2021 Locus Award Finalists Announced

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the top ten finalists in each category of the 2021 Locus Awards. These results are from the February 1 to April 15 voting, done by readers on an open public ballot. Congratulations to all!

The Locus Awards winners will be announced June 26, 2021, during the virtual Locus Awards Weekend. Connie Willis will MC the awards ceremony. Additional weekend events include author readings, panels with leading authors, and all memberships come with a 2021 Locus Awards t-shirt.

While not as well known as the Hugo or Nebula Awards, the Locus Awards are quite prestigious. Most speculative fiction authors would give up their favorite adjectives to be on this list.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

• Machine, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
• Attack Surface, Cory Doctorow (Tor; Ad Astra)
• Unconquerable Sun, Kate Elliott (Tor)
• Agency, William Gibson (Berkley; Viking UK)
• The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor; Solaris)
• War of the Maps, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
• The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US & UK)
• The Last Emperox, John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK)
• Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
• Interlibrary Loan, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

FANTASY NOVEL

• The Trouble with Peace, Joe Abercrombie (Orbit US; Gollancz)
• The Angel of the Crows, Katherine Addison (Tor; Solaris)
• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK)
• The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit)
• The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US & UK)
• Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tordotcom)
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Tegen Books; Allen & Unwin; Gollancz)
• The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
• Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga; Solaris)
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab (Tor; Titan UK)

HORROR NOVEL

• Devolution, Max Brooks (Del Rey; Century)
• Plain Bad Heroines, Emily M. Danforth (Morrow)
• Beowulf, Maria Dahvana Headley (MCD x FSG Originals)
• The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix (Quirk)
• The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan)
• The Deep, Alma Katsu (Putnam; Bantam Press UK)
• The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher (Saga)
• Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
• The Hole, Hiroko Oyamada (New Directions)
• Survivor Song, Paul Tremblay (Morrow; Titan)

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

• Over the Woodward Wall, A. Deborah Baker (Tordotcom)
• The Silvered Serpents, Roshani Chokshi (Wednesday)
• The Scapegracers, Hannah Abigail Clarke (Erewhon)
• Legendborn, Tracy Deonn (McElderry; Simon & Schuster UK)
• Deathless Divide, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray; Titan)
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
• A Song Below Water, Bethany C. Morrow (Tor Teen)
• Shadowshaper Legacy, Daniel José Older (Scholastic)
• Race to the Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Rick Riordan Presents)
• A Peculiar Peril, Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

FIRST NOVEL

• The Vanished Birds, Simon Jimenez (Del Rey; Titan)
• The Space Between Worlds, Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey; Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Unspoken Name, A.K. Larkwood (Tor; Tor UK)
• Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• Beneath the Rising, Premee Mohamed (Solaris)
• Architects of Memory, Karen Osborne (Tor)
• The Bone Shard Daughter, Andrea Stewart (Orbit US & UK)
• Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas (Swoon Reads)
• The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Candlewick; Walker UK)
• Hench, Natalie Zina Walschots (Morrow)

NOVELLA

• The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, Zen Cho (Tordotcom)
• Finna, Nino Cipri (Tordotcom)
• Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom)
• Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders, Aliette de Bodard (JABberwocky)
• Seven of Infinities, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
• Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey (Tordotcom)
• The Four Profound Weaves, R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)
• Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
• Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom)
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

NOVELETTE

• “If You Take My Meaning“, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com 2/11/20)
•  “The Inaccessibility of Heaven“, Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny 07-08/20)
• “The Pill“, Meg Elison (Big Girl)
• “Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super“, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 05-06/20)
• “A Whisper of Blue”, Ken Liu (The Book of Dragons)
• “A City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat“, Usman T. Malik (Tor.com 10/21/20)
• “Two Truths and a Lie“, Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
• “Fairy Tales for Robots”, Sofia Samatar (Made to Order)
• “Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo“, Catherynne M. Valente (Strange Horizons 9/7/20)
• “A Stick of Clay, in the Hands of God, is Infinite Potential“, JY Neon Yang (Clarkesworld 5/20)

SHORT STORY

• “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse“, Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• “In the Lands of the Spill“, Aliette de Bodard (Avatars Inc)
• “Dresses Like White Elephants“, Meg Elison (Uncanny 5-6/20)
• “The Sycamore and the Sybil“, Alix E. Harrow (Uncanny 3-4/20)
• “The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods“, Maria Dahvana Headley (Tor.com 1/23/20)
• “Wait for Night“, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com 9/02/20)
• “Little Free Library“, Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com 4/8/20)
• “The Mermaid Astronaut“, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/27/20)
• “50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know“, Ken Liu (Uncanny 11-12/20)
• “Open House on Haunted Hill“, John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)

ANTHOLOGY

• A Phoenix First Must Burn, Patrice Caldwell, ed. (Viking; Hot Key)
• The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 5, Neil Clarke, ed. (Night Shade)
• Edited By, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Subterranean)
• Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Zelda Knight & Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald, eds. (Aurelia Leo)
• Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World that Wouldn’t Die, dave ring, ed. (Neon Hemlock)
• The Book of Dragons, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Harper Voyager UK; Harper Voyager US)
• Made to Order, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction Vol. 1, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Saga)
• Africanfuturism, Wole Talabi, ed. (Brittle Paper)
• The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Vintage)

COLLECTION

• The Best of Elizabeth Bear, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean)
• Big Girl, Meg Elison (PM)
• The Best of Jeffrey Ford, Jeffrey Ford (PS)
• Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel, Julian K. Jarboe (Lethe)
• If It Bleeds, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
• Analog/Virtual: And Other Simulations of Your Future, Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Hachette India)
• The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu (Saga; Head of Zeus)
• The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean)
• Nine Bar Blues, Sheree Renée Thomas (Third Man)
• The Midnight Circus, Jane Yolen (Tachyon)

MAGAZINE

• Analog
• Asimov’s
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Clarkesworld
• F&SF
• FIYAH
• Lightspeed
• Strange Horizons
• Tor.com
• Uncanny

PUBLISHER

• Angry Robot
• DAW
• Del Rey
• Gollancz
• Orbit
• Saga
• Small Beer
• Subterranean
• Tor
• Tordotcom

EDITOR

• John Joseph Adams
• Neil Clarke
• Ellen Datlow
• C.C. Finlay
• Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Diana M. Pho
• Jonathan Strahan
• Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
• Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
• Sheila Williams

ARTIST

• Kinuko Y. Craft
• Galen Dara
• Julie Dillon
• Bob Eggleton
• Donato Giancola
• Kathleen Jennings
• John Picacio
• Shaun Tan
• Charles Vess
• Michael Whelan

NON-FICTION

• Plants in Science Fiction: Speculative Vegetation, Katherine E. Bishop & David Higgins & Jerry Määttä, eds. (University of Wales Press)
• The Magic of Terry Pratchett, Marc Burrows (White Owl)
• Re-Enchanted: The Rise of Children’s Fantasy Literature in the Twentieth Century, Maria Sachiko Cecire (University of Minnesota Press)
• Inventing Tomorrow: H.G. Wells and the Twentieth Century, Sarah Cole (Columbia University Press)
• Bradbury Beyond Apollo, Jonathan R. Eller (University of Illinois Press)
• Weird Westerns: Race, Gender, Genre, Kerry Fine & Michael K. Johnson & Rebecca M. Lush & Sara L. Spurgeon, eds. (University of Nebraska Press)
• Beaming Up and Getting Off: Life Before and Beyond Star Trek, Walter Koenig (Jacobs/Brown)
• Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century, Isiah Lavender III & Lisa Yaszek, eds. (Ohio State University Press)
• Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach, Andrew Milner & J.R. Burgmann (Liverpool University Press)
• The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume One: The 1930’s, David Ritter & Daniel Ritter, eds. (First Fandom Experience)

LLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK

• Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, art by Brecht Evens (Beehive)
• The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions, Piers Bizony (Motorbooks)
• The Dark Crystal Bestiary: The Definitive Guide to the Creatures of Thra, Adam Cesare, art by Iris Compiet (Insight Editions)
• The Art of Frank Cho: A Twenty-Year Retrospective, Frank Cho (Flesk)
• Spectrum 27: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Katherine Chu & John Fleskes, eds. (Flesk)
• Masterpieces of Fantasy Art, Dian Hanson (Taschen)
• Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration, Jesse Kowalski, ed. (Norman Rockwell Museum/Abbeville)
• The Hobbit Sketchbook, Alan Lee (HarperCollins UK 2019; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• A Storm of Swords: The Illustrated Edition, George R.R. Martin, art by Gary Gianni (Bantam)
• Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta, J. David Spurlock, art by Frank Frazetta (Vanguard)

With most conventions and awards ceremonies being virtual this year, no matter where you are you can join this year’s virtual Locus Awards ceremony and events. Please visit the 2021 Locus Awards Information page for more information – or wait for SciFi.Radio to report the winners in June.

Good luck to all the nominees!

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