2018 Locus Award Nominees

Location: Seattle, Washington.

Comments: The 2018 Locus Award winners are a catalog of the highlights of speculative fiction for the year. Jemisin's closing novel to her Broken Earth series, The Stone Sky, won Best Fantasy Novel, despite not really being a fantasy novel. Scalzi's opening salvo in his new series, The Collapsing Empire, won Best Science Fiction Novel, and Nnedi Okorafor took home Best Young Adult Novel. Up and down the ballot, high qualify speculative fiction works appear, demonstrating quite clearly just how great a period this is for science fiction and fantasy.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Winner:
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

Other Nominees:
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald
New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson
Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
Provenance by Ann Leckie
Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee
Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley
Walkaway by Cory Doctorow

Best Fantasy Novel
Winner:
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

Other Nominees:
City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett
The Delirium Brief by Charles Stross
Horizon by Fran Wilde
The House of Binding Thorns by Aliette de Bodard
Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley
Jade City by Fonda Lee
The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory
The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear

Best Horror Novel
Winner:
The Changeling by Victor LaValle

Other Nominees:
After the End of the World by Jonathan L. Howard
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
Food of the Gods by Cassandra Khaw
Ill Will by Dan Chaon
Mormama by Kit Reed
The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge
Red Snow by Ian R. MacLeod
Ubo by Steve Rasnic Tem
Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

Best Young Adult Book
Winner:

Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor

Other Nominees:
The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Buried Heart by Kate Elliott
Chalk by Paul Cornell
The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis
Frogkisser! by Garth Nix
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
Shadowhouse Fall by Daniel José Older
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
Tool of War by Paolo Bacigalupi

Best First Novel
Winner:

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss

Other Nominees:
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
Amatka by Karin Tidbeck
The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys

Best Novella
Winner:
All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Other Nominees:
Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan
And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker
Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

Best Novelette
Winner:

The Hermit of Houston by Samuel R. Delany

Other Nominees:
Children of Thorns, Children of Water by Aliette de Bodard
Come See the Living Dryad by Theodora Goss
Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee
The Hidden Girl by Ken Liu
The Lamentation of Their Women by Kai Ashante Wilson
The Mathematical Inevitability of Corvids by Seanan McGuire
Waiting on a Bright Moon by JY Yang
Wind Will Rove by Sarah Pinsker
The Worshipful Society of Glovers by Mary Robinette Kowal

Best Short Story
Winner:

The Martian Obelisk by Linda Nagata

Other Nominees:
Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim
Dear Sarah by Nancy Kress
Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue by Charlie Jane Anders
Fandom for Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Fire. by Elizabeth Hand
Persephone of the Crows by Karen Joy Fowler
Starlight Express by Michael Swanwick
Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience^TM by Rebecca Roanhorse
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S. Buckell

Best Collection
Winner:

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels and Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories by Naomi Kritzer
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
The Overneath by Peter S. Beagle
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente
Six Months, Three Days, Five Others by Charlie Jane Anders
Strange Weather by Joe Hill
Tender by Sofia Samatar
Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages

Best Anthology
Winner:

The Book of Swords edited by Gardner Dozois

Other Nominees:
The Best of Subterranean edited by William Schafer

The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eleven edited by Jonathan Strahan

Black Feathers edited by Ellen Datlow
Bookburners edited by Max Gladstone

Cosmic Powers edited by John Joseph Adams

The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin
Infinity Wars edited by Jonathan Strahan

Transcendent 2: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction edited by Bogi Takács

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois

Best Nonfiction, Related, or Reference Book
Winner:

Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler edited by Alexandra Pierce and Mimi Mondal

Other Nominees:
Don’t Live for Your Obituary by John Scalzi
Iain M. Banks by Paul Kincaid
The Invention of Angela Carter by Edmund Gordon
J.G. Ballard by D. Harlan Wilson
A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison by Nat Segaloff
Not So Good a Gay Man by Frank M. Robinson

In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1, 1957-1969 by Samuel R. Delany

Sleeping with Monsters: Readings and Reactions in Science Fiction and Fantasy by Liz Bourke

Star-Begotten: A Life Lived in Science Fiction by James Gunn

Best Art Book
Winner:

The Art of the Pulps: An Illustrated History edited by Douglas Ellis, Ed Hulse, and Robert Weinberg

Other Nominees:
Above the Timberline by Gregory Manchess
The Art of Magic: The Gathering: Kaladesh by James Wyatt
Celtic Faeries: The Secret Kingdom by Jean-Baptiste Monge
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, illustrated by Omar Rayyan
Line of Beauty: The Art of Wendy Pini by Richard Pini, illustrated by Wendy Pini

The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist by Craig Hodgetts, illustrated by Syd Mead

Norse Myths: Tales of Odin, Thor, and Loki by Kevin Crossley-Holland, illustrated by Jeffrey Alan Love

Spectrum 24: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art edited by John Fleskes
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Imaginarium by Paul Kidby

Best Editor
Winner:
Ellen Datlow

Other Nominees:
John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Gardner Dozois
C.C. Finlay
Jonathan Strahan
Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
Sheila Williams
Navah Wolfe

Best Magazine
Winner:
Tor.com

Other Nominees:
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Asimov’s Science Fiction
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Clarkesworld
Fantasy & Science Fiction
File 770
Lightspeed
Strange Horizons
Uncanny Magazine

Best Publisher or Imprint
Winner:
Tor

Other Nominees:
Angry Robot
Baen
DAW
Gollancz
Orbit
Saga
Small Beer
Subterranean
Tachyon

Best Artist
Winner:
Julie Dillon

Other Nominees:
Kinuko Y. Craft
Galen Dara
Bob Eggleton
Gregory Manchess
Victo Ngai
John Picacio
Shaun Tan
Charles Vess
Michael Whelan

Special Award 2018: Community Building and Inclusivity
Winner:
Clarion West

Go to previous year's nominees: 2017
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 2019

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