Locus Award Nominees

It’s been brought to my attention that my novel One for Sorrow has made it onto the list of finalists for Best First Novel in the Locus Awards this year (thanks Rick and John!). Very excited, of course, especially to be named among that list of other first-time novelists. Congratulations to everyone in all the categories.

Locus Awards Finalists

Voting in this year’s Locus Poll and Survey has closed. Winners will be announced in June at the Locus Awards Ceremony in Seattle, June 21st.

Here are the finalists — the top five ranking items — in each category, listed here alphabetically by title, then by nominee.

SF NOVEL: The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman (Ace); Brasyl, Ian McDonald (Pyr); Halting State, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK); Spook Country, William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK); The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)

FANTASY NOVEL: Endless Things, John Crowley (Small Beer Press; Overlook); Making Money, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; HarperCollins); Pirate Freedom, Gene Wolfe (Tor); Territory, Emma Bull (Tor); Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada; Roc)

YOUNG ADULT BOOK: Extras, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK); The H-Bomb Girl, Stephen Baxter (Faber & Faber); Magic’s Child, Justine Larbalestier (Razorbill); Powers, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt; Gollancz); Un Lun Dun, China Miéville (Ballantine Del Rey; Macmillan UK)

FIRST NOVEL: City of Bones, Cassandra Clare (Simon & Schuster/McElderry); Flora Segunda, Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt); Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz); The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (DAW; Gollancz); One for Sorrow, Christopher Barzak (Bantam Spectra)

NOVELLA: “After the Siege”, Cory Doctorow (The Infinite Matrix Jan 2007); “All Seated on the Ground”, Connie Willis (Asimov’s Dec 2007); “Memorare”, Gene Wolfe (F&SF Apr 2007); “Muse of Fire”, Dan Simmons (The New Space Opera); “Stars Seen through Stone”, Lucius Shepard (F&SF Jul 2007)

NOVELETTE: “Dark Integers”, Greg Egan (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2007); “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate”, Ted Chiang (F&SF Sep 2007); “Trunk and Disorderly”, Charles Stross (Asimov’s Jan 2007); “We Never Talk About My Brother”, Peter S. Beagle (Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show Jun 2007); “The Witch’s Headstone”, Neil Gaiman (Wizards)

SHORT STORY: “The Last and Only, or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French”, Peter S. Beagle (Eclipse One); “Last Contact”, Stephen Baxter (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction); “A Small Room in Koboldtown”, Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s Apr/May 2007); “Tideline”, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Apr/May 2007); “Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?”, Ken MacLeod (The New Space Opera)

COLLECTION: The Dog Said Bow-Wow, Michael Swanwick (Tachyon); The Jack Vance Treasury, Jack Vance (Subterranean); Overclocked, Cory Doctorow (Thunder’s Mouth); Things Will Never Be the Same, Howard Waldrop (Old Earth); The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories, Connie Willis (Subterranean)

ANTHOLOGY: The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, eds. (Ballantine Del Rey); The Coyote Road, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Viking); The New Space Opera, Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan, eds. (Eos); The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, ed. (St. Martin’s); The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s)

NON-FICTION: Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Jeff Prucher, ed. (Oxford University Press); Breakfast in the Ruins, Barry N. Malzberg (Baen); The Country You Have Never Seen, Joanna Russ (Liverpool University Press); Gateways to Forever: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1970 to 1980, Mike Ashley (Liverpool University Press); Shadows of the New Sun: Wolfe on Writing/Writers on Wolfe, Peter Wright (Liverpool University Press)

ART BOOK: The Arrival, Shaun Tan (Lothian 2006; Scholastic); Dreamscape: The Best of Imaginary Realism, Claus Brusen & Marcel Salome, eds. (SalBru); Emshwiller: Infinity x Two, Luis Ortiz, ed. (Nonstop Press); Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art, compiled by Sebastian Peake & Alison Eldred, edited by G. Peter Winnington (Peter Owen); Spectrum 14: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood)

EDITOR: Ellen Datlow; Gardner Dozois; David G. Hartwell; Patrick Nielsen Hayden; Gordon Van Gelder

MAGAZINE: Analog; Asimov’s; F&SF; Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet; Subterranean

PUBLISHER: Baen; Bantam Spectra; Night Shade Books; Subterranean Press; Tor

ARTIST: Stephan Martiniere; John Picacio; Shaun Tan; Charles Vess; Michael Whelan

Posted

April 24, 2008

Awards, Books, Happiness, Magazines, One for Sorrow, SF

Christopher Barzak

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Comments

12 responses to “Locus Award Nominees”

rob hawkins

April 24, 2008

hey! congratulations! Good luck!

