2020 Locus Recommended Reading List (original) (raw)

Welcome to the annual Locus Recommended Reading List!

Published in Locus magazine’s February 2021 issue, the list is a consensus by the Locus editors, columnists, outside reviewers, and other professionals and critics of genre fiction and non-fiction — editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi; reviews editor Jonathan Strahan; Locus reviewers Liz Bourke, Alex Brown, Karen Burnham, Katharine Coldiron, Paul Di Filippo, Amy Goldschlager_,_ Paula Guran, Rich Horton, Maya James, John Langan, Russell Letson, Adrienne Martini, Ian Mond, Colleen Mondor, Tim Pratt, Elsa Sjunneson, Gary K. Wolfe, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; Bob Blough; critics and authors Gwenda Bond, James Bradley, Niall Harrison, Paul Kincaid, Cheryl Morgan, Adam Roberts, and Graham Sleight. Art books were compiled with help from Arnie Fenner, Karen Haber, and senior editor Francesca Myman. Short fiction recommendations had input from editors and reviewers Rachel S. Cordasco, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Vanessa Fogg, Maria Haskins, Charles Payseur, Nisi Shawl, TG Shenoy, Sheree Renée Thomas, Sean Wallace, and Alison Wise, plus our own reviewers. Locus thanks all involved for their time and their expertise. Essays by many of these contributors, highlighting and discussing their particular favorite books and stories, are also published in the February issue, along with the Magazine Summary and Book Summary for 2020.

We looked at over 900 titles between short and long fiction. The final list comprises our best recommendations for your consideration. There will be titles you loved that do not appear here; any one of the recommending group would have built a distinct list, but this is the aggregate, compiled with great affection for the field.

You can let us know what your favorites were by voting in the 2021 Poll & Survey. The Poll decides the winners of the Locus Awards, presented in June 2021 at the Locus Awards Weekend, and is open to all to vote on. The Survey helps us be a better magazine. Thank you for participating!

NOVELS – SCIENCE FICTION

• Providence, Max Barry (Putnam; Hodder & Stoughton)
• Chosen Spirits, Samit Basu (Simon & Schuster India)
• Tender Is the Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica (Pushkin; Scribner)
• Machine, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
• Ghost Species, James Bradley (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Failed State, Christopher Brown (Harper Voyager US)
• The Book of Koli, M.R. Carey (Orbit US & UK)
• Bridge 108, Anne Charnock (47North)
• Attack Surface, Cory Doctorow (Tor; Ad Astra)
• City Under the Stars, Gardner Dozois & Michael Swanwick (Tordotcom)
• Unconquerable Sun, Kate Elliott (Tor)
• Agency, William Gibson (Berkley; Viking UK)
• Anthropocene Rag, Alex Irvine (Tordotcom)
• The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor; Solaris)
• The Eleventh Gate, Nancy Kress (Baen)
• The Arrest, Jonathan Lethem (Ecco; Atlantic UK)
• War of the Maps, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
• Pacific Storm, Linda Nagata (Mythic Island)
• Driving the Deep, Suzanne Palmer (DAW)
• The Evidence, Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
• Bone Silence, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Orbit US)
• The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US & UK)
• The Last Emperox, John Scalzi (Tor; Tor UK)
• Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
• Fleet Elements, Walter Jon Williams (Harper Voyager US)
• Interlibrary Loan, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

NOVELS – FANTASY

• The Trouble with Peace, Joe Abercrombie (Orbit US; Gollancz)
• The Angel of the Crows, Katherine Addison (Tor; Solaris)
• We Ride Upon Sticks, Quan Barry (Pantheon) [moved from YA]
• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK)
• The Book of Lamps and Banners, Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland)
• The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, M. John Harrison (Gollancz)
• The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit)
• The Harpy, Megan Hunter (Grove; Picador)
• The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US & UK)
• Trouble the Saints, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Tor)
• Phoenix Extravagant, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
• The Blade Between, Sam J. Miller (Ecco)
• A Children’s Bible, Lydia Millet (Norton)
• Utopia Avenue, David Mitchell (Random House; Sceptre)
• Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tordotcom)
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, Garth Nix (Tegen Books; Allen & Unwin; Gollancz)
• How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It, K.J. Parker (Orbit US & UK)
• Mordew, Alex Pheby (Galley Beggar; Tor 2021)
• Stormsong, C.L. Polk (Tordotcom)
• The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
• Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga; Solaris)
• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab (Tor; Titan UK)
• Creatures of Charm and Hunger, Molly Tanzer (John Joseph Adams)
• By Force Alone, Lavie Tidhar (Head of Zeus; Tor)
• Or What You Will, Jo Walton (Tor)
• Comet Weather, Liz Williams (NewCon)
• Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu (Pantheon)

