Locus Bestsellers, August 2021
The Locus Bestsellers for August include top titles Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Ballantine), Dune by Frank Herbert (Ace), The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (Tor), and Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good by Timothy Zahn (Del Rey).
| HARDCOVERS | Months on list |
Last month |
|
| 1) | Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir (Ballantine) | 1 | – |
| 2) | Fugitive Telemetry, Martha Wells (Tordotcom) | 2 | 9 |
| 3) | The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab (Tor) | 8 | 1 |
| 4) | A Court of Silver Flames, Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury US) | 4 | 4 |
| 5) | A Master of Djinn, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom) | 1 | – |
| 6) | Wild Sign, Patricia Briggs (Ace) | 3 | 6 |
| 7) | The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US) | 11 | – |
| 8) | Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury US) | 8 | 3 |
| 9) | The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US) | 7 | 7 |
| 10) | Ready Player Two, Ernest Cline (Ballantine) | 5 | 2 |
| PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | Dune, Frank Herbert (Ace) | 52 | 1 |
| 2) | Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 11 | 7 |
| 3) | The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson (Tor) | 28 | 3 |
| 4) | Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (Tor) | 58 | – |
| 5) | Neuromancer, William Gibson (Ace) | 10 | 2 |
| 6) | Penric’s Travels, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen) | 1 | – |
| 7) | The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harper Voyager) | 2 | – |
| *) | The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin (Ace) | 17 | – |
| 9) | Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson (Bantam Spectra) | 3 | – |
| 10) | Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb (Del Rey) | 3 | – |
| TRADE PAPERBACKS | |||
| 1) | The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune (Tor) | 5 | 2 |
| 2) | House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury US) | 3 | 1 |
| 3) | The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager US) | 2 | 4 |
| 4) | Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler (Grand Central) | 12 | 3 |
| 5) | A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey) | 1 | – |
| 6) | The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones (Saga) | 1 | – |
| 7) | A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury US) | 2 | – |
| 8) | A Court of Frost and Starlight, Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury US) | 1 | – |
| *) | The Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon (Bloomsbury US) | 4 | 7 |
| 10) | Ambergris, Jeff VanderMeer (MCD) | 1 | – |
| MEDIA & GAMING RELATED | |||
| 1) | Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good, Timothy Zahn (Del Rey) | 1 | – |
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir claimed first place on the hardcover list, barely edging out Martha Wells’s Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, Book Six) in second. Aetherbound by E.K. Johnston (Dutton) was our new runner-up. We had 38 nominated titles, the same number as last month.
Dune by Frank Herbert remained at the top of the paperback list for another month, followed in second place by Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn. Our new runner-up was Mamelukes, Jerry Pournelle’s final novel, with contributions from David Weber & Phillip Pournelle (Baen). There were 52 titles nominated, down from last month’s 58.
On the trade paperback list, last month’s close contest was repeated. First and second places were reversed, with The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune taking first place and Sarah J. Maas’s House of Earth and Blood as our second-place finisher. Seanan McGuire’s Angel of the Overpass, Ghost Roads, Book Three (DAW) was our new runner-up. We had 63 nominated titles, tying last month’s numbers.
On the media and gaming-related list, only one title received enough votes to make our list, Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: The Greater Good by Timothy Zahn. There were no new runners-up. There were 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), Orca Books (WA), Toadstool (NH), White Dwarf (Canada).
Data period: May 2021.
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 August 2021 issue of Locus.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue.
©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.
