"The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards by the science fiction and fantasy magazine Locus, a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California, United States. The Locus Awards are chosen by a survey of readers in an open online poll that runs during the spring." Click here to view a complete database of winners and nominees.
Locus Awards
Best Science Fiction Novel
The Collapsing Empire by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION SCALZIRiding The Flow, an extradimensional field available at certain points in space-time, humanity spreads to inumerable planets through the universe. A new empire arises, the Interdependency, maintaining its control based on the doctrine that no one human outpost can survive without the others. But just as a river changes course, the Flow changes as well. In rare cases, entire worlds have been cut off from the rest of humanity. When it's discovered that the entire Flow is moving, possibly separating all human worlds from one another forever, three individuals--a scientist, a starship captain, and the emperox of the Interdependency--must race against time to discover what can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.
Finalists
Best Fantasy Novel
The Stone Sky by Call Number: FANTASY JEMISINThis is the way the world ends... for the last time. The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women. Essun has inherited the power of Alabaster Tenring. With it, she hopes to find her daughter Nassun and forge a world in which every orogene child can grow up safe. For Nassun, her mother's mastery of the Obelisk Gate comes too late. She has seen the evil of the world, and accepted what her mother will not admit: that sometimes what is corrupt cannot be cleansed, only destroyed.
Finalists
- The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear
- City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett
- Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley
- The House of Binding Thorns by Aliette de Bodard
- The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone
- Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory
- Jade City by Fonda Lee
- The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross
- Horizon by Fran Wilde
Best Horror Novel
The Changeling by Call Number: FICTION LAVALLEApollo Kagwa has had strange dreams that have haunted him since childhood. An antiquarian book dealer with a business called Improbabilia, he is just beginning to settle into his new life as a committed and involved father, unlike his own father who abandoned him, when his wife Emma begins acting strange. Disconnected and uninterested in their new baby boy, Emma at first seems to be exhibiting all the signs of post-partum depression, but it quickly becomes clear that her troubles go far beyond that. Before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act–beyond any parent’s comprehension–and vanishes, seemingly into thin air. Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined.
Finalists
- Ill Will by Dan Chaon
- Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
- After the End of the World by Jonathan L. Howard
- Food of the Gods by Cassandra Khaw
- The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge
- Red Snow by Ian R. MacLeod
- Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
- Mormama by Kit Reed
- Ubo by Steve Rasnic Tem
Best YA Novel
Akata Warrior by Call Number: TEEN OKORAFORNow stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny Nwazue, along with her friends from the the Leopard Society, travel through worlds, both visible and invisible, to the mysterious town of Osisi, where they fight in a climactic battle to save humanity.
Finalists
- Tool of War by Paolo Bacigalupi
- In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
- The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis
- Chalk by Paul Cornell
- Buried Heart by Kate Elliott
- A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
- Frogkisser! by Garth Nix
- Shadowhouse Fall by Daniel Jose Older
- The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Best First Novel
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by While looking into her father’s work, Mary Jekyll finds the daughters of other mad scientists, as well as a darker secret that unites them.
Finalists
- The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
- The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
- Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
- Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys
- The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller
- Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
- An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
- Amatka by Karin Tidbeck
Best Novella
All Systems Red by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION WELLSStuck on a distant planet with an exploratory crew, a Security Robot kills time watching soaps. After a group of scientists is killed, the robot (now calling itself “Murderbot”) must figure out how to save its crew from a similar fate.
Finalists
- In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle
- River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
- Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin R. Kiernan
- Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
- Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
- Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
- And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker
- The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang
- The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang
Best Anthology
The Book of Swords by Call Number: FANTASY BOOKFantasy fiction has produced some of the most unforgettable heroes ever conjured onto the page: Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné, Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Classic characters like these made sword and sorcery a storytelling sensation, a cornerstone of fantasy fiction--and an inspiration for a new generation of writers, spinning their own outsize tales of magic and swashbuckling adventure. Now, in The Book of Swords, acclaimed editor and bestselling author Gardner Dozois presents an all-new anthology of original epic tales by a stellar cast of award-winning modern masters--many of them set in their authors' best-loved worlds.
Finalists
- Cosmic Powers by John Joseph Adams (ed.)
- Black Feathers by Ellen Datlow (ed.)
- The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois (ed.)
- Bookburners by Max Gladstone (ed.)
- The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories by Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin (eds.)
