The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced its shortlists for the best science fiction and fantasy works of 2018. The Locus has been awarded since 1971, and the nominees and winners are chosen based on the votes of Locus magazine readers.
If you’ve been looking for your next sci-fi read, look no further. The categories each have ten finalists, so there’s no shortage of books to choose from. The winners will be announced over the weekend of June 28th, at a ceremony in Seattle that will be MC’d by author Connie Willis.
Some stand-outs from the shortlist include future Rebels With a Cause book club choices The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley and Severance by Ling Ma. Having read Severance last year, I can attest to the high quality of the dystopian novel’s writing and I’m so happy to see it shortlisted for First Novel. I cannot wait for more Ling Ma books. Also in that category are novels that have been on my TBR for some time after hearing some good recommendations, like Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse and Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (the latter now being made into a film).
Check out the shortlists below:
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 - Click the links below to read
“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) - *N.b this is remarkably clever.
“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! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin: A Library of America Special Publication, 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: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded, 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)