Locus Bestsellers, October 2020
The Locus Bestsellers for October include top titles Peace Talks by Jim Butcher (Ace), The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Tor), The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US), and Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zahn (Del Rey).
| HARDCOVERS | Months on list |
Last month |
|
| 1) | Peace Talks, Jim Butcher (Ace) | 1 | – |
| 2) | The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US) | 5 | 1 |
| 3) | Queen of Storms, Raymond E. Feist (Harper Voyager US) | 1 | – |
| 4) | The Empire of Gold, S.A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager US) | 1 | – |
| 5) | Axiom’s End, Lindsay Ellis (St. Martin’s) | 1 | – |
| 6) | Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey) | 1 | – |
| 7) | Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing) | 3 | 2 |
| 8) | Devolution, Max Brooks (Del Rey) | 2 | 10 |
| *) | Welcome to Night Vale: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home, Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor (Harper Perennial) | 1 | – |
| 10) | The Last Emperox, John Scalzi (Tor) | 4 | 3 |
| PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 18 | – |
| 2) | Oathbringer, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 9 | 10 |
| 3) | Dune, Frank Herbert (Ace) | 42 | 1 |
| 4) | The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (DAW) | 78 | 7 |
| 5) | Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 6 | – |
| 6) | Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 7 | – |
| 7) | 1637: The Polish Maelstrom, Eric Flint (Baen) | 1 | – |
| *) | 1984, George Orwell (Signet) | 10 | 8 |
| 9) | Blood of Elves, Andrzej Sapkowski (Orbit US) | 5 | – |
| 10) | Foundation, Isaac Asimov (Bantam) | 2 | 3 |
| TRADE PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US) | 43 | 2 |
| 2) | Exhalation, Ted Chiang (Vintage) | 1 | – |
| 3) | The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook) | 3 | 6 |
| 4) | A Brightness Long Ago, Guy Gavriel Kay (Berkley) | 1 | – |
| 5) | Radicalized, Cory Doctorow (Tor) | 2 | – |
| 6) | The Oppenheimer Alternative, Robert J. Sawyer (Caezik) | 3 | 1 |
| 7) | Sword of Destiny, Andrzej Sapkowski (Orbit US) | 6 | – |
| 8) | Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James (Riverhead) | 3 | 10 |
| *) | This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga) | 4 | 5 |
| 10) | Parable of the Talents, Octavia E. Butler (Grand Central) | 7 | – |
| MEDIA & GAMING RELATED | |||
| 1) | Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason, Timothy Zahn (Del Rey) | 8 | 1 |
| 2) | Forgotten Realms: Relentless, R.A. Salvatore (Harper Voyager US) | 1 | – |
| 3) | Star Wars: Shadow Fall, Alexander Freed (Del Rey) | 1 | – |
| 4) | Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn (Del Rey) | 7 | – |
Coronavirus Edition: During July, most of our bookstores were allowed to reopen with some restrictions. However, consumers were still wary of in-person shopping, so many bookstores continued selling books online, by mail order, and via curbside pick-up.
In its first month of release, Jim Butcher’s Peace Talks leapt to number one on our hardcover list, with a commanding lead over last month’s winner, The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, which came in second. Jo Walton’s new literary fantasy, Or What You Will (Tor), is our new runner-up. We had 37 nominated titles, up from last month’s 34.
Brandon Sanderson had a banner month, taking the top two spots on our paperback list and four spots in total – first place went to The Way of Kings, followed by Oathbringer. There were no new runners-up. There were 42 titles nominated, down from 47 last month.
On the trade paperback list The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin moved back into first place, while Ted Chiang’s acclaimed collection Exhalation took second. There were no new runners-up. We had 50 titles nominated, up from 48 last month.
Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason remained in first place on the media & gaming-related book list, with a comfortable lead over second-place finisher Forgotten Realms: Relentless by R.A. Salvatore. There were no new runners-up. We had 13 nominated titles, up from last month’s 12.
Compiled with data from Bakka-Phoenix Books (Canada), Borderlands (CA), McNally Robinson (Two in Canada), Mysterious Galaxy (CA), Toadstool (NH), White Dwarf (Canada).
Data period: July 2020.
Note: book titles and covers on this page link to IndieBound, a network of independent booksellers, such as those that contribute to this list.
From the October 2020 issue of Locus.
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