2024 Locus awards

[psocoptera]

Locus awards here, or under the cut. I forgot to vote in these this year and am unsure how much I care, but here they are.


SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

WINNER: System Collapse, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, Samit Basu (Tordotcom)
A Fire Born of Exile, Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz; JAB Books)
Red Team Blues, Cory Doctorow (Tor; Ad Astra)
Furious Heaven, Kate Elliott (Ad Astra; Tor)
Translation State, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Terraformers, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)
Starter Villain, John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK)
Lords of Uncreation, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US; Tor UK)
The Road to Roswell, Connie Willis (Del Rey)

Of this list of the ones I've read I would have voted for Translation State.

FANTASY NOVEL

WINNER: Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose (Del Rey)
The Keeper’s Six, Kate Elliott (Tordotcom)
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett (Del Rey; Orbit UK)
Dead Country, Max Gladstone (Tordotcom)
The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK)
Paladin’s Faith, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
He Who Drowned the World, Shelley Parker-Chan (Tor; Mantle)
My Brother’s Keeper, Tim Powers (Baen; Ad Astra)
City of Last Chances, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Ad Astra)

To Shape a Dragon's Breath, definitely (of the ones I've read).

HORROR NOVEL

WINNER: A House with Good Bones, T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK)

Vampires of El Norte, Isabel Cañas (Berkley)
The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga; Titan UK)
A Haunting on the Hill, Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland; Sphere)
Starling House, Alix E. Harrow (Tor; Tor UK)
How to Sell a Haunted House, Grady Hendrix (Berkley; Titan UK)
Don’t Fear the Reaper, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan UK)
Lone Women, Victor LaValle (One World)
Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
Black River Orchard, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Del Rey UK)

I have read this and enjoyed it.

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

WINNER: Promises Stronger Than Darkness, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Teen; Titan UK)

The Making of Yolanda la Bruja, Lorraine Avila (Levine Querido)
Damned If You Do, Alex Brown (Page Street)
A Song of Salvation, Alechia Dow (Inkyard)
The Library of Broken Worlds, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Scholastic; Magpie UK)
The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, Garth Nix (Tegen; Gollancz)
Into the Light, Mark Oshiro (Tor Teen)
Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross (Wednesday; Magpie UK)
The Siren, the Song, and the Spy, Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Candlewick)
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, Andrew Joseph White (Peachtree Teen)

Huh, I hadn't heard of Library of Broken Worlds, I wonder if it's good.

FIRST NOVEL

WINNER: The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)

Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon)
The Strange, Nathan Ballingrud (Saga; Titan UK)
Threads That Bind, Kika Hatzopoulou (Razorbill; Penguin UK)
These Burning Stars, Bethany Jacobs (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Godkiller, Hannah Kaner (Harper Voyager UK; Harper Voyager US)
The Marigold, Andrew F. Sullivan (ECW)
Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi (DAW; Gollancz)
Some Desperate Glory, Emily Tesh (Tordotcom; Orbit UK)
Ink Blood Sister Scribe, Emma Törzs (Morrow; Century)

I like this result!

NOVELLA

WINNER: Thornhedge, T. Kingfisher (Tor; Titan UK)

The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill (Tordotcom)
The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar, Indra Das (Subterranean)
“Linghun”, Ai Jiang (Linghun)
The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire; Titan UK)
Rose/House, Arkady Martine (Subterranean)
Lost in the Moment and Found, Seanan McGuire (Tor)
The Mimicking of Known Successes, Malka Older (Tordotcom)
The Lies of the Ajungo, Moses Ose Utomi (Tordotcom)
Mammoths at the Gates, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

I would have voted for Last Dragoners.

NOVELETTE

WINNER: “The Rainbow Bank“, Uchechukwu Nwaka (GigaNotoSaurus 8/23)

“What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata”, P. Djèlí Clark (The Book of Witches)
“John Hollowback and the Witch”, Amal El-Mohtar (The Book of Witches)
I AM AI, Ai Jiang (Shortwave)
“The Year Without Sunshine“, Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny 11-12/23)
“Prince Hat Underground”, Kelly Link (White Cat, Black Dog)
“At Every Door a Ghost”, Premee Mohamed (Communications Breakdown)
“One Man’s Treasure“, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 1-2/23)
“Six Versions of My Brother Found Under a Bridge“, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 9-10/23)
“On the Fox Roads“, Nghi Vo (Tor.com 10/31/23)

I wasn't aware of this story, perhaps I'll read it.

SHORT STORY

WINNER: “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub“, P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny 1-2/23)

“A Soul in the World“, Charlie Jane Anders (Uncanny 3-4/23)
“The Mausoleum’s Children“, Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny 5-6/23)
“Suppertime”, Tananarive Due (New Suns 2)
“Window Boy“, Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 8/23)
“Reckless Eyeballing”, N.K. Jemisin (Out There Screaming)
“The Sound of Children Screaming“, Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare 10/23)
“Those Hitchhiking Kids“, Darcie Little Badger (The Sunday Morning Transport 4/2/23)
“Stones“, Nnedi Okorafor (Clarkesworld 9/23)
“There’s a Door to the Land of the Dead in the Land of the Dead“, Sarah Pinsker (The Deadlands 6/23)

Of the ones I've read I would have voted for the Pinsker.

