2014 Locus Recommended Reading List

Feb 062015
 

Congratulations to the DMLA authors who were named on Locus’ 2014 Recommended Reading List!

Novels – Science Fiction:

  • Lagoon, Nnedi Okorafor (Hodder; Saga 2015)

Novels – Fantasy:

  • Steles of the Sky, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
  • City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway; Jo Fletcher)

Young Adult Books:

  • Lockstep, Karl Schroeder (Tor)

Collections:

  • Last Plane to Heaven, Jay Lake (Tor)

Novelettes:

  • “Kheldyu”, Karl Schroeder (Reach for Infinity)
  • “Wine”, Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld 1/14)
  • “The Hand Is Quicker”, Elizabeth Bear (The Book of Silverberg)

Short Stories:

  • “The Contemporary Foxwife”, Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld 7/14)
  • “Combustion Hour”, Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com 6/18/14)
  • “West to East”, Jay Lake (Subterranean Summer ’14)
  • “Left Foot, Right”, Nalo Hopkinson (Monstrous Affections)
  • “Covenant”, Elizabeth Bear (Hieroglyph)
  • “This Chance Planet”, Elizabeth Bear (Tor.com 10/22/14)

Time Out NY Lists Genre-Bending Sci-Fi

Jan 212015
 

Cover for The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor. A silhouetted black woman stands arms outstretched, orange fiery wings eruption from her shoulders, a great fireball above her.Time Out New York listed Nnedi Okorafor’s The Book of the Phoenix as a great genre-bending book for new readers to science fiction and fantasy.

Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York’s Tower 7. She is an “accelerated woman”—only two years old but with the body and mind of an adult, Phoenix’s abilities far exceed those of a normal human. Still innocent and inexperienced in the ways of the world, she is content living in her room speed reading e-books, running on her treadmill, and basking in the love of Saeed, another biologically altered human of Tower 7.

Then one evening, Saeed witnesses something so terrible that he takes his own life. Devastated by his death and Tower 7’s refusal to answer her questions, Phoenix finally begins to realize that her home is really her prison, and she becomes desperate to escape.

But Phoenix’s escape, and her destruction of Tower 7, is just the beginning of her story. Before her story ends, Phoenix will travel from the United States to Africa and back, changing the entire course of humanity’s future.

io9’s Best SF/F Books of 2014

Jan 092015
 

Cover for Maplecroft by Cherie Priest. A woman's whose blond hair is in a proper Victorian updo has her back to us as she stands between two forebodingly lit marble columns. She is wearing a fancy blue Victorian dress. In her left hand, held slightly behind her, she holds a bloody ax.Congratulations to Cherie Priest on Maplecroft being included on io9’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2014 list!

Priest takes the legend of Lizzie Borden and her axe and combines it with H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, for a rip-roaring story about a woman who was secretly a monster-hunter. Priest does an amazing job of fusing the real-life historical details about Lizzie and combining them with monstrous imaginings. This is a page-turning thriller that will delight true-crime fans as well as lovers of weird fiction — and it will leave you craving more.

Sun Sentinel Best of 2014

Dec 222014
 

Kill Fee by Owen LaukkanenCongratulations to Owen Laukkanen on Kill Fee being named one of the Sun Sentinel’s Best Mystery Books of 2014!

The billionaire picked a heck of a way to die. On a beautiful Saturday in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, state investigator Kirk Stevens and FBI special agent Carla Windermere, witness the assassination of one of the state’s wealthiest men. The shooter is a young man, utterly unremarkable…except for the dead look in his eyes.

And it’s only the beginning. The events of that sunny springtime day will lead Stevens and Windermere across the country, down countless blind alleys, and finally to a very flourishing twenty-first century enterprise: a high-tech murder-for-hire social media website. But just who has the dead-eyed shooter targeted next…and who’s choosing his victims?

Tor.com Reviewers’ Choice 2014

Dec 192014
 

Cover for City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. A grey, hooded figure looms in a cloudy sky. Below him is a city at night, full of skyscrapers and lighted windows.Congratulations to Robert Jackson Bennett on City of Stairs being included on Tor.com’s Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2014!

“The other book is City of Stairs (SFF World review), which marks three years in a row for Robert Jackson Bennett to appear on my best of the year list. Set in the imagined city of Bulikov, the novel is the first Bennett has penned which does not take place in a version of our world (although the parallels and echoes are there), but rather a fully realized secondary world. Few writers’ have been able to make me think deeply about their work while also entertaining me as has Bennett. I loved the world-building in this novel and the characters, especially Shara and Sigurd. City of Stairs was an immensely enjoyable and powerful novel that will stay with me for a very long while.”

Parade’s Must-Reads of 2014

Dec 172014
 

cover for Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes. A bright teal background with the title in yellow handwriting. Across the bottom are a half dozen chairs, most of them yellow but one bright blue.At Parade, Lauren Oliver calls Andrea Portes’ Anatomy of a Misfit a must-read of 2014!

“It was a humbling year to be a YA writer. I was continuously amazed, inspired by, and driven to fits of existential jealousy by a huge quantity of incredibly structured, brilliantly written YA releases this year — but one that especially sticks with me is Andrea Portes’s Anatomy of a Misfit. It’s a strange, surprising, and completely engrossing book, and a must-read for any contemporary YA fan.”

Powell’s Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy 2014

Dec 162014
 

Cover for The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft by Leslie Klinger. White menacing tentacles surround the text on a black background.Congratulations to Les Klinger on The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft being named one of Powell’s Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books of 2014!

“With its gorgeous production, from the waving tentacles on the cover to the meticulous annotations, this one gets it just right. It would definitely make a stunning holiday gift. Not everything that Lovecraft wrote is here, but at 928 pages, there’s plenty to enjoy.”

School Library Journal Best Books of 2014

Dec 102014
 

Lockstep by Karl SchroederCongratulations to Karl Schroeder on Lockstep being named one of School Library Journal‘s Best Adult Books for Teens 2014!

When seventeen-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he’s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when Toby wakes again, he’s surprised to discover a thriving planet, a strange and prosperous galaxy, and something stranger still—that he’s been asleep for 14,000 years.
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NPR’s Best Books of 2014

Dec 092014
 

Cover for Valour and Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal. a white woman with brown curly hair in an up-do stands in the foreground in a Edwardian floral summer dress. behind her is a dark-haired and -goateed man in a white Edwardian suit, his outheld hand performing a glamour of fiery orange lights in the shape of a dragon. A medieval European church can be seen in the background.Congratulations to Mary Robinette Kowal on Valour and Vanity being named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2014!

Mary Robinette Kowal’s wonderful Glamourist series gets even better in this fourth volume: Jane and Vincent, the married “glamuralists” (muralists who use magic) at the center of the series, are on their way to Murano, Italy, when they’re caught in an elaborate fraud scheme. Without friends or resources, Jane and Vincent live under suspicion for months, until a chance encounter with their swindlers allows them to concoct a plan of their own.Valour and Vanity is a fun heist, driven by smart plotting, compelling magical and historical details, and a keen eye toward human strength and frailty.

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