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2010 Recommended Reading List
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Recommended Reading List
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2010 Locus Recommended Reading List
This recommended reading list, published in Locus Magazine's February 2011 issue, is a consensus by Locus editors and reviewers -- Liza Groen Trombi, Gary K. Wolfe, Jonathan Strahan, Faren C. Miller, Russell Letson, Paul Witcover, Graham Sleight, Carolyn Cushman, Adrienne Martini, Tim Pratt, and Karen Haber, and, for short fiction, Jonathan Strahan, Ellen Datlow, Gardner Dozois, David G. Hartwell, Rich Horton, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Lois Tilton, and others.
Essays by many of these contributors, highlighting their particular favorite books and stories, are published in the February issue.
Novels - Science Fiction
- Yarn, Jon Armstrong (Night Shade Books)
- Surface Detail, Iain M. Banks (Orbit; Orbit UK)
- Directive 51, John Barnes (Ace)
- Chill, Elizabeth Bear (Ballantine Spectra)
- Hull Zero Three, Greg Bear (Orbit US)
- CryoBurn, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
- The Passage, Justin Cronin (Ballantine)
- Zendegi, Greg Egan (Night Shade Books; Gollancz)
- Zero History, William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK)
- Feed, Mira Grant (Orbit)
- Starbound, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
- Sleepless, Charlie Huston (Ballantine)
- Brain Thief, Alexander Jablokov (Tor)
- The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Pyr; Gollancz)
- Terminal World, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Ace)
- Birdbrain, Johanna Sinisalo (Peter Owen)
- Blackout / All Clear, Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
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Novels - Fantasy
- The Golden Age, Michal Ajvaz, translated by Andrew Oakland (Dalkey Archive)
- The Bird of the River, Kage Baker (Tor)
- Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (Jacana South Africa; Angry Robot UK; Angry Robot US)
- The Desert Spear, Peter V. Brett (Ballantine Del Rey; HarperVoyager)
- Changeless, Gail Carriger (Orbit US)
- The Wolf Age, James Enge (Pyr)
- Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde (Viking; Hodder & Stoughton)
- The Jade Man's Skin, Daniel Fox (Del Rey)
- The Half-Made World, Felix Gilman (Tor)
- Horns, Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz)
- Kings of the North, Cecelia Holland (Forge)
- Hespira, Matthew Hughes (Night Shade Books)
- Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay (Penguin Canada; Roc)
- The Bards of Bone Plain, Patricia A. McKillip (Ace)
- Kraken, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Ballantine Del Rey)
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell (Random House)
- Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
- The Folding Knife, K. J. Parker (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
- A Matter of Blood, Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz)
- The House of Discarded Dreams, Ekaterina Sedia (Prime Books)
- A Dark Matter, Peter Straub (Doubleday; Orion)
- The Fuller Memorandum, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
- The Habitation of the Blessed, Catherynne M. Valente (Night Shade Books)
- The Sorcerer's House, Gene Wolfe (Tor)
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Young Adult Books
- Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
- The White Cat, Holly Black (Simon & Schuster/McElderry Books)
- Pathfinder, Orson Scott Card (Simon Pulse)
- Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)
- Factotum, D. M. Cornish (Omnibus Australia; Fickling UK; Putnam)
- Thresholds, Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Viking)
- Enchanted Glass, Diana Wynne Jones (HarperCollins UK; Greenwillow)
- The Boneshaker, Kate Milford (Clarion)
- Monsters of Men, Patrick Ness (Candlewick Press; Walker UK)
- The Keys to the Kingdom, Book 7: Lord Sunday, Garth Nix (Scholastic Press; HarperCollins UK)
- I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; Harper)
- Fever Crumb, Philip Reeve (Scholastic)
- Kid vs. Squid, Greg van Eekhout (Bloomsbury)
- Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse)
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First Novels
- The Loving Dead, Amelia Beamer (Night Shade Books)
- Noise, Darin Bradley (Spectra)
- Clowns at Midnight, Terry Dowling (PS Publishing)
- A Book of Tongues, Gemma Files (ChiZine Publications)
- The Native Star, M. K. Hobson (Ballantine Spectra)
- Meeks, Julia Holmes (Small Beer Press)
- The Last Page, Anthony Huso (Tor)
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N. K. Jemisin (Orbit)
- Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
- Redemption in Indigo, Karen Lord (Small Beer Press)
- The Dream of Perpetual Motion, Dexter Palmer (St. Martin's)
- The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz; Tor 2011)
- The Bookman, Lavie Tidhar (Angry Robot UK; Angry Robot US)
- The Replacement, Brenna Yovanoff (Razorbill)
- How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu (Pantheon)
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Collections
- Leviathan Wept and Other Stories, Daniel Abraham (Subterranean Press)
- The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, Volume 3: The Saturn Game, Poul Anderson (NESFA Press)
- Occultation, Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)
- Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle, Peter S. Beagle (Subterranean Press)
- The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, Holly Black (Small Beer Press/Big Mouth House)
- Amberjack: Tales of Fear and Wonder, Terry Dowling (Subterranean Press)
- What I Didn't See and Other Stories, Karen Joy Fowler (Small Beer Press)
- The Ammonite Violin & Others, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean)
- The Sky that Wraps, Jay Lake (Subterranean Press)
- Selected Stories, Fritz Leiber (Night Shade Books)
- Journeys, Ian R. MacLeod (Subterranean Press)
- Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories, Sandra McDonald (Lethe Press)
- Mysteries of the Diogenes Club, Kim Newman (MonkeyBrain Books)
- The Best of Larry Niven, Larry Niven (Subterranean Press)
- On the Banks of the River of Heaven, Richard Parks (Prime Books)
- Deep Navigation, Alastair Reynolds (NESFA Press)
- Holiday, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon Press)
- The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson, Kim Stanley Robinson (Night Shade Books)
- Recovering Apollo 8 and Other Stories, Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Golden Gryphon Press)
- The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories, Peter Straub (Subterranean Press)
- Case and the Dreamer: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon: Volume XIII, Theodore Sturgeon (North Atlantic)
- Hard-Luck Diggings: The Early Jack Vance, Jack Vance (Subterranean Press)
- The Third Bear, Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon Publications)
- The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, Walter Jon Williams (Night Shade Books)
- The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny: Volume Five: Nine Black Doves, Roger Zelazny (NESFA Press)
- The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny: Volume Six: The Road to Amber, Roger Zelazny (NESFA Press)
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Anthologies - Original
- The Way of the Wizard, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Prime Books)
- Zombies vs. Unicorns, Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier, eds. (McElderry)
- The Beastly Bride: Tales of the Animal People, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Viking)
- Is Anybody Out There?, Nick Gevers & Marty Halpern, eds. (DAW)
- Black Wings: New Tales Of Lovecraftian Horror, S. T. Joshi, ed. (PS Publishing)
- Sprawl, Alisa Krasnostein, ed. (Twelfth Planet Press)
- Warriors, George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, eds. (Tor)
- Godlike Machines, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (SFBC)
- Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery, Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders, eds. (Eos)
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Anthologies - Reprint
- Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Tachyon Publications)
- The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction, Arthur B. Evans, et al, eds. (Wesleyan University Press)
- Sympathy for the Devil, Tim Pratt, ed. (Night Shade Books)
- Wings of Fire, Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon, ed. (Night Shade Books)
- The Best of Talebones, Patrick Swenson, ed. (Fairwood Press)
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Anthologies - Bests
- The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's Griffin)
- Year's Best SF 15, David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Eos)
- The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2010 Edition, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime Books)
- The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: 21, Stephen Jones, ed. (Robinson; Running Press)
- The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Four, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade Books)
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Non-Fiction
- L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future: The First 25 Years, Kevin J. Anderson, ed. (Galaxy)
- 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin, Karen Joy Fowler & Debbie Notkin, eds. (Aqueduct Press)
- Conversations with Octavia Butler, Consuela Francis, ed. (University Press of Mississippi)
- Science Fiction, Imperialism, and the Third World: Essays on Postcolonial Literature and Film, Ericka Hoagland & Reema Sarwal, eds. (McFarland)
- British Science Fiction and Fantasy: Twenty Years and Two Surveys, Paul Kincaid & Niall Harrison (BSFA)
- Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, William H. Patterson, Jr. (Tor)
- C.M. Kornbluth: The Life and Works of a Science Fiction Visionary, Mark Rich (McFarland)
- The Animal Fable in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Bruce Shaw (McFarland)
- Anthopology 101: Reflections, Inspections and Dissections of SF Anthologies, Bud Webster (The Merry Blacksmith Press)
- Bearings: Reviews 1997-2001, Gary K. Wolfe (Beccon)
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Art Books
- Dragon's Domain, Bob Eggleton (Impact)
- Spectrum 17: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
- Instructions, Neil Gaiman & Charles Vess (HarperCollins)
- Middle-Earth: Visions of a Modern Myth, Donato Giancola (Underwood Books)
- Color and Light, James Gurney (Andrews McMeel)
- OtherWorlds: How to Imagine, Paint and Create Epic Scenes of Fantasy, Tom Kidd (F + W Publications/Impact)
- A Fine Line: Scratchboard Illustrations, Scott McKowan (Firefly Books)
- Taking Reality by Surprise, Daniel Merriam (Monarch Editions)
- The Legend of Steel Bashaw, Petar Meseldzija (Flesk Publications)
- Outermost: The Art + Life of Jack Gaughan, Luis Ortiz (Nonstop Press)
- Star Wars Art: Visions, J. W. Rinzler, ed. (Abrams)
- Hallucinations, William Stout (Flesk Publications)
- Inspirations, William Stout (Flesk Publications)
- The Bird King and Other Sketches, Shaun Tan (Windy Hollow Books)
- Exposé 8, Daniel Wade, ed. (Ballistic)
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Novellas
- "Mammoths of the Great Plains", Eleanor Arnason (Mammoths of the Great Plains)
- Bone and Jewel Creatures, Elizabeth Bear (Subterranean Press)
- The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (Subterranean Press)
- "Chicken Little", Cory Doctorow (Gateways)
- Kentauros, Gregory Feeley (New Haven Review)
- "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon", Elizabeth Hand (Stories)
- "The Rift", John G. Hemry (Analog 10/10)
- "The Sultan of the Clouds", Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov's 9/10)
- "Phantom Sense", Richard A. Lovett & Mark Niemann-Ross (Analog 11/10)
- "The Mystery Knight", George R. R. Martin (Warriors)
- Seven Cities of Gold, David Moles (PS Publishing)
- "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance", Paul Park (F&SF 1-2/10)
- "Jackie's Boy", Steven Popkes (Asimov's 4-5/10)
- "A History of Terraforming", Robert Reed (Asimov's 7/10)
- "Dead Man's Run", Robert Reed (F&SF 11-12/10)
- "Troika", Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines)
- The Taborin Scale, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press)
- "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window", Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer '10)
- Cloud Permutations, Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
- "A Glimpse of the Marvellous Structure (And the Threat it Entails)", Sean Williams (Godlike Machines)
- "Several Items of Interest", Rick Wilber (Asimov's 10-11/10)
- "The Curious Adventure of the Jersey Devil", Michael D Winkle (Panverse 2)
Novelettes
- "The Fool Jobs", Joe Abercrombie (Swords & Dark Magic)
- "Eating at the End-of-the-World Café", Dale Bailey (F&SF 9-10/10)
- "30", Laird Barron (Occultation)
- "The Redfield Girls", Laird Barron (Haunted Legends)
- "Map of Seventeen", Christopher Barzak (The Beastly Bride)
- "La Lune T'Attend", Peter S. Beagle (Full Moon City)
- "Trinity County, CA", Peter S. Beagle (Intergalactic Medicine Show 8/10)
- "Pining to be Human", Richard Bowes (F&SF 7-8/10)
- "The Spy Who Never Grew Up", Sarah Rees Brennan (Kiss Me Deadly)
- "A Jar of Goodwill", Tobias S. Buckell (Clarkesworld 5/10)
- "Princess Prettypants", Meg Cabot (Zombies vs. Unicorns)
- "Braiding the Ghosts", C.S.E. Cooney (Clockwork Phoenix 3)
- "Queen of the Kanguellas", Scott Dalrymple (Realms of Fantasy 12/10)
- "The Cage", A.M. Dellamonica (Tor.com 7/28/10)
- "Amor Fugit", Alexandra Duncan (F&SF 3-4/10)
- "Goats of Glory", Steven Erikson (Swords & Dark Magic)
- "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains", Neil Gaiman (Stories)
- "The Mad Scientist's Daughter", Theodora Goss (Strange Horizons 1/18-1/25/10)
- "Chimbwi", Jim Hawkins (Interzone 3-4/10)
- "Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Matter", Jim Hawkins (Interzone 7-8/10)
- "Brownian Emotion", Tom Holt (Subterranean Spring '10)
- "Blind Cat Dance", Alexander Jablokov (Asimov's 3/10)
- "Plus or Minus", James Patrick Kelly (Asimov's 12/10)
- "A Thousand Flowers", Margo Lanagan (Zombies vs. Unicorns)
- "Marya and the Pirate", Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov's 1/10)
- "Black and White Sky", Tanith Lee (Brighton Shock)
- "Under/Above the Water", Tanith Lee (Songs of Love and Death)
- "Pupa," David D. Levine (Analog 10/10)
- "The Literomancer", Ken Liu (F&SF 9-10/10)
- "In the Stacks", Scott Lynch (Swords & Dark Magic)
- "WE HEART VAMPIRES!!!!!!", Meghan McCarron (Strange Horizons 5/3-5/10/10)
- "The Naturalist", Maureen McHugh (Subterranean Spring '10)
- "Frankenstein, Frankenstein", Will McIntosh (Asimov's 10-11/10)
- "Eight Miles", Sean McMullen (Analog 9/10)
- "To Hold the Bridge", Garth Nix (Legends of Australian Fantasy)
- "Seven Years from Home", Naomi Novik (Warriors)
- "Amor Vincit Omnia", K.J. Parker (Subterranean, Summer '10)
- "A Rich Full Week", K.J. Parker (Swords & Dark Magic)
- "Errant", Diana Peterfreund (Kiss Me Deadly)
- "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn", Diana Peterfreund (Zombies vs. Unicorns)
- "Sleepover", Alastair Reynolds (The Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic SF; US: The Mammoth Book of the End of the World)
- "Dr. Death vs. the Vampire", Aaron Schutz (F&SF 5-6/10)
- "The Bodhisattvas", Gord Sellar (Subterranean Spring '10)
- "The Unorthodox Dr. Draper", William Browning Spencer (Subterranean Fall '10)
- "Butterfly and the Blight at the Heart of the World", Lavie Tidhar (Daily Science Fiction 9/3/10)
Short Stories
- "Ware of the Worlds", Michael Alexander (F&SF 11-12/10)
- "The Fermi Paradox Is Our Business Model", Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com 8/11/10)
- "One Saturday Night, with Angel", Peter M. Ball (Sprawl)
- "Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory", Paul M. Berger (Fantasy 6/21/10)
- "Sobek", Holly Black (Wings of Fire)
- "The Aarne-Thompson Classification Revue", Holly Black (Full Moon City)
- "Under the Moons of Venus", Damien Broderick (Subterranean Spring '10)
- "The Taste of Night", Pat Cadigan (Is Anybody Out There?)
- "How Seosiris Lost the Favor of the King", James L. Cambias (F&SF 9-10/10)
- "The Duke of Vertumn's Fingerling", Elizabeth Carroll (Strange Horizons 4/5/10)
- "Cold Hands", Cassandra Clare (Zombies vs. Unicorns)
- "The Jammie Dodgers and the Adventure of the Leicester Square Screening", Cory Doctorow (Shareable 5/25/10)
- "The Green Book", Amal El-Mohtar (Apex 11/1/10)
- "The Interior of Mister Bumblethorn's Coat", Willow Fagan (Fantasy 10/11/10)
- "Polka Dots and Moonbeams", Jeffrey Ford (Stories)
- "Booth's Ghost", Karen Joy Fowler (What I Didn't See and Other Stories)
- "The Thing About Cassandra", Neil Gaiman (Songs of Love and Death)
- "Sins of the Father", Sara Genge (Asimov's 12/10)
- "Fair Ladies", Theodora Goss (Apex 8/2/10)
- "Sleeping Dogs", Joe Haldeman (Gateways)
- "The Red Bride", Samantha Henderson (Strange Horizons 7/5/10)
- "Futures in the Memories Market", Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Clarkesworld 6/10)
- "Love Will Tear Us Apart", Alaya Dawn Johnson (Zombies vs. Unicorns)
- "Names for Water", Kij Johnson (Asimov's 10-11/10)
- "The Other Graces", Alice Sola Kim (Asimov's 7/10)
- "In-Fall", Ted Kosmatka (Lightspeed 12/10)
- "For Want of a Nail", Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov's 9/10)
- "The Children of Cadmus", Ellen Kushner (The Beastly Bride)
- "The Man With the Knives", Ellen Kushner (Temporary Culture)
- "Permanent Fatal Errors", Jay Lake (Is Anybody Out There?)
- "The Miracle Aquilina", Margo Lanagan (Wings of Fire)
- "Graffiti in the Library of Babel", David Langford (Is Anybody Out There?)
- "Between Two Dragons", Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld 4/10)
- "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain", Yoon Ha Lee (Lightspeed 9/10)
- "Second Journey of the Magus", Ian R. MacLeod (Subterranean Winter '10)
- "Blue Fire", Bruce McAllister (F&SF 3-4/10)
- "The Courtship of the Queen", Bruce McAllister (Tor.com 5/5/10)
- "Tonight We Fly", Ian McDonald (Masked)
- "Beach Blanket Spaceship", Sandra McDonald (Clarkesworld 7/10)
- "Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots", Sandra McDonald (Strange Horizons 10/4/10)
- "The Isthmus Variation", Kris Millering (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 7/1/10)
- "After the Dragon", Sarah Monette (Fantasy 1/25/10)
- "A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet", Garth Nix (Swords & Dark Magic)
- "Clockwork Fairies", Cat Rambo (Tor.com 8/20/10)
- "Elegy for a Young Elk", Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean Spring '10)
- "The Cull", Robert Reed (Clarkesworld 9/10)
- "The Nature of Bees", Priya Sharma (Albedo One 2010)
- "Conditional Love", Felicity Shoulders (Asimov's 1/10)
- "Brisneyland by Night", Angela Slatter (Sprawl)
- "Lost Things", Angela Slatter (Sourdough and Other Stories)
- "All the Love in the World", Cat Sparks (Sprawl)
- "The Exterminator's Want-Ad", Bruce Sterling (Shareable 6/22/10)
- "The Word of Azrael", Matthew David Surridge (Black Gate Winter '10)
- "Libertarian Russia", Michael Swanwick (Asimov's 12/10)
- "The Monster's Million Faces", Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 9/8/10)
- "The Stable Master's Tale", Rachel Swirsky (Fantasy 7/5/10)
- "A Letter from the Emperor", Steve Rasnic Tem (Asimov's 1/10)
- "The Night Train", Lavie Tidhar (Strange Horizons 6/14/10)
- "The Spontaneous Knotting of an Agitated String", Lavie Tidhar (Fantasy 5/17/10)
- "Still Life (A Sexagesimal Fairy Tale)", Ian Tregillis (Apex 10/4/10)
- "What Doctor Gottlieb Saw", Ian Tregillis (Tor.com 6/8/10)
- "How to Become a Mars Overlord", Catherynne M. Valente (Lightspeed 8/10)
- "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time", Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 8/10)
- "The Zeppelin Conductors' Society Annual Gentlemen's Ball", Genevieve Valentine (Lightspeed 7/10)
- "Amarylis", Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed 6/10)
- "The Things", Peter Watts (Clarkesworld 1/10)
- "The Children of Main Street", A.C. Wise (Clarkesworld 12/10)
- "Standard Loneliness Package", Charlie Yu (Lightspeed 11/10)
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February 2011 Issue
2010 Recommended Reading List
posted 2 February 2011
Cover Design: Arnie Fenner
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