This recommended reading list, published in Locus Magazine's February 2007 issue, is a consensus by Locus editors and reviewers -- Charles N. Brown, Gary K. Wolfe, Jonathan Strahan, Faren Miller, Russell Letson, Nick Gevers, Carolyn Cushman, Tim Pratt, Karen Haber, and Rich Horton -- and other professionals, including Gardner Dozois, David G. Hartwell, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, and others. It takes at least two positive mentions to make the final list. Essays by many of these contributors are published in the February issue.

SF novels

• Polity Agent, Neal Asher (Tor UK)
• The Armies of Memory, John Barnes (Tor)
• Emperor, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz; Ace)
• Carnival, Elizabeth Bear (Bantam Spectra)
• Idolon, Mark Budz (Bantam Spectra)
• Babylon, Richard Calder (PS Publishing)
• End of the World Blues, Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Gollancz; Bantam Spectra)
• Eifelheim, Michael Flynn (Tor)
• Nova Swing, M. John Harrison (Gollancz; Bantam)
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy (Knopf; Picador)
• Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon (Penguin; Cape)
• Keeping It Real, Justina Robson (Gollancz; Pyr)
• Horizons, Mary Rosenblum (Tor)
• Mathematicians in Love, Rudy Rucker (Tor)
• Sun of Suns, Karl Schroeder (Tor)
• The Clan Corporate, Charles Stross (Tor)
• Glasshouse, Charles Stross (Orbit; Ace)
• Matriarch, Karen Traviss (Eos)
• Rainbows End, Vernor Vinge (Tor)
• Farthing, Jo Walton (Tor)
• Blindsight, Peter Watts (Tor)

Fantasy novels

• The Thousandfold Thought, R. Scott Bakker (Penguin Canada; Overlook Press)
• The Brief History of the Dead, Kevin Brockmeier (Murray; Pantheon)
• Ilario, Mary Gentle (Gollancz; Eos - 2 vol)
• Forest Mage, Robin Hobb (Voyager; Eos)
• Majestrum, Matthew Hughes (Night Shade Books)
• The Blood Knight, Greg Keyes (Ballantine Del Rey; Tor UK)
• Lisey's Story, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Bantam Spectra)
• Trial of Flowers, Jay Lake (Night Shade Books)
• Solstice Wood, Patricia A. McKillip (Ace)
• The Virtu, Sarah Monette (Ace)
• The Vengeance of Rome, Michael Moorcock (Jonathan Cape)
• The Last Witchfinder, James Morrow (Morrow)
• The Tourmaline, Paul Park (Tor)
• Three Days to Never, Tim Powers (Subterranean Press; Morrow)
• The Jennifer Morgue, Charles Stross (Golden Gryphon Press; Ace)
• Shriek: An Afterword, Jeff VanderMeer (Tor UK; Tor)
• The Demon and the City, Liz Williams (Night Shade Books)
• Soldier of Sidon, Gene Wolfe (Tor)
• Fugitives of Chaos, John C. Wright (Tor)

First novels

• The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz; Pyr)
• A Shadow in Summer, Daniel Abraham (Tor)
• The Patron Saint of Plagues, Barth Anderson (Bantam Spectra)
• Crystal Rain, Tobias S. Buckell (Tor)
• Scar Night, Alan Campbell (Tor UK; Bantam Spectra)
• The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, Gordon Dahlquist (Bantam; Viking UK)
• The Stolen Child, Keith Donohue (Cape; Doubleday)
• The Green Glass Sea, Ellen Klages (Viking)
• The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch (Gollancz; Bantam Spectra)
• Temeraire: His Majesty's Dragon / Throne of Jade / Black Powder War (Del Rey; Voyager), as Temeraire: In the Service of the King (SFBC)
• The Burning Girl, Holly Phillips (Prime Books)
• Summer of the Apocalypse, James Van Pelt (Fairwood Press)

YA Books

• Spirits That Walk in Shadow, Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Viking)
• The Pinhoe Egg, Diana Wynne Jones (HarperCollins Children's Books UK; Greenwillow)
• Do the Creepy Thing, Graham Joyce (Faber and Faber)
• Magic Lessons, Justine Larbalestier (Penguin/Razorbill)
• Voices, Ursula K. Le Guin (Orion Children's; Harcourt)
• The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 4: Sir Thursday, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin; Scholastic)
• Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; HarperTempest)
• A Darkling Plain, Philip Reeve (Scholastic UK; Eos)
• The Last Days, Scott Westerfeld (Penguin/Razorbill)
• Midnighters, Book Three: Blue Noon, Scott Westerfeld (Eos)
• Specials, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse)

Collections

• Resplendent, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
• The Line Between, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon Publications)
• Streetcar Dreams and other midnight fancies, Richard Bowes (PS Publishing)
• Threshold Shift, Eric Brown (Golden Gryphon Press)
• Can't Catch Me and Other Twice-Told Tales, Michael Cadnum (Tachyon Publications)
• The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
• Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead: Stories, Alan DeNiro (Small Beer Press)
• Shuteye for the Timebroker, Paul Di Filippo (Thunder's Mouth Press)
• Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear, Terry Dowling (Cemetery Dance)
• The Best of Philip José Farmer, Philip Jose Farmer (Subterranean Press)
• The Empire of Ice Cream, Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon Press)
• Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders, Neil Gaiman (Morrow; Headline Review)
• In the Forest of Forgetting, Theodora Goss (Prime Books)
• A Separate War and Other Stories, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
• Saffron & Brimstone: Strange Stories, Elizabeth Hand (M Press)
• American Morons, Glen Hirshberg (Earthling Publications)
• Pictures from an Expedition, Alexander C. Irvine (Night Shade Books)
• Alabaster, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean Press)
• Last Week's Apocalypse, Douglas Lain (Night Shade Books)
• Red Spikes, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin Australia; Viking)
• Outbound, Jack McDevitt (ISFiC Press)
• The Man from the Diogenes Club, Kim Newman (MonkeyBrain Books)
• Galactic North, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
• Zima Blue and Other Stories, Alastair Reynolds (Night Shade Books)
• Map of Dreams, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon Press)
• In Persuasion Nation, George Saunders (Riverhead)
• The Ocean and All Its Devices, William Browning Spencer (Subterranean Press)
• Visionary in Residence, Bruce Sterling (Thunder's Mouth Press)
• The Butterflies of Memory, Ian Watson (PS Publishing)

Anthologies

• Futureshocks, Lou Anders, ed. (Roc)
• The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction, Mike Ashley, ed. (Carroll & Graf)
• Forbidden Planets, Peter Crowther, ed. (DAW)
• Futures Past, Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Ace)
• Escape from Earth: New Adventures in Space, Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois, eds. (SFBC)
• Salon Fantastique, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Thunder's Mouth Press)
• The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: Nineteenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin)
• One Million A.D., Gardner Dozois, ed. (SFBC)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-third Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's)
• Nebula Awards Showcase 2006, Gardner Dozois, ed. (Roc)
• Year's Best SF 11, David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Eos)
• Year's Best Fantasy 6, David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Tachyon Publications)
• Fantasy: The Best of the Year: 2006 Edition, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime Books)
• Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime Books)
• The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Seventeen, Stephen Jones, ed. (Robinson; Carroll & Graf)
• Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel, eds. (Tachyon Publications)
• Polyphony, Volume 6, Deborah Layne & Jay Lake, eds. (Wheatland Press)
• Twenty Epics, David Moles & Susan Marie Groppi, eds. (All-Star Stories)
• Paraspheres: Fabulist and New Wave Fabulist Stories, Rusty Morrison & Ken Keegan, eds. (Omnidawn Publishing)
• Firebirds Rising, Sharyn November, ed. (Penguin/Firebird)
• The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy, Johanna Sinisalo, ed. (Dedalus)
• Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Locus Press)
• Eidolon 1, Jonathan Strahan & Jeremy G. Byrne, eds. (Eidolon; Prime)
• Fantasy: The Very Best of 2005, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Locus Press)
• Best Short Novels: 2006, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (SFBC)

Non-Fiction

• The Long and the Short of It, Robert Borski (iUniverse)
• The Darkening Garden: A Short Lexicon of Horror, John Clute (Payseur & Schmidt)
• The Freedom of Fantastic Things: Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith, Scott Connors (Hippopcampus)
• About Writing, Samuel R. Delany (Wesleyan University Press)
• Myths for the Modern Age : Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe, Win Scott Eckert, ed. (MonkeyBrain Books)
• Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard, Mark Finn (MonkeyBrain Books)
• Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century, Justine Larbalestier, ed. (Wesleyan University Press)
• Heinlein’s Children: The Juveniles, Joseph T. Major (Advent)
• The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy, Leonard S. Marcus (Candlewick Press)
• James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, Julie Phillips (St. Martin's)
• Visions and Re-Visions: [Re]constructing Science Fiction, Robert M. Philmus (Liverpool University Press)
• Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches, Mike Resnick & Joe Siclari, eds. (ISFiC Press)
• The History of Science Fiction, Adam Roberts (Palgrave)

Art Books

• Coffin: The Art of Vampire Hunter D, Yoshitaka Amano (DH Press)
• Fairies, Yoshitaka Amano, translated by Camellia Nieh (DH Press)
• James Bama: American Realist, James Bama (Flesk)
• Spectrum 13: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
• r/evolution: The Art of Jon Foster, Jon Foster (Underwood Books)
• Amphigorey Again, Edward Gorey (Harcourt)
• Kiddology: The Art of Tom Kidd, Tom Kidd (Paper Tiger)
• RGK: The Art of Roy G. Krenkel, Roy G. Krenkel (Vanguard Productions)
• Origins: The Art of John Jude Palencar, John Jude Palencar (Underwood Books)
• The Art of Michael Parkes, Michael Parkes (Swan King)
• Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio, John Picacio (MonkeyBrain Books)
• Mommy?, Maurice Sendak (Scholastic)
• The Fabulous Women of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell (HarperCollins/Collins Design)
• Wally’s World: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Wally Wood, The World’s Second-Best Comic Book Artist, Wally Wood, edited by Steve Starger & J. David Spurlock (Vanguard)

Novellas

• "Where the Golden Apples Grow", Kage Baker (Escape from Earth)
• "‘The Night Is Fine,' the Walrus Said", John Barnes (Analog 1-2/06)
• "Hallucigenia", Laird Barron (F&SF 06/6)
• "The Siege of Earth", Stephen Baxter (Resplendent)
• "The Revivalist", Albert E. Cowdrey (F&SF 3/06)
• "Blackburn and the Blade", Bradley Denton (Lords of the Razor)
• "Riding the Crocodile", Greg Egan (One Million A.D.)
• "Botch Town", Jeffrey Ford (The Empire of Ice Cream)
• "The Mars Girl", Joe Haldeman (Escape from Earth)
• On the Overgrown Path, David Herter (PS Publishing)
• "The Good Kill", Barry B. Longyear (Analog 11/06)
• "The Walls of the Universe", Paul Melko (Asimov's 4-5/06)
• "Hav of the Myrmidons", Jan Morris (Hav)
• "A Billion Eves", Robert Reed (Asimov's 10-11/06)
• "Good Mountain", Robert Reed (One Million A.D.)
• "Rococo", Robert Reed (Forbidden Planets [Kaye])
• "Nightingale", Alastair Reynolds (Galactic North)
• "Map of Dreams", M. Rickert (Map of Dreams)
• The Voyage of Night Shining White, Chris Roberson (PS Publishing)
• "Inclination", William Shunn (Asimov's 4-5/06)
• "The Plurality of Worlds", Brian Stableford (Asimov's 8/06)
• "Missile Gap", Charles Stross (One Million A.D.)
• "Lord Weary's Empire", Michael Swanwick (Asimov's 12/06)
• "The Lineaments of Gratified Desire", Ysabeau S. Wilce (F&SF 7/06)
• Julian: A Christmas Story, Robert Charles Wilson (PS Publishing)

Novelettes

• "Yellow Card Man", Paolo Bacigalupi (Asimov's 12/06)
• "Every Hole is Outlined", John Barnes (Baen's Universe 10/06)
• "Poga", John Barnes (Baen's Universe 6/06)
• "The Pacific Mystery", Stephen Baxter (The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction)
• "Chandail", Peter S. Beagle (Salon Fantastique)
• "El Regalo", Peter S. Beagle (F&SF 10-11/06)
• "Salt Wine", Peter S. Beagle (Fantasy Magazine 3 )
• "Wane", Elizabeth Bear (Interzone 4/06)
• "Bow Shock", Gregory Benford (Baen's Universe 6/06)
• "A Flight of Numbers Fantastique Strange", Beth Bernobich (Asimov's 6/06)
• "What Used to Be Good Still Is", Emma Bull (Firebirds Rising)
• "Farmers in the Sky", Rob Chilson (Analog 5/06)
• "The Kewlest Thing of All", David Ira Cleary (Asimov's 3/06)
• "Femaville 29", Paul Di Filippo (Salon Fantastique)
• "The Singularity Needs Women!", Paul Di Filippo (Forbidden Planets [Crowther])
• "I, Row-Boat", Cory Doctorow (Flurb 1 Fall/06)
• "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth", Cory Doctorow (Baen's Universe 8/06)
• "...the darkest evening of the year...", Candas Jane Dorsey (The Future is Queer)
• "Counterfactual", Gardner Dozois (F&SF 6/06)
• "Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth", Michael F. Flynn (Asimov's 10-11/06)
• "The Night Whiskey", Jeffrey Ford (Salon Fantastique)
• "Okanoggan Falls", Carolyn Ives Gilman (F&SF 8/06
• "Lessons with Miss Gray", Theodora Goss (Fantasy Magazine 2)
• "Damascus", Daryl Gregory (F&SF 12/06)
• "Devil's Smile", Glen Hirshberg (American Morons)
• "Passion Ploy", Matthew Hughes (Forbidden Planets)
• "Shambhala", Alex Irvine (F&SF 3/06)
• "Dead Man", Alexander Jablokov (Asimov's 8/06)
• "I'll Give You My Word", Diana Wynne Jones (Firebirds Rising)
• "Sunlight or Rock", John Kessel (Asimov's 9/06)
• "In the House of the Seven Librarians", Ellen Klages (Firebirds Rising)
• The Highwaymen, Ken Macleod (Sandstone Press)
• "Dead Men Walking", Paul J. McAuleY (Asimov's 3/06)
• "The Djinn's Wife", Ian McDonald (Asimov's 7/06)
• "Jack o'Lantern", Patricia A. McKillip (Firebirds Rising)
• "The Teosinte War", Paul Melko (Futureshocks)
• "Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge", Richard Parks (Realms of Fantasy 4/06)
• A Soul in a Bottle, Tim Powers (Subterranean Press)
• "Hoop-of-Benzene", Robert Reed (The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction)
• "Signal to Noise", Alastair Reynolds (Zima Blue)
• "Tiger, Burning", Alastair Reynolds (Forbidden Planets [Crowther])
• "Journey into the Kingdom", M. Rickert (F&SF 5/06)
• "The Christmas Witch", M. Rickert (F&SF 12/06)
• "Me-topia", Adam Roberts (Forbidden Planets [Crowther])
• "Kansas, She Says, Is the Name of the Star", Robert Garcia y Robertson (F&SF 7/06)
• "A Siege of Cranes", Benjamin Rosenbaum (Twenty Epics)
• "Home Movies", Mary Rosenblum (Asimov's 4-5/06)
• "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)", Geoff Ryman (F&SF 10-11/06)
• "Incarnation Day", Walter Jon Williams (Escape from Earth)
• "Penultima Thule", Chris Willrich (F&SF 8/06)
• "The Cartesian Theatre", Robert Charles Wilson (Futureshocks)
• "Concealment Shoes", Marly Youmans (Salon Fantastique)

Short Stories

• "The Beekeeper", Jamie Barras (Interzone 10/06)
• "The Heart", Neal Barrett Jr. (Cross Plains Universe)
• "In the Abyss of Time", Stephen Baxter (Asimov's 8/06)
• "To Measure the Earth", Jedediah Berry (Salon Fantastique
• "Journey to Gantica", Matthew Corradi (F&SF 1/06)
• "Revelation", Albert E. Cowdrey (F&SF 10-11/06)
• "The Town on Blighted Sea", A.M. Dellamonica (Strange Horizons 8/21/06)
• "La Profonde", Terry Dowling (Basic Black)
• "Killers", Carol Emshwiller (F&SF 10-11/06)
• "World of No Return", Carol Emshwiller (Asimov's 1/06
• "The Way He Does It", Jeffrey Ford (Electric Velocipede 10 Spring 06)
• "How to Talk to Girls at Parties", Neil Gaiman (Fragile Things)
• The Saffron Gatherers", Elizabeth Hand (Saffron and Brimstone)
• "Halfway House", Frances Hardinge (Alchemy 3)
• "Pavel Petrovich", Daniel Hood (Realms of Fantasy 6/06)
• "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls", Nancy Kress (Asimov's 7/06)
• "The American Dead", Jay Lake (Interzone 4/06)
• "A Fine Magic", Margo Lanagan (Eidolon 1)
• "Under Hell, Over Heaven", Margo Lanagan (Red Spikes)
• "Winkie", Margo Lanagan (Red Spikes)
• "Taking Good Care of Myself", Ian R. MacLeod (Nature 5/4/06)
• "Kin", Bruce McAllister (Asimov's 2/06)
• "Kyle Meets the River", Ian McDonald (Forbidden Planets [Crowther])
• "The Moment of Joy Before," Claudia O'Keefe (F&SF 4/06)
• "Holding Pattern", Stephen Popkes (F&SF 7/06)
• "Cup and Table", Tim Pratt (Twenty Epics)
• "Impossible Dreams", Tim Pratt (Asimov's 7/06)
• "Eight Episodes", Robert Reed (Asimov's 6/06)
• "With By Good Intentions", Carrie Richerson (F&SF 10-11/06)
• "You Have Never Been Here", M. Rickert (Feeling Very Strange)
• "Tonino and the Incubus", Peg Robinson (Helix 10/06)
• "The House Beyond Your Sky", Benjamin Rosenbaum (Strange Horizons 9/4/06)
• "Preemption", Charlie Rosenkranz (Analog 6/06)
• "Another Word for Map Is Faith", Christopher Rowe (F&SF 8/06)
• "The League of Last Girls", Christopher Rowe (Aegri Somnia)
• "Chu and the Nants", Rudy Rucker (Asimov's 6/06)
• "Of Metal Men and Scarlet Thread and Dancing with the Sunrise", Ken Scholes (Realms of Fantasy 8/06)
• "Lighthouse", Michael Shara & Jack McDevitt (Analog 4/06)
• "Nobody's Home", Ira Sher (ParaSpheres)
• "Life on the Preservation", Jack Skillingstead (Asimov's 6/06)
• "Tin Marsh", Michael Swanwick (Asimov's 8/06)
• "Far As You Can Go", Greg van Eekhout (Show and Tell)
• "The Secret Paths of Rajan Khanna", Jeff VanderMeer, (ParaSpheres)
• "The Small Astral Object Genius", James Van Pelt (Asimov's 10-11/06)
• "The Age of Ice", Liz Williams (Asimov's 4-5/06)
• "Sob in the Silence", Gene Wolfe (Strange Birds)