2020 Locus recommended list is out

[Oleksandr]

https://locusmag.com/2021/02/2020-loc...

[Silvana]

Glad that Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora gets a lot of mention.

Can't believe they missed The Burning God and The Stone Wētā.

I can't wait to read the free novelettes and short stories!

[Kristenelle]

Their categorization of some of these titles is different... Harrow is under fantasy...which I actually agree it is more fantasy than scifi. And Tender is the Flesh is under scifi rather than horror. I completely disagree with that one. You could call it speculative fiction, but I wouldn't choose scifi over horror. It is definitely horror.

[Oleksandr]

Silvana wrote: "Glad that Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora gets a lot of mention.."

Yes, a nice change

Silvana wrote: "Can't believe they missed The Burning God and The Stone Wētā."

Actually, in previous years usually a few novellas reached H/N nominations that were not in the Locus list

Silvana wrote: "I can't wait to read the free novelettes and short stories!"

If interested, we can split short stories among us (you, me plus maybe a few more members) to read all select the best

[Silvana]

Sounds good. I have my to-read picks already for novelettes which include anything Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Uncanny, The Book of Dragons, and of course the Tor.com ones from Charlie Jane Anders and Usman Malik,

The novelettes I already read and recommend would be:
“Convergence in Chorus Architecture”, Dare Segun Falowo (Dominion)
“How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar“, Rich Larson (Tor.com 01/15/20)
“Lone Puppeteer of a Sleeping City“, Arula Ratnakar (Clarkesworld 9/20)

Not sure about the short stories, I often forget the titles so I'll focus on them next month.

ETA: I did recall I read A Guide for Working Breed and Little Free Library (they were cute but maybe not award material).

[Oleksandr]

Silvana wrote: "The novelettes I already read and recommend would be:
“How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar“, Rich Larson (Tor.com 01/15/20)"

Read this one, liked it.

[Eva]

Some of these are new to me and interesting. But where is Rhythm of War??

[Kalin]

Tchaikovsky is also missing.

[Gabi]

Kalin wrote: "Tchaikovsky is also missing."

Yup, I was so dissappointed when I saw this.

[Oleksandr]

Eva wrote: "Some of these are new to me and interesting. But where is Rhythm of War??"

This is a perfect case about comparatilized fandoms :) If you look here on GR, Sanderson is in top-10 fantasy authors by ratings, but he was last time in Hugo list with finishing the Wheel of Time I guess (have to check)

Kalin wrote: "Tchaikovsky is also missing."

This unpleasantly surprised me, but after all he was absent from 2019 and 2018 lists as well even despite several other British authors were present

[Kristenelle]

Oleksandr wrote: "Kalin wrote: "Tchaikovsky is also missing."

This unpleasantly surprised me, but after all he was absent from 2019 and 2018 lists as well even despite several other British authors were present."

I suspect Tchaikovsky is not getting as much attention as you'd like because he isn't published in the US. I'm a patron of the Boston Public Library (so a big, major library) and they only, very recently acquired The Doors of Eden....like, when it was botm not that long ago I had to buy it because it wasn't at the library at all. And they still don't have Cage of Souls. I guess US libraries are less likely to acquire books published outside the US. My library still doesn't have The Stone Wētā either, for instance. So I wonder if a lot of people in the US just never get around to Adrian Tchaikovsky books because they are less available.

But also, I wasn't able to get into The Doors of Eden. Don't hate me. 😅

[Gabi]

"The Doors of Eden" is published in the US by Orbit - so that's no excuse :D

[Kristenelle]

Gabi wrote: ""The Doors of Eden" is published in the US by Orbit - so that's no excuse :D"

Hmm, I wonder why my library is snubbing Tchaikovsky then. 🧐

[Gabi]

Kristenelle wrote: "Gabi wrote: ""The Doors of Eden" is published in the US by Orbit - so that's no excuse :D"

Hmm, I wonder why my library is snubbing Tchaikovsky then. 🧐"

No taste? 😂🤣

[Antti]

Kristenelle wrote: "But also, I wasn't able to get into The Doors of Eden."

I vote we instantly throw this heretic out of our fine group and never mention this incident again.