NOVELS – HORROR

• Devolution, Max Brooks (Del Rey; Century)
• Plain Bad Heroines, Emily M. Danforth (Morrow)
• Empire of Wild, Cherie Dimaline (Random House Canada 2019; Morrow; Weidenfeld & Nicolson))
• Beowulf, Maria Dahvana Headley (MCD x FSG Originals)
• The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix (Quirk)
• Sisters, Daisy Johnson (Jonathan Cape; Riverhead)
• The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga; Titan)
• The Deep, Alma Katsu (Putnam; Bantam Press UK)
• The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher (Saga)
• Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
• The Hole, Hiroko Oyamada (New Directions)
• Catherine House, Elisabeth Thomas (Custom House; Tinder Press)
• Survivor Song, Paul Tremblay (Morrow; Titan)

YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

• Red Hood, Elana K. Arnold (Balzer + Bray)
• Over the Woodward Wall, A. Deborah Baker (Tordotcom)
• The Silvered Serpents, Roshani Chokshi (Wednesday)
• The Scapegracers, Hannah Abigail Clarke (Erewhon)
• Legendborn, Tracy Deonn (McElderry; Simon & Schuster UK)
• Deathless Divide, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray; Titan)
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
• Dark and Deepest Red, Anna-Marie McLemore (Feiwel and Friends)
• A Song Below Water, Bethany C. Morrow (Tor Teen)
• Burn, Patrick Ness (Walker UK; HarperTeen)
• Shadowshaper Legacy, Daniel José Older (Scholastic)
• The Faithless Hawk, Margaret Owen (Holt)
• Race to the Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Rick Riordan Presents)
• A Peculiar Peril, Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

FIRST NOVELS

• The Wall, Gautam Bhatia (HarperCollins India)
• Every Bone a Prayer, Ashley Blooms (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• The Twice-Drowned Saint, C.S.E. Cooney (A Sinister Quartet)
• The Year of the Witching, Alexis Henderson (Ace; Bantam Press UK)
• The Vanished Birds, Simon Jimenez (Del Rey; Titan)
• Vagabonds, Hao Jingfang (Saga; Head of Zeus)
• The Space Between Worlds, Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey; Hodder & Stoughton)
• Stonefish, Scott R. Jones (Word Horde)
• The Unspoken Name, A.K. Larkwood (Tor; Tor UK)
• Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• Beneath the Rising, Premee Mohamed (Solaris)
• Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Cho Nam-Joo (Scribner UK; Liveright)
• Architects of Memory, Karen Osborne (Tor)
• Eartheater, Dolores Reyes (HarperVia)
• Little Eyes, Samanta Schweblin (Oneworld; Riverhead)
• The Bone Shard Daughter, Andrea Stewart (Orbit US & UK)
• Star Daughter, Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)
• Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas (Swoon Reads)
• The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Candlewick; Walker UK)
• Hench, Natalie Zina Walschots (Morrow)
• Love and Other Thought Experiments, Sophie Ward (Corsair)