- The Best of Subterranean by William Schafer (ed.)
- The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eleven by Jonathan Strahan (ed.)
- Infinity Wars by Jonathan Strahan (ed.)
- Transcendent 2: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction by Bogi Takács
Best Collection
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels and Stories by For the first time, all of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish novels and stories are brought together in a single edition, complete and with new introductions by the author. Beginning in the 1960s and 70s, these remarkable works redrew the map of modern science fiction. In such visionary masterworks as the Nebula and Hugo Award winners The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, Le Guin imagined a galactic confederation of human colonies founded by the planet Hain—an array of worlds whose divergent societies were the result of both evolution and genetic engineering.
Finalists
- Six Months, Three Days, Five Others by Charlie Jane Anders
- The Overneath by Peter S. Beagle
- Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
- Strange Weather by Joe Hill
- Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages
- Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories by Naomi Kritzer
- Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
- Tender by Sofia Samatar
- The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente
Best Nonfiction
Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler by Luminescent Threads celebrates Octavia E. Butler, a pioneer of the Science Fiction genre who paved the way for future African American writers and other writers of color.
Finalists
- Sleeping with Monsters: Readings and Reactions in Science Fiction and Fantasy by Liz Bourke
- In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1, 1957-1969 by Samuel R. Delaney
- The Invention of Angela Carter by Edmund Gordon
- Star-Begotten: A Life Lived in Science Fiction by James Gunn
- Iain M. Banks by Paul Kincaid
- Not So Good a Gay Man by Frank M. Robinson
- Don’t Live for Your Obituary by John Scalzi
- A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison by Nat Segaloff
- J.G. Ballard by D. Harlan Wilson
Best Science Fiction Novel
Death's End by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION LIUHalf a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent. Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?
Finalists
Best Fantasy Novel
All the Birds in the Sky by Call Number: FANTASY ANDERSWhen Patricia Delfine was six years old, a wounded bird led her deep into the forest to the Parliament of Birds, where she met the Great Tree and was asked a question that would determine the course of her life. When Laurence Armstead was in grade school, he cobbled together a wristwatch-sized device that could send its wearer two seconds into the future. When Patricia and Laurence first met in high school, they didn’t understand one another at all. But as time went on, they kept bumping into one another’s lives. Now they’re both grown up, and the planet is falling apart around them. Neither Laurence nor Patricia can keep pace with the speed at which things fall apart. But something bigger than either of them, something begun deep in their childhoods, is determined to bring them together.
Finalists
- The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
- The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu
- The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross
- Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay
Best Horror Novel
The Fireman by Call Number: HORROR HILLFrom the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Heart-Shaped Box comes a chilling novel about a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion that threatens to reduce civilization to ashes and a band of improbable heroes who battle to save it, led by one powerful and enigmatic man known as the Fireman. The fireman is coming. Stay cool.
Finalists
Best Young Adult Novel
Revenger by Revenger is a science fiction adventure story set in the rubble of our solar system in the dark, distant future--a tale of space pirates, buried treasure, and phantom weapons, of unspeakable hazards and single-minded heroism and of vengeance...
Finalists
- The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
- The Evil Wizard Smallbone
- Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
- Goldenhand by Garth Nix
Best First Novel
Ninefox Gambit by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION LEETo win an impossible war Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general.
Finalists
- Everfair by Nisi Shawl
- Infomocracy by Malka Older
- Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine
- Roses and Rot by Kat Howard
Best Novella
Every Heart a Doorway by Call Number: FANTASY MCGUIREChildren have always disappeared from Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she's back. The things she's experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West's care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world. But Nancy's arrival marks a change at the Home. There's a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it's up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.
Finalists
- The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
- The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
- This Census-Taker by China Mieville
- A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
Best Collection
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Call Number: FANTASY LIUPresents the author's selection of his best short stories, as well as a new piece, in a collection that includes "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary," "Mono No Aware" and "The Waves."
Finalists
- The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. LeGuin by Ursula K. LeGuin
- The Complete Orsinia by Ursula K. LeGuin
- Beyond the Aqua Rift: The Best of Alastair Reynolds by Alastair Reynolds
- Not So Much, Said the Cat by Michael Swanwick
Best Anthology
The Big Book of Science Fiction by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION BIGWhat if life was neverending? What if you could change your body to adapt to an alien ecology? What if the pope were a robot? Spanning galaxies and millennia, this must-have anthology showcases classic contributions from H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia E. Butler, and Kurt Vonnegut, alongside a century of the eccentrics, rebels, and visionaries who have inspired generations of readers.
