2019 Locus Recommended Reading List

Published in Locus magazine’s February 2020 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; reviewers Liz Bourke, Katharine Coldiron, Carolyn Cushman, Paul Di Filippo, Amy Goldschlager, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, John Langan, Russell Letson, Adrienne Martini, Ian Mond, Colleen Mondor, Tim Pratt, Tom Whitmore, Gary K. Wolfe, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; Bob Blough; online editor Mark R. Kelly; critics Paul Kincaid, Cheryl Morgan, and Graham Sleight. The YA group wrapped in assistant editor Laurel Amberdine, Gwenda Bond, Dhonielle Clayton, Justine Larbalestier, and Mark Oshiro. Art books had help from Arnie Fenner, Karen Haber, and design editor Francesca Myman. Short fiction recommenders included editors and reviewers John Joseph Adams, Rachel S. Cordasco, Ellen Datlow, John DeNardo, Maria Haskins, Charles Payseur, 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 2019.

We considered over a thousand 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; it happens every year. Any one of the recommending group would have built a different 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 2020 Poll & Survey [closed as of 4/15/20]. The Poll decides the winners of the Locus Awards, presented in June 2020 at the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle, and is open to all to vote on.

NOVELS – SCIENCE FICTION

• The Silver Wind, Nina Allan (Titan US & UK)
• The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders
  (Tor; Titan)
• The Testaments, Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese; Chatto & Windus)
• Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear (Saga; Gollancz)
• Gamechanger L.X. Beckett (Tor)
• Rule of Capture, Christopher Brown (Harper Voyager US)
• Escaping Exodus, Nicky Drayden (Harper Voyager US)
• Perihelion Summer, Greg Egan (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Book of Flora, Meg Elison (47North)
• Empress of Forever, Max Gladstone (Tor)
• The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)
• Luna: Moon Rising, Ian McDonald (Tor;Gollancz)
• The Future of Another Timeline, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK)
• Atlas Alone, Emma Newman (Ace; Gollancz)
• The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa (Pantheon; Harvill Secker)
• The Need, Helen Phillips (Simon & Schuster; Chatto & Windus)
• Fleet of Knives, Gareth L. Powell (Titan US & UK)
• The Forbidden Stars, Tim Pratt (Angry Robot US & UK)
• Million Mile Road Trip, Rudy Rucker (Night Shade)
• Stealing Worlds, Karl Schroeder (Tor)
• Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, Neal Stephenson (Morrow; The Borough Press)
• The Rosewater Insurrection/The Rosewater Redemption, Tade Thompson (Orbit US & UK)
• Wanderers, Chuck Wendig (Del Rey; Solaris)
• Golden State, Ben H. Winters (Mulholland; Century)
• Frankissstein, Jeanette Winterson (Grove; Jonathan Cape)

NOVELS – FANTASY

• A Little Hatred, Joe Abercrombie (Orbit US; Gollancz)
• The Dollmaker, Nina Allan (riverrun; Other Press)
• The Warrior Moon, K Arsenault Rivera (Tor)
• The Hod King, Josiah Bancroft (Orbit US & UK)
• Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron; Gollancz)
• The Red-Stained Wings, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
• The True Queen, Zen Cho (Ace; Macmillan)
• The House of Sundering Flames, Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz; JABberwocky)
• Ivory Apples, Lisa Goldstein (Tachyon)
• The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl, Theodora Goss (Saga)
• A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Berkley; Viking Canada; Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Raven Tower, Ann Leckie (Orbit US & UK)
• Jade War, Fonda Lee (Orbit US & UK)
• Unraveling, Karen Lord (DAW)
• Air Logic, Laurie J. Marks (Small Beer)
• Middlegame, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
• Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)
• The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern (Doubleday; Harvill Secker)
• Gingerbread, Helen Oyeyemi (Riverhead; Picador)
• Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, K.J. Parker (Orbit US & UK)
• Lanny, Max Porter (Graywolf; Faber & Faber)
• Storm of Locusts, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
• The Iron Dragon’s Mother, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
• Dead Astronauts, Jeff VanderMeer (MCD; Fourth Estate)
• Lent, Jo Walton (Tor)
• The Bird King, G. Willow Wilson (Grove)

