2018 Locus Awards

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The 2018 Locus Awards winners were announced during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle on June 23.

The Locus Awards are chosen by a survey of readers in an open poll.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

  • The Collapsing Empire, John Scalzi (Tor US; Tor UK)

FANTASY NOVEL

  • The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

HORROR NOVEL

  • The Changeling, Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)

YOUNG ADULT BOOK

  • Akata Warrior, Nnedi Okorafor (Viking)

FIRST NOVEL

  • The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss (Saga)

NOVELLA

  • All Systems Red, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

NOVELETTE

  • “The Hermit of Houston”, Samuel R. Delany (F&SF 9-10/17)

SHORT STORY

  • “The Martian Obelisk“, Linda Nagata (Tor.com 7/19/17)

ANTHOLOGY

  • The Book of Swords, Gardner Dozois, ed. (Bantam; HarperCollins UK)

COLLECTION

  • Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels and Stories, Ursula K. Le Guin (Library of America)

MAGAZINE

  • Tor.com

PUBLISHER

  • Tor

EDITOR

  • Ellen Datlow

ARTIST

  • Julie Dillon

NON-FICTION

  • Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler, Alexandra Pierce & Mimi Mondal, eds. (Twelfth Planet)

ART BOOK

  • The Art of the Pulps: An Illustrated History, Douglas Ellis, Ed Hulse & Robert Weinberg, eds. (IDW)

INAUGURAL SPECIAL LOCUS AWARD 2018 COMMUNITY BUILDING & INCLUSIVITY

  • Clarion West

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13 thoughts on “2018 Locus Awards”

  1. FIRST NOVEL — The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss (Saga)

    H’h? What was The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story? It certainly looked like a novel. Was it considered a novella?

  3. Looks pretty good.

    I’ll have to track down the Delany. And that art book sounds wonderful.

  4. I own the art book and it is wonderful. If you’re a fan of art, the pulps or both, I highly recommend it.

    All in all, it’s a good list of winners. Though I have to say I’m a bit surprised that The Collapsing Empire won in the best science fiction novel category, since I personally found it rather underwhelming and besides, it was up against strong competition.

  5. Wow, Scalzi! I guess this is what a failing career that is destroying his publisher looks like.

  6. Not to mention that it totally proves that straight white men can still win awards. Okay, it’s Scalzi, so it probably doesn’t count to those who care about that sort of thing.

  7. @Cora: I also found it underwhelming — but then, I’ve found most of his work to be lightweight, even when he was working with possibly-serious issues. Ah well, everyone has the gout….

  8. Cora said:

    Though I have to say I’m a bit surprised that The Collapsing Empire won in the best science fiction novel category, since I personally found it rather underwhelming and besides, it was up against strong competition.

    I really wish the Locus Awards would publish a fuller voting breakdown, as the Hugos do. Because the Locus involves only one stage of voting and because it uses the Borda count (iirc) to determine the winner, it would be particularly illuminating to know how the winners got to the top of the pile. Did The Collapsing Empire get the most 1st place votes, or did it get relatively few 1st place votes but a huge number of 4th and 5th place votes, or something between those two extremes?

    Though speaking of surprise results, I definitely wasn’t expecting The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter to win Best First Novel. It made sense to me that it was a Nebula finalist–it struck me as a book that was probably a lot more fun to write than it was to read, and I’ve noticed that writers tend to appreciate that sort of thing. But it didn’t strike me as generally popular: it’s only got a 3.79 star rating on Goodreads and has been rated 4623 times. Compare that to The Bear and the Nightingale, which has a 4.13 star rating and has been rated 43,863 times.

  9. @CeeV
    Come to think of it, you’re right. The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter is an unusual winner, particularly considering that it was up against several highly regarded and popular debut novels.

  10. I’d rank The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter and The Bear and The Nightingale pretty closely myself.
    I wouldn’t be surprised if having an established career in shorter works gave Goss a familiarity boost with Locus readers to match Arden’s success.
    (And those GR numbers for Arden imply she’s doing very nicely indeed, which is great to see)

  11. Although I enjoyed Collapsing Empire, it didn’t seem like something worthy of award level recognition. The text was paper thin in hiding the sub-text, and the economic model made little sense.

    Perhaps inertia is fueling the attention?

    Regards,
    Dann
    TAGLINE ERROR! Report to tech support

  12. Dann: Although I enjoyed Collapsing Empire, it didn’t seem like something worthy of award level recognition. The text was paper thin in hiding the sub-text, and the economic model made little sense. Perhaps inertia is fueling the attention?

    The Locus longlists are juried. The Locus shortlists are popular vote, open to anyone with an internet connection. Like Mieville, Sanderson, KSR, and a number of other authors whose every work tends to make award lists despite varying quality, Scalzi has a huge enthusiastic following.

    I have no idea to what “paper-thin hidden subtext” you’re referring. I found the book very enjoyable, but it didn’t make my Hugo ballot. I think you’re reaching for explanations when Ockham’s razor will do just fine. A lot of people like the guy’s books.

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