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ebear

April 24, 2008

CONGRATS!

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Christopher Barzak

April 24, 2008

Thanks Rob and congrats to you too, Bear!

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Tyler

April 25, 2008

and the hits just keep on coming. Congrats!

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fivehusbands

April 25, 2008

Chris – congratulations (again!)
Good luck.

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Christopher Barzak

April 25, 2008

Thanks, Tyler, thanks, Judy!

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Cliff Burns

April 25, 2008

Way to go, kid! Congrats on making the shortlist.

Amazing how the same five or six editors get nominated over and over again–and depressing too. These folks have been the gate-keepers too long and part of the problem why, in my view, the genre hasn’t stretched the envelope as much as it could. And it’s not like we’re talking about Maxwell Perkins-quality folk, if ya know what I mean. As I’ve pointed out in another context, the editorship of BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES is rotated year by year but the big SF anthos have the same people with the same biases (and personal fiefdoms, made up of who they like and don’t like). It’s a ridiculous situation. Why have a “Best Editor” category at all? Who cares? They should be like referees at a sporting event–no one even knows their names. “Best publisher”? Is that who rips off their writers the most…or least?

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Christopher Barzak

April 25, 2008

Thanks, Cliff! It’s often the same editors who get nominated each year, but it *is* a small publishing industry really, and there aren’t many freelance editors of short fiction magazines left because the readership of sf short stories seems to be dwindling, or at least moving from print magazines to online venues and anthologies. If you haven’t heard, too, there’s a new Best American Fantasy series out there, edited by Matt Cheney but with a guest editor each year, modeled after the Best American Short Stories series. I think there’s a “Best Editor” category to recognize editors who consistently find and bring to publication stories and novels that are both quality fiction and pleasurable for readers. A lot of the editors in publishing houses are “invisible” compared to the freelance editors of Year’s Bests and anthologists and magazine editors, and I think that’s largely because novels often don’t list who edited them (though you may find that out by reading an author’s thanks to their editor in the acknowledgments page of a book). With the “Best Publisher” category, I think it might be silly in the context of general literature because there are so many of them, and so many that bring out scads of good books each year, so it would be harder to quantify and evaluate. But again, the sf world of publishing is much smaller, so it makes this easier, or perhaps it makes the belief that this can be evaluated easier to believe in. Maybe? Just some thoughts. What I think is good about awards is that they hopefully point readers to a list of books and stories that a lot of people (in the case of the Locus Awards, since it’s voted on by lots of people) really enjoyed/appreciated etc. I’ll be reading stuff on this list I hadn’t come across on my own for a while probably.

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Cliff Burns

April 25, 2008

Well you know my views, Christopher–based on my experiences, the only good editor is one who keeps their head down and their mouth SHUT. Ditto agents. I’ve read where some agents pitch ideas to their clients. I’d stove in the head of any rep brazen enough to attempt such insolence. “Vampire novels are hot right now, can’t you write a vampire novel?” Christ…

The main thing for awards is to draw attention to writers and, God knows, we need all the help we can get. I often scratch my head when authors give special mention to editors–how much work did that editor DO on the manuscript? If it was enough to warrant a mention, it makes me wonder what the hell was wrong with the manuscript and why the writer wasn’t good enough, smart enough, insightful enough to do the revision themselves. An editor, in my world, is a spell-checker, someone who points out I used “obsequious” on two pages in a row. No input on style, characterization, structure…that’s my department. When I finish a manuscript (after two or three years of hard slogging) it’s DONE, except for the aforementioned spell-checking. Writing is NOT a collaborative activity, it’s a lone author going head to head with a project until he’s got it whupped.

Good luck with the LOCUS awards–couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. AndI know you worked like hell to get where you are. Write on, bro…

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Christopher Barzak

April 26, 2008

LOL, well we’ve certainly had different experiences with editors. Mine is a gem, but I do understand not every writer has had my good fortune! Thanks again, Cliff!

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lucy

April 26, 2008

It’s a couple of days late, but congratulations!

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Jaci Clark

April 27, 2008

YAY! Huge congrats! That’s so exciting!

Cheers,
Jaci

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