The Locus Awards recognize excellence in science fiction and fantasy literature and works. The awards are presented to winners of the Locus magazine annual readers’ poll on June 21. The top ten finalists in each category were recently announced. These are the ones in the Science Fiction Novel category that I’ve got my eye on. I’ll have to cover the other categories in separates posts because there are so many good ones to gush about!
Science Fiction Novel
My Pick for Winner:
The Mercy of the Gods, James S.A. Corey is my pick to win. I absolutely love The Expanse and this book already has rave reviews. I can’t wait to read it.
Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure.
Shows Promise/TBR Additions:
Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky sounds awesome. I’m a big fan of the sci-fi/horror combo and this checks all the boxes for a creepy alien dystopian horror ride.
Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies.
Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first.
Absolution, Jeff Vandermeer is also at the top of my list. I’ve been meaning to read something by him for a long time. I need to remedy that and might start with the Annihilation series.
Absolution opens decades before Area X forms. Many years later, the Forgotten Coast files wind up in the hands of a washed-up Central operative known as Old Jim. He starts pulling a thread that reveals a long and troubling record of government agents meddling with forces they clearly cannot comprehend. Soon, Old Jim is back out in the field, grappling with personal demons and now partnered with an unproven young agent, the two of them tasked with solving what may be an unsolvable mystery. With every turn, the stakes get higher: Central agents are being liquidated by an unknown rogue entity and Old Jim’s life is on the line.
Already Introduced:
Last month I checked out Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente (Space Oddity, book 2 in the series is nominated) and struggled to get into the writing style. I may try it on audio at some point because I still love the premise.
The Metagalactic Grand Prix—part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past returns and the fate of the Earth is once again threatened. The civilizations opposed to humanity have been plotting and want to take down the upstarts.
My husband recently listened to the audio of Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky and said that it was just okay. I’m interested in Tschaikovsky’s other novels more than this one.
Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.
Do you read science fiction? Should I suggest some cozy science fiction novels in the future?