Finalists
- Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu (ed.)
- The Starlit Wood by Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe (eds.)
- Bridging Infinity by Jonathan Strahan (ed.)
- The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty Third Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois (ed.)
Best Nonfiction
The Geek Feminist Revolution by Call Number: 808.3876 HURLEYThe book collects dozens of Hurley's essays on feminism, geek culture, and her experiences and insights as a genre writer, including "We Have Always Fought," which won the 2013 Hugo for Best Related Work. The Geek Feminist Revolution will also feature several entirely new essays written specifically for this volume.
Finalists
- Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016 by Ursula K. LeGuin
- The View From the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
- Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin
- Octavia E. Butler by Gerry Canavan
Best Science Fiction Novel
Ancillary Mercy by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION LECKIEIn order to save Atheok Station from her most bitter enemy, professional soldier Breq devises her most desperate plan yet.
Finalists
- Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
- The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
- Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
- A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe
Best Fantasy Novel
Uprooted by Call Number: FANTASY NOVIKThe Dragon protects the valley, but when Agnieszka becomes his servant she learns that the danger—and her power—is greater than she'd ever imagined.
Finalists
Best Young Adult Novel
The Shepherd's Crown by Call Number: TEEN PRATCHETDeep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength. This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a blurring of edges and a shifting of power. Now Tiffany stands between the light and the dark, the good and the bad. As the fairy horde prepares for invasion, Tiffany must summon all the witches to stand with her. To protect the land. Her land. There will be a reckoning. . . .
Finalists
- Half a War by Joe Abercrombie
- Half the World by Joe Abercrombie
- Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older
- Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory
Best First Novel
The Grace of Kings by Call Number: FANTASY LIUThe Grace of Kings, the first book in this epic series, tells the story of two men who become friends through rebelling against tyranny and then turn against each other in defense of irreconcilable ideals. Wily, charming Kuni Garu, a bandit, and stern, fearless Mata Zyndu, the son of a deposed duke, seem like polar opposites. Yet, in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, soaring battle kites, underwater boats, magical books, shapeshifting gods, and scaled whales who seem to prophesy the future.
Finalists
Best Novella
Slow Bullets by A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur—and for humanity—peace is not to be. On the brink of the ceasefire, Scur is captured by a renegade war criminal, and left for dead in the ruins of a bunker. She revives aboard a prisoner transport vessel. Something has gone terribly wrong with the ship. Passengers are waking up from hibernation far too soon. Their memories, embedded in bullets, are the only links to a world which is no longer recognizable. And Scur will be reacquainted with her old enemy, but with much higher stakes than just her own life.
Finalists
- Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold
- Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
- The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de Bodard
- The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred by Greg Egan
Best Collection
Trigger Warning by Call Number: HORROR GAIMANThis third collection of short fiction by Gaiman includes previously published pieces of short fiction -- stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013 -- as well "Black Dog," a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods.
Finalists
- Three Moments of an Explosion by China Mieville
- The Best of Gregory Benford by Gregory Benford
- Dancing Through the Fire by Tanith Lee
- The Best of Nancy Kress by Nancy Kress
Best Anthology
Old Venus by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION OLDThis original anthology of all-new stories harkens back to the Golden Age of SF, when science fiction was filled with tales from our own solar system, at a time when no one knew what lay on the surface of our nearest galactic neighbors and speculation ran rampant. And though that old solar system was "disproved" in the 1960s, when space probes showed that the real worlds were very different from those of our imaginations, these linked anthologies take us back to the time when it still seemed possible that Mars was home to dying civilizations, and Venus was a steamy, swampy jungle world, with strange creatures lurking amidst the lush vegetation.
Finalists
- The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty Second Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois (ed.)
- Stories For Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany by Nisi Shawl & Bill Campbell (eds.)
- Hanzai Japan: Fantastical, Futuristic Stories of Crime From and About Japan by Nick Mamatas & Masumi Washington (eds.)
- Meeting Infinity by Jonathan Strahan (ed.)