NOVELS – HORROR

• Imaginary Friend, Stephen Chbosky (Grand Central; Orion)
• The Laws of the Skies, Gregoire Courtois (Coach House)
• A Sick Gray Laugh, Nicole Cushing (Word Horde)
• Prisoner of Midnight, Barbara Hambly (Severn House)
• Curious Toys, Elizabeth Hand (Mulholland)
• My Heart Struck Sorrow, John Hornor Jacobs (in A Lush and Seething Hell; Harper Voyager US)
• Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James (Riverhead; Hamish Hamilton)
• The Grand Dark, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager US & UK)
• The Institute, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Twisted Ones, T. Kingfisher (Saga)
• The Invited, Jennifer McMahon (Doubleday)
• Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju, Kim Newman (Titan US & UK)
• The Pursuit of William Abbey, Claire North (Orbit US & UK)
• The Toll, Cherie Priest (Tor)

YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

• Internment, Samira Ahmed (Little, Brown; Atom)
• The Weight of the Stars, K. Ancrum (Imprint)
• King of Scars, Leigh Bardugo (Imprint; Orion)
• Lovely War, Julie Berry (Viking)
• The Wicked King, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key)
• The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi (Wednesday)
• The Everlasting Rose, Dhonielle Clayton (Freeform; Gollancz)
• Song of the Crimson Flower, Julie C. Dao (Philomel)
• Pet, Akwaeke Emezi (Make Me a World; Faber & Faber)
• Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (TorTeen)
• The Things She’s Seen, Ambelin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina (Allen & Unwin; Knopf)
• Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion)
• A Dream So Dark, L.L. McKinney (Imprint; Titan)
• Destroy All Monsters, Sam J. Miller (Harper Teen)
• Angel Mage, Garth Nix (Katherine Tegen; Allen & Unwin; Gollancz)
• War Girls, Tochi Onyebuchi (Razorbill)
• Steel Tide, Natalie C. Parker (Razorbill)
• The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman (Knopf; Penguin UK & David Fickling)
• Shadow Captain, Alastair Reynolds (Orbit US; Gollancz)
• Dealing in Dreams, Lilliam Rivera (Simon & Schuster)
• Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All, Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray)

FIRST NOVELS

• The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)
• Magic for Liars, Sarah Gailey (Tor)
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)
• The Outside, Ada Hoffmann (Angry Robot US & UK)
• The Migration, Helen Marshall (Random House Canada; Titan UK)
• A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor)
• Infinite Detail, Tim Maughan (MCD x FSG Originals)
• Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Merciful Crow, Margaret Owen (Henry Holt)
• Finder, Suzanne Palmer (DAW)
• A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley)
• Wilder Girls, Rory Power (Delacorte; Macmillan)
• Waste Tide, Chen Qiufan (Tor; Head of Zeus)
• Opposite of Always, Justin A. Reynolds (Katharine Tegen; Macmillan)
• The Old Drift, Namwali Serpell (Hogarth US & UK)
• The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling (Harper Voyager)
• The Lesson, Cadwell Turnbull (Blackstone)

COLLECTIONS

• Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, Nathan Ballingrud (Saga)
• The City and the Cygnets, Michael Bishop (Kudzu Planet Productions)
• Collision, J.S. Breukelaar (Meerkat)
• Exhalation, Ted Chiang (Knopf; Picador)
• Homesick, Nino Cipri (Dzanc)
• And Go Like This, John Crowley (Small Beer)
• Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)
• The Best of Greg Egan, Greg Egan (Subterranean)
• Song for the Unraveling of the World, Brian Evenson (Coffee House)
• Unforeseen, Molly Gloss (Saga)
• Snow White Learns Witchcraft, Theodora Goss (Mythic Delirium)
• Full Throttle, Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz)
• Meet Me in the Future, Kameron Hurley (Tachyon)
• Big Cat and Other Stories, Gwyneth Jones (NewCon)
• The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Tachyon)
• The Best of R.A. Lafferty, R.A. Lafferty (Gollancz)
• Hexarchate Stories, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US & UK)
• …And Other Disasters, Malka Older (Mason Jar)
• All Worlds Are Real, Susan Palwick (Fairwood)
• Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea, Sarah Pinsker (Small Beer)
• Episodes, Christopher Priest (Gollancz)
• Everything is Made of Letters, Sofía Rhei (Aqueduct)
• Mouthful of Birds, Samanta Schweblin (Riverhead; Oneworld)
• Growing Things and Other Stories, Paul Tremblay (Morrow; Titan UK)

ANTHOLOGIES

ORIGINAL

• Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Saga)
• Palestine + 100: Stories from a Century After the Nakba, Basma Ghalayini, ed. (Comma)
• A People’s Future of the United States, Victor LaValle & John Joseph Adams, eds. (One World)
• Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, Ken Liu, ed. (Tor)
• The Mythic Dream, Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe, eds. (Saga)
• Readymade Bodhisattva: The Kaya Anthology of South Korean Science Fiction, Sunyoung Park & Sang Joon Park, eds. (Kaya)
• The New Voices of Science Fiction, Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman, eds. (Tachyon)
• The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, Tarun K. Saint, ed. (Hachette India)
• New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color, Nisi Shawl, ed. (Solaris US & UK)
• Mission Critical, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US & UK)
• Current Futures: A Sci-Fi Ocean Anthology, Ann VanderMeer (XPRIZE)

REPRINTS/BESTS

• The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 4, Neil Clarke, ed. (Night Shade)
• The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eleven, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade)
• The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2019 Edition, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime)
• The Best of Uncanny, Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas, eds. (Subterranean)
• The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019, Carmen Maria Machado & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner)
• The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Thirteen, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US & UK)
• The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Vintage)

NON-FICTION

• Hidden Wyndham: Life, Love, Letters, Amy Binns (Grace Judson)
• Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Desirina Boskovich, ed. (Abrams Image)
• The Time Machine Hypothesis: Extreme Science Meets Science Fiction, Damien Broderick (Springer)
• The Cambridge History of Science Fiction, Gerry Canavan & Eric Carl Link, eds. (Cambridge University Press)
• Reading Backwards: Essays and Reviews, 2005-2018, John Crowley (Subterranean)
• Letters from Amherst: Five Narrative Letters, Samuel R. Delany (Wesleyan University Press)
• Joanna Russ, Gwyneth Jones (University of Illinois Press)
• Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction, Lisa Kröger & Melanie R. Anderson (Quirk)
• Aliens in Popular Culture, Michael M. Levy & Farah Mendlesohn, eds. (Greenwood)
• Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Markley (University of Illinois Press)
• The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, Farah Mendlesohn (Unbound)
• The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, Mallory O’Meara (Hanover Square)
• Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected, Nnedi Okorafor (Simon & Schuster/TED)
• HG Wells: A Literary Life, Adam Roberts (Palgrave)
• Peter Watts is an Angry Sentient Tumor, Peter Watts (Tachyon)
• The Rise and Fall of American Science Fiction, from the 1920s to the 1960s, Gary Westfahl (McFarland)

ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOKS

• Rick Berry, Invented People (Vienna)
• The Illustrated World of Tolkien, David Day (Thunder Bay; Pyramid)
• Julie Dillon, Daydreamer’s Journey (Julie Dillon)
• Ed Emshwiller, Dream Dance: The Art of Ed Emshwiller, Jesse Pires, ed. (Anthology Editions)
• Spectrum 26: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, John Fleskes, ed. (Flesk)
• Tana Ford & James Devlin, LaGuardia, Nnedi Okorafor (Berger)
• Donato Giancola, Middle-earth: Journeys in Myth and Legend (Dark Horse)
• Gary Gianni, Art of Gary Gianni: George R.R. Martin’s Seven Kingdoms (Flesk)
• Raya Golden, Starport, George R.R. Martin (Bantam)
• Roy G. Krenkel, Roy G. Krenkel: Father of Heroic Fantasy – A Centennial Celebration, AndrewSteven Damsits & Barry Klugerman (IDW)
• Jon J Muth, The Seventh Voyage, Stanislaw Lem (Graphix)
• Renée Nault, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (Nan A. Talese)
• Fantasy World-Building: A Guide to Developing Mythic Worlds and Legendary Creatures, Mark A. Nelson (Dover)
• Tran Nguyen, Ambedo: Tran Nguyen (Flesk)
• William O’Connor, Dracopedia Field Guide (Impact)
• Paul Pope, The Willows and Other Nightmares, Algernon Blackwood (Beehive)
• Yuko Shimizu, The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde (Beehive)
• Bill Sienkiewicz, Bill Sienkiewicz: Revolution, Volume 1, Sal Abbinanti & Chul R. Kim, eds. (Six Foot Press)
• Bill Sienkiewicz, The Island of Doctor Moreau, H.G. Wells (Beehive)
• Infected by Art: Volume 7, Todd Spoor, Bill Cox & Jon Schindehette, eds. (ArtOrder)

NOVELLAS

• “The Butcher’s Table”, Nathan Ballingrud (Wounds)
• “A Time to Reap“, Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 12/19)
• Vigilance, Robert Jackson Bennett (Tor.com Publishing)
• “And Cannot Come Again”, Simon Bestwick (And Cannot Come Again)
• Longer, Michael Blumlein (Tor.com Publishing)
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton)
• “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)
• Desdemona and the Deep, C.S.E. Cooney (Tor.com Publishing)
• “Of Birthdays, and Fungus, and Kindness”,Aliette de Bodard (Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight)
• “Radicalized”, Cory Doctorow (Radicalized)
• “Unauthorized Bread”, Cory Doctorow (Radicalized)
• Miranda in Milan, Katharine Duckett (Tor.com Publishing)
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga)
• Alice Payne Rides, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, Saad Z. Hossain (Tor.com Publishing)
• Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water, Vylar Kaftan (Tor.com Publishing)
• “How Alike Are We“, Bo-young Kim (Clarkesworld 10/19)
• “Glass Cannon”, Yoon Ha Lee (Hexarchate Stories)
• The Menace from Farside, Ian McDonald(Tor.com Publishing)
• “The Work of Wolves“, Tegan Moore (Asimov’s 7-8/19)
• “Waterlines“, Suzanne Palmer (Asimov’s 7-8/19)
• My Beautiful Life, K.J. Parker (Subterranean)
• Sisters of the Vast Black, Lina Rather (Tor.com Publishing)
• Permafrost, Alastair Reynolds (Tor.com Publishing)
• Ormeshadow, Priya Sharma (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)
• “New Atlantis”, Lavie Tidhar (F&SF 5-6/19)
• Into Bones Like Oil, Kaaron Warren (Meerkat)
• The Fire Opal Mechanism, Fran Wilde (Tor.com Publishing)
• Catfish Lullaby, A.C. Wise (Broken Eye)
• The Ascent to Godhood, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

NOVELETTES

• “A Strange Uncertain Light”, G.V. Anderson (F&SF 7-8/19)
• “A Handful of Sky“, Elly Bangs (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/20/19)*
• “Erase, Erase, Erase”, Elizabeth Bear (F&SF 9-10/19)
• “While Dragons Claim the Sky”, Jen Brown (Fiyah Spring ’19)
• “About the O’Dells”, Pat Cadigan (Echoes)
• “For He Can Creep“, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19)
• “The Airwalker Comes to the City in Green“, Siobhan Carroll (Asimov’s 11-12/19)
• “Omphalos”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)
• “Anosognosia”, John Crowley (And Go Like This)
• “A Shade of Dusk”, Indrapramit Das (Echoes)
• “Kali_Na”, Indrapramit Das (The Mythic Dream)
• “Charlie Tells Another One“, Andy Duncan (Asimov’s 9-10/19)
• “The Sun from Both Sides“, R.S.A. Garcia (Clarkesworld 5/19)
• “A Country Called Winter”, Theodora Goss (Snow White Learns Witchcraft)
• “Late Returns”, Joe Hill (Full Throttle)
• “Emergency Skin”, N.K. Jemisin (Forward)
• “Deep, Fast, Green”, Carole Johnstone (Echoes)
• “The Tree of Self-Knowledge”, Stephen Graham Jones (Echoes)
• “Now Wait for This Week“, Alice Sola Kim (The Cut 1/17/19)
• “Nice Things“, Ellen Klages (Uncanny 5-6/19)
• “Contagion’s Eve at the House Noctambulous”, Rich Larson (F&SF 3-4/19)
• “The Justified”, Ann Leckie (The Mythic Dream)
• “Phantoms of the Midway”, Seanan McGuire (The Mythic Dream)
• “His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light“, Mimi Mondal (Tor.com 1/23/19)
• “The Ocean Between the Leaves“, Ray Nayler (Asimov’s 7-8/19)
• “Blood, Bone, Seed, Spark“, Aimee Ogden (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/14/2019)
• “Binti: Sacred Fire”, Nnedi Okorafor (Binti: The Complete Trilogy)
• “One Thousand Beetles in a Jumpsuit“, Dominica Phetteplace (Lightspeed 8/19)
• “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye“, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19)
• “The Narwhal”, Sarah Pinsker (Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea)
• “In This Moment, We Are Happy“, Chen Qiufan (Clarkesworld 8/19)
• “Reunion”, Vandana Singh (The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction)
• “Ice Cold Lemonade 25¢ Haunted House Tour: 1 Per Person”, Paul Tremblay (Echoes)
• “Windrose in Scarlet“, Isabel Yap (Lightspeed 10/19)
• “The Archronology of Love“, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 4/19)

SHORT STORIES

• “58 Rules to Ensure Your Husband Loves You Forever“, Rafeeat Aliyu (Nightmare 2/19)
• “The Bookstore at the End of America”, Charlie Jane Anders (A People’s Future of the United States)
• “The Night Princes“, Megan Arkenberg (Nightmare 6/19)
• “Lest We Forget“, Elizabeth Bear (Uncanny 5-6/19)
• “A Bird, a Song, a Revolution“, Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed 9/19)
• “The Migration Suite: A Study in C Sharp Minor“, Maurice Broaddus (Uncanny 7-8/19)
• “The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex”, Tobias S. Buckell (New Suns)
• “Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan“, Christopher Caldwell (Uncanny 5-6/19)
• “It’s 2059, and the Rich Kids Are Still Winning“, Ted Chiang (New York Times 5/27/19)
• “Beyond the El“, John Chu (Tor.com 1/16/19)
• “The Shadow We Cast Through Time”, Indrapramit Das (New Suns)
• “Love in the Time of Immuno-Sharing“, Andy Dudak (Analog 1-2/19)
• “The Boy on the Roof“, Francesca Forrest (Fireside 11/19)
• “On the Shores of Ligeia“, Carolyn Ives Gilman (Lightspeed 3/19)
• “Before the World Crumbles Away“, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 3-4/19)
• “Give the Family My Love“, A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld 2/19)
• “Do Not Look Back, My Lion“, Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/31/19)
• “Repatriation“, Nalo Hopkinson (Current Futures)
• “As the Last I May Know“, S.L. Huang (Tor.com 10/23/19)
• “Therein Lies a Soul“, Osahon Ize-Iyamu (The Dark 6/19)
• “Mighty Are the Meek and the Myriad”, Cassandra Khaw (F&SF 7-8/19)
• “Fisher-Bird”, T. Kingfisher (The Mythic Dream)
• “Dustdaughter“, Inda Lauryn (Uncanny 1-2/19)
• “I (28M) created a deepfake girlfriend and now my parents think we’re getting married“, Fonda Lee (MIT Technology Review 12/27/19)
• “Moses“, L.D. Lewis (Anathema 4/19)
• “Signal“, L.D. Lewis (Fireside 8/19)
• “The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear“, Kelly Link (Tin House ’19)
• “The July Girls”, Alison Littlewood (Echoes)
• “Thoughts and Prayers“, Ken Liu (Future Tense 1/26/19)
• “Haven“, Karen Lord (Current Futures)
• “Fare“, Danny Lore (Fireside 8/19)
• “As Dark as Hunger”, S. Qiouyi Lu (Black Static 11-12/19)
• “The Things Eric Eats Before He Eats Himself”, Carmen Maria Machado (The Mythic Dream)
• “Labbatu Takes Command of the Flagship Heaven Dwells Within”, Arkady Martine (The Mythic Dream)
• “Under the Hill”, Maureen McHugh (F&SF 9-10/19)
• “The Robots of Eden”, Anil Menon (New Suns)
• “Shucked”, Sam J. Miller (F&SF 11-12/19)
• “Adrianna in Pomegranate“, Samantha Mills (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/14/19)
• “On the Lonely Shore“, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Uncanny 3-4/19)
• “Old Media“, Annalee Newitz (Tor.com 2/20/19)
• “Beyond Comprehension“, Russell Nichols (Fireside 1/19)
• “Tiny Bravery“, Ada Nnadi (Omenana 10/19)
• “Dune Song“, Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Apex 5/19)
• “Sturdy Lanterns and Ladders“, Malka Older (Current Futures)
• “The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power“, Karen Osborne (Uncanny 3-4/19)
• “The Painter of Trees“, Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld 6/19)
• “Secret Stories of Doors”, Sofía Rhei (Everything is Made of Letters)
• “A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”, Rebecca Roanhorse (The Mythic Dream)
• “In That Place She Grows a Garden”, Del Sandeen (Fiyah Spring ’19)
• “Advice For Your First Time at the Faerie Market“, Nibedita Sen (Fireside 7/19)
• “We Sang You as Ours“, Nibedita Sen (The Dark 6/19)
• “Mother Ocean“, Vandana Singh (Current Futures)
• “Wilderling“, Angela Slatter (The Dark 5/19)
• “Blood Is Another Word for Hunger“, Rivers Solomon (Tor.com 7/24/19)
• “The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir“, Karin Tidbeck (Tor.com 1/14/19)
• “Boiled Bones and Black Eggs“, Nghi Vo (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 4/11/19)
• “A Catalog of Storms“, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19)
• “The Doing and Undoing of Jacob E. Mwangi“, E. Lily Yu (Asimov’s 5-6/19)
• “The Valley of Wounded Deer“, E. Lily Yu (Lightspeed 10/19)
• “Many-Hearted Dog and Heron Who Stepped Past Time“, Alex Yuschik (Strange Horizons 6/17/19)

This list appears in the February 2020 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!

*edited from the print list (moved from Short Stories to Novelettes)