Locus Bestsellers, March 2021
The Locus Bestsellers for March include top titles Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline, Dune by Frank Herbert, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, and Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View.
| HARDCOVERS | Months on list |
Last month |
|
| 1) | Ready Player Two, Ernest Cline (Ballantine) | 2 | 2 |
| 2) | Rhythm of War, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 2 | 1 |
| 3) | Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury) | 4 | 5 |
| 4) | The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US) | 3 | 8 |
| 5) | The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab (Tor) | 3 | 3 |
| 6) | A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey) | 3 | 4 |
| 7) | The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook) | 2 | 6 |
| 8) | The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US) | 8 | – |
| 9) | Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey) | 4 | – |
| 10) | Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga) | 3 | 10 |
| PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | Dune, Frank Herbert (Ace) | 47 | 3 |
| 2) | The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss (DAW) | 81 | 4 |
| 3) | The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 23 | 1 |
| 4) | Oathbringer, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 12 | 8 |
| 5) | Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 8 | – |
| 6) | Foundation, Isaac Asimov (Bantam) | 3 | – |
| 7) | 1984, George Orwell (Signet) | 14 | – |
| 8) | Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (Tor) | 56 | – |
| 9) | Neuromancer, William Gibson (Ace) | 6 | – |
| *) | Passages, Mercedes Lackey, ed. (DAW) | 1 | – |
| TRADE PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US) | 47 | 5 |
| 2) | The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu (Tor) | 42 | – |
| 3) | Ready Player One, Ernest Cline (Broadway) | 30 | – |
| 4) | A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab (Tor) | 22 | – |
| 5) | Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) | 5 | 1 |
| 6) | Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler (Grand Central) | 7 | 4 |
| 7) | The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook) | 6 | 7 |
| 8) | Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey) | 4 | – |
| MEDIA & GAMING RELATED | |||
| 1) | Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, Anonymous, ed. (Del Rey) | 6 | 2 |
| 2) | Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back, Anonymous, ed. (Del Rey) | 2 | 1 |
| 3) | Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason, Timothy Zahn (Del Rey) | 11 | – |
| 4) | Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn (Del Rey) | 9 | – |
| 5) | Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising, Timothy Zahn (Del Rey) | 3 | – |
Coronavirus Edition: In December, the post-holiday surge has meant continued restrictions. Sales have been affected by in-store capacity limits, and some continue to be conducted through online sales, mail orders, and curbside pick-ups. Remember to support your local bookstores when you buy books.
On the hardcover list, Ernest Cline’s Ready Player Two and Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson switched places from last month, with Ready Player Two moving into first place, with a solid lead over Rhythm of War. Our new runner-up was Attack Surface (Tor) by Cory Doctorow, a standalone book set in the world of the Little Brother series. We had 28 nominated titles, down from last month’s 38.
Perennial favorite Dune by Frank Herbert, moved back to the top of the paperback list with a considerable lead over Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind in second place. There were no new runners-up. There were 28 titles nominated, down from last month’s 47.
Old favorites are back on the trade paperback list with The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin returning to the top of list, followed by Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem. There were no new runners-up. We had 55 nominated titles, up from last month’s 58.
Another case of first and second place switching occurred on the media and gaming related list. Star Wars anthology Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View moved from second to first place this month, over Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back, both anthologies edited anonymously. Our runner-up was The World of Critical Role by Liz Marsham and the Cast of Critical Role. We had 19 nominated titles, up from last month’s 17.
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: December 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 March 2021 issue of Locus.
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