10 Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2025
Reading Time: 7 minutes2025 is bringing the scares from different authors. This is out last, but most certainly not least, list of most anticipated books.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Feb. 28, 2025
Reading Time: 11 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list has alien conspiracies, a magic-wielding space mercenary, a girl who can talk to dragons, and a private eye looking for a killer werewolf.
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The Oracle at Delphi
Reading Time: 14 minutesThe salesman of a device that predicts the immediate future finds himself in the pitch meeting of his life when he’s taken hostage by a trio of armed criminals.
Spring 2025 Original Fiction Submission Period Opens March 1st!
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe fall 2025 submission cycle for original speculative fiction begins on March 1 and closes at midnight on March 31. We’re looking for your best enthralling, imaginative, or bone-chilling original fiction stories of 1,200 words or fewer.
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Blood and Saltwater
Reading Time: 2 minutesA mermaid’s lament over her murdered lover, and her call to wage war against those who killed him.
No, you can’t submit AI stories to us
Reading Time: 2 minutesMetaStellar does not accept works of fiction written with the help of ChatGPT or other generative AI tools. Our next submission window for original fiction opens March 1, and we accept reprint and excerpts any time throughout the year.
Come Back Yesterday
Reading Time: 7 minutesA man learns of his destiny when he discovers the body of the mother he never knew. A letter left at he scene is hard to believe.
Renna’s Crossing Chapter 2: Renna’s Room
Reading Time: 12 minutesSurely Job had a Reason for coming to see her, with lots of Relevant Information and perhaps even some Responsibilities. She didn’t know, so she was nervous. She wanted them to speak first and get on with it.
Act of God: In The Beginning
Reading Time: 6 minutesEarth is facing a coming ice age. Humanity has marshaled its technology and resources in an attempt to delay the great cold; a diversion necessary to maintain hope for the people. But some few know the truth. There is little hope left on Earth. But there may still be hope in the stars.
Telling The Two-Sided Story
Reading Time: 7 minutesPlaying with dual POVs or timelines? Here are questions to ask to make sure a two-sided storytelling approach is right for the story you’re writing now.
10 Most Anticipated Fantasy Books of 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesThis year is bringing the bangers for fantasy readers! Here are 10 fantasy books we’re looking forward to reading this year.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Feb. 21, 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes sexy books by USA Today bestselling authors, apocalypses, and dinosaurs.
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Our God is a Jealous God
Reading Time: 12 minutesA woman seeks healing at an isolated ranch in the southwest. It goes as expected until it doesn’t.
Providence Will Provide
Reading Time: 4 minutesNaima has everything she needs, and everything she wants, and more besides. Providence does just what it says: whatever you need, it provides. Coming here was the right thing to do, the best thing. Coming here was the only thing that made sense. Coming here was Naima’s idea, after all.
car·niv·o·rous
Reading Time: 19 minutesA detective investigating a string of gristly murders comes face to face with an unimaginable horror.
Renna’s Crossing Chapter 1: The Visitor, Twelve Years Later
Reading Time: 13 minutesJob, a youthful but accomplished witch, has come to the foster home of Inglenook to meet with 16-year old Renna Porter. Their purpose is a mystery even to the three dads of the foster home, but Job’s quiet tension indicates sudden change incoming.
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Audit
Reading Time: 8 minutesIn the future, the government conducts regular audits of people’s thoughts in order to root out criminals and to prevent corporate fraud. A young man discovers a hack on the black market that allows him to have his objectionable thoughts overwritten with benevolent thoughts. Naturally, however, there is a catch.
3 Tips for Tight Writing
Reading Time: 5 minutesLearn three ways to tighten your writing on a technical level by reducing fat, remaining consistent, and using parallel constructions for reader ease.
Broadening Our Horror-izons: A Look at Foreign Indie Horror Films
Reading Time: 5 minutesWe’ve picked out a few low-budgeted, independent, foreign horror films popular amongst genre fans that offer a buffet of assorted cultures and styles.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Feb. 14, 2025
Reading Time: 11 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes several romantic books by USA Today bestselling authors!
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Transference
Reading Time: 4 minutesDr Peters’ new patient suffers from a particularly unpleasant recurring nightmare but, after a session with the doctor, it seems that the ‘fetus-man’ has gone away for good.
The Coffee Shop
Reading Time: 4 minutesA celebrated sci fi author gets annoyed by fans constantly tracking him down at his favorite writing haunts and pitching him with ideas.
Use Reader Feedback (Without Losing Your Mind)
Reading Time: 5 minutesExternal feedback — from beta readers or editors — will help you see your blind spots so you can fill them and meet reader expectations while staving off overwhelm.