ANTHOLOGY

WINNER: Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Random House; Picador)

The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 7, Neil Clarke, ed. (Night Shade)
Christmas and Other Horrors, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Titan UK)
The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2022), Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Eugen Bacon & Milton Davis, eds. (Caezic)
Never Whistle at Night, Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., eds. (Vintage)
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023, R.F. Kuang & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner)
New Suns 2, Nisi Shawl, ed. (Solaris UK)
The Book of Witches, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology, Wole Talabi, ed. (Android)
The Best of World SF: Volume 3, Lavie Tidhar, ed. (Ad Astra)

Huh, I often try to read approximately one anthology a year but I haven't in awhile.

COLLECTION

WINNER: White Cat, Black Dog, Kelly Link (Random House; Ad Astra)

The Essential Peter S. Beagle, Volumes 1 & 2, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance and Other Stories, Tobias S. Buckell (Apex)
The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Tananarive Due (Akashic)
No One Will Come Back For Us, Premee Mohamed (Undertow)
Jackal, Jackal, Tobi Ogundiran (Undertow)
Skin Thief, Suzan Palumbo (Neon Hemlock)
Lost Places, Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer)
The Best of Michael Swanwick, Volume Two, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean)
The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean)

MAGAZINE

WINNER: Uncanny

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

Always with the Uncanny.

PUBLISHER

WINNER: Tor

Angry Robot
DAW
Gollancz
Neon Hemlock
Orbit
Small Beer
Subterranean
Tachyon
Tordotcom

I wonder how many people, like me, are kind of vague about the difference between Tor and Tordotcom.

EDITOR

WINNER: Neil Clarke

Ellen Datlow
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
Arley Sorg & Christie Yant
Jonathan Strahan
Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas
Sheree Renée Thomas
E. Catherine Tobler
Ann VanderMeer
Sheila Williams

Seems good.

ARTIST

WINNER: John Picacio

Brom
Rovina Cai
Kinuko Y. Craft
Julie Dillon
Bob Eggleton
Abigail Larson
Charles Vess
Michael Whelan
Alyssa Winans

Good old Picacio. I didn't recognize Eggleton by name but apparently he was a Hugo ballot mainstay from like 1988 through 2012. SF art awards once again so conservative, sigh.

NON-FICTION

WINNER: Space Crone, Ursula K. Le Guin (Silver)

The Fiction Writer’s Guide to Alternate History, Jack Dann (Bloomsbury Academic)
42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams, Kevin Jon Davies, ed. (Unbound UK)
Wish I Was Here: An Anti-Memoir, M. John Harrison (Serpent’s Tail; Saga 2024)
All These Worlds, Niall Harrison (Briardene)
101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, Sadie Hartmann (Page Street Publishing)
Ex Marginalia: Essays on Writing Speculative Fiction by Persons of Color, Chinelo Onwualu, ed. (Hydra House)
A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller, Maureen Kincaid Speller (Luna Press Publishing)
Owning the Unknown: A Science Fiction Writer Explores Atheism, Agnosticism, and the Idea of God, Robert Charles Wilson (Pitchstone)
Being Michael Swanwick, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Fairwood)

I love Le Guin! But speaking of conservative. I would rather see awards like this go to someone writing now rather than new collections of old work.

ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK

WINNER: The Culture: The Drawings, Iain M. Banks (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Home to Stay! The Complete Ray Bradbury EC Stories, Ray Bradbury, adapted by Al Feldstein, art by Jack Davis, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Wallace Wood, et al. (Fantagraphics)
The Pen & Ink Drawings of Tony DiTerlizzi, Tony DiTerlizzi (self-published)
Spectrum Fantastic Art Quarterly, Volume Three, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Spectrum Fantastic Art)
The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta, Dian Hanson, ed., art by Frank Frazetta (Taschen)
The Last Count of Monte Cristo, Ayize Jama-Everett, art by Tristan Roach (Megascope)
Voyaging, Volume One: The Plague Star, George R.R. Martin, art and adaptation by Raya Golden (Ten Speed Graphic)
Thalamus, Volumes 1 & 2: The Art of Dave McKean, Dave McKean (Dark Horse)
Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s, Adam Rowe (Abrams)
Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, Kevin M. Strait & Kinshasha Holman Conwill, eds. (Smithsonian)

SPECIAL AWARD 2024: Fostering Excellence in Craft & Career

Jeanne Cavelos and the Odyssey Writing Workshop

Comments

[glynhogen]

Eggleton is himself also conservative, IIRC, for all that implies about an older white dude.

The Locus Awards are not terribly adventurous, as reflected by the fact that Neil Clarke's win is a major upset.

[psocoptera]

Oh, really? Who was favored to win?

[glynhogen]

Given that Dozois and Hartwell are dead, I'd say the smart money was on Datlow. https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/award_category.cgi?342+0

[psocoptera]

Oh, wow, I did not realize it was that static. Dang.

[glynhogen]

But hey, Clarke has the distinction of a) winning, b) while being neither Dozois nor Datlow, and c) not having to literally die to top the list.

(Without digging into poll responsiveness, I assume the voting results just reflect a lot of folks reading anthologies for their short fiction. My feelings are very much both "vote for what you liked" and "popular awards won't reflect the breadth of genre publishing.")