The 2016 Locus Recommended Reading List from the magazine’s February issue has been posted by Locus Online.
The list is… is a consensus by Locus editors, reviewers, and other professionals — editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi; reviews editor Jonathan Strahan; reviewers Liz Bourke, Carolyn Cushman, Paul Di Filippo, Gardner Dozois, Amy Goldschlager, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, John Langan, Russell Letson, Adrienne Martini, Faren Miller, Colleen Mondor, Tim Pratt, Rachel Swirsky, Tom Whitmore, and Gary K. Wolfe; Bob Blough; Mark R. Kelly; Paul Kincaid; Cheryl Morgan; and Graham Sleight.
The young-adult list compiling group wrapped in Laurel Amberdine, Gwenda Bond, Barry Goldblatt, Justina Ireland, Justine Larbalestier, Eric Smith, and Tiffany Trent.
The art book section had help from Arnie Fenner, Karen Haber, and Francesca Myman.
The short fiction categories were compiled by Strahan with input from Dozois, Guran, Horton, Langan, Miller, Swirsky, and Wolfe; and editors and reviewers John Joseph Adams, Charles Payseur, Nisi Shawl, and A.C. Wise.
On the list are —
- 23 SF novels, 30 fantasy novels, 12 horror novels, 24 YA books, 13 first novels;
- 28 collections, 13 original anthologies, 8 reprint/year’s best anthologies;
- 15 nonfiction books, 15 art books
- 11 novellas
- 33 novelettes
- 78 short stories
The horror novel category is a fresh addition — last year’s list did not include it.
Only one self-published work made this year’s list, an art book – last year’s list had three.
Baen did slightly better than indie, with two books on the 2017 list, a fantasy novel and a story collection. The publisher often attracts little notice from Locus, placing only one work on last year’s list (2015), and zero in 2013 and 2014.
The Locus Poll & Survey will soon open for online voting. When it does, the form can be found here.