COLLECTIONS

• Aftermath of an Industrial Accident: Stories, Mike Allen (Mythic Delirium)
• The Road to Woop Woop, Eugen Bacon (Meerkat)
• The Best of Elizabeth Bear, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean)
• Thin Places, Kay Chronister (Undertow)
• Big Girl, Meg Elison (PM)
• The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, AJ Fitzwater (Queen of Swords)
• The Best of Jeffrey Ford, Jeffrey Ford (PS)
• Songs for Dark Seasons, Lisa L Hannett (Ticonderoga)
• Settling the World: Selected Stories 1970-2020, M. John Harrison (Comma)
• Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel, Julian K. Jarboe (Lethe)
• If It Bleeds, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
• Velocities, Kathe Koja (Meerkat)
• Analog/Virtual: And Other Simulations of Your Future, Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Hachette India)
• Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies, John Langan (Word Horde)
• The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu (Saga; Head of Zeus)
• We All Hear Stories in the Dark, Robert Shearman (PS)
• The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners & Other Stories, Angela Slatter (PS)
• The Best of Michael Marshall Smith, Michael Marshall Smith (Subterranean)
• The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean)
• Nine Bar Blues, Sheree Renée Thomas (Third Man)
• The Grand Tour, E. Catherine Tobler (Apex)
• Disease, Sarah Tolmie (Aqueduct)
• The Midnight Circus, Jane Yolen (Tachyon)

ANTHOLOGIES

• The Decameron Project, Anonymous, ed. (The New York Times)
• A Sinister Quartet, Mike Allen & C.S.E. Cooney & Amanda J. McGee & Jessica P. Wick, eds. (Mythic Delirium)
• A Phoenix First Must Burn, Patrice Caldwell, ed. (Viking; Hot Key)
• The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 5, Neil Clarke, ed. (Night Shade)
• That We May Live: Speculative Chinese Fiction, Sarah Coolidge, ed. (Two Lines)
• Edited By, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Subterranean)
• Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Anchor)
• The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Twelve, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade)
• The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020, Diana Gabaldon & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner)
• The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: Volume 1, Paula Guran, ed. (Pyr)
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2020, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime)
• Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Zelda Knight & Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald, eds. (Aurelia Leo)
• SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire, Nicole Givens Kurtz, ed. (Mocha Memoirs)
• Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Lee Murray & Geneve Flynn, eds. (Omninum Gatherum)
• Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World that Wouldn’t Die, dave ring, ed. (Neon Hemlock)
• Avatar अवतार: Indian Science Fiction, Tarun K. Saint & Francesco Verso, eds. (Future Science Fiction)
• Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 3, William Schafer, ed. (Subterranean)
• Made to Order, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)
• The Book of Dragons, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Harper Voyager UK; Harper Voyager US)
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction Vol. 1, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Saga)
• Africanfuturism, Wole Talabi, ed. (Brittle Paper)
• The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Vintage)
• Avatars Inc, Ann VanderMeer, ed. (Xprize)
• London Centric: Tales of Future London, Ian Whates, ed. (NewCon)
• Entanglements: Tomorrow’s Lovers, Families, and Friends, Sheila Williams, ed. (The MIT Press)

NON-FICTION

• Plants in Science Fiction: Speculative Vegetation, Katherine E. Bishop & David Higgins & Jerry Määttä, eds. (University of Wales Press)
• Beyond the Outposts: Essays on SF and Fantasy 1955-1996, Algis Budrys (Ansible)
• The Magic of Terry Pratchett, Marc Burrows (White Owl)
• Re-Enchanted: The Rise of Children’s Fantasy Literature in the Twentieth Century, Maria Sachiko Cecire (University of Minnesota Press)
• Inventing Tomorrow: H.G. Wells and the Twentieth Century, Sarah Cole (Columbia University Press)
• The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained, Colin Dickey (Viking)
• The Star Wars Archives: 1999–2005, Paul Duncan (Taschen)
• Bradbury Beyond Apollo, Jonathan R. Eller (University of Illinois Press)
• Weird Westerns: Race, Gender, Genre, Kerry Fine & Michael K. Johnson & Rebecca M. Lush & Sara L. Spurgeon, eds. (University of Nebraska Press)
• Beaming Up and Getting Off: Life Before and Beyond Star Trek, Walter Koenig (Jacobs/Brown)
• Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century, Isiah Lavender III & Lisa Yaszek, eds. (Ohio State University Press)
• Writer: Volume 4, Richard A. Lupoff (Surinam Turtle Press)
• Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach, Andrew Milner & J.R. Burgmann (Liverpool University Press)
• Horror Fiction in the 20th Century: Exploring Literature’s Most Chilling Genre, Jess Nevins (Praeger)
• The Earliest Bradbury, David Ritter & Daniel Ritter, eds. (First Fandom Experience)
• The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume One: The 1930’s, David Ritter & Daniel Ritter, eds. (First Fandom Experience)
• The Monster Theory Reader, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, ed. (University of Minnesota Press)

ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOKS

• Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, art by Brecht Evens (Beehive)
• The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions, Piers Bizony (Motorbooks)
• The Blazing World, Margaret Cavendish, art by Rebekka Dunlap (Beehive)
• The Dark Crystal Bestiary: The Definitive Guide to the Creatures of Thra, Adam Cesare, art by Iris Compiet (Insight Editions)
• The Art of Frank Cho: A Twenty-Year Retrospective, Frank Cho (Flesk)
• Spectrum 27: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Katherine Chu & John Fleskes, eds. (Flesk)
• Masterpieces of Fantasy Art, Dian Hanson (Taschen)
• Monstrous Tales: Stories of Strange Creatures and Fearsome Beasts from around the World, Sija Hong (Chronicle)
• Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration, Jesse Kowalski, ed. (Norman Rockwell Museum/Abbeville)
• The Hobbit Sketchbook, Alan Lee (HarperCollins UK 2019; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Leonardo 2, Stéphane Levallois (NBM/Louvre éditions)
• The Mountain of Smoke: A Jeffrey Alan Love Sketchbook, Jeffrey Alan Love (Flesk)
• A Storm of Swords: The Illustrated Edition, George R.R. Martin, art by Gary Gianni (Bantam)
• Beneath The Waves, Jon Schindehette, ed. (ArtOrder)
• Infected by Art: Volume 8, Todd Spoor & Bill Cox & Jon Schindehette, eds. (ArtOrder)
• Fantastic Paintings of Frazetta, J. David Spurlock, art by Frank Frazetta (Vanguard)
• The Return of Hyper Comics, Steve Stiles (Thintwhistle)
• Villarrte, Gary Villarreal (self-published)

NOVELLAS

• The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, Zen Cho (Tordotcom)
• Finna, Nino Cipri (Tordotcom)
• Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom)
• Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders, Aliette de Bodard (JABberwocky)
• Seven of Infinities, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
• “Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon”, Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald (Dominion)
• Dispersion, Greg Egan (Subterranean)
• Out of Body, Jeffrey Ford (Tordotcom)
• Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey (Tordotcom)
• Flyaway, Kathleen Jennings (Tordotcom)
• Night of the Mannequins, Stephen Graham Jones (Tordotcom)
• Sea Change, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
• The Four Profound Weaves, R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)
• Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
• Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom)
• Prosper’s Demon, K.J. Parker (Tordotcom)
• Yellow Jessamine, Caitlin Starling (Neon Hemlock)
• Drowned Country, Emily Tesh (Tordotcom)
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

