Locus Bestsellers, February 2021
The Locus Bestsellers for February include top titles Rhythm of War and The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Tor), Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing), and Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back, Anonymous, ed. (Del Rey).
| HARDCOVERS | Months on list |
Last month |
|
| 1) | Rhythm of War, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 1 | – |
| 2) | Ready Player Two, Ernest Cline (Ballantine) | 1 | – |
| 3) | The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab (Tor) | 2 | 2 |
| 4) | A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey) | 2 | 3 |
| 5) | Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury) | 3 | 4 |
| 6) | The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook) | 1 | – |
| 7) | Battle Ground, Jim Butcher (Ace) | 3 | 1 |
| 8) | The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US) | 2 | 7 |
| 9) | The Burning God, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US) | 1 | – |
| 10) | Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga) | 2 | 6 |
| PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 22 | 9 |
| 2) | Forged, Benedict Jacka (Ace) | 1 | – |
| 3) | Dune, Frank Herbert (Ace) | 46 | – |
| 4) | The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (DAW) | 80 | – |
| 5) | The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin (Ace) | 15 | – |
| 6) | 1636: The Flight of the Nightingale, David Carrico (Baen) | 1 | – |
| *) | Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert (Ace) | 5 | 2 |
| 8) | Oathbringer, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 11 | – |
| 9) | People of the City, Marshall Ryan Maresca (DAW) | 1 | – |
| 10) | The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan (Tor) | 4 | – |
| TRADE PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) | 4 | 1 |
| 2) | Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin (Bantam) | 3 | – |
| 3) | A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor) | 7 | 2 |
| 4) | Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler (Grand Central) | 6 | 5 |
| 5) | Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Simon & Schuster) | 58 | – |
| *) | The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US) | 5 | 4 |
| 7) | The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook) | 5 | – |
| 8) | The Doors of Eden, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US) | 1 | – |
| 9) | This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga) | 7 | – |
| 10) | The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US) | 3 | 7 |
| MEDIA & GAMING RELATED | |||
| 1) | Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back, Anonymous, ed. (Del Rey) | 1 | – |
| 2) | Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, Anonymous, ed. (Del Rey) | 5 | – |
| 3) | Firefly: Generations, Tim Lebbon (Titan US) | 1 | – |
| 4) | Firefly: The Magnificent Nine, James Lovegrove (Titan US) | 3 | – |
Coronavirus Edition: In November, the virus continued to affect books sales, with our bookstores surviving with limited to no foot traffic, mail orders, and curbside pick-ups.
On the hardcover list, two new releases leapfrogged to the top, with Brandon Sanderson’s Rhythm of War (book four of The Stormlight Archive) clinching the top spot, followed by Ready Player Two, Ernest Cline’s sequel to Ready Player One. Our new runner-up was The Fires of Vengeance by Evan Winter (Orbit US), book two of The Burning series. We had 38 nominated titles, up from last month’s 28.
The release of the latest book in The Stormlight Archive seems to have influenced the paperback list as well, with The Way of Kings, the first book in Brandon Sanderson’s series, moving back into the number-one position. Forged by Benedict Jacka, the 11th Alex Verus novel, came in a close second. There were no new runners-up. There were 47 titles nominated, the same number as last month.
On the trade paperback list, first-place winner Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir barely retained its position against George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood in second. There were no new runners-up. We had 58 nominated titles, up from last month’s 48.
Star Wars anthologies dominated our media- and gaming-related list with Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, both edited anonymously, taking first and second place respectively. There were no new runners-up. We had 17 nominated titles, down from last month’s 18.
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: November 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 February 2021 issue of Locus.
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