The winner of the best fantasy novel for 2025 is Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup (Del Rey; Hodderscape). This fascinating fantasy novel also won the 2025 Hugo Award and was short-listed for the Locus Award.

Bennett’s novel is a sort of Sherlock Holmes in Fantasyland, and the first of a projected series of three novels. Take a look at my review HERE. You can already order the second, A Drop of Corruption, subtitled “An Ana and Din Mystery.” If you are a mystery fan AND a fantasy fan, this is the series for you. Here’s an interesting interview with the author. There’s another interview on YouTube that you might enjoy. I have trouble with those things–I got about a minute in, the whole thing paused for some lengthy ad, and I clicked away. If these ad-ridden platforms don’t bother you, you can enter Bennett’s name and “interview” into your favorite search engine and watch it.

Congratulations to Bennett, and to all the winners. I only have time to review the novels, but everyone on the short-list and winners’ list in every category has my heartfelt congratulations and my awe at giving the reading world so much pleasure through their hard work and creativity. Locus Magazine has published a handy list of all the winners. See it HERE.

Next up: I’m working on a series of blog posts about alien communications, so watch for those!