NOVELETTES

• “The Bahrain Underground Bazaar”, Nadia Afifi (F&SF 11-12/20)
• “If You Take My Meaning“, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com 2/11/20)
• “Tunnels”, Eleanor Arnason (Asimov’s 5-6/20)
• “Lucky’s Dragon”, Kelly Barnhill (The Book of Dragons)
• “The Ordeal“, M. Bennardo (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/6/20)
• “Where the River Turns to Concrete”, Brooke Bolander (The Book of Dragons)
• “An Important Failure“, Rebecca Campbell (Clarkesworld 8/20)
• “The Inaccessibility of Heaven“, Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny 07-08/20)
• “The Satellite Charmer”, Mame Bougouma Diene (Dominion)
• “The Black-Eyed Goddess of Apple Trees and Farmer’s Wives“, Erin Eisenhour (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 7/16/20)
• “The Pill“, Meg Elison (Big Girl)
• “Convergence in Chorus Architecture”, Dare Segun Falowo (Dominion)
• “The Transition of Osoosi“, Ozzie M. Gartrell (Fiyah Winter ’20)
• “Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super“, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 05-06/20)
• “One Hand in the Coffin“, Justin C. Key (Strange Horizons 1/20/20)
• “How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar“, Rich Larson (Tor.com 01/15/20)
• “To Balance the Weight of Khalem“, R.B. Lemberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/26/20)
• “A Whisper of Blue”, Ken Liu (The Book of Dragons)
• “Lost in Darkness and Distance“, Clara Madrigano (Clarkesworld 11/20)
• “A City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat“, Usman T. Malik (Tor.com 10/21/20)
• “Folie à deux, or The Ticking Hourglass”, Usman T. Malik (Final Cuts)
• “How to Burn Down the Hinterlands”, Lyndsie Manusos (F&SF 11-12/20)
• “Yellow and the Perception of Reality“, Maureen McHugh (Tor.com 7/22/20)
• “A Mastery of German”, Marian Denise Moore (Dominion)
• “Real Animals“, Em North (Lightspeed 6/20)
• “Two Truths and a Lie“, Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
• “Girls with Needles and Frost“, Jenny Rae Rappaport (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 10/22/20)
• “Lone Puppeteer of a Sleeping City“, Arula Ratnakar (Clarkesworld 9/20)
• “The Little Witch“, M. Rickert (Tor.com 10/28/20)
• “As the Shore to the Tides, So Blood Calls to Blood“, Karlo Yeager Rodriguez (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 4/9/20)
• “Fairy Tales for Robots”, Sofia Samatar (Made to Order)
• “Head Static”, Sheree Renée Thomas (Nine Bar Blues)
• “Madame and the Map: A Journey in Five Movements”, Sheree Renée Thomas (Nine Bar Blues)
• “Color, Heat, and the Wreck of the Argo“, Catherynne M. Valente (Strange Horizons 9/7/20)
• “To Sail the Black“, A.C. Wise (Clarkesworld 11/20)
• “A Stick of Clay, in the Hands of God, is Infinite Potential“, JY Neon Yang (Clarkesworld 5/20)