Best Nonfiction
Letters to Tiptree by For nearly a decade, a middle-aged woman in Virginia (her own words) had much of the science fiction community in thrall. Her short stories were awarded, lauded and extremely well-reviewed. They were also regarded as “ineluctably masculine,” because Alice Sheldon was writing as James Tiptree Jr. In celebration of Alice Sheldon's centenary, Letters to Tiptree presents a selection of thoughtful letters from thirty-nine science fiction and fantasy writers, editors, critics, and fans address questions of gender, of sexuality, of the impossibility and joy of knowing someone only through their fiction and biography.
Finalists
- The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks by Simone Caroti
- Ray Bradbury by David Seed
- Lois McMaster Bujold by Edward James
- Frederik Pohl by Michael R. Page
Best Science Fiction Novel
Ancillary Sword by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION LECKIEWhat if you once had thousands of bodies and near god-like technology at your disposal? And what if all of it were ripped away? The Lord of the Radch has given Breq command of the ship Mercy of Kalr and sent her to the only place she would have agreed to go -- to Athoek Station, where Lieutenant Awn's sister works in Horticulture. Athoek was annexed some six hundred years ago, and by now everyone is fully civilized -- or should be. But everything is not as tranquil as it appears. Old divisions are still troublesome, Athoek Station's AI is unhappy with the situation, and it looks like the alien Presger might have taken an interest in what's going on. With no guarantees that interest is benevolent.
Finalists
Best Fantasy Novel
The Goblin Emperor by The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend... and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne – or his life.
Finalists
- City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
- The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
- Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear
- The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman
Best Young Adult Novel
Half a King by Call Number: FANTASY ABERCROMLeft for dead, outcast, and enslaved, young prince Yarvi must find his own inner strength and purpose to return home and claim his father's throne.
Finalists
- The Doubt Factory by Paolo Bacigalupi
- Empress of the Sun by Ian McDonald
- Clariel by Garth Nix
- Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger
Best First Novel
The Memory Garden by Bay Singer has bigger secrets than most. She doesn't know about them, though. Her mother, Nan, has made sure of that. But one phone call from the sheriff makes Nan realize that the past is catching up. Nan decides that she has to make things right, and invites over the two estranged friends who know the truth. Ruthie and Mavis arrive in a whirlwind of painful memories, offering Nan little hope of protecting Bay. But even the most ruined garden is resilient, and their curious reunion has powerful effects that none of them could imagine, least of all Bay.
Finalists
- A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias
- The Emperor's Blades by Brian Stavely
- Elysium by Jennifer Marie Brissett
- The Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato
Best Novella
Yesterday's Kin by Aliens have landed in New York. A deadly cloud of spores has already infected and killed the inhabitants of two worlds. Now that plague is heading for Earth, and threatens humans and aliens alike. Can either species be trusted to find the cure?
Finalists
- The Lightning Tree by Patrick Rothfuss
- We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory
- The Regular by Ken Liu
- The Man Who Sold the Moon by Cory Doctorow
Best Collection
Last Plane to Heaven by Long before he was a novelist, SF writer Jay Lake, was an acclaimed writer of short stories. In Last Plane to Heaven, Lake has assembled thirty-two of the best of them. Aliens and angels fill these pages, from the title story, a hard-edged and breathtaking look at how a real alien visitor might be received, to the savage truth of “The Cancer Catechisms.” Here are more than thirty short stories written by a master of the form, science fiction and fantasy both.
Finalists
- Academic Exercises by KJ Parker
- The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Nine: The Millennium Express by Robert Silverberg
- Questionable Practices by Eileen Gunn
- The Collected Short Fiction Volume One: The Man Who Made Models by RA Lafferty
Best Anthology
Rogues by Call Number: FANTASY ROGUESFeaturing some of the hottest names in fiction--including New York Times bestsellers Gillian Flynn, Neil Gaiman, and Patrick Rothfuss, PLUS a new Song of Ice and Fire story by George R. R. Martin--the second of our three George R. R. Martin/Gardner Dozois all-original anthologies. Everybody loves a rogue, though sometimes we live to regret it. In this anthology, each of the contributors was asked for a story about a rogue, full of deft twists, cunning plans, and reversals.
Finalists
- The Time Traveler's Almanac by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer (eds.)
- Reach For Infinity by Jonathan Strahan (ed.)
- Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History by Rose Fox & Daniel Jose Older (eds.)
- The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois (ed.)
