sara:

Which I don't think is her fault. She's got Alzheimer's or dementia or, or some kind of memory issues.

Lilly:

Well, yeah. Okay. That version of her is not the one who's getting the nomination. I'm not a heartless monster, but she an antagonist for a portion of the book.

Sara:

Yeah. Because she wants to stay in the place where she still has her memories.

Lilly:

Okay. But that's the version of her with her memories, who's, who's making that choice. And so it is a choice that she is making with her f full consciousness.

Sara:

Yeah, but she's not like trying to kill people necessarily. That's the

Lilly:

She absolutely is. What.

Sara:

No, I mean, okay. Yeah, she kind is. I just don't, I just don't think that that she deserve,'cause she's a good mother to the main character.

Lilly:

Yeah. Except for all of the skin fleeing that she does later.

Sara:

She doesn't.

Lilly:

Okay. I mean, I agree. It's a weak answer. I'm, I'm not saying that it I'm not arguing this with my full heart, but. The nomination is at least not totally out of left field. There just weren't a lot of mothers, at least not like strong mother child relationships that we read. Oh, Daisy, I guess from the Great Gatsby,

Sara:

Yeah. Okay. I think Daisy would win it.

Lilly:

we don't see her mothering very much. And that's the problem, isn't it?

Sara:

I mean, I think that just cements her nomination.

Lilly:

I'm sure I've forgotten someone and it's gonna make me feel terrible later, but like all the moms in Lovecraft country are great

Sara:

Yeah. I feel like this year we just didn't have a ton of

Lilly:

mother child focused stories.

Sara:

Yeah. Books. Books with strong parental relationships.

Lilly:

Where that was the focus of the

Sara:

Yeah. Where, where that was the focus of the story. I,

Lilly:

because like, there are mothers, but like, yeah. Anyway okay. Daisy Buchanan. And with that we've wrapped up 2025.

Sara:

Yeah. So time to talk about our goals for next year which as we've mentioned, the back half of the year is going to look a little different because you're preggers, you're gonna have your child,

Lilly:

There shall be an infant in the house, and this I am told incites chaos.

Sara:

Yeah, you probably don't want to be reading a book a week for a podcast right after giving birth.

Lilly:

So we're gonna be playing. The second half of 2026 by ear. That being said, we have some really fun content planned. There will still be episodes getting posted. It's just gonna be kind of a different schedule, slightly different format. I am going to be preparing it in advance and not with child, but it's gonna be definitely more loosey goosey. We are not putting any books on the calendar. Refusing to plan basically.

Sara:

Which hurts my soul just a little bit, but I do, I do think that that's the sensible thing to do.

Lilly:

well, there are two philosophies, right? There's, make the plan and then be okay with it changing versus make absolutely no plan and see what happens,

Sara:

I mean, I don't like either of those.

Lilly:

right? And so I think it's easier for us too. Not make a plan, then make a plan and have to let it go,

Sara:

Yeah.

Lilly:

at least in this case, because it is going to be such a dramatic change from what we've been doing for the last almost five years now. Yeah. And you know, if we can record an episode here or there then we will, but it really is just dependent on how crazy life is. But again, there will be episodes coming out. We're just not gonna be recording them during that time period,

Sara:

yes.

Lilly:

so don't go anywhere. There will still be content for you. and then also that's six months away. That's like five years, so don't worry about it. And with that, thank you so much for listening to Fiction Fans.

Sara:

Come disagree with us. We're on Blue Sky and Instagram at Fiction Fans Pod. You can also email us at fiction fans pod@gmail.com or leave a comment on YouTube.

Lilly:

would you give these superlatives to? Let me know. I'm very curious.

Sara:

us know, not just Lily.

Lilly:

Really let Sarah know so she can tell me, which world would you survive in the longest? Actually, that's not the question. It's would you immediately die in and most like to live in?

Sara:

Yes.

Lilly:

Yeah. I guess technically you could choose that you'd most like to live in one that you wouldn't survive in long, not technically against the rules. I just question your criteria.

Sara:

Maybe the world is so cool that you don't mind that you're only in it for five minutes.

Lilly:

I have to admit, project Hanman was a strong contender for both of those.

Sara:

World's so cool that you don't mind that you're only in it for five minutes.

Lilly:

Yeah. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and follow us wherever your podcasts live.

Sara:

We also have a Patreon where you can support us and find exclusive episodes and a lot of other nonsense. Although we will be putting charges on hiatus for the back half of this year? Yes.

Lilly:

Yes, yes. We will probably still have content coming out sporadically in, you know, June through December. But we're not gonna charge you guys because no plans, zero plans, vibes only.

Sara:

Vibes only.

Lilly:

Thanks again for listening, and may your villains always be defeated. Bye.