10 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi Books of 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesA new year often means new releases! At MetaStellar, we’re very excited about what 2025 is going to bring, so we took a deep dive into the internet and found several gems. Here is our curation of 10 science fiction books we’re definitely pumped to read this year. Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto I only
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Feb. 7, 2025
Reading Time: 12 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes two visions of the dystopian future, a sexy romantic fantasy, and magic-wielding detectives.
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The Significance of the Ostrich
Reading Time: 4 minutesJoin Anya Lasagna on a tour of the Historic Ballyhoo Place World Heritage Site! Marvel together at the ingenuity, whimsy and stoicism with which old-style humans once faced the endless vicissitudes of their own bleak reality.
*Parking validation available on request.
Traveler
Reading Time: 25 minutesVera and Sorrow thought they were going to the Facing Cities to intercept a missive sent by their enemies, the League. What happened next was…unexpected.
In the Shadow of the Lotus Tree
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhat would you give up in order to be young again?
Writing Humanity in the Digital Age
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe best stories live on the edges of movements, as if the authors who pen them take up silent calls to action and then rally their readerly troops for battle.
Act of God Review: One Man’s Journey to Save Humanity
Reading Time: 4 minutesJan Byron Strogh’s novel Act of God presents a simple premise: What will happen when Earth becomes inhabitable? In the novel, the apocalypse comes in the form of ice spreading from the poles towards the rest of the world. And because ice has frozen all fertile land, humanity now faces not only extreme climate change,
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 31, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an epic fantasy by a USA Today bestselling author, a box set about post-apocalyptic survival, and a college for monster hunters.
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Schrödinger’s Dilemma
Reading Time: 4 minutesA man receives a mysterious puzzle box with no sender, igniting an existential journey into the nature of self and reality. As obsession consumes him, the box reveals an impossible and horrifying truth—one that will shatter his reality and unlock his own doom.
When It Found Us
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhile returning from a nearby lake on a camping trip, a couple discovers their camp trashed—with a strange sparkling substance coating everything—and are forced to run when something unnatural gives chase.
At a higher dose, love
Reading Time: 13 minutesIs human photosynthesis the future we need to avert climate change?
This Place Will Be the Death of Us
Reading Time: 14 minutesA group of therapists are attacked by their own building. They must rely on a drug-induced second sight to survive.
Line Edit Like a Pro (Here’s How)
Reading Time: 6 minutesLine editors look at the structure of your writing, including your meaning, syntax, concision, and word choices. Pull it off like a pro this way.
5 Vampire Novels to Read After Watching Nosferatu
Reading Time: 5 minutesDid you recently watch Nosferatu and were left wanting more vampire content? So did we. That’s why we scoured the internet for novels featuring vampires. We have curated a short list of books that caught our eye, and maybe these will also appeal to you. Happy reading! The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 24, 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list is all magical — magical romances, magical mysteries, and magical academies.
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The Wager
Reading Time: 17 minutesAfter a supernatural entity kidnaps their unborn child from the womb, a young New Orleans couple seeks help from a Choctaw conjuror to get him back.
A Kindness, A Cruelty
Reading Time: 4 minutes“The arrow is easy,” Elspeth said. “If it is a kindness, it is only in comparison to a cruelty.”
Unsticking a Stuck Manuscript
Reading Time: 5 minutesFacing a stuck manuscript and unsure how you’re going to unstick the story and finish?
Nosferatu Is a Homage to Classic Horror Movies, Not Just to F. W. Murnau’s Version
Reading Time: 3 minutesRobert Eggers directed the most recent adaptation of Nosferatu, which is a frankly cynically plagiarized version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But that’s a story for another day (and a really fun one). In terms of plot, not much differs from F. W. Murnau’s 1922 version: a centuries-old vampire living in a remote castle somewhere in
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 17, 2025
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes apocalypses, witches, and romantasy from a USA Today bestselling author.
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Slip
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe plan failed, or I wouldn’t be here assisting a paramedic as he straps my corpse onto a gurney. Confusing? Yeah. Try being me.
Life In 2050
Reading Time: 32 minutesThis novel is a pastiche of the classic novel by George Orwell 1984.
Generate Story Ideas with Tarot (Here’s How)
Reading Time: 6 minutesTarot cards offer powerful ways for creative people to generate story ideas and work through storytelling issues, including character development and problem-solving challenges.
Best Speculative Fiction Books Read in 2024
Reading Time: 3 minutesAnother year has come and gone, and I thankfully never had reader’s block. I even surprised myself by out-reading my own reading challenge. From yours truly, here are the best speculative fiction books I read in 2024 in no particular order. Disclaimer: Most of these were not published in 2024. Ansibles, perfiladores y otras máquinas
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Jan. 10, 2025
Reading Time: 11 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a magical hairless cat, a serial killer on the loose in a steampunk London, a telepathic monkey on a distant planet, and a girl who is admitted to a magic academy despite the fact that she has no obvious magic.
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