Best Nonfiction
What Makes This Book So Great: Re-Reading the Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy by Call Number: 813.0876 WALTONAs any reader of Jo Walton's Among Others might guess, Walton is both an inveterate reader of SF and fantasy, and a chronic re-reader of books. In 2008, then-new science-fiction mega-site Tor.com asked Walton to blog regularly about her re-reading--about all kinds of older fantasy and SF, ranging from acknowledged classics, to guilty pleasures, to forgotten oddities and gems. Now this volumes presents a selection of the best of them, ranging from short essays to long reassessments of some of the field's most ambitious series.
Finalists
- The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
- Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 2: 1948-1988: The Man Who Learned Better by William H. Patterson Jr.
- Ray Bradbury Unbound by Jonathan R. Eller
- Harry Harrison! Harry Harrison! by Harry Harrison
Best Science Fiction Novel
Abaddon's Gate by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION COREYAn alien artifact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark. Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core.
Finalists
- Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross
- MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
- The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
Best Fantasy Novel
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Call Number: FANTASY GAIMANIt began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it.
Finalists
Best Young Adult Novel
The Girl Who Soared over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by September misses Fairyland and her friends Ell, the Wyverary, and the boy Saturday. She longs to leave the routines of home, and embark on a new adventure. Little does she know that this time, she will be spirited away to the moon, reunited with her friends, and find herself faced with saving Fairyland from a moon-Yeti with great and mysterious powers.
Finalists
Best First Novel
Ancillary Justice by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION LECKIENow isolated in a single frail human body, Breq, an artificial intelligence that used to control of a massive starship and its crew of soldiers, tries to adjust to her new humanity while seeking vengeance and answers to her questions.
Finalists
- The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
- A Stranger in Olandria by Sofia Samatar
- The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker
- The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney
Best Novella
Six-Gun Snow White by A plain-spoken, appealing narrator relates the history of her parents—a Nevada silver baron who forced the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful daughters, Gun That Sings, in marriage to him. With her mother's death in childbirth, so begins a heroine's tale equal parts heartbreak and strength. This girl has been born into a world with no place for a half-native, half-white child. After being hidden for years, a very wicked stepmother finally gifts her with the name Snow White, referring to the pale skin she will never have.
Finalists
- Wakulla Springs by Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages
- The Princess and the Queen by George RR Martin
- Black Helicopters by Caitlin R. Kiernan
- Precious Mental by Robert Reed
Best Collection
The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories by Few authors have had careers as successful as that of Connie Willis. All ten of the stories gathered here are Hugo or Nebula award winners—some even have the distinction of winning both. With a new Introduction by the author and personal afterwords to each story—plus a special look at three of Willis’s unique public speeches—this is unquestionably the collection of the season, a book that every Connie Willis fan will treasure, and, to those unfamiliar with her work, the perfect introduction to one of the most accomplished and best-loved writers of our time.
Finalists
- The Best of Joe Haldeman by Joe Haldeman
- The Bread We Eat in Dreams by Catherynne M. Valente
- Kabu Kabu by Nnedi Okorafor
- The Ape's Wife and Other Stories by Caitlin R. Kiernan
Best Anthology
Old Mars by Burroughs’s A Princess of Mars. Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. Heinlein’s Red Planet. These and so many more inspired generations of readers with a sense that science fiction’s greatest wonders did not necessarily lie far in the future or light-years across the galaxy but were to be found right now on a nearby world tantalizingly similar to our own—a red planet that burned like an ember in our night sky . . . and in our imaginations.
Best Nonfiction
Finalists
- The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois (ed.)
- Queen Victoria's Book of Spells by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (eds.)
- The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 7 by Jonathan Strahan (ed.)
- Unnatural Creatures by Neil Gaiman & Maria Dahvana Headley
Wonderbook by Call Number: 808.3 VANDERMEThis all-new definitive guide to writing imaginative fiction takes a completely novel approach and fully exploits the visual nature of fantasy through original drawings, maps, renderings, and exercises to create a spectacularly beautiful and inspiring object.
Finalists
- Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler by Rebecca J. Holden & Nisi Shawl
- Here Be Dragons: Exploring Fantasy Maps and Settings by Stefan Ekman
- Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture by Ytasha L. Womack
- The Man From Mars: Ray Palmer's Amazing Pulp Journey by Fred Nadis
Best Science Fiction Novel
Redshirts by Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that: (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed. Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.