SHORT STORIES

• “Hearts in the Hard Ground“, G.V. Anderson (Tor.com 9/9/20)
• “Glass Bottle Dancer“, Celeste Rita Baker (Lightspeed 4/20)
• “Sela, Thief“, Zabe Bent (Breathe Fiyah 10/19/20)
• “The Night Soil Salvagers“, Gregory Norman Bossert (Tor.com 6/24/20)
• “The Bone Stag Walks“, KT Bryski (Lightspeed 8/20)
• “Scar Tissue“, Tobias S. Buckell (Slate Future Tense 5/30/2020)
• “Otto Hahn Speaks to the Dead“, Octavia Cade (The Dark 4/20)
• “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse“, Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• “An Incomplete Account of the Case of the Bird-Talker of Yaros“, Eleanna Castroianni (Fireside 8/20)
• “Weaving in the Bamboo“, Eliza Chan (Translunar Travelers Lounge 8/20)
• “The Translator, at Low Tide“, Vajra Chandrasekera (Clarkesworld 5/20)
• “Forgive Me, My Love, for the Ice and the Sea“, C.L. Clark (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/30/20)
• “Call Them Children“, Wenmimareba Klobah Collins (The Dark 9/20)
• “In the Lands of the Spill“, Aliette de Bodard (Avatars Inc)
• “Dégustation“, Ashley Deng (Nightmare 6/20)
• “A Voyage to Queensthroat“, Anya Johanna DeNiro (Strange Horizons 8/10/20)
• “The Front Line“, WC Dunlap (Breathe Fiyah 10/19/20)
• “Dresses Like White Elephants“, Meg Elison (Uncanny 5-6/20)
• “Familiar Face“, Meg Elison (Nightmare 1/20)
• “Deep in the Drift, Spinning“, Lisa L. Hannett (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 9/10/20)
• “The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly“, Alix E. Harrow (Fireside 7/20)
• “The Sycamore and the Sybil“, Alix E. Harrow (Uncanny 3-4/20)
• “Six Dreams About the Train“, Maria Haskins (Flash Fiction Online 7/20)
• “The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods“, Maria Dahvana Headley (Tor.com 1/23/20)
• “Across the Ice“, Ada Hoffman (Strange Horizons 2/3/20)
• “The Cat Lady and the Petitioner“, Jennifer Hudak (Translunar Travelers Lounge 8/20)
• “Cycle of the eternal witness“, Adelehin Ijasan (Omenana 8/20)
• “Rat and Finch Are Friends“, Innocent Chizaram Ilo (Strange Horizons 3/2/20)
• “To Look Forward“, Osahon Ize-Iyamu (Fantasy 11/20)
• “Wait for Night“, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com 9/02/20)
• “And This is How to Stay Alive“, Shingai Njeri Kagunda (Fantasy 11/20)
• “Your Rover Is Here“, LP Kindred (Fiyah Spring 2020)
• “Little Free Library“, Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com 4/8/20)
• “The Mermaid Astronaut“, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/27/20)
• “Unlike Most Tides“, Darcie Little Badger (Drabblecast 5/3/20)
• “50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know“, Ken Liu (Uncanny 11-12/20)
• “Driving with Ghosts“, Clara Madrigano (The Dark #60, 5/20)
• “The Wandering City“, Usman T. Malik (Us in Flux 7/9/20)
• “Magnificent Maurice, or the Flowers of Immortality“, Rati Mehrotra (Lightspeed 11/2020)
• “Slipping the Leash“, Dan Micklethwaite (PodCastle 8/4/20)
• “Kiki Hernández Beats the Devil”, Samantha Mills (Translunar Travelers Lounge 2/20)
• “Note to Self“, Sunny Moraine (Lightspeed 9/20)
• “The Ruby of the Summer King“, Mari Ness (Uncanny 7-8/20)
• “Never a Butterfly, Nor a Moth with Moon-Painted Wings“, Aimee Ogden (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/26/20)
• “How to Pay Reparations: a Documentary“, Tochi Onyebuchi (Slate Future Tense 8/29/20)
• “The Beginning“, Radha Zutshi Opubor (Omenana 8/20)
• “Tara’s Mother’s Skin“, Suzan Palumbo (PseudoPod 8/21/20)
• “A Guide for Working Breeds”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order)
• “Body, Remember“, Nicasio Andres Reed (Fireside 11/20)
• “Mandragora“, Nibedita Sen (Fireside 3/20)
• “Heard, Half-Heard, in the Stillness“, Iona Datt Sharma (Anathema 8/20)
• “AirBody“, Sameem Siddiqui (Clarkesworld 4/20)
• “Monsters Never Leave You“, Carlie St. George (Strange Horizons 6/29/20)
• “Spider Season, Fire Season“, Carlie St. George (Nightmare 7/20)
• “We’re Here, We’re Here“, K.M. Szpara (Tor.com 6/10/20)
• “Tea with the Earl of Twilight“, Sonya Taaffe (Nightmare 9/20)
• “Portrait of a Pinup Boy at the End of the World“, Andrea Tang (Kaleidotrope Autumn 2020)
• “The Nine Scents of Sorrow“, Jordan Taylor (Uncanny 7-8/20)
• “Tiger of the New Moon“, Allison Thai (Anathema 8/20)
• “Georgie in the Sun“, Natalia Theodoridou (Uncanny 3-4/20)
• “Ancestries”, Sheree Renée Thomas (Nine Bar Blues)
• “The Mystical Art of Codeswitching“, Sydnee Thompson (Breathe Fiyah 10/19/20)
• “Thirty-Three“, Tade Thompson (Avatars Inc)
• “Juvenilia“, Lavie Tidhar (Uncanny 9-10/20)
• “High in the Clean Blue Air“, Emma Törzs (Uncanny 5-6/20)
• “My Country Is a Ghost“, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• “The River of Night“, Tlotlo Tsamaase (The Dark 11/20)
• “An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands“, Fran Wilde (Tor.com 4/22/20)
• “Open House on Haunted Hill“, John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)

This list appears in the February 2021 issue of Locus. Thank you for reporting any typos or broken links to locus@locusmag.com. Vote now for your favorites at the Locus Poll & Survey!

[Corrections: Mike Allen was listed as Mike Ashley incorrectly on The Sinister Quartet. We Ride Upon Sticks was moved from YA to Fantasy.]

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