> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.andrewliptak.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Here are the winners of the 2023 Locus Awards - URL: https://www.andrewliptak.com/locus-awards-winners-scalzi-kuang-nayler/ - Published: 2023-06-27T16:46:57.000Z - Updated: 2023-06-27T16:46:57.000Z - Description: A good set of awards, plus some grumbling over the winners - Author: Andrew Liptak - Tags: News, Science Fiction, Fandom *Locus Magazine* held its annual conferences over the weekend, and as part of that event, it announced the winners of its reader-chosen awards. This is one of the bigger community awards, and it's a good barometer for the state of the genre on any given year. I thought this year's list of finalists was a decently strong one, and I thought that it was a good selection that ended up taking the award home. Of course, not everyone did: that's pretty typical of any major award. This year's grumblings come in the form of some screenshots of prose from John Scalzi's *The Kaiju Preservation Society*, with the commentary tracking along the lines of "we can't believe a book with this type of writing won." [Review: John Scalzi’s Kaiju Preservation SocietyJohn Scalzi’s latest is a monster-filled blockbuster of a novel![](https://www.andrewliptak.com/favicon.ico)Transfer OrbitAndrew Liptak![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2c/d7/2cd7d323-e6ed-4666-8092-07e380dbdf2a/content/images/2022/03/IMG_5405.jpg)](https://www.andrewliptak.com/kaiju-preservation-society-john-scalzi-review/) I get where they're coming from: a lot of Scalzi's recent books feel as though they're lightly-edited first drafts, and there are times that I wish that he and Tor would take more time on them, rather than shuffling them out so quickly. But then again, they've sold pretty well, and there's an audience that Scalzi's going for: the wider mainstream nerd culture, the types of folks who'll check out Comic Con for the movie trailers, who liked books like *Ready Player One* and *The Martian*, enjoy the latest blockbusters in theaters, but who aren't necessarily the types of folks who'll subscribe to genre magazines or who'll head over to Readercon for a weekend. It's easy to sneer at those types of fans: I've seen plenty of people do that, segments of the Extremely Online SFF fandom are showing that they're more than willing to put out the True Fans Only card because books like Scalzi's don't cater to a more critical (and smaller) audience. That's been Scalzi's MO for his entire career: he's literally said that he wrote *Old Man's War* because he went to a bookstore and noted that Military SF had the most titles. The best take that I've seen for why *Kaiju* won? It was a popcorn thriller with monsters released during a global pandemic. Of course, Scalzi's book wasn't the only one to win: R.F. Kuang's *Babel* won for Fantasy Novel, and Ray Nayler took home the prize for First Novel for *The Mountain in the Sea*. They're each enormously consequential and interesting books that absolutely deserve all the recognition they've gotten (and then some). So: business as usual. Another set of awards that serve as a barometer for the intersection of fandom and publishing. We'll see what next year brings. (Winners listed in **bold**) ### Science Fiction Novel - *Sweep of Stars* by Maurice Broaddus - *The Red Scholar’s Wake* by Aliette de Bodard - *The Spare Man* by Mary Robinette Kowal - *Sea of Tranquility* by Emily St. John Mandel - *The Daughter of Doctor Moreau* by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - *Goliath* by Tochi Onyebuchi - ***The Kaiju Preservation Society* by John Scalzi** - *Eyes of the Void* by Adrian Tchaikovsky - *Neom* by Lavie Tidhar - *Eversion* by Alastair Reynolds ### Fantasy Novel - *The Grief of Stones* by Katherine Addison - *When Women Were Dragons* by Kelly Barnhill - *Spear* by Nicola Griffith - *The World We Make* by N.K. Jemisin - *Nettle & Bone* by T. Kingfisher - ***Babel*** **by R.F. Kuang** - *Nona the Ninth* by Tamsyn Muir - *The Golden Enclaves* by Naomi Novik - *Fevered Star* by Rebecca Roanhorse - *Siren Queen* by Nghi Vo ### Horror Novel - *Saturnalia* by Stephanie Feldman - *Just Like Home* by Sarah Gailey - *Road of Bones* by Christopher Golden - *The Devil Takes You Home* by Gabino Iglesias - *The Fervor* by Alma Katsu - *Gwendy’s Final Task* by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar - ***What Moves the Dead* by T. Kingfisher** - *Echo* by Thomas Olde Heuvelt - *No Gods for Drowning* by Hailey Piper - *The Pallbearers Club* by Paul Tremblay - *Sundial* by Catriona Ward ### Young Adult Novel - ***Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak* by Charlie Jane Anders** - *The Scratch Daughters* by H.A. Clarke - *Bloodmarked* by Tracy Deonn - *The Kindred* by Alechia Dow - *Bitter* by Akwaeke Emezi - Unravellerby Frances Hardinge - *Rust in the Root* by Justina Ireland - *Lakelore* by Anna-Marie McLemore - *Ballad & Dagger* by Daniel José Older - *An Arrow to the Moon* by Emily X.R. Pan ### First Novel - *Legends & Lattes* by Travis Baldree - *The Hacienda* by Isabel Cañas - *The Book Eaters* by Sunyi Dean - *The Bruising of Qilwa* by Naseem Jamnia - *The Ballad of Perilous Graves* by Alex Jennings - *The Unbalancing* by R.B. Lemberg - *The Bone Orchard* by Sara A. Mueller - *How High We Go in the Dark* by Sequoia Nagamatsu - ***The Mountain in the Sea*** **by Ray Nayler** - *The Genesis of Misery* by Neon Yang ### Novella - ***A Prayer for the Crown-Shy* by Becky Chambers** - Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievancesby Aliette de Bodard - Servant Mageby Kate Elliott - “Bishop’s Opening" by R.S.A Garcia (*Clarkesworld* 1/22) - A Mirror Mendedby Alix E. Harrow - Even Though I Knew the Endby C.L. Polk - Tread of Angelsby Rebecca Roanhorse - High Times in the Low Parliamentby Kelly Robson - Ogresby Adrian Tchaikovsky - Into the Riverlandsby Nghi Vo ### Novelette - **“If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You" by John Chu (*Uncanny* 7-8/22)** - “Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold"by S.B. Divya (*Uncanny* 5-6/22) - “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge”by Tananarive Due (*Other Terrors*) - “Solidity”by Greg Egan (*Asimov’s* 9-10/22) - “The Six Deaths of the Saint”by Alix E. Harrow (*Into Shadow*) - “In Mercy, Rain“by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com 7/18/22) - “Falling Off the Edge of the World”by Suzanne Palmer (*Asimov’s* 11-12/22) - “The Sadness Box"by Suzanne Palmer (*Clarkesworld* 7/22) - “A Dream of Electric Mothers”by Wole Talabi (*Africa Risen*) - “The Difference Between Love and Time”by Catherynne M. Valente (*Someone in Time*) ### Short Story - “Give Me English”by Ai Jiang (*F&SF* 5-6/22) - “The Goldfish Man”by Maureen McHugh (*Uncanny* 3-4/22) - **“Rabbit Test”by Samantha Mills (*Uncanny* 11-12/22)** - “Dick Pig”by Ian Muneshwar (*Nightmare* 1/22) - “Master of Ceremonies"by Frances Ogamba (*The Dark* 5/22) - “Beginnings”by Kristina Ten (*Fantasy* 4/22) - “The Coward Who Stole God’s Name”by John Wiswell (*Uncanny* 5-6/22) - “D.I.Y”by John Wiswell (Tor.com 8/24/22) - “Inheritance"by Hannah Yang (*Analog* 9-10/22) - “A Monster in the Shape of a Boy"by Hannah Yang (*Apex* 5/22) ### Anthology - *The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories* edited by Yu Chen & Regina Kanyu Wang - *The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 6* edited by Neil Clarke - *Screams from the Dark* edited by Ellen Datlow - *The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022* edited by Rebecca Roanhorse & John Joseph Adams - *Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance* edited by Jonathan Strahan - *Tomorrow’s Parties: Life in the Anthropocene* edited by Jonathan Strahan - ***Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction* edited by Sheree Renée Thomas & Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Zelda Knight** - *Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue* edited by Sheree Renée Thomas & Pan Morigan & Troy L. Wiggins - *The Best of World SF: Volume 2* edited by Lavie Tidhar - *The Future is Female! Volume Two: The 1970s* edited by Lisa Yaszek ### Collection - *Dark Breakers* by C.S.E. Cooney - *Memory’s Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection* by James S.A. Corey - *Night Shift* by Eileen Gunn - *Breakable Things* by Cassandra Khaw - *Geometries of Belonging* by R.B. Lemberg - ***Boys, Beasts & Men* by Sam J. Miller** - *The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer* by Janelle Monáe et al. - *Illuminations* by Alan Moore - *Our Fruiting Bodies* by Nisi Shawl - *The Best of Lucius Shepard: Vol. 2* by Lucius Shepard ### Magazine - *Apex* - *Asimov’s* - *Beneath Ceaseless Skies* - *Clarkesworld* - *F&SF* - *FIYAH* - *Lightspeed* - *Strange Horizons* - **Tor.com** - *Uncanny* ### Publisher - Angry Robot - Gollancz - Harper Voyager - Neon Hemlock - Orbit - Small Beer - Subterranean - Tachyon - **Tor** - Tordotcom ### Editor - Neil Clarke - **Ellen Datlow** - Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki - Arley Sorg & Christie Yant - Jonathan Strahan - Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas - Sheree Renée Thomas - Ann & Jeff VanderMeer - Wendy N. Wagner - Sheila Williams ### Artist - Tommy Arnold - Rovina Cai - Kinuko Y. Craft - Galen Dara - Julie Dillon - Bob Eggleton - John Picacio - Shaun Tan - **Charles Vess** - Michael Whelan ### Nonfiction - *The Rise of the Cyberzines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1991 to 2020* by Mike Ashley - *Fantasy: How It Works* by Brian Attebery - *An Earnest Blackness* by Eugen Bacon - *Queering SF: Readings* by Ritch Calvin - *Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations on Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature in a Pandemic* by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki - *Charting the Afrofuturist Imaginary in African American Art: The Black Female Fantastic* by Elizabeth Carmel Hamilton - *The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume Two: 1940* by David Ritter & Daniel Ritter - *Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics* by Darieck Scott - *Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences* by Bev Vincent - ***Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography* by Rob Wilkins** ### Illustrated Art Book - *Visions of Beauty* edited by Dianne Borsini-Burr, art by Kinuko Y. Craft - *Paintings & Drawings of Rowena* by Kim DeMulder, art by Rowena - *The Keeper* by Tananarive Due & Steven Barnes, art by Marco Finnegan - *In the Black Fantastic* by Ekow Eshun - *Spectrum Fantastic Art Quarterly Volume Two* edited by Cathy & Arnie Fenner - ***Chivalry* by Neil Gaiman, art by Colleen Doran** - *The Night Eaters Book 1: She Eats the Night* by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda - *Mother Christmas, Vol 1: The Muse* by Valya Dudycz Lupescu, art by Vic Terra - *Animal Farm: A Fairy Story*, by George Orwell, art by Omar Rayyan - *Creature: Paintings, Drawings, and Reflections* by Shaun Tan ### Special Award 2023: Developing Diversity in Genre Communities - Carl Brandon Society ---