(😉)

[Kristenelle]

lol 🤪

[Antti]

But seriously speaking, I'm actually kind of relieved someone in our group didn't fawn over Doors of Eden. I really appreciate how we have such a diversity of viewpoints, and every book always has some people who really like it and others who find it lacking. But DoE had such a unanimous chorus of praise and love I was starting to get a wee bit worried we were falling victim to groupthink.

[Kristenelle]

Antti wrote: "But seriously speaking, I'm actually kind of relieved someone in our group didn't fawn over Doors of Eden. I really appreciate how we have such a diversity of viewpoints, and every book always has ..."

Haha, happy to be the voice of dissent. I still haven't read the spoiler thread because I'm still "reading" the book. I'm about maybe 30% now? It just isn't hooking me and I'm finding it kind of slow. I find Julian very boring. I'd rather be following the girl who ended up in the parallel world. I probably just need to sit down and really focus and read a good chunk all at once. Maybe that would get me into it. But until then I continue to pick away at it here and there. I do plan on eventually finishing it.

[Oleksandr]

Antti wrote: "But DoE had such a unanimous chorus of praise and love I was starting to get a wee bit worried we were falling victim to groupthink.."

For me DoE was quite good, esp. its inserts with species before each chapter, but if I'd had to choose I say Children of Time was better. It just says more about the current SF that Adrian Tchaikovsky stably delivers good solid stuff. Or at least I'm too old and stuck i the past with what I consider good SF

[Gabi]

Nope, I don't think you are stuck in the past. That is something I realised when I came back to reading SF a few years ago. Nowadays it is harder to find books that tackle interesting SF ideas. I have the feeling most are just a vehicle for social commentary, but the science in fiction isn't so prevalent as it was in the 80ies/90ies when I had my first SF reading boost. That's why AT stood so positively out of the mould for me.

[Oleksandr]

re: Tchaikovsky and possible other people and works missing from Locus list. Note that you can register and vote, including write-ins and with total number of votes about 2000 last year IIRC, with a honest effort we may have a chance to put him on ballot. Deadline for voting is April 15th, and here you can register
http://poll.voting.locusmag.com/

[Oleksandr]

It wasn't only me, who spotted absolute absence of pro-magazines like Analog from this year Locus list: https://www.facebook.com/dave.truesda...

[Gabi]

Do the pro magazines have another kind of short stories? Oleksandr, you are reading Analog, don't you?

While reading through the free short stories I'm missing the 'good old' ones with a twist, where I'm flashed at the end, thinking 'I didn't see that coming'. There are very few which impress me in any way. Most are nice, but not more than that.

[Oleksandr]

Gabi wrote: "Do the pro magazines have another kind of short stories? Oleksandr, you are reading Analog, don't you?."

I'd say the quality of Analog stories varies, just like with online publications like Clarkesworld, but it has more technical/educational stories which are very weak as fiction but have ideas based on real science. Just an example: The Mad Cabbage short story by Céline Malgenb is an old style invention SF, this time in the lab an extreme acidophile bacteria (pH 1) are developed in cabbage because one colleague decided to make fan of another. He author works with such bacteria.

[MH]

I expect the pro magazines aren't on the lists because they're far less accessible than outlets which can be read for free on the web.

(I thought about subscribing to Asimov's this year, but was put off by Amazon and the alternative apps. And from the way nomination lists go, it seems like a lot of people are finding them too much hassle to be bothered with)

[Oleksandr]

MH wrote: "I expect the pro magazines aren't on the lists because they're far less accessible than outlets which can be read for free on the web."

There is a list of people, who supplied works for the lists and among them a few Locus reviewers and the latter review pro-magazines as well. Also IIRC the highest subscription numbers are for Analog and it is over 20000, so a few of them also may support a story or two

[Kristenelle]

Oleksandr wrote: "re: Tchaikovsky and possible other people and works missing from Locus list. Note that you can register and vote, including write-ins and with total number of votes about 2000 last year IIRC, with ..."

I just voted! I was surprised that I was allowed to vote and not be a subscriber, but they seem to welcome as many votes as possible. Subscriber votes do count double which seems fair. I ended up writing in a bunch.

[Oleksandr]

Kristenelle wrote: "I just voted! "

Great! Remember that you can change/update your vote before the deadline, if anything worthy comes to your attention