Locus Awards Finalists

Locus Awards Finalists
Voting in this year's Locus Poll and Survey has closed.
Here are the finalists in each category.
Winners will be announced in June at the Locus Awards Ceremony in Seattle, June 16th, during the Science Fiction Museum's Hall of Fame weekend.
Finalists are listed alphabetically by title, then by nominee.
You can purchase tickets in advance to attend the Locus Awards ceremony -- use this form.

Best Science Fiction Novel
Blindsight, Peter Watts (Tor)
Carnival, Elizabeth Bear (Bantam Spectra)
Farthing, Jo Walton (Tor)
Glasshouse, Charles Stross (Orbit; Ace)
Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge (Tor)

Best Fantasy Novel
The Jennifer Morgue, Charles Stross (Golden Gryphon Press; Ace)
The Last Witchfinder, James Morrow (Morrow)
The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Bantam Spectra)
Soldier of Sidon, Gene Wolfe (Tor)
Three Days to Never, Tim Powers (Subterranean Press; Morrow)

Best First Novel
Crystal Rain, Tobias S. Buckell (Tor)
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, Gordon Dahlquist (Bantam; Viking UK)
The Green Glass Sea, Ellen Klages (Viking)
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch (Gollancz; Bantam Spectra)
Temeraire: His Majesty's Dragon/Throne of Jade/Black Powder, Naomi Novik (Del Rey; Voyager); as Temeraire: In the Service of the King (SFBC)

Best Young Adult Book
The Keys to the Kingdom: Sir Thursday, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin; The Chicken House)
Magic Lessons, Justine Larbalestier (Penguin/Razorbill)
Spirits That Walk in Shadow, Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Viking)
Voices, Ursula K. Le Guin (Orion Children's; Harcourt)
Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; HarperTempest)

Best Novella
"Botch Town", Jeffrey Ford (The Empire of Ice Cream)
"Lord Weary's Empire", Michael Swanwick (Asimov's 12/06)
"Map of Dreams", M. Rickert (Map of Dreams)
"The Mars Girl", Joe Haldeman (Escape from Earth)
"Missile Gap", Charles Stross (One Million A.D.)

Best Novelette
"I, Row-Boat", Cory Doctorow (Flurb 1, Fall '06)
"The Night Whiskey", Jeffrey Ford (Salon Fantastique)
"Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)", Geoff Ryman (F&SF 10-11/06)
"The Singularity Needs Women!", Paul Di Filippo (Forbidden Planets [Crowther])
"When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth", Cory Doctorow (Baen's Universe 8/06)

Best Short Story
"How to Talk to Girls at Parties", Neil Gaiman (Fragile Things)
"In the Abyss of Time", Stephen Baxter (Asimov's 8/06)
"Nano Comes to Clifford Falls", Nancy Kress (Asimov's 7/06)
"Sob in the Silence", Gene Wolfe (Strange Birds)
"Tin Marsh", Michael Swanwick (Asimov's 8/06)

Best Magazine
Analog
Asimov's
Interzone
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Strange Horizons

Best Publisher
Baen
Del Rey
Night Shade Books
Subterranean Press
Tor

Best Anthology
One Million A.D., Gardner Dozois, ed. (SFBC)
Salon Fantastique, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Thunder's Mouth Press)
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Nineteenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's)
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's)
Year's Best SF 11, David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Eos)

Best Collection
The Best of Philip José Farmer, Philip José Farmer (Subterranean Press)
The Empire of Ice Cream, Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon Press)
Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review)
Galactic North, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)

Best Editor
Jim Baen
Ellen Datlow
Gardner Dozois
David G. Hartwell
Gordon Van Gelder

Best Artist
Bob Eggleton
Donato Giancola
John Picacio
Charles Vess
Michael Whelan

Best Non-Fiction
About Writing, Samuel R. Delany (Wesleyan University Press)
Blood & Thunder: The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard, Mark Finn (MonkeyBrain Books)
The Darkening Garden: A Short Lexicon of Horror, John Clute (Payseur & Schmidt)
James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, Julie Phillips (St. Martin's)
Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe, Win Scott Eckert (MonkeyBrain Books)

Best Art Book
Cathy & Arnie Fenner, eds. Spectrum 13: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art(Underwood)
Edward Gorey, Amphigorey Again (Harcourt)
John Jude Palencar, Origins (Underwood Books)
John Picacio, Cover Story (MonkeyBrain Books)
Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell, The Fabulous Women of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell (HarperCollins/Collins Design)


The locus award is like the peoples choice awards, less prestigious than the Oscars or Hugos, but its voted on by the public at large.

I'd have liked to see a few more of my choices on there. Infoquake for best Sci-Fi, Lies of Locke Lamora for best Fantasy, Pyr for publisher. I mean really Baen? Sure they did Tuff Voyaging and the Vorksagian books, but when your horse these days is John Ringo? No accounting for taste I suppose.

The Blade Itself

Publisher : Gollancz
432 pages
ISBN-10: 0575077859
ISBN-13: 978-0575077850
£18.99
4 May 2006


I don't often order books from overseas, but I made an exception for Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. Buzz surrounding this fantasy novel was quite good, and I decided I couldn't wait for the Pyr release this fall, and ordered the Gollancz edition.

This is the first novel in the The First Law series. I'm not aware how many volumes are planned but Volume 2, Before They are Hanged was recently released in the UK. Anyway I'd heard a lot of comparisons between this novel and Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora, which I absolutely loved, and after reading it I can see why they were made. Both are lighter novels, and they rely on pithy dialogue to support the action. The Blade Itself is definitely an introductory chapter to something larger. In this first installment we are introduced to the main characters, the barbarian northman Logen Ninefingers, the bitter crippled Inquisitor Sand dan Glokta, the brash young nobleman, Captain Jezal dan Luthar, the feral ex-slave Ferro Maljinn, and finally the mysterious wizard out of legend, First Magi Bayaz. Well, its not the most original cast of characters, quite of few standards of the genre there as a matter of fact.

So lets move on to the world of the The First Law. Most of the story take place in Adua, capital of The Union, a confederacy centered around The Midderlands and which includes in its colonies, Angland in the North and Dagoska in the South. The Union must deal with a threat to Angland from Bethod and his barbarian horde. On top of this, the violent Gurkish threaten Dagoska in the south. Seems The Union is in quite the pinch. The king is old and senile, his heir is a flamboyant layabout, and his council is busy fighting each other. Luckily Bayaz, the power behind the first king Harald centuries ago, has shown up to save the Union, if that is ,he can convince the council he is who he claims.

So the world is a pretty typical fantasy setting, the plot is standard, and the characters cliche. Sounds like a mess huh? Well it could be. But Abercrombie take all these standard ingredients and weaves them into a fun exciting yarn. Glokta is a great character. I envision him as Hugh Laurie's House character. House MD has the same plot every week, yet it never fails to entertain. Sometimes the common place and familiar can be very good, comfortable can be welcome. The Blade Itself, is comfortable, and its good. Not every novel needs to be groundbreakingly original, Sometimes it can just be some well done standard fare. Mr. Abercrombie won't be winning any Hugo awards with this debut, but what he is doing is winning a lot of fans with this entertaining tale.

7.5 out of 10

Buy this book at

Amazon UK
or
The Book Depository