Finalists
Best Fantasy Novel
The Apocalypse Codex by Call Number: SCIENCE FICTION STROSSFor outstanding heroism in the field (despite himself), computational demonologist Bob Howard is on the fast track for promotion to management within the Laundry, the supersecret British government agency tasked with defending the realm from occult threats. Assigned to External Assets, Bob discovers the company--unofficially--employs freelance agents to deal with sensitive situations that may embarrass Queen and Country. So when Ray Schiller--an American televangelist with the uncanny ability to miraculously heal the ill--becomes uncomfortably close to the Prime Minister, External Assets dispatches the brilliant, beautiful, and entirely unpredictable Persephone Hazard to infiltrate the Golden Promise Ministry and discover why the preacher is so interested in British politics. And it's Bob's job to make sure Persephone doesn't cause an international incident. But it's a supernatural incident that Bob needs to worry about--a global threat even the Laundry may be unable to clean up..
Finalists
Best Young Adult Novel
Railsea by Call Number: TEEN MIEVILLEOn board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one's death & the other's glory. But no matter how spectacular it is, Sham can't shake the sense that there is more to life than traveling the endless rails of the railsea--even if his captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-colored mole she's been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago. When they come across a wrecked train, at first it's a welcome distraction. But what Sham finds in the derelict--a kind of treasure map indicating a mythical place untouched by iron rails--leads to considerably more than he'd bargained for. Soon he's hunted on all sides, by pirates, trainsfolk, monsters, & salvage-scrabblers. & it might not be just Sham's life that's about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea.
Finalists
- The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
- The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
- Dodger by Terry Pratchett
- Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow
Best First Novel
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Call Number: FANTASY AHMEDThree superheroes in the Crescent Moon Kingdoms bound together by a series of magical murders must work together in a race against time to prevent a sorcerer's plot from destroying the world.
Finalists
- Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
- vN by Madeline Ashby
- Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
- The Games by Ted Kosmatka
Best Novella
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by The year is 2035. After ecological disasters nearly destroyed the Earth, 26 survivors—the last of humanity—are trapped by an alien race in a sterile enclosure known as the Shell. Weaving three consecutive time lines to unravel both the mystery of the Earth's destruction and the key to its salvation, this taut post-apocalyptic thriller offers a topical plot with a satisfying twist.
Finalists
- The Stars Do Not Lie by Jay Lake
- The Boolean Gate by Walter John Williams
- In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns by Elizabeth Bear
- On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard
Best Collection
Shoggoths in Bloom by Short fiction from Elizabeth Bear, recipient of the "John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer." Includes her Hugo- and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winning "Tideline" and Hugo-winning novelette, "Shoggoths in Bloom," as well as an original, never-published story. A World Fantasy, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick nominee, Bear is one of speculative fiction's most acclaimed, respected, and prolific authors.
Finalists
- The Best of Kage Baker by Kage Baker
- At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson
- The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth and Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands by Ursula K. LeGuin
- The Dragon Griaule by Lucius Shepard
Best Anthology
Edge of Infinity by "One giant leap for mankind". Those were Neil Armstrong's immortal words when he became the first human being to step onto another world. All at once, the horizon expanded; the human race was no longer Earthbound. Our destiny would now be to reach out to eternity. Brought to you by the creators of Engineering Infinity, Edge of Infinity is an exhilarating new SF anthology that looks at the next giant leap for humankind: the leap from our home world out into the Solar System.
Finalists
- The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-ninth Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois (ed.)
- After by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (Ed.)
- The Future is Japanese by Nick Mamatas & Masumi Washington (Eds.)
- The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Six by Jonathan Strahan (ed.)
Best Nonfiction
Distrust That Particular Flavor by Call Number: 814.54 GIBSONWilliam Gibson is known primarily as a novelist, with his work ranging from his groundbreaking first novel, Neuromancer, to his more recent contemporary bestsellers Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History. During those nearly thirty years, though, Gibson has been sought out by widely varying publications for his insights into contemporary culture. These essays and articles have never been collected-until now. Some have never appeared in print at all. In addition, Distrust That Particular Flavor includes journalism from small publishers, online sources, and magazines no longer in existence. This volume will be essential reading for any lover of William Gibson's novels. Distrust That Particular Flavor offers readers a privileged view into the mind of a writer whose thinking has shaped not only a generation of writers but our entire culture.
Finalists
- Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010 by Damien Broderick & Paul Di Filippo
- Some Remarks by Neal Stephenson
- The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn (eds.)
- An Exile on Planet Earth by Brian Aldiss