The 2018 Locus Recommended Reading List from the magazine’s February issue has been posted by Locus Online.

The list is a consensus by Locus editors, reviewers, and other professionals — editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi; reviews editor Jonathan Strahan; Locus reviewers Liz Bourke, Katharine Coldiron, Carolyn Cushman, Paul Di Filippo, Lila Garrott, Amy Goldschlager, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, John Langan, Russell Letson, Adrienne Martini, Ian Mond, Colleen Mondor, Tim Pratt, Arley Sorg, Tom Whitmore, Gary K. Wolfe, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; Bob Blough; online editor Mark R. Kelly; critics Paul Kincaid, Cheryl Morgan, and Graham Sleight. The YA group wrapped in Locus assistant editor Laurel Amberdine, Gwenda Bond, Barry Goldblatt, Justine Larbalestier, and Tiffany Trent. Art books were compiled with help from Arnie Fenner, Karen Haber, and Locus design editor Francesca Myman. Short fiction recommendations had help from editors and reviewers John Joseph Adams, Ellen Datlow, Lila Garrott, Liz Grzyb, Maria Haskins, Nisi Shawl, and Alison Wise plus our own reviewers.

On the list are —

• 25 SF novels, 21 fantasy novels, 14 horror novels, 18 YA books, 19 first novels;
• 26 collections, 10 original anthologies, 12 reprint/year’s best anthologies;
• 17 nonfiction books, 16 art books
• 13 novellas
• 49 novelettes
• 73 short stories

Although last year’s list recognized the field’s outburst of novellas with 26 titles, this year it’s back down to 13.

On the other hand, last year the list named just 55 short stories, while this year’s list has a more robust number, 73, comparable to the number of picks in earlier years.

For the second year in a row none of the recommended books is self-published (one self-published work made the 2016 list, an art book, and the 2015 list had three.)

Baen struck out, placing no books on this year’s list. (Baen had one book on the 2017 list, two books on the 2016 list, one in 2015, and zero in 2013 and 2014.)

The Locus Poll & Survey will soon open for online voting and will decide the winners of the Locus Awards.