Locus Bestsellers, January 2021
The Locus Bestsellers for January include top titles Battle Ground by Jim Butcher, Dune by Frank Herbert, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, and Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn.
| HARDCOVERS | Months on list |
Last month |
|
| 1) | Battle Ground, Jim Butcher (Ace) | 2 | 2 |
| 2) | The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab (Tor) | 1 | – |
| 3) | A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey) | 2 | 7 |
| 4) | Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury) | 2 | 1 |
| 5) | To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, Christopher Paolini (Tor) | 2 | 3 |
| 6) | Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga) | 1 | – |
| 7) | The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US) | 1 | – |
| 8) | Over the Woodward Wall, A. Deborah Baker (Tordotcom) | 1 | – |
| 9) | The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US) | 7 | – |
| 10) | The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga) | 1 | – |
| PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | Dune, Frank Herbert (Ace) | 45 | 1 |
| 2) | Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert (Ace) | 4 | 3 |
| 3) | The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien (Del Rey) | 46 | – |
| 4) | 1984, George Orwell (Signet) | 13 | 9 |
| 5) | The Last Wish, Andrzej Sapkowski (Orbit US) | 8 | 4 |
| 6) | Blood of Elves, Andrzej Sapkowski (Orbit US) | 8 | 5 |
| *) | The Unkindest Tide, Seanan McGuire (DAW) | 2 | 6 |
| 8) | Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (Tor) | 55 | – |
| 9) | The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 21 | 2 |
| 10) | Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 7 | – |
| TRADE PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) | 3 | 3 |
| 2) | A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor) | 6 | 1 |
| 3) | The Emperor’s Wolves, Michelle Sagara (Mira) | 1 | – |
| 4) | The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US) | 45 | – |
| 5) | The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu (Tor) | 4 | – |
| *) | Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler (Grand Central) | 5 | 5 |
| 7) | The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US) | 2 | – |
| *) | The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu (Tor) | 41 | – |
| MEDIA & GAMING RELATED | |||
| 1) | Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising, Timothy Zahn (Del Rey) | 2 | 1 |
| 2) | Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope, Una McCormack (Gallery) | 3 | – |
Coronavirus Edition: In October, our stores were still feeling the effects of the virus, surviving with limited-to-no foot traffic, lots of mail orders, and curbside pick-ups. Some report doing online specials events, while others report delays in getting stock, but they are still in business. At this time of year, especially now, remember to support your local bookstore.
On the hardcover list, last month’s second-place finisher Battle Ground by Jim Butcher moved into first place with a slight lead over V.E. Schwab’s latest offering The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Our new runner-up was Dead Lies Dreaming by Charles Stross (Tordotcom); book 10 in his long-running Laundry Files series. We had 28 nominated titles, up from last month’s 26.
Frank Herbert had a very good October, taking over the two top spots on the paperback list. Dune held onto the top spot, followed by Dune Messiah. There were no new runners-up. There were 53 titles nominated, up from 41 last month.
In a very close race, Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth barely edged out A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, to claim first place on the trade paperback list. There were no new runners-up. We had 48 nominated titles, down from last month’s 49.
On our media- and gaming-related list, only two books received enough points to make the list. Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendency: Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn held onto first place with a substantial lead over second-place finisher Una McCormack’s Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope. There were no new runners-up. We had 18 nominated titles, up from last month’s 14.
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: October 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 January 2021 issue of Locus.
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