The centerpiece is the 1996 Recommended Reading List, a consensus of the magazine's reviewers and staff, other professionals, and outside reviews and lists. Accompanying the lists are summary essays by editor Charles N. Brown, the reviewers--Gary K. Wolfe, Russell Letson, Faren Miller, Edward Bryant, Shira Daemon, Carolyn Cushman, and Mark R. Kelly--and Gardner Dozois.

Also in the issue:

• The 1996 Book Summary, about the state of publishing for the year, with totals of books published broken down by format, genre, and publisher.
• The 1996 Magazine Summmary
• The ballot for the 27th annual Locus Poll and Survey.
• Interviews with Linda Nagata and Larry Niven.
• Obituaries of Carl Sagan, Clyde Tombaugh, and others
• The month's new and recommended books.
• The month's new and recommended short fiction.
• Reviews of Ursula K. Le Guin's Unlocking the Air and other stories, Damien Broderick's The White Abacus, Poul Anderson's The Fleet of Stars, Todd Grimson's Brand New Cherry Flavor, Wilhelmina Baird's Chaos Come Again, Steven Brust and Emma Bull's Freedom and Necessity, and many others.