The 2020 Locus Recommended Reading List from the magazine’s February issue has been posted by Locus Online.
The list is a consensus by the Locus editors, columnists, outside reviewers, and other professionals and critics of genre fiction and non-fiction — editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi; reviews editor Jonathan Strahan; Locus reviewers Liz Bourke, Alex Brown, Karen Burnham, Katharine Coldiron, Paul Di Filippo, Amy Goldschlager, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, Maya James, John Langan, Russell Letson, Adrienne Martini, Ian Mond, Colleen Mondor, Tim Pratt, Elsa Sjunneson, Gary K. Wolfe, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; Bob Blough; critics and authors Gwenda Bond, James Bradley, Niall Harrison, Paul Kincaid, Cheryl Morgan, Adam Roberts, and Graham Sleight. Art books were compiled with help from Arnie Fenner, Karen Haber, and senior editor Francesca Myman. Short fiction recommendations had input from editors and reviewers Rachel S. Cordasco, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Vanessa Fogg, Maria Haskins, Charles Payseur, Nisi Shawl, TG Shenoy, Sheree Renée Thomas, Sean Wallace, and Alison Wise, plus our own reviewers.
On the list are —
- 26 SF novels, 26 fantasy novels, 13 horror novels, 15 YA books, 21 first novels;
- 23 collections, 25 original anthologies and reprint/year’s best anthologies;
- 17 nonfiction books, 18 illustrated and art books
- 19 novellas
- 36 novelettes
- 69 short stories
TRENDING. The number of Novellas listed dropped to 19, after the 2019 list had 32. (The 2018 list had 13, 2017’s had 26.)
For first time since 2016, one of the recommended books is identified as self-published, (One self-published work made the 2016 list, an art book, and the 2015 list had three.)
Baen broke its drought, placing a book on the Locus list for the first time since 2017 — The Eleventh Gate by Nancy Kress – but only one.
PARTICIPATE IN THE POLL. The 2021 Locus Poll & Survey is accepting votes from all now to decide the winners of the Locus Awards. (The list is labeled with the year of publication, the survey with the year in which it is being taken.) The poll closes April 15. The Locus Awards will be presented in June 2021 at the Locus Awards Weekend.
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AKA, oh Lord, I have a lot of reading to do 🙂
Nice that you’ll be able to go back and edit or add to your ballot if you want this time.
I had heard that Doctorow’s attack surface was a YA novel. But it isn’t listed as YA here. Anyone read it who can comment?
bookworm1398: I had heard that Doctorow’s attack surface was a YA novel. But it isn’t listed as YA here. Anyone read it who can comment?
Based on the synopsis, it’s not YA, but I haven’t read it yet. A friend’s review says that it includes sections on the protagonist as a teenager and as an adult starting out. The friend also has mostly positive things to say about the book, and says that it may end up on their Hugo ballot.