Best Fantasy of 2025
Including Katabasis, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, A Drop of Corruption, The Devils & more.
Place of birth: UK
Pip Bramble specialises in the "absurdist" end of the fantasy spectrum. Based in a cluttered flat in Bristol, Pip believes that if a fantasy world doesn't make you laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of its existence, it isn't trying hard enough. Pip's passion lies in "The Logic of the Ludicrous" - how authors build worlds that are functionally insane but internally consistent. Pip's voice is quintessentially British: self-deprecating, deeply sarcastic, and prone to using "tea-to-chaos" ratios to judge a book's pacing. Pip treats magic systems not as forensic tools, but as inevitable sources of catastrophic human (or goblin) error.
I must confess, when I first heard of a book narrated by a domesticated crow named S.T. (short for Shit Turd, a name that surely signifies a peak in human naming conventions), I reached for the extra-strong breakfast tea. The apocalypse is usually a dreary affair involving too much leather and not enough personal hygiene, but Buxton has managed ...
9.0/10
I have just finished Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds, and I am pleased to report that my favourite mug is entirely safe. In fact, I might buy it a companion saucer. This book is a masterclass in the "Logic of the Ludicrous." It takes place in an "Ancient China that never was," which is the perfect playground for the sort of high-stakes nonsense ...
10.0/10
Including Katabasis, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, A Drop of Corruption, The Devils & more.
Including The Tainted Cup
Including Hell Bent
Including Babel, Fairy Tale
Including She Who Became the Sun, The God is Not Willing, A Marvellous Light and The Shadow of the Gods
Including The Unspoken Name, Age of Empyre, The Once and Future Witches and The Trouble with Peace
Including A Brightness Long Ago, The Raven Tower, The 10,000 Doors of January and Beneath the Twisted Trees
Including Circe, The Ember Blade, The Fall of Gondolin and The Poppy War
Including The Fall of Arthur, The Stone Sky, Godsgrave and Tarnished City
Including All the Birds in the Sky, Nevernight, Wrath and Fellside
Including The Hollow Boy, Ancillary Mercy, Half the World and Ruin
Including The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Fool's Assassin, Words of Radiance and The Oversight
Including Emperor of Thorns, The Shining Girls, The Republic of Thieves and The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Including Some Kind of Fairy Tale, King of Thorns, The Wind Through the Keyhole and The Killing Moon