Locus Magazine has published its annual Locus Award finalists, a shortlist of the best science fiction and fantasy of the past calendar year. I rely on this list to find the books I've overlooked (so. many. books.). This year's looks like a bumper crop.
Now that the finalists have been announced, Locus subscribers and others can cast their votes; the awards will be presented in Seattle during a weekend-long event that runs June 28-30, MC'ed by Connie Willis.
SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
- Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager US; Hodder & Stoughton)
- The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
- If Tomorrow Comes, Nancy Kress (Tor)
- Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
- Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK)
- Embers of War, Gareth L. Powell (Titan US; Titan UK)
- Elysium Fire, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Orbit US)
- Red Moon, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- Unholy Land, Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)
- Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente (Saga)
FANTASY NOVEL
- Lies Sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch (DAW; Gollancz)
- Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett (Crown; Jo Fletcher)
- The Monster Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson (Tor)
- Deep Roots, Ruthanna Emrys (Tor.com Publishing)
- Ahab’s Return, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)
- European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, Theodora Goss (Saga)
- The Mere Wife, Maria Dahvana Headley (MCD)
- The Wonder Engine, T. Kingfisher (Argyll Productions)
- Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey; Macmillan)
- Creatures of Want and Ruin, Molly Tanzer (John Joseph Adams)
HORROR NOVEL
- In the Night Wood, Dale Bailey (John Joseph Adams)
- Unlanguage, Michael Cisco (Eraserhead)
- We Sold Our Souls, Grady Hendrix (Quirk)
- Coyote Songs, Gabino Iglesias (Broken River)
- The Hunger, Alma Katsu (Putnam; Bantam Press UK)
- The Outsider, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
- The Listener, Robert McCammon (Cemetery Dance)
- Cross Her Heart, Sarah Pinborough (HarperCollins UK/Morrow)
- The Cabin at the End of the World, Paul Tremblay (Morrow; Titan UK)
- Tide of Stone, Kaaron Warren (Omnium Gatherum)
YOUNG ADULT BOOK
- The Gone Away Place, Christopher Barzak (Knopf)
- The Cruel Prince, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key)
- The Belles, Dhonielle Clayton (Freeform; Gollancz)
- Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman (Random House)
- Dread Nation, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)
- Cross Fire, Fonda Lee (Scholastic)
- The Agony House, Cherie Priest & Tara O’Connor (Levine)
- Half-Witch, John Schoffstall (Big Mouth House)
- Impostors, Scott Westerfeld (Scholastic US; Scholastic UK)
- Mapping the Bones, Jane Yolen (Philomel)
FIRST NOVEL
- Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt; Macmillan)
- Semiosis, Sue Burke (Tor)
- Armed in Her Fashion, Kate Heartfield (ChiZine)
- The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
- The Quantum Magician, Derek Künsken (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
- Annex, Rich Larson (Orbit US)
- Severance, Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
- Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)
- Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
- Empire of Sand, Tasha Suri (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
NOVELLA
- The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
- The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
- “Umbernight“, Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld 2/18)
- Black Helicopters, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Tor.com Publishing)
- Time Was, Ian McDonald (Tor.com Publishing)
- Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)
- The Freeze-Frame Revolution, Peter Watts (Tachyon)
- Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
- Rogue Protocol, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
- The Descent of Monsters, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)
NOVELETTE
- “The Donner Party”, Dale Bailey (F&SF 1–2/18)
- “Okay, Glory”, Elizabeth Bear (Twelve Tomorrows)
- “No Flight Without the Shatter“, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com 8/15/18)
- The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)
- “The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections“, Tina Connolly (Tor.com 7/11/18)
- “An Agent of Utopia”, Andy Duncan (An Agent of Utopia)
- “Queen Lily“, Theodora Goss (Lightspeed 11/18)
- “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth“, Daryl Gregory (Tor.com 9/19/18)
- “Quality Time”, Ken Liu (Robots vs Fairies)
- “How to Swallow the Moon“, Isabel Yap (Uncanny 11–12/18)
SHORT STORY
- “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington“, Phenderson Djèlí Clark (Fireside 2/18)
- “The Bookcase Expedition”, Jeffrey Ford (Robots vs Fairies)
- “STET“, Sarah Gailey (Fireside 10/18)
- “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies“, Alix E. Harrow (Apex 2/6/18)
- “Cuisine des Mémoires”, N.K. Jemisin (How Long ’til Black Future Month?)
- “The Storyteller’s Replacement”, N.K. Jemisin (How Long ’til Black Future Month?)
- “Firelight“, Ursula K. Le Guin (Paris Review Summer ’18)
- “The Starship and the Temple Cat“, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/1/18)
- “Mother of Invention“, Nnedi Okorafor (Future Tense)
- “The Court Magician“, Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed 1/18)
ANTHOLOGY
- The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade)
- The Book of Magic, Gardner Dozois, ed. (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
- The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
- Worlds Seen in Passing, Irene Gallo, ed. (Tor.com Publishing)
- The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, N.K. Jemisin & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner)
- Robots vs Fairies, Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe, eds. (Saga)
- The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Twelve, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
- Infinity’s End, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
- The Underwater Ballroom Society, Tiffany Trent & Stephanie Burgis, eds. (Five Fathoms)
- The Future Is Female!, Lisa Yaszek, ed. (Library of America)
COLLECTION
- The Tangled Lands, Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell (Saga)
- Brief Cases, Jim Butcher (Ace; Orbit UK)
- An Agent of Utopia, Andy Duncan (Small Beer)
- How Long ’til Black Future Month?, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean)
- Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)
- All the Fabulous Beasts, Priya Sharma (Undertow)
- The Future Is Blue, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean)
- Starlings, Jo Walton (Tachyon)
- How to Fracture a Fairy Tale, Jane Yolen (Tachyon)
MAGAZINE
- Analog
- Asimov’s
- Beneath Ceaseless Skies
- Clarkesworld
- F&SF
- Fireside
- Lightspeed
- Strange Horizons
- Tor.com
- Uncanny
PUBLISHER
- Angry Robot
- Baen
- DAW
- Gollancz
- Orbit
- Saga
- Small Beer
- Subterranean
- Tachyon
- Tor
EDITOR
- John Joseph Adams
- Neil Clarke
- Ellen Datlow
- Gardner Dozois
- C.C. Finlay
- Jonathan Strahan
- Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
- Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
- Sheila Williams
- Navah Wolfe
ARTIST
- Kinuko Y. Craft
- Galen Dara
- Julie Dillon
- Leo & Diane Dillon
- Bob Eggleton
- Victo Ngai
- John Picacio
- Shaun Tan
- Charles Vess
- Michael Whelan
NON-FICTION
- Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, Michael Benson (Simon & Schuster)
- Sense of Wonder: Short Fiction Reviews (2009-2017), Gardner Dozois (ReAnimus)
- Strange Stars, Jason Heller (Melville House)
- Dreams Must Explain Themselves: The Selected Non-Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, Ursula K. Le Guin (Gollancz)
- Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing, Ursula K. Le Guin & David Naimon (Tin House)
- Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility, Alexis Lothian (NYU Press)
- Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, Catherine McIlwaine, ed. (Bodleian Library)
- Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Alec Nevala-Lee (Dey Street)
- None of This Is Normal: The Fiction of Jeff VanderMeer, Benjamin J. Robertson (University of Minnesota Press)
- An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000, Jo Walton (Tor)
ART BOOK
- Yoshitaka Amano, Yoshitaka Amano: The Illustrated Biography – Beyond the Fantasy, Florent Gorges (Les Éditions Pix’n Love 2015; Dark Horse)
- Spectrum 25: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, John Fleskes, ed. (Flesk)
- John Howe, A Middle-earth Traveler: Sketches from Bag End to Mordor (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; HarperCollins UK)
- Jeffrey Alan Love, The Thousand Demon Tree (Flesk)
- Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State (Fria Ligan ’17; Skybound)
- Shaun Tan, Cicada (Lothian; Levine ’19)
- Charles Vess, The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, Ursula K. Le Guin (Saga)
- Michael Whelan, Beyond Science Fiction: The Alternative Realism of Michael Whelan (Baby Tattoo)
- Dungeons & Dragons Art and Arcana: A Visual History, Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, & Sam Witwer (Ten Speed)
- Lisbeth Zwerger, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